Tonight, Season 3 Episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale will air on Hulu at 12 am ET.
Season 3 contains 13 episodes in total. So, there will be four more episodes remaining after this evening’s episode airs.
Last week, fans learned more about Aunt Lydia. Episode 8, titled “Unfit”, delved into her backstory, explaining many aspects of Lydia that have remained a mystery thus far.
Lydia, as it turns out, was an elementary school teacher prior to Gilead taking over the US. In her prior life, she went on a date with the school principal, but he rejected her when things turned intimate. Out of anger and resentment, she called the authorities on one of her student’s mothers, demanding that he be removed from her custody. Lydia, as we are left to presume, sees similarities between the mother, Noelle, and June– this explains why she constantly lashes out at June.
Vox called the episodes one of the worst yet, stating that Lydia’s backstory deems her an “odd and incoherent character.” They write, “… In ‘Unfit,’ we dig a bit into Aunt Lydia’s motivation for doing some messed-up stuff pre-Gilead, and it’s … because a man rejected her? Seriously? How is that not the least interesting motivation you could ever give a woman villain?”
The outlet goes on to state, “Turning her into some weirdo parody of a woman scorned whose cruelty is motivated by romantic disappointment means taking her whole operating procedure out of the realm of the political and into the realm of the personal, and this show is not good enough at fleshing out its characters’ personal lives to make that move interesting.”
The Atlantic seemed to second those notions, writing, “The show portrays Lydia’s sadism, but doesn’t really seem to comprehend it. In order to make Lydia more than a two-dimensional villain, it has to underplay her most crucial instincts.”
The Show Wasn’t Nominated at the Emmys This Year
In more recent news, The Handmaid’s Tale wasn’t nominated at this year’s Emmys. In order to qualify for the 2019 Emmy Awards, a show had to air between May 1, 2018, and May 31, 2019. However, a number of shows, including Stranger Things and Big Little Lies, debuted in late June and early July, leaving them out of this year’s Emmy eligibility.
The Handmaid’s Tale did submit some later episodes in directing, writing, guest acting, and technical areas.
In a statement, Hulu’s senior VP originals, Craig Erwich, stated, “Maintaining the quality of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is impeccable, takes time… We wanted to give the show enough time to maintain the incredibly high standards of storytelling set in seasons one and two. The season three episodes — all of them — [will be] eligible for the Emmy body when the show is qualified.”
Be sure to tune into tonight’s episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, airing on Hulu at 12am ET.