This episode is all about control and what that means.

For Waterford, it’s control of who he has sex with and when. For Serena Joy it’s control of the narrative of her life and the involuntary surrogate womb that she views as hers. For Nick it’s control of his emotions. For Offred, control of who and when and why she has sex.

For Ofsteven, it’s any control she can get.

Waterford first off. Joseph Fiennes’ performance is subtle and plausible and never once relaxing. His games with Offred have become flirtatious and intimate but it’s an illusion they buy into for different reasons. Offred so she can get some control. Waterford so he can convince himself he’s better than the worthless sack of sociopathy that can’t even look his wife in the eyes while he’s raping their Handmaid. Waterford clearly enjoys not just the ritual but the subjugation of Serena Joy. He treats Offred as a partner, Serena Joy as an employee and the relationship is only getting colder.

Serena Joy sees this and is clearly terrified. The fact she orders Offred to have sex with Nick is terrifying. The fact it’s apparently commonplace is understandable. The fact Serena Joy can’t even bring herself to look as the assault carries out tells you she’s just as hypocritical as her husband, but exponentially more terrified. After all, she helped write the laws of Gilead. She knows what’s coming if ‘she’ doesn’t ‘deliver’.

Nick remains an enigma. He’s so buttoned down, so endlessly calm and near omniscient that we haven’t seen who he really is yet. We get close this episode too as, for the first time, he loses control. It’ll be interesting to see how his relationship with Offred changes him.

And then there’s Offred. To say Elizabeth Moss turns in excellent work feels redundant at this point but this episode she excels even more. Dorothy Fortenberry’s script uses her assaults by Waterford and Nick as a contrast to the voluntary sex she has with Luke and, at the end of the episode, Nick. Everything you need to know about the character and her situation is in her physical presence in those scenes. With Luke she’s authoritative and assertive. With Nick she’s even more so because, for the first time in years, she can be. These two latter scenes show us not Offred, but June. Fiercely intelligent, completely in control of her body, where it goes and who gets to touch it. It’s action, albeit intimate action, as character once again. It’s also, as ever with the assaults, difficult to watch. But Waterford and Serena Joy have the luxury of looking away. We do not.

Ofsteven has nothing. She’s refused the luxury of death, is cut off from the resistance movement, Mayday and is even sidelined as a Handmaid. One of the best scenes so far sees her new Wife suggest she be ‘ill’ for the Ceremony so Ofsteven has more time to recover. It’s a terrifying moment; reassuring and kind until you realize that what seems to be solidarity is a woman aware of what side of the power dynamic she’s on and assuaging her guilt.

But when you have nothing, you can do anything. And the episode ends with Ofsteven doing just that; stealing a car, killing a soldier, being taken away to seeming certain death. She takes control of her life, and apparently pays for that control with it. Offred’s route is longer, more arduous and less cathartic. But at the end of the episode, suicidal risk it may be, she’s doing something similar. Not because she should, but because she can. Because, for a moment, she has control.

Verdict: Sex is a vital part of the show’s structure but, up until now, it’s been something Offred has no control over. By showing us her past as June with Luke, and by showing us her choice to be with Nick, this episode changes that forever. Offred’s life is still a heartbeat away from being ended at any given time but she’s fully aware of that and, in that awareness, is the beginnings of control. Not for others, but for herself. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart