In this episode, we learn that there are only 2 states left in the United States - Alaska and Illinois. Anchorage is now the unofficial capital and there are insurgencies going on in Chicago. The rest of the country has been taken over by the authoritarian regime that is Gilead. However, this idea is contradicted by a July 2018 interview that showrunner Bruce Miller gave to The Wrap. There, he clarified that Illinois is also part of GIlead, and in fact the only two states that are still part of the United States are Alaska and Hawaii: "'I think it was in Episode 11 [actually episode 13 of season 2], where we saw the map,' Miller said. 'Yes, Gilead has taken over the continental U.S., so all 48 states of the continental US. There's lots of areas that are not nearly as well controlled as the Boston area, where the movement was very strong. Our show takes place in Cambridge, Mass., outside of Boston and they stated that,' he continued. 'But so Alaska and Hawaii are the United States, the two states that are united still. And the rest of it has turned into Gilead with lots of pockets of resistance and unease and the places where the grip of Gilead is not nearly as firm.'"
The scene where Offred and Ofglen are walking and talking as they watch the demolition of a church was filmed on Jackson St. West in Hamilton, ON, looking toward James St. South. The church is the James St. Baptist Church, too old to be safe, and demolished to make way for the new The Connelly condo project.