The shot that really struck me last night was the double column of handmaids marching down the street - their red cloaks against the monochrome background - such a powerful image.
Yes, and with June out in the front, on her own, head up, with hands by her side instead of demurely clasped. I thought the episode was perfectly constructed. At the start, 'sorry, Aunt Lydia' is whispered by a bewildered June who's been terrified and humiliated into submission and has no idea what new terrors lie in store. By the end of the episode 'sorry, Aunt Lydia' is spoken calmly and confidently by a June who's become a survivor and hasn't allowed the regime to brutalise the life force out of her - what Aunt Lydia told them about the new regime coming to seem normal hasn't happened, and there is hope instead of bleak terror.
I'm captivated by Ann Dowd's performance. I wasn't seeing her as the nuns in the Magdalene nurseries as a pp said - I found myself wanting to know her backstory and wondering what's happened in her life to bring her to this point. I imagined her torturing herself after Janine's downfall, privately crying herself to sleep and berating herself for not having properly protected her. I think she genuinely has come to believe that she best protects the women (her 'girls') by teaching them to accept their status, and she genuinely thinks they're the chosen ones. NB: I've always read her as a sadistic brute, so this is a new perspective for me, possibly to do with my age (I was June's age when I first read the book, Aunt Lydia's age now) but mostly, I think, because of what Ann Dowd has brought to the characterisation. Her's is the stand-out performance for me amongst an ocean of terrific performances.
Someone upthread said about June and Ofglen darting up the side of a shop to talk. I agree, that grated for me as well. But also, the angle it was filmed at made me think there was someone watching.
I don't trust Nick to have been telling the truth when he told June to trust the black van drivers. I think he's an ambiguous character, possibly more so in the book than in the series, and I don't know where his loyalties lie. For a moment, at the end of the penultimate episode, I thought it was going to somehow be Moira driving the van - at the end of the book the point is that we don't know whether to trust Nick or not, and I'm reserving judgement here too!
Fantastic, fantastic series of one of my favourite ever books.