Obvs these are only my own thoughts.
Just couldn't believe Serena after wanting a baby for so long would just give her up like that
I think Serena is 'broken' after what has happened to her (the beating, the amputation) and for the first time she really sees how powerless she is and that Fred does not see her as an equal and actually enjoys his patriarchal power over her. But she's still 'there' enough to not want that for her child. It begs the question, if the child had been a boy, would Serena have agreed to let June take him away?
and June after attempting to run away so many times would decide to stay
She is staying to try to rescue Hannah. A brave choice, I don't know if I could have been so brave.
I am still unsure of who Emily’s commander was and what his role in Gilead is? I am also confused as to why he went to great lengths to save Emily?
They referred to him as the 'architect of Gilead's economy', so he is/was a 'big cheese'. I think he's trying to expiate what he sees as his wrongdoing in being instrumental in such a cruel regime by 'rescuing' the misfits who would have gone to the colonies/been executed. I think he would have just allowed Emily to live there unmolested, like the 'misfit' Martha and his disturbed wife, but Emily made that impossible.
Why would June have any sympathy or a ‘friendship’ with a woman who held her down to be raped and then took and mothered her child?
I think S and J's relationship is extremely emotionally complicated. I really enjoy the nuances. But June sees that Serena is just as 'dissatisfied' and just as powerless as she is and I think she feels that she deserves to get out and hopefully become a better person.
I cannot put up with another season with being exactly in the same position.
There's no way she can go back to the Waterford's. I think she's going to go to Cmdr Lawrence in the hopes that he'll hide her and/or help her or put her in touch with what's left of May Day.