Potential Season 5, Episode 3 spoilers below. Read at your own risk.

13th Symposium, Professor James Darcy Pieixoto - UNSCHEDULED COLLOQUIUM

Thank you for coming to this hastily organized colloquium. If you have been able to pick up your mobile dinner, just eat along with the notes I will be covering. If you haven't been able to pick one up, don't be shy, dinner in the hall finishes in about 45 minutes, I hope to be done well before then. We also have tonight's optional workshops, please refer to your colloquium guide.

Okay, quickly. The person of Moira Strand.

The historicity of Moira Strand is not in serious dispute. Even in the opinions of the most 'Literary Critical' of Gilead scholars, there is no question that there is a real person underlying what others might only regard as simply a character who exists solely to serve June Osborne's narrative.

Indeed, although neither I nor Knotley Wade agree fully, the Handmaid's Tapes are regarded by some as really a love letter about Ms. Strand. To be clear, not love 'eros', but love 'philia', or love 'storge', or love 'agape'.

Indeed, the only time the anonymous Handmaid of the tapes speaks in someone else's voice is as Moria Strand. Condensing complex material overtly simplistically, Moira is the anti-Gilead warrior that the anonymous Handmaid wished she could be - but was not. That she wished she could be.

The new finds - the new Moss-Miller folios - portray Moira Strand somewhat differently. Indeed, in the first of the five known folios, it is both June Osborne as well as Strand who refuse to accept weakness in the other - often chiding the other to, and I quote, 'Keep your shit together.'

Descent into PTSD was not an option, not while there was a chance for escape.

The minority criticism of the way Strand is portrayed in the Miller-Moss folios, is that she is no longer the template for the Handmaid's heroism. She is simply a caregiver to Osborne's child, she is the one who urges caution, rather than 'keeping one's shit together', to serve some larger plan.

Okay, that's about it for this short, impromptu gathering. If you still have your mobile dinner, you are welcome to keep using this space. If not, you have time to get to the hall. Please remember tonight's workshops.

A reminder, the one on 'Nick and Rose' is full.

SHOE SHOPPING

Luke heard the car pull up, and heard June bursting in through the front door. He heard the sharp, "fuck you, Moira, fuck you," directed to who was behind her. Sure enough, Moira eventually came through the front door as June stomped her way upstairs, slamming the bedroom door behind her.

Luke, as well as Nichole on the floor at his feet, just looked. Luke picked up Nichole, said to Moira as she came into the livingroom, "I've got a bottle on the go. There's coffee if you want it, it's Rita's so you know it's good. I'll just settle Nichole and you can then tell me what has precipitated World War III."

Later, Luke retrieved coffee from the pot Rita had made, she doing minor kitchen duty before heading down to the Consulate. She was to see and speak to Mark Tuello, for the first time since he'd returned from New Gilead.

"This is your fault, Luke," Moira said accusingly, as he sat across from her.

"Me?" he protested. "What did I do?"

"You encourage her." She snorted, "Jesus it was your idea that she be in touch with fucking Nick the first time, you know that that guy is poison to her." Moira had once accused Luke himself as being on 'Team Nick'!

Jesus, Luke thought, when Moira was in one of those moods there was no point in talking to her. He thought, 'how the hell do we get Hannah back, and NOT go through someone like Blaine?'

"Just cool your jets, will you," was what he managed. "Just tell me what happened. Why are you and June fighting?"

"We were coming back from the camp at the border, June talked with Nick, by the way. Then, on the way back June gets this urge to buy shoes."

Luke did what amounted to a double-take. 'Shoes?' he thought, almost outloud.

"Ok, not shoes. Boots. She tried on every pair of 3 to 6 inch heels they had. Not the Red Centre shit-kickers, either. Took me a minute to figure out what was going on."

Luke waited for it, then said, "and…?"

"She wanted to be taller!" That comment quieted the Bankole, Osborne-Strand living room to as quiet as it had been for a while. Then again it was just the two of them, with no baby.

Moira continued, "Took me a second to figure out what was going on. Then I screamed at her, right there in the store," Moira grinned, "scared the crap out of the clerk."

Luke asked, "What did you say to June?"

Moira answered, "I haven't done it in a while, should have done it a lot earlier." She paused, then said, "I screamed at her to keep her fucking shit together."

"People look at June, they see Che Guevara. I see a mom who thinks she's abandoned her kid." Moira got up, went to the kitchen, and finally emptied Rita's coffee pot.

Returning she sat, "On the boat from Chicago, June was a mess. A bloody mess. Doing crazy things. Tried to leave on a life-boat in the middle of the night, said she was going back to Gilead, for Hannah. She's no hero, Luke, she's certifiable."

Moira continued, "you should have seen the women at the camp. Wide-eyed. Those women, they were the foot-soldiers. They're the ones doing the heavy lifting, face to face with Guardians."

"June? Now that she's in Canada?" Moira say sarcastically, "She's now trying to be taller."

Luke said, "The Consulate - Mark Tuello - they think she's a hero. Tuello congratulated her for doing to Waterford what the Americans couldn't."

Moira spat out, "oh fuck Tuello. Fuck the Consulate. We've got Pearl Girls on the streets, and Serena fucking Joy living here with Canadian protection."

She then asked, to no one in particular, "okay, 'protection' I get. But 'budget' and 'staff'? What the hell is going on?"

She shook her head to clear it, then said, "Whatever it is, Luke, we have to keep our shit together. We keep our shit together or women in Gilead, they die."

THE SEARCH

Nick Blaine had once done this himself. Early on in the 'Guthrie affair', he had once shown up to the Guthrie residence commanding a half-dozen Guardians and Eyes, under High Commander Pryce's auspices. Indeed, it had been that raid which had tipped off Guthrie that his skimming game was coming to an end. By the next day, Guthrie and his whole household had been arrested, Guthrie the only one to escape salvaging. The mercy was that it had not been Nick who'd handled the Wife, the Martha, the Handmaid, and the teenaged boy.

So there was Nick at his own home, Rose six feet behind him, dickering with the armed Guardian in front of him, standing on the other side of the door, on Nick's own stoop. At least this Guardian was alone. And polite.

"Please accept my apologies, Commander Blaine. I'm under orders from Commander Mackenzie, as well as the D.C. Council." That last part was a lie, an obvious one - but the guardian would have been unaware. 'Unaware' to Nick meant 'room to maneuver'.

Nick wondered how far he could push. He bought some much needed time when he said, "I think considering who you are, son, that you should address me as Colonel Blaine." Behind him, Rose had not yet given the signal, the signal passed from the martha that all was fine.

"Yes, Colonel Blaine, my apologies." The Guardian paused. Then he said, as he should have, "Look, Colonel. You can let me in, or I can come back with a dozen more. It's your choice."

At that, Rose coughed.

Nick said, "Son, I know you're only doing your job. I've done this stuff, and believe me, I don't want to take out my complaint and protest on you. One day, even you might be a Commander in this position. So, look, you come in. Me and my Wive - my physically challenged Wife - we will be in the living room when you're finished. Okay?"

"That's fine Colonel, please stand aside." Which is what Nick did. Thirty minutes later, the Guardian came into the living room, offered his apologies, went out to the street to his SUV and drove off.

Rose said, "should I call dad?"

"No," Nick said. "This new crop is so ham-handed. Mackenzie already knows we know he's lying and overreaching. It'll get back to your dad. My bet, he will call you. Leave it at that."

IT'S A SCHOOL FOR THE DOMESTIC ARTS

Rita sat alone in the conference room at the Consulate. She'd been there only once before, it was where Rachel Tapping 'read Rita into' certain files. As such, Rita was then subject to American law regarding classified materials. Whereas Rita could never remember the precise 'doom and gloom' which would descend on her if she blabbed, she was sure it would be something unpleasant.

There was also the matter that presently, the Consulate was in Toronto, Canada. Canada, where Canadian law prevailed. In Rita's hearing someone had made mention of that, because it left unclear what 'American law' could demand of someone. No matter, Rita was in no mood to be a test case.

In walked Rachel Tapping carrying a file, with Mark Tuello in tow. This was the first time Rita had seen him since his return from New Gilead.

"So good to see you, Mr. Tuello," Rita said, not actually meaning to leave Ms. Tapping out of her greeting.

Tuello replied, "no one is more glad to be seen, than me, Ms. Blue. Thank you for your kindness."

"Let's get to it," Ms. Tapping said, seating herself and opening the file. Tapping read to the room the nature of confidentiality, as well as secrecy in case-files. She ended by turning to Rita, reciting the oath, and then turned a form to Rita for her to sign. Which she did.

Tapping then reminded Rita, "the things covered by this oath are everything you hear, see or read, until you leave this room. Okay?" Rita nodded that she understood.

"Okay, Rita, please tell us what you know about Rubies Premarital Preparatory?" Rita said that she had had no experience with any of the Wives' preparatories, they were often called 'schools for the domestic arts'.

"Although," Rita continued, "the domestic arts are also schools for younger girls. Both are for Commanders Daughters, 'Daughters' with a capital-D. Streaming them into becoming themselves, Wives." She said she'd never been inside one.

Tuello said, "Okay Rita, we know most of that." He then asked about Rubies specifically.

He asked Rita where Rubies was in relation to other amenities in Boston, specifically, "is Rubies near any security facilities?" Rita was unsure, but she was aware that often Commanders Daughters were often assigned their own, personal Guardian while in school.

Tuello then surmised, "so security is inside, more than it is outside." He didn't wait for an answer.

Rita then went where fools feared. "June, she once ventured out with Mrs. Lawrence to one of them. Ask her if she'd gone to Rubies."

Tapping looked at Tuello, and Tuello looked at Tapping. Finally Ms. Tapping said, "I'm not sure that June Osborne should be read into this." Both Tapping and Tuello just sat there, something unspoken was obviously on top of mind.

Tuello finally said, "Ms. Osborne has just returned from a semi-secret, Mayday outpost on the border with Gilead. Various Mayday operations meant to harass and disrupt Gilead are hatched there, then resources assembled before they're spirited south." Tuello added that those operations were unsanctioned by both Canada as well as Americans-in-exile. One such operation was already underway, way way too late to recall given the nature of Mayday's guerrilla war.

Tuello added, "Mayday trusts the USA less than they trust Gilead."

"Emily Malek," Tapping said, citing Syl's wife's name, "it seems she's at the end of a long chain, from the border into Boston. Our sources say she's to receive some sort of armament, meant for Rubies Premarital Preparatory."

Tuello concluded. "It's where the young supplicants wear purple. I ran into one during Waterford's funeral procession in Boston. She goes to Rubies. She's known as Agnes Mackenzie."

Rita suddenly felt some acidic vomit at the back of her throat, wondered if she could make it to the ladies room, outside the conference room door - away from this secrecy madness.

How was June to keep her 'shit together' through this?