I'm just going to say this is one of the most compelling episodes of tv I've ever watched. I was literally on the edge of my seat and found I was holding my breath and tensing up at points.
What THT has always done exceptionally well is deliver the slow burn. This show moves slowly more often than not, and the episodes that move the slowest usually have the biggest arc / most growth for June. I'm glad an episode of this magnitude was coloured in with all of the detail that it was. When I look at the initial reactions to this episode, I see a lot of people who are annoyed that such a big moment was delivered without much action, and I kind of wonder why those people even still watch this show because it's fundamentally not about that. (Hey, just my two cents!)
The best storytelling shows rather than tells, and this episode overdelivered in every way to that point.
June finally being free of Gilead is something we've been working toward since episode 1, and I think Bruce Miller was bold to do it in the middle of a season (but that also made it more compelling because it felt like something was definitely going to go wrong and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop the entire time).
But in leaving without Hannah, June has failed. Her entire mission was getting Hannah out. I think had we NOT seen June so completely destroyed and conflicted over choosing to leave, which she has actively chosen NOT to do several times at this point, it would've felt false. This time was different because Moira and ONLY Moira could give her the brass tax on being able to do more good from Canada at this point (I truly believe she would've convinced any other character she should stay).
And that final scene watching June walk down the gangway from overhead then come down to settle on her face as she completely stopped at the end before taking a long pause and finally choosing to take the step onto Canadian land... heck yes. Beautiful shot, and I was literally holding my breath without realising it until Elisabeth Moss exhaled.
What all of the actors have always done so well is move the story along without saying a word. This episode did that particularly well. The writing, direction, editing, and music were all incredible.
If anything felt like it was lacking, it was potentially the gorgeous signature lighting THT usually has. But the storytelling was so well done, I really don't care. Also yes, we kind of got robbed of the normal 50-60 minutes of running time, but I think given the content, it was edited to the appropriate length.
Overall, I come back to: I found this episode to be super compelling. And I think we should be prepared to deal with a broken hero through the rest of the season, because I can't imagine the conflict and failure June felt throughout this episode is going anyway any time soon. Really excited to see where the rest of the season is going and how the chips will fall based on the actions of all of the characters in this episode.
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