Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Handmaid's Tale season 4, episode 8, "Testimony."
June Osborne gives her testimony against Serena Joy and Fred Waterford in The Handmaid's Tale season 4, episode 8, but the outcome is a group of Canadians cheering for the Waterfords and celebrating Gilead. Directed by star Elisabeth Moss, "Testimony" is what June's brief time in Canada has been building to. Going before the International Criminal Court to read her witness statement ahead of the Waterfords' trial, June's testimony serves as a recap of some of the worst horrors from The Handmaid's Tale seasons 1-3.
But while June recounts the many rapes and other abuses she suffered at the hands of Fred and Serena, her former Commander hits back. He professes that everything he and Gilead have done is in the name of God, and that their system is working where others around the world are failing. June, obviously, doesn't buy a word of it, but quite clearly several people do, with a group outside the court protesting the apparent injustices the couple are facing.
To viewers, it's always been rather clear that Gilead is the wrong and that Fred and Serena deserve to be punished for their crimes, so it's a particularly startling moment to see them essentially vindicated like this, even if just by a minority. The moment makes perfect sense, however, because it highlights a key part of Gilead's foundation. While much of the regime's rise was through fear, intimidation, and brutality, it also won people to its cause and gave them something to believe in. Generally, that's been presented as being contained to Gilead, which has often felt somewhat isolated in a North Korea-esque way, with other countries doing what they have to but little actual support for it. So with June in Canada, the feeling was that it was completely safe, but of course there would be people who sympathize with the Waterfords and support what Gilead is doing.
The Handmaid's Tale has always been a politically relevant show, and this very much taps into that aspect once again. It combines political leanings, no matter how controversial or unsavory, with the cult of celebrity. Fred and Serena Joy are en vogue, to some quarters at least, and to those people they are the ones who are telling it like it is and who are prepared to do what must be done. Again, the view of the world is somewhat skewed because Gilead is the place where all the problems have been, with Canada the haven to escape to, giving the sense that it would be more ideal. But "Testimony" is a reminder of the fertility crisis that the entire world is dealing with. Gilead's measures are horrific, but it feels realistic that others in other countries, whose government's have not turned things around, would glance in that direction and think they had the right of it.
There is also a minority feeling of ill will to Gilead refugees in Canada, which again both further reinforces in those people the belief that Gilead is right, as well as making more real world parallels. As Gilead is weakened and more people come into Canada, then again it fits that those dissenting voices would look to shout louder, and to latch on to the celebrity of Fred and Serena Joy as their hope. It's a marked contrast from Serena's arrival in Canada in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, where she was met by angry anti-Gilead protestors. It's unlikely this is representative of a complete shift, at least, but more indicates that these divisions do exist within Canada, and life outside Gilead, while better, has its own complications - and that even where people are doing evil things, there are those who will support it or turn a blind eye if it benefits them, or if they're living in fear of what the alternative might be.
As The Handmaid's Tale season 4 moves towards its endgame, then the celebration of the Waterfords in Canada feels every bit as pivotal as June's own powerful testimony. It confirms to them the angle they need to play - the God fearing, righteous people who are the only ones succeeding in increasing birth rates, who will argue that the ends justify the means and they are doing the Lord's work, strengthened by Serena's own pregnancy. Fred is shrewd enough to have seen that as his best chance anyway, but the protests and cheers confirm that taking down the Waterfords will not be as straightforward as it ought to be.
Next: The Handmaid's Tale: Nick Dies Saving Hannah From Gilead - Theory Explained
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