The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 episode 9, titled “Heroic,” airs Wednesday, July 17 at 12 a.m. ET, 11 p.m. July 16 CT, and 9 p.m. PT. The official Hulu description for the episode reads: “Confined in a hospital, June’s sanity begins to fray. An encounter with Serena Joy forces June to reassess her recent actions.” (Spoilers ahead, so turn back now if you’re not caught up!)
Tonight’s episode will pick up where last week’s ended, after Ofmatthew stole a guard’s gun and was taking aim at Aunt Lydia when she was shot. Although it looked like Ofmatthew was killed (since they dragged her bloody body out of the room like a sack of potatoes), it appears she lived and June is now in charge of making sure the baby continues to grow while Ofmatthew remains in a vegetative state.
“Her brain is gone, they say,” June says during the promo above. “I will be here until there’s a baby.” June looks exhausted and sleep deprived, with red-rimmed eyes, and she desperately asks Aunt Lydia if she can go home. Aunt Lydia replies “you may go home when your walking partner goes home.”
It appears June is having some conflict with the other handmaids as well during tonight’s episode. “Everything is always about now, your problems,” Jeanine confronts June while standing over Ofmatthew’s hospital bed. “You’re different.”
It looks like Serena will be back in Massachusetts, as she makes an appearance in tonight’s episode as well. During the promo, June is sitting on her knees in the blindingly white hospital room, and asks Serena if she can talk to her in private, while she holds what appears to be a scalpel behind her back. Is June finally going to snap and try to kill Serena?
It looks like June will finally be facing some repercussions for the blind, spontaneous choices she’s been making this season. Viewers have been questioning why June never seems to get punished for her actions, despite the many dangerous and impulsive decisions she’s made so far, including her desperate (and not very well thought-out) attempt to have Eleanor Lawrence, who suffers from severe mental illness, walk her to her daughter’s school. Not only was it basically her fault that the McKenzies took Hannah into hiding (despite her desire to blame it completely on Ofmatthew), she is also partially responsible for Martha Francis’ death in the process, on top of a slew of other poor, impromptu decisions she’s made throughout season 3.
So what’s going to happen now that she’s stuck in the hospital with Ofmatthew? Are the handmaids going to turn on her? Will she actually attempt to kill Serena, and if so, will she succeed? We don’t think they would kill Serena off so quickly in the series, but this show definitely has some unexpected twists and turns, so you never know.
If you’re not caught up to episode 9 just yet, you still have plenty of time to binge the first eight episodes of the season. Tune in Wednesday at 12 a.m. ET (Tuesday at 11 p.m. CT, 9 p.m. PT) to catch the newest episode of The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.
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