Spoilers for Episode 6 of Season 5, read at your own risk.

Ratings: 6 'Together' A- 5 'Fairy Tale' C- 4 'Dear Offred' A 3 'Border' B 2 'Ballet' A+ 1 'Morning' A+.

Episode 6 is strong, yet THT seems unable to weave in story arcs to include a more full, ensemble cast. S5E6 managed novel plot-twists well, with a few awkward exceptions. It spent too much air-time on other well established points - like June and Luke's full reconciliation. Where's Moira? Rita? Only one scene for Janine? C'mon! And would Ryan yield to Serena so easily? But I totally 'get' the twist at the end, two women driving madly away!

SNAFUS INFECT GILEAD TOO

Ryan Wheeler had not risen to where he was because he was a 'yeller'. He preferred persuasion. Called 'slimy' in business, in other parts of his life he was seen as shrewd. As such he'd been the Elder of his church who was turned to during either difficulties, or outright scandal. It helped he was the largest donor.

Years ago, when he led the ouster of the Gildead-friendly, Senior Pastor, Wheeler had done it all, secreted behind the scenes. With the ever present knowledge other elders had, that Wheeler's money had the bigger voice.

What Wheeler had managed with that pastor, a friend of his, had been as surgical as it was nuanced. That Senior Pastor had, in fact, represented the Toronto-based megachurch well, especially in its then-controversial support for Gilead to the south. Yet when the Canadian government had succumbed to 'woke-culture' (as he had called it) and had declared Gilead a terrorist state, Wheeler as a board-leader knew that the bombastic pastor had to go.

Business was business, was the way Ryan had put it to Alanis. Alanis had thought she'd be shunned from church, which she wasn't. The dismissal notice had been hand-delivered by a Toronto lawyer's office, delivered to the pastor right there in the church, the morning after being at the Wheeler's for dinner. A security firm had collected keys and laptops. They'd even towed the pastor's car from his designated space with him still inside the church - the lone Maserati in the City Impound.

That's the way Ryan rolled. Calmly. Politely. Surgically. Farmed out. It was nothing personal. Even with church, it was just good business.

The morning after Serena's sojourn to No Man's Land with Ezra Shaw, Alanis had woken only to park herself outside of Ryan's office. She almost left when the yelling got high-pitched. As soothing as Ryan's contra-tenor, almost contra-alto voice was in daily life, when upset it became shrieky. Alanis had learned the hard way to avoid her husband when his voice was like that.

Alanis's mother had been from St Albans in the U.K., and had disliked Ryan intensely. "A swarmy, weasel of a man," her mom had said. One too many bruises on her daughter's face.

The morning after? Mr. Shaw was supposed to have returned with Mrs. Waterford last night, him saying that he'd be back, "at least by midnight," those were his exact words. Shaw had said that the key to his mission to No Man's Land was to locate the exact transport that June Osborne would be on. Wheeler's people, the Fishing Nets, were good at what they did - capturing renegades in flight from Gilead - catching them before they could get to the border.

Wheeler did not employ Gilead personnel for that, that would be illegal. Wheeler's men were paramilitary, their theatre of operations was in a piece of real estate no nation now claimed.

Often, though, even they did not know who they'd caught until renegades had been returned to a major city in Gilead. As Wheeler had long since accepted, the Fishing Nets operated a meatball operation - capture and transport. Sort it out later.

Yesterday? The last communication from Ezra Shaw? June Osborne had been found - there had been no problem in her release from the transport into Shaw's custody. Then….. crickets.

Now 7 am, Ryan had been summoned from bed when the phone in their bedroom had rung at 3:30 am. At that, Ryan had got dressed and went downstairs to his office. He was well practised at dressing at that early hour - he was natty as ever.

Alanis heard the concerning, high-pitched shriek - the first one that had been intelligible. "Well, where the hell is he?" That one was confusing. 'He'? They were looking for Mrs. Waterford, maybe even June Osborne. Alanis wondered, "who is 'He'?"

She heard, "What about the on-board GPS? Oh. You found the car in a ditch, meters from a border obelisk? Well, of course you did! Where's Shaw?"

His office was silent for a few seconds. Then his large oak door opened. He was obviously taken aback seeing Alanis in the chair in the hall.

He walked purposely to her, gave her the hard back of his hand. It was enough to knock her to the floor.

All his swarmy talk was gone, but the high pitch was still there. "This, this is your fault. What was it I told you? Huh? I told you not to treat her like a Handmaid. But you couldn't help yourself."

Alanis pushed herself up onto an elbow, trying to return her hair to a semblance of order. She managed a weak, "I'm sorry."

Ryan stopped for another swat, but only feigned it. "Now they're gone. No one knows where even Shaw is." He turned to get his coat from the closet by the front door, "I was preparing for a busy day downtown. Now I can't do any of that! I'll deal with you when I get back."

At that he was out the door, and his car peeled out spewing gravel behind it.

HCCG

"Hey," Lawrence told his three Commander brothers gathered with him, "isn't this what the Sanhedrin did to get rid of Our Lord Jesus Christ?"

It was 2 am, the four of them had reconnoitered at Lawrence's from the Commander's Council retreat, miles away at that Centre outside of the city. Now the middle of the night, the four Commanders hoped that they would not be missed - as long as they made it to breakfast back there in a couple of hours.

Commander Calhoun said, "The Sanhedrin!? Lawrence, I can't believe we tolerate you."

"I'm just saying," Lawrence said, smiling.

Commander Scott said, "You know, Lawrence, I wish you would keep your eye on the prize. I really do. Think, Joseph, think. New Bethlehem. You need my support? You're going to need more than my support - I'm not sticking my neck out for you, not with your background."

Commander Blaine interrupted, "Guys, guys. I'm the new kid here, I know that. I agree, let's keep our eye on the prize. Digging up old dirt is not the way to do it."

The four of them sat in silence. They knew that if the Commander's Council gathered at the retreat centre as scheduled tomorrow, then Putnam would both put the kibosh on to New Bethelehem, as well as solidify himself as High Commander for years to come. He was a shadow of a High Commander, especially when compared to Andrew Pryce. But he knew how to survive.

What the four gathered Commanders were combating, more than anything else, was the 'group-think' of most on the Council. Most of them, Lawrence knew, were kleptocrats. The only person who knew how to slow them was Aunt Lydia. Ardua Hall. Bloodline Genealogical Archives.

Lawrence thought, 'Lydia is on the warpath about Putnam, but New Bethlehem has nothing to do with that.' Then he stood, quickly enough to get the other three's attention.

"I think I know how to get New Bethlehem through," he said. Turning to Commander Blaine, he ordered, "be a pal and get your father-in-law on the horn. Call him at home. He'll pick up for you, tell him it's about Rose if need be. Get Mackenzie on the line, too."

When Blaine went to Lawrence's phone, Scott asked, "what have you got, Joseph?"

Lawrence said nothing, not until Blaine pushed the telephone unit to the edge of the desk, and put it on speaker.

The High Commander's weary voice came on, "you boys in New Gilead, you need to get better hobbies." After a pause, Wharton said, "that's one, Nick. One - I won't let you use my daughter to get me out of bed again, you hear me?"

At that the line clicked, a voice said, "Mackenzie here. What's up?"

Taking charge of a situation he knew little of, Wharton was the one who said, "Kyle, we've got a renegade group of Commanders in New Gilead. Different horses, same rodeo."

Lawrence led for the three other colleagues in the room, "Good to hear you High Commander, and you Kyle? How's the weather in D.C.?"

Nick knew that his father-in-law had little patience with the kind of games Joseph Lawrence played, so he broke in, "Sir, we have a situation. Tomorrow is a Commander's Council retreat. At it, Warren Putnam is going to bully us into vetoing New Bethlehem. We don't have the votes." Blaine looked at two of his colleague-conspirators in Lawrence's study, then quipped, "we don't even have the votes in this room!"

Wharton said, "Look, D.C. is not going to interfere. But if New Gilead goes that way, don't count on other Districts to bail out New Bethlehem."

Lawrence said, "I have an idea sir. But it's not something we can do alone. We'd need your support. At the very least, we'd need D.C. to stand aside. Can we get your word that you'll stand aside?"

Wharton and Mackenzie said overlapping each other, "Stand aside from what?"

Lawrence drew stares from the other three in the room when he said, "Could we, right here, right now - could we convene a High Criminal Court, a High Criminal Court of Gilead?"

Wharton raised his voice, "Joseph Lawrence, you're on thin ice as it is. If an HCCG is convened, it should be about you!"

"Sir," Nick said, "hear him out. I think I know where he's going with his."

Lawrence continued. "Putnam's new handmaid is pregnant. Yet she's only been in his possession once, at Waterford's funeral-wake. That was three weeks ago. She's been in hospital since, and Putnam's not visited her once."

Wharton said, "so? For all that's holy, Lawrence, it is Putnam's duty to conceive with his handmaid. I mean, how many times does he have to do it?"

Lawrence paused then said, "he raped unassigned property. That girl was not assigned until the next day."

Commander Mackenzie said, "you got me out of bed for this? Lord above, he's a High Commander? If we start disciplining colleagues for enjoying some perks of office…"

"Enough," Wharton said. "What's the plan, Lawrence? I mean, the guy has already lost an arm!"

"Precisely," Lawrence said. "If we can get your blessing that the four of us here can sit as an HCCG….?"

The silence on the line was deafening and far, far, too long.

"Do it," Wharton said, saying that D.C. would 'stand aside'. Mackenzie remained silent. The only words Mackenzie uttered was at the end of the call, 'By God's grace.'

Scott and Calhoun were agreed - Scott said, "this is yours, Lawrence. If you want to do it at the retreat centre, do it at breakfast. Get it over with. Do it in front of our brothers, every one of them will then fall in line."

"But me," Scott said, "I'll be at a table with Grace. She's scandalized as it is - she says everyone knows about the handmaid except for Naomi."

Lawrence said, "okay, we're due back at the retreat centre. I declare this session of the Sanhedrin in recess."

WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT SOMEONE

For a fertility crisis, New Gilead was dealing with its share of pregnancies.

No less than Rose Blaine had that 'blush' about her. Unlike the Putnams, Nick knew about this one. Since she told him, he'd not mentioned June Osborne once.

Knowing the tensions between Commanders, Rose had passed on attendance at that morning's retreat centre breakfast. Hearing what she'd just heard from her father, she was glad she had passed.

When Nick came in later that afternoon, Rose eyed her husband, the father of the life within her. She'd been a child of a Commander, she knew how a lot of it worked.

Yet it was occurring to her, that perhaps her dad had spared her the worst of his job.

Now an adult, in love with her husband, there was no sparing her the worst of what Commander Blaine was now about.