We also never got anything this season about June/Offred's mother, but we had that one mention in "The Other Side" which makes me think we could be seeing her in season 2, in the colonies!

OK but the only thing the nightmare equipment was doing was giving June her red tag, right? It was just an especially brutal (and non consensual) piercing? Why would you need all that nightmare equipment for that? I don't even think something like that is used to tag animals? Was it for the intimidation factor? Surely…

This episode made me wonder how many other handmaids have freaked out while being raped in their Ceremonies—like probably not that many, since the consequences couldn't possibly be good, but not everyone is going to freeze in a fight/flight/freeze situation. Janine can't be the only one.

Disturbing parallel to Luke asking June if she and Moira ever hooked up in college, no?

Exactly! When Offred says the book quote about "I wish this story showed me in a better light" or whatever at the beginning of this episode it felt very out of place, because like, the show *is* showing her in a "better light" compared to the book.

I liked this episode better than the last two, mostly because the source material is so strong—it would be hard to mess up such a profoundly creepy sequence of scenes. But I am so disappointed at how little we saw of Moira! I was expecting this to be an episode about her, and her and Offred/June's friendship, and it…