Guys, just end it already

Hulu's dystopian drama delivers on some long-delayed promises, but ultimately it's too little, too late.

When last I saw June Osbourne on The Handmaid's Tale, she was being carried off the battlefield, gaze turned heavenward, whisper-praying Exodus 3:7 in voiceover — a red-draped savior prepared for martyrdom. Not-at-all-a-spoiler alert: June did not die. Elisabeth Moss is on the poster, after all. Also, killing June would qualify as "something actually happening," and that's not how this show rolls — at least, not for the last two seasons. Since 2018, June's story hasn't advanced much at all: She is forever fleeing Gilead, forever witnessing and enduring physical and psychological torture, forever staring into the middle distance — jaw set and eyes ablaze with rage and agony — determined to keep on keepin' on.

Having successfully delivered a plane full of Gilead's children to Canada, June and her fellow renegade handmaids are hiding from the Eyes, hoping to hook up with the underground resistance movement known as Mayday. People around June keep suffering, getting hurt, dying — and her peers are starting to get real tired of it. "Fuck June Osbourne," grouses one Martha, when Commander Nick Blaine, June's forbidden love, asks for help finding her. "Everyone that helps her ends up on the fucking wall." Or shot, or pushed off a building, or flattened by an oncoming vehicle.

Even some of June's ride-or-die sisters are losing their patience. "You're so bossy and judgmental!" snaps Janine. "You need to stop trying to save me to make yourself feel better." Up in Canada, Moira and Emily struggle to find homes for the freed Gilead children, who are understandably traumatized by their sudden relocation. "That's what she does," gripes Moira of June. "Takes the big swing and f--- the consequences!" Even our heroine, after one particularly grueling series of torture sessions, has a hard time keeping her heart in the fight. "I'm ready… for it all to be over," she whispers. "I'm ready. Please, just kill me." No such luck, ma'am. We're in it for the long haul.

It's validating, seeing characters speak the frustrations that many viewers feel about June's stagnant journey. The quality of Handmaid's Tale isn't suffering because the political climate in America has changed; a woman's lack of autonomy over her own body is, unfortunately, an evergreen subject. It's suffering because Miller and company have become so enraptured by the show's grandly executed atmosphere of prestige misery — used to stunning, Emmy-winning effect in season 1 — that they've started mistaking garden-variety brutality for brutal truths. Revolutions take time, but they also evolve. The Handmaid's Tale is stuck in the crisis stage.

This season does offer a few rare notes of freshness. There's a glimpse into Janine's pre-Gilead life as a single mom. Amanda Brugel gets more screen time as Rita, the escaped Martha adjusting to a life of freedom in Canada. McKenna Grace pops up for a memorable turn as a tyrannical child bride. Aunt Lydia gets her steps in on a treadmill.

New things, things I've waited for, start to happen in episode 6. A few of these moments are genuinely cathartic and moving, but others feel underplayed and dulled by such a long delay. Meanwhile, an implausible development with Serena Joyand Fred Waterford— awaiting trial in Canada for their crimes against humanity — seems to be setting up another familiar showdown. As for Aunt Lydia, her bewildering new alliance with Commander Lawrence feels forced, a writers' device to keep their brand-name actors busy.

If you're still watching The Handmaid's Tale — heck, if you're still reading this review — you've probably resigned yourself to seeing June's saga through to the end. Can the show deliver on a true second act, justifying the decision to keep the story going so far past Margaret Atwood's novel? I'll likely have to wait until season 5 to find out. Grade: C+

It's a blessed day, "Handmaid's" fans! Or perhaps a blessed night? After a 21-month break, your show is finally back, but it's still kind of hard to tell the difference between night and day. Does the sun in fact ever shine in Gilead, or is there permanent overcast — a pall that hangs over lives, fates,motives,storylines and plots?

Post-apocalyptic worlds aren't supposed to be bright, sunlit places, least of all "Handmaid's," yet this season does seem to be the darkest one yet, June's ordeal too. One indignity and horror follows the next. She is debased, ground into the dust, then she rises and falls again, only to repeat the cycle all over. But neither bullets nor Aunt Lydia can stop her, and as we all know so well, that which doesn't kill her will make her stronger. June gets stronger.

In fact, "Handmaid's" continues to insist in the credits that this is "based" on the Margaret Atwood novel (which was effectively wrapped up by the end of the first season), but the series is now mostly just based on a familiar arc. The titanic showdown is coming, when June will face her foes just as surely as Batman had to face Ra's al Ghul or Bane. The destiny of superheroes is always tied to that of supervillains. June's destiny still awaits her, awaits them, and there will be blood.

In the meantime, there's not a whole lot of pleasure to be had in the waiting. June's ordeal has now started to feel like my ordeal. I need to have it resolved as much as she does. but like her, don't have any choice in the matter because I'm invested too. I've gone down the hole this far. Surely there is light at the end of this tunnel? Maybe I'll get stronger too if the show doesn't kill me first.