No Man's Land, Season 5, Episode 7 - Grade B+.
Contains potential spoilers for Season 5, Episode 7, "No Man's Land". Read at your own risk. The title of my first section below is shamelessly stolen from "Fargo".
EVERY WORD BELOW IS TRUE, EXCEPT FOR THE ONES WHICH AREN'T
Osborne told her boss, "I'm a proofreader. Let me proofread. If I had wanted to ghostwrite, I would have let you know."
"This is a big client, June," her boss said from the other end of the telephone line. "I just think this is one where you should branch out a bit. It's a step up for you!"
"Step up!" Osborne replied incredulously. "Let me guess, everyone else said 'no'."
"Okay," the boss conceded, "everyone else said no. Besides, it's not ghostwriting per se. Ms. Waterford still retains creative control, she has a bare-bones manuscript. You'll just tag along to get it into publishable form. By our standards - not the standards of the pulp, Christian bunch."
Osborne scratched her nose, then said, "Say, isn't Waterford that 'Oath Keeper' chick?"
"No, she's Sons of Jacob."
Osborne scratched her nose again, she added, "they're more 'Proud Boys', aren't they? One of those groups which invaded The Capitol in Washington on January 6th?"
"We wouldn't touch her if she was. No, June, she is Sons of Jacob. They're focusing on the fertility crisis, and we have no authors from her side of the fence on that. Nothing from that theological outlook - in fact, we've not had any overtly theological titles as it is."
Osborne asked, "am I free to say 'no'?" The silence at the end of the line told June everything she needed to hear.
THAT PLACE ON BOYLSTON, MAGNOLIA'S
June was late, as usual, often struggled with getting Hannah to school on time, and then seeing to her own first assignments. This one was particularly daunting, June wondered if her tardiness was her attempt at sabotage.
As it was she was headed to her favourite 'earthy-crunchy' place, knew that they served a great 'liberated omelette with eclectic potatoes'. June admitted to herself that choosing Magnolia's for the meeting with Ms. Waterford would, 'send a message', as Moira had put it. It would also get her that omelette.
Moira had said, "fuck those fascists! I don't see why your publishing house is even giving them the time of day!? Can you imagine if they ever took over?"
Opening the door from the street, June saw Ms. Waterford at the far table. She'd already ordered and was eating.
Seeing June, Waterford stood and extended a hand. She said, "I apologize for starting, this place makes the most amazing banana nut pancakes."
June deposited her pack at the side of her chair, got the attention of a waiter asking for black coffee. She told herself to dial-back on her own prejudices - Ms. Waterford couldn't be all bad if she knew about Magnolia's!
June said, "Ms. Waterford, the apologies are mine, I had a hard time getting my girl to school this morning. My husband, Luke, he's hopeless in these things."
Waterford said somewhat surprised, "you work and you have family?" June had been instructed not to get into a debate about things like that - if they wandered into 'controversial' areas, they were to ignore them and simply talk about the needs for the book.
Waterford did not make it easy. "Mrs. Osborne, I am wondering if you could address me as 'Mrs. Waterford'. I believe that to be more consistent with the New Feminism which my books represent."
"Okay, not a problem, Mrs. Waterford," June said. "While we're establishing pleasantries, I am not Mrs. Osborne. My husband, he's a Bankole. Me, I'm an Osborne. Ms. Osborne."
"Don't get me wrong, Ms. Osborne, in approaching your firm, my husband and I are fully aware of the ideological challenges our work represents. Your people said that that would not be a problem, that you do not deal in 'ideology' per se. Just ideas."
"Well, Mrs. Waterford," June continued, "I've read 'A Woman's Place'. Did you really intend to say that women needed to 'step away from the world of letters', to focus on our 'biological destiny'?
"Oh dear," Mrs. Waterford sighed. "That one line has been cherry-picked out of context by the liberal press, and broadcast as 'Breaking News' 24/7, in your 'fake news' world. This is what we're dealing with."
June thought for a second, that this outing at Magnolia's could either turn into a debate, or she, June, could focus for a minute. Something she had not done since leaving the house this morning.
"Okay, Mrs. Waterford, I won't debate you. We should probably turn to your manuscript. I was told you were bringing a copy."
"'Fertility as a National Resource', or 'Reproduction as a Moral Imperative', those are my working titles. I was hoping that that's the sort of thing you can help decide." Mrs. Waterford reached into her briefcase, and slapped a large sheaf of papers in front of June, just as June's omelette arrived.
Two hours later, Waterford said to Osborne, "Please, call me 'Serena Joy'. You're everything that your firm said you'd be."
Osborne said, "I suppose I should get you to call me 'June'. We may be seeing one another a lot soon."
"I'm telling you," Serena Joy said, "your firm is going to help us break through. My husband, he's in media and advertising. He's the one who suggested your firm - indeed, he was the one who chose you, personally. From your picture on the webpage."
"In all honesty, Serena Joy," June said, "there are few in the firm who would work with you." Letting Waterford's words sink in, June added, "he 'chose' me, personally?" 'Remind me to give Mr. Waterford a wide berth,' Osborne thought, 'he sounds like a real creep.'
"Well, he didn't really say much about it. Only that someone like yourself, you're the type of person that could be influenced - maybe not converted to our way of believing, but that it would be someone like you who would be forever changed by an encounter with us."
June picked up her pack, grabbed her coat from the back of the chair and stood. She said, "tell your husband, 'don't count on it'. I know who your people are. I know what you represent. I just happen to think that these things need to be settled in the marketplace of ideas."
As June put on her coat, and straightened the pack on to her back she said, "even with people who want to tear down that marketplace."
DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
Episode 7, No Man's Land. While leaving all other parallel stories to wither on the vine, THT still delivered a powerful and totally believable counterpoint to June and Serena's otherwise tortured history together.
The big problem with being a victim of Gilead? It is that 'Gilead' is what you become. No Man's Land is a very convincing story of how June Osborne finally, finally released herself from its grip. How she disavowed herself from Serena's worldview and imposed her own - even on to Serena.
But the anti-Gilead world around June does not arrive at her point all at once. Luke? He had called border services. June, she's now witnessing the plight she'd once dreamed that Serena would face. But June is now post-Gilead, in the fullest sense.
With one episode to go, with a whole season to follow, it's unclear where this story-line can go. Will Moira, Rita, and Esther simply be forgotten? Will Lydia be reduced to stereotypical walkons? Will Nick and Rose simply evaporate? What will happen to Naomi Putnam, or New Bethlehem?
Only 8 episodes, and at 45 minutes per!? Could have covered so much more ground with 13 episodes at 60 minutes per.
A+, A+, B, A, C-, A-, this week's episode a strong B+, but no more given the subplots that THT has left on the vine.
OFCLARENCE
Offred had not thought of either Ofrobert or Oferic in ages. Then again, guilt does that, pushes people to the back of one's mind, only to have them burst forth when one is not ready. Offred, but at that time Ofjoseph, she had led the mini-rebellion in the van at the railway tracks - them on their way to the Magdalene Colonies. She had been the one to immobilize Aunt Lydia.
She and Janine had raced ahead, had got to the tracks just in time. Alma and Brianna disappeared as the train sped by. June still had nightmares about that.
But there they were, once again June was Offred, at Ofclarence's labour and birth. One that stalled, one that required medical intervention. One that had claimed Ofclarence's life, at which Aunt Lydia said was the way Ofclarence had honoured God, by offering up both her body and her life to God.
Who were these monsters?
There they were just had they had been - only a week before Janine herself, as Ofwarren, was also to give birth. Did Janine just witness her own fate? As Offred was leaving, she spied the Wives, The Commander's Wife fawning over 'her' new baby. Offred and Mrs. Waterford fixed eyes.
As they were to do in No Man's Land for Noah's birth. June Osborne was not to think of Ofclarence again, not until the barn in No Man's Land, the manger in which Serena's own was born.
Unlike what they did for Ofclarence, June Osborne was determined to make it right with Serena - by disavowing Gilead, and treating Serena the way June wished they'd treated Ofclarence.
But Luke. Luke had called border services. He'd called children's services. Luke had said, 'she's getting what she deserves.' June thought in horror, 'but I'm not Gilead, not any more.'
NOAH WHEELER
"Mr. Malek," his secretary had said to him, "the articling student-clerk is here. Should I send him him?"
Oliver Malek, J.D., asked his secretary to have the young man wait. Malek, although not (yet) a partner in the firm, was being assigned a clerk of his own. A little unusual, as those contracts were usually between one of the firm's partners and a graduated student. Malek pulled out the as-of-yet-unsigned, but binding contract between the articling student and himself. He gave it one more read, it was almost identical to the one Malek himself had signed when he'd articled with the firm eight years' previous.
Malek picked up his phone, instructed the secretary to 'send him in.'
Noah Wheeler came striding confidently through the door, then made a very self-confident approach, hand-outstretched. Wheeler wanted to make the best first impression he could.
Malek and Wheeler spent the first twenty minutes going over the expectations that Wheeler was about to agree to. Malek ended it with, 'Okay, are you ready to sign your life away?"
Wheeler assured him that he was. He signed.
As both were Alumni of Osgoode Hall at York University, they settled into comparing notes. Specifically, Malek wanted to know the professors that Wheeler had had, and what he thought of them. Malek would sprinkle his side of that reminiscence with, "Is that old fart still around?"
Then Malek said, "You're all signed and sealed, you're in. So, I hope I'm not out of line to ask about your family." The up-until-then animated Wheeler sank back into his chair, and became silent.
Then Wheeler pleaded, "please don't judge me because of my folks. Their politics are, way, way too 'nationalist' for my liking." The Wheelers had also been exposed as Canadians who had not only supported Gilead during that country's heyday, but had profited greatly from that association.
The Wheelers were also known for their alt-right views within Canada, supporting Alberta independence movements, as well as the continuing 'Truck Convoy' protests.
Preempting Malek, Wheeler rehearsed it all, only to summarize, "my folks and I are barely speaking. In fact, me taking this clerking position in the firm here, that was the final straw for dad. Me, he said, I am now officially on my own."
Malek said, "well, that's neither here nor there. I'm still going to work you hard."
Wheeler said, "is it true you lost family to Gilead?"
Malek answered, "I've never made that an issue and I will not with you, so don't worry. Just so you know, I lost one of my moms twenty years ago. She'd escaped Gilead, she'd been a Handmaid. Then she couldn't adjust to Canada, and - quite inexplicably - went back. Went underground. That killed my other mother."
"Handmaid?" Wheeler asked? Malek confirmed that that was the word he'd used.
"It's strange," Noah Wheeler said, "I've always known that I'd been adopted. But when my mother, Alanis, when she died, I was clearing out some of her papers. My parents, they had contacted Gilead, back then in Gilead's prime - about a handmaid. I'd always wondered."
Wheeler sat up straighter in his chair, "Mr. Malek, I wondered if that was going to be an impediment to me clerking here, what with your background." He paused, then said, "Dad simply won't talk about it."
Malek said, "Tell you what, Noah. If you work out, which I'm sure you will - if you don't crack under the strain of what I'm about to load on to you - we have a bevy of investigative people who can look into it?"
Malek said, "have you ever done genealogical DNA?"
