After one of the most depressing, grim years of our lifetime that included a global pandemic, social upheaval in the name of justice, crushing economic downfall, and a drawn-out presidential campaign, you might actually be feeling a glimmer of hope. Fear not. The Handmaid’s Tale is here to obliterate any lingering sense of optimism you may have for the world.
We are back in Gilead, baby! And its oppressive, fucked-up, totalitarian, baby-crazed regime. Last time we saw June and her ragtag team of Marthas and rabble-rousing Handmaids, they had managed to pull off a heroic mission involving the transportation of 86 children to the promised land: Canada. It was one of the few moments of victory the show has given us in three seasons, but because that was too generous of a gesture, we are now ready to deal with the aftermath of June’s plot. And it ain’t pretty.
The majority of “Pigs” takes place in one of Mayday’s safe houses in the perpetually gray but bucolic middle of nowhere. The farm appears to function more or less like the female-centered commune many of us have dreamed about after uttering “men are trash”. The renegade Handmaids and Marthas work together to raise the crops, feed the livestock, and regain strength while they figure out their next move. June (Elisabeth Moss) spends days, if not weeks, healing and leaning hard into the cottagecore lifestyle of many an Instagram darling. She tends to her wounds with homemade penicillin made from rotten fruit. She slathers homemade oil on her worn skin. But of course, this isn’t her indulging in some much needed self-care. “Pain makes your world very small,” we hear in a voiceover. “My world can’t be small. Not now. Because the others need me to protect them.” And thus kicks off season four of The Handmaid’s Tale.
The question of protection and how it relates to justice is one of the central themes in this season opener, which is bleak, nerve-wracking, and will make a lot of viewers squirm in their seats. As a result of the flight, Gilead is preparing to invade Canada in retaliation. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) urges the same council that tortured her to hunt down June and bring her to them, for she is the one that led her girls astray. Back in Toronto, Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) warns Sam that the flight will lead to war and June’s death. Obviously, these are the warped interpretations of crime and punishment brought on by the Gilead regime, where the loyal elite view their heinous actions are as righteous.
But the other side is pretty bloodthirsty too, and this is where the question of what constitutes justice gains layers and complexity. The addition of Mrs. Keyes as the teen wife of a decrepit, senile commander hellbent on taking down every single man in Gilead is one of the most unsettling figures this season. The self-described mistress of the safe house and Mayday supporter is so giddy with the thought of more vengeful death—as opposed to a fight for liberation—that it even upsets June, who has her own history of reckless decision-making in the heat of anger. Mckenna Grace offers a performance that is bone-chilling and terrifying, portraying the volatility of a 14-year-old with precision all while making us question whether this girl has any moral compass beyond rage.
This is further complicated when we learn that Commander Keyes, in a desperate attempt to have a baby, offered the teenager to multiple men throughout their marriage, a revelation that comes late in the episode after we’ve been led to believe that Mrs. Keyes might be nothing more than a sadistic June-idolizing girl rebelling. It’s become a bit of a questionable cliché to say “hurt people, hurt people” but in the world of Gilead, this cycle of trauma is alive and well. Hell, it’s the only way to survive.
Pero, like, do we have to go all out problematic? A teen girl wanting to kill one of the men who raped her is understandable. Hell, a grown woman wanting to harm a man who assaulted her is understandable. A grown woman egging a teen girl to butcher one of the men who assaulted her after the woman herself declares him a traitor of the United States and sentences him to death leaves me with, uh, a not-so-fresh feeling. If June was going to act as judge and jury, then why abscond her responsibility as executioner?
We get glimpses of the Hero Myth that is starting to form around June, both from the excitement Mrs. Keyes first greets her with, and June’s own aggrandizing sense of self that she is somehow single-handedly responsible for leading all the Handmaids to safety. (I dunno, this is really more of a team effort.) To give a knife to a child, call her a good girl, and whisper, “make me proud” feels manipulative, even monstrous. It’s not that the guy didn’t “deserve it.” It’s the underlying question of whether there are moral grounds for turning a child into a killer. A DOOZY OF A QUESTION.
And perhaps this is what we’re going to wrestle with throughout the season. As June’s image morphs into that of a dangerous depraved “Delilah” capable of subverting the state (Gilead’s take) or that of a courageous sacrificial guardian angel (Canada’s interpretation), the viewers see the messy totality. We witness the most vulnerable parts of her humanity and her most despicable impulses. We understand her repulsion towards Gilead and her selfish indulgences as a savior. We champion her willingness to say “We are Mayday. We don’t hide. We fight,” and recoil when she adds, “And in this place, we all fight” before urging a teenager to eviscerate—literally—another human.
It’s going to be a dark, dark season. Even by Handmaid’s standards.
Stray observations
- Canada! I love thee! Location of my happy, college years and then later the country my parents called home for half a decade. I get a little thrill whenever Handmaid’s adds a little detail that I feel is oh so Canuck. The Most Canadian Thing to happen this week was Sam asking Serena to please stop smoking inside. We all know we should only smoke right outside the building door, bundled up in Canada Goose parkas and huddled with a grumbling group of Quebecois.
- Eyebrow Watch 2021: Though we barely saw him in season 3, Nick and his lush, thick, unruly eyebrows are back and in full force. I’m still not getting a full read on where his loyalties lie, at least politically speaking. Is Nick a reformed Gilead soldier trying to destroy the system from within? Or are his actions merely motivated by his emotional allegiance to June? Whatever his plan is, it involves rescuing Lawrence from his own death sentence and bringing him back into the government as the scariest creature of all: a consultant.
- Best anachronistic song choice of the episode: Carole King’s version of “Natural Woman,” playing as creepy Mrs. Keyes, dress covered in blood, lies with June in her bed and becomes the big spoon to her little spoon, whispering, “I love you.” If motherhood is the powerful fuel coursing through June’s body, this moment also highlights how our natural instincts to protect the young can turn them into abominations of our own creation.
- R.I.P. to Mr. Darcy, the roly-poly pig whose untimely death is at the center of one of the most disturbing dinner scenes the show has filmed.
83 Comments
My problem with The Handmaid’s Tale is that it’s emotionally draining and it felt like the show was in a rut desperately trying to maintain the status quo of Season One when I stopped watching after the Season Two finale. Way I see it the show should have stuck with being a miniseries.
Season Three is even dumber and darker in a truly needless way. The crew said that they’d love to go for even 10 seasons, so it’s clear they’re gonna be padding this out until they get info their next season is their last, which might be accelerated by the pandemic.I’m annoyed because very few of the show-original additions are truly good, and some stuff – like turning June into The Punisher – are fucking laughable. They are trying to have like a dozen cakes and eat them at the same time: from feminist power fantasy, through deconstructive revenge story and white feminism critique to realistic look at the powerlessness of victims and post-season 1 it nails none of them.
You saved yourself a lot of grief and time by not watching season 3. Even though I thought the season ended in good terms, the rest of it was just frustrating and sometimes embarrassing to watch.
Season 1 earned the emotional exhaustion, season 2 it just felt self-indulgent and in it for the Emmys
Yeah I recognize that this is Important Programming with Serious Things to Say About Real Issues, Albeit in an Allegorical Fashion, but after 2020….I’m gonna stick with Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist for a little while longer.
gonna stick with Zoey’s Extraordinary PlaylistI wish that show was fun, though. I find it joyless and torturous more often than not. Its best episode was the one with Simon vs. Corporate Racism, and that sure wasn’t lighthearted (and had the lead character being destroyed and diminished for her white privilege). Every other scene there’s someone in deep grief or depression.
I’ve never heard of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, but it sounds like just about the opposite vibe of Life is Torture Porn.I’ve been parsing out Star Trek: The Next Generation as my 2020/2021 show. Its commentary is far more digestible than some of the extremely dark commentary out there, and with a touch of alcohol, the enduring optimism, Jean-Luc Picard, and beautiful intro score all moves me to tears several times when I sit down for a binge watch.
That, and Stargate for me. I never realized it was censored for TV. 😮
Are we talking the Kurt Russell joint, or the SG-1? Both are great.
The TV show.
Stargate SG1 is an incredible show. I’m up to the final season.
I was re watching it because I realized it’s WAY better uncensored and without all the commercial breaks.
There are more commenters here saying they can’t watch the show any more than there are watchers. I don’t get the motivation to comment. As a watcher, I wanted to discuss the ep in the comments so I was surprised to see the ratio.
They’re here every episode, every season, always claiming they can’t continue while somehow never going away. I assume their motivation is to signal they’re just too sensitive, or too tasteful, for such “misery porn”. Sure Jan. It’s a season 4 premiere, after a 2-year hiatus. Save it for season 1, or at least a finale.Or just admit it’s a compelling dystopia, impeccably shot and acted, despite being very difficult to watch…no? Hannah Montana deals with dark themes in a more tasteful way? OK then.
They’re here every episode, every season, always claiming they can’t continue while somehow never going away. I assume their motivation is to signal they’re just too sensitive, or too tasteful, for such “misery porn”. Sure Jan. It’s a season 4 premiere, after a 2-year hiatus. Save it for season 1, or at least a finale.Or just admit it’s a compelling dystopia, impeccably shot and acted, despite being very difficult to watch…no? Hannah Montana deals with dark themes in a more tasteful way? OK then.
They have a lot of free time to fill because they aren’t watching the shows.
A Twitter user I ran into put it best: “Hey so fuck HandmaidsTale. That shit is ritualized torture porn with dramatic action shots while simultaneously being a white lady slavery fantasia.”
Plus Elisabeth Moss is a hypocrite for participating in a show criticizing oppressive religion when she belongs to an oppressive cult.
Yeah, but it’s a capitalist cult, and voluntary to boot.
I thought her greatest faux pas was being married to Fred Armisen.
Yeah you definitely have to have questionable taste to see something attractive in that creep.
I thought her greatest faux pas was being married to Fred Armisen.Dude it was for eight months 2009-2010, Obama years, everyone was high on love and joyous hopefulness, and Moss was only 27 at the time. She apparently rates the union as “extremely traumatic and awful and horrible”. So, her greatest mistake. Not faux pas.
Got through season 3 and I’m done, it’s as much misery porn as The Walking Dead except that it is far scarier because it’s not the undead, just hypocritical nutters who think they’re right. I can’t do it
I haven’t watched season 4 episodes yet, but after season 3, it had become so much of a joke that I was able to fully laugh about it without feeling bad.The only real depressing thing is that they turned a literary masterpiece into pulp melodrama.
This is what happens when these dystopian shows don’t have an endgame in mind. They meander along constantly being miserable with no catharsis. Or the moment you think you’ll get some…they do that bullshit “happy moment followed by SHOCK TWIST horrible moment.”It’s like the WWE. They don’t know how to do anything but get heat on the bad guys, which makes it miserable to watch.
After the last decade of books being adapted to TV shows I have come to feel very strongly that no single book should ever be adapted over the course of more than one season. There’s only one book with no sequel? Cool, you’re making a limited series, not an ongoing.
If the material is there for multiple seasons I don’t mind it. But many of them completely fall flat once they try to expand beyond the scope of the books.Look at GoT. Things went to hell once they ran out of books and had to strike out on their own.
Yes, this. TV writers and showrunners are not novelists, and certainly not the quality of those novelists who wrote these timeless classics. I think there is also a netwrok formula where once these shows lock in an audience, they just put out a call for serial TV writing hacks to just bring it home for ratings for a season or two until the casts’ contracts expire. Most of these “based on” extensions are cliched crap.
This is why I’m glad the Looming Tower was a mini-series. Would’ve been realllly awkward to have Jeff Daniels survive 9/11, then work at a new building which also gets attacked. (the joke being it’s a nonfiction book)
Also, didn’t the initial interest in and success of The Handmaid’s Tale as a series have a lot to do with it debuting during the Trump administration? We were in uncharted territory with that president (and vice president), and America falling into a fascist theocracy where women are regarded as little more than brood mares didn’t seem so far out of the realm of possibility. The Handmaid’s Tale was definitely a show for that time; at times, it was so unsettlingly on the nose that it seemed to be ripped from the headlines even though the episodes were filmed months before they aired.But now that we have a ‘normal’ president again who ‘plays by the rules’ — as well as a female vice president of color — the prospect of America going Gilead doesn’t loom so large anymore.So now we can let our guard down, take a breath, and safely indulge in the benign escapism of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.
I just wish this show had a horrible cast and I wouldn’t be invested in it.
I mean, Elizabeth Moss is an unapologetic scientologist so…
I’m aware, and it’s troubling though personally I am never really sure if it’s much worse than hardline christians, or any hardline religious beliefs for that matter. She’s a great actress though.
Some people I can get over it, others I can’t. Beck and Nancy Cartwright get a pass.
I sort of draw the line in how people treat others, or speak about others. If you go all anti-lgbtq+, mysogynist, abusive or something you’re exit. If not, I’m annoyed but if I like your work (like Moss, like Beck) – I’ll probably keep watching/listening.
It’s much worse.
Scientology gets a lot of bad press, but it’s no different from Catholicism, or Judaism, or Muslim, or Buddhism. Come on.
Found the Scientologist.
Found the Catholic.
Not to defend Scientology, but there are some very successful actors who are Scientologists. If their religion — or any other religion for that matter — was at all problematic on set, they would be shunned by the industry and you’d be reading all kinds of horror stories from unnamed sources. As long as they’re professional and do the job they’re paid to do to the best of their ability, Hollywood couldn’t care less if they handle snakes. Just be on time and know your lines.
Ah yes, because Hollywood is known for shunning problematic people in positions of power.*laughs in Harvey Weinstein*
I don’t think what June does at the end of the episode is supposed to be read as justice, or meant to imply there are moral grounds for turning a child into a killer. There aren’t. The point wasn’t the killing, or punishment, justice, retribution, etc. The goal was what happened right before credits; when Ms. Keyes told June she loved her. Their survival depends on this traumatized child and June decided their best bet was to bend Ms. Keyes to her will, and having her carry out the execution was the way she decided to do it. Its super fucked up and (at least I don’t think) the show is suggesting it isn’t.
Exactly. Plus, June was helping Mrs. Keyes redirect at an appropriate target (one of her rapists) and away from the handmaids and Marthas the abuaed child bride’s pent-up rage and compulsive need to prove she wasn’t powerless.
June is nothing if not a skilled manipulator.
So I’ll be mocking you haters for showing up in the episode 2 and 3 discussions.Not really. The show REALLY needs to wrap it up. Quickly.
It has already been renewed for a fifth season…
Two more seasons? I don’t think this show is going to resonate in the same way post-Trump. I really think TH’sT became such a pop culture phenomenon because of the political climate at the time it premiered — we really could imagine America becoming a fascist theocracy like Gilead four years ago. Now, not so much.
I guess there is some irony it’s a former first daughter leading the resistance…Frankly, I think you’re right that the timing of this show was just right, though personally I can still imagine America going downhill – give it a decade or so in the right direction before I have some faith in the country again. But let us hope The Handmaid’s Tale reflects what could be and not what will be. And with that perhaps better let things end after this season.
Two more seasons?Please. That would be SIX more seasons, according to plan. Get comfortable.
And perhaps this is what we’re going to wrestle with throughout the season.Alternately, they could lazily fail to actually interrogate June’s behavior as she bounces erratically from one characterization to another depending on what the scene calls for.I know what I’m betting on.
as she bounces erratically from one characterization to anotherBut with one consistent trait that ties it all together: close-up glaring into the camera.
I don’t wanna hark on this show to bad but I’m sad we can’t have a final conclusion to GLOW when this show is still going and will probably go forever
‘It’s become a bit of a questionable cliché to say “hurt people, hurt people”…’I prefer “make people cry, make people cry”.
I was confused by the Mrs. Keyes character. Does the Keyes family have a handmaid? If Commander Keyes “wanted to have a baby” then why was he bringing other men to his wife? Aren’t the wives barren? I’ve only seen episode 1, so maybe this is explained later, but it was presented so matter-of-factly that it seemed like I missed something. Can anyone help me out?On top of that, the way Mrs. Keyes seemed so crazed, and Mr. Keyes seemed doddering and said he was afraid of her, made me wonder if Mrs. Keyes isn’t fully telling the truth. It would be kind of interesting is June was duped and gets some comeuppance for her arrogance, but I won’t hold my breath.
It’s pretty intense knowing not just is it a 14yo character, but also a 14yo actress. She’s great in the role but have to admit I find it a bit squeamish to have such a young girl take on that part and everything that comes with it.
As I understand it, only the highest/most important of Gilead men get handmaids since there aren’t that many to go around. I assume since Keyes has an insanely young wife, she only got assigned to him recently and he had hoped she was not barren since some random women aren’t and the only way to find out is to try to impregnate them by a variety of men. She may only be a year or two out (or less) from first getting her period so it may be unknown if she’s barren yet. I found her character so heartbreaking and depressing (June making her become a murderer so young) and also a great addition.
Okay, that makes sense, thanks.
Only the older wives are (at this point) considered barren. Handmaids were created to help the older Commander’s families have children, but the young children of Gilead have been raised to become Commanders and Wives themselves. There’s no reason for Gilead to automatically assign a Handmaid to a commander when they’ve just given him a 14 year old wife – I would assume she would be given a few years to “prove her worth” before assigning a Handmaid.
Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I guess I had never thought too deeply about the logistics of the premise of this story, but I guess I assumed that the barren women might not have regular periods or something like that. And without getting into spoiler territory, but now having seen the next two episodes, I have even more questions about how fertility is determined in this world.
No – so in the original book, the premise was that because of various advancements/radiation exposure, the world’s fertility in general declined. Women were still having periods, they just weren’t producing viable eggs (and/or the men’s sperm was junk, but because this is Gilead, they’re only going to blame the women). Also in the book, most of the Commanders and Wives were much older – Serena Joy is described as a Tammy Faye Baker type (without the makeup) and had been a succesful tvangelist for several years before Gilead came into being. But the idea of the children being raised to become Commanders and Wives – the hope was that they would be fertile and repopulate the country. Though Handmaids would probably still be in effect for any couple not considered fertile. I’m not sure what Gilead’s plan was for making new Handmaids – maybe calling up Econowives who had sinned in some way.
In The Testaments sequel they also send the Pearl girl missionaries to convince young women who are homeless, abused, addicts etc that their life can be happier in Gilead. That they can have good roles too but I think (might be misremembering) there’s a scene in church when immigrants to Gilead arrive and one girl freaks out and it’s mentioned she’ll be made a handmaid? So likely a combo of their own citizens breaking their laws and them?
It’s obvious Mrs. Keyes is poisoning her husband and/or feeding him ground glass. He doesn’t know for sure but suspects her. Even Ray Charles could see Mrs. Keyes was psychotic, and Mr. Keyes knows why.
Yeah, I had a thought about that. This guy seems way old and demented. I have to find it hard to believe he would be capable of arranging “rape parties” with his wife. I was thinking the girl was just a psycho.
In the scene were she discusses her rape (ugh) she says Mr Keyes can’t get it up. Tried pills and shots in his “thing” but he can’t.
I agree with some other assessments here that she had been one of the older children when the US fell to Gilead and who had reached “mature age” shortly after. (Based on June’s baby’s age and some other details the show has given, I’m guessing Gilead has probably only been running 3-4 years at most, so it would make sense that Mrs. Keyes would have been married off as soon as she started menstruating.) Just like we saw with the wedding ceremonies in an earlier season, I think she was married to a Commander with the expectation that she would herself be fertile and able to bear children, thus negating the need for a Handmaid.
She’s a child bride assigned to him, like the one assigned to Nick last (?) season.
I actually thought this was a good return to form for the Handmaid’s Tale. Everything on the farm felt natural and real, even if it was a little weird that June didn’t let the guy say one word in his defense (you know, USA values and crap like a trial) just to be sure that “Mrs. Keyes” wasn’t just picking some rando guy to get her revenge on.But it’s the geopolitics underpinning the episode that need work. Today, there are millions of children in the USA, so “losing” 86 wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But the Gilead story is FOUNDED on the fact that fertility has declined dramatically, hence the need to go “full Bible” with the handmaids, etc.In the Nick-C. Waterford exchange in the prison cell, they mention “millions of people” will be affected by a war. And earlier they say the “front lines” are in Chicago. Yet all we ever see are a half dozen guys making all the decisions and no idea what kind of fighting is involved (drones? aircraft? Or is it just WW1-style trenches?).Does Canada not still have its western provinces that lie on the border with non-Gilead USA? Is Canada not somehow already cooperating or giving aid to the non-Gilead western parts of the USA? And what about Canada’s own lack of fertility? Earlier, the “trade talks” were all based on exchanging kids for food/goods. 1) How many kids are in Gilead, total?2) How many kids are in Canada atm (total)?3) If millions of people are out there, but infertile, then wouldn’t ALL the countries (including Canada and Gilead) collapse in just a few decades anyway?Point is, by ignoring the “world building” part, they continue to undermine the close-up character development and action going on w/r/t June et al.
The USA is reduced to a few pockets plus Hawaii and (maybe) Alaska. I think the thing in Chicago is more like a rebellion or an enclave. There was a map at one point (season 2..?)
All countries have very reduced fertility but not zero. Gilead has been somewhat more successful than most at breading due to carefully removing environmental threats and forced breeding programs. I think we are only 10 years or so into this so it likely hasn’t started causing “Children of Men” style social collapse yet.
The show mentions early on that the British Army has been conducting drills on the Canadian border, and it is clear that Gilead doesn’t have much support globally. Hopefully these things are addressed eventually.
So, people actually watch this for entertainment?
See “Nomadland”, Best Picture…
Yeah, just like they watch The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. I mean, who doesn’t find warring factions pitted against each other for survival in a post-apocalyptic hellscape rife with flesh-eating zombies entertaining?
I mean a zombie show where the bad guys are ‘other people’ rather than the zombies ( who are more just a natural disaster than anything ‘evil ) , yeah fun I guess…
“more or less like the female-centered commune many of us have dreamed about after uttering “men are trash”. Jesus , who hurt you?!?
I believe the line was tongue in cheek.
It’s showing what extremism looks like up close. It’s making June into a Osama Bin Ladin type leader that radicalizes people to the point where they are willing to commit acts of terrorism. Forcing people to ask themselves, at what point does terrorism become a justifiable tactic?
The scene with Mrs. Keyes killing her rapist was meant to be discomforting.
I saw some parallels to mafia films, the idea being that in order to become a “made man” you need to kill for the mob. To be part or Mayday, you need to get your hands dirty. It’s a way of ensuring loyalty, and also insurance to keep people from flipping now that they have blood on their hands too.
At least it’s not just another exercise in look-how-terribly-we-can-torture-women-THIS-time sadism. This whole storyline could have been interesting if it seemed like the writers ever intended to actually get there rather than falling ass-backwards into it.In all seriousness, the show is a perfect example of right-place-right-time, airing right when terrified liberals wanted to obsess over the worst case scenario, and now that the Trump administration is gone for now the appetite is going to run out.
Back in 2005 I once got some unlabeled bootleg DVDs from a random middle aged stranger at an anime convention, for free. It turned out to be rape-hentai, and somehow it was less exploitative and disturbing than this show.
Sam might have told them about the plane’s passengers (as he said, that would soon become public knowledge) but an ethical attorney would never have volunteered about June’s suspected responsibility.
All the Marthas on that plane would be telling everyone they talked to in Canada that June was the one the got them on the plane. Her involvement would soon become as public knowledge as the rescue itself.Why would the attorney telling the Waterfords that June was behind it be unethical? He’s not breaking any lawyer/client privilege with June (who he’s never met) – just telling them something that will soon be on the news.
I’m a bit late, but that guy wasn’t their attorney was he? Maybe a DA equivalent? Even then, good on him for rubbing their noses in it.
The actor playing Mrs Keyes is a powerhouse. Goddamn. It was like watching a tiny killer Emma Watson, but without all the eyebrow action. Also, I love that she’s basically running Gilead’s Underground Gay Bar as well.
As June’s image morphs into that of a dangerous depraved “Delilah” capable of subverting the state (Gilead’s take) or that of a courageous sacrificial guardian angel (Canada’s interpretation), the viewers see the messy totality. We witness the most vulnerable parts of her humanity and her most despicable impulses. We understand her repulsion towards Gilead and her selfish indulgences as a savior. We champion her willingness to say “We are Mayday. We don’t hide. We fight,” and recoil when she adds, “And in this place, we all fight” before urging a teenager to eviscerate—literally—another human.Does it upset you this much when we witness the most vulnerable parts of the humanity and despicable impulses of male characters?
We just got this one in the UK.I liked and found it telling that Aunt Lydia clearly got torturously and violently interrogated and Lawrence was allowed to chill in his cell, apparently entirely unharmed and catch up on his reading.Shoutout to McKenna Grace for her excellent performance as Mrs Keyes. June’s method of keeping her on side was utterly chilling.