Warning: Spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale season 5 is winding down, with one more episode remaining in the campaign. The season has featured some intense highs and painfully slow episodes but has been a welcome addition to the series. June Osborne has been walking the line between becoming a revolutionary and just wanting her daughter Hannah back from Gilead. The season has focused primarily on her struggle with the latter as June has her freedom, her husband, and her younger child but is missing that one crucial piece of herself.

In last week’s episode, “Motherland,” we learned that the sparse remains of the United States were planning a raid of Hannah’s wife school to extract her and all other “students.” We hoped the raid would spark a larger conflict between the US and Gilead, finally leading to the big war to topple the authoritarian regime to end the series in season 6. Did this week’s episode “Allegiance” accomplish this long-sought fight for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale?

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The Raid Ends in Unexpected Bloodshed

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The episode starts with Mark Tuello introducing June and Luke to the commander who will lead the raid on the school. They are informed that it’s an elite unit that will be putting boots on the ground, one that will kill anyone who gets in their way. June implores Tuello to let her and Luke watch the planned live feed of the raid.

We catch up with Serena Joy posing for photographs with her infant son Noah back at the Wheeler mansion. These images will effectively be the greeter at the new Gilead fertility clinic, the brainchild of Serena herself. Serena asks permission to attend the opening with Noah to put a face on the clinic’s mission. Alanis Wheeler, Serena’s co-captor, is a hard no on the idea. It’s becoming more apparent that all of our simmering hatred for Serena has been transferred to Alanis. Serena has become a sympathetic figure since she gave birth to Noah. Meanwhile, Alanis is a carbon copy of the horrific abuser that Serena was in her former life in Gilead.

Mrs. Putnam, fresh off the gruesome public execution of her husband, meets with Commander Lawrence about her future in Gilead. She enters the meeting in an obsequious fashion, fearing she might be shipped off to the toxic wastelands of the Colonies. Lawrence instead offers her a marriage proposal to helping keep up appearances for himself and Gilead.

Serena later appeals to Commander Wheeler to attend the clinic opening, essentially asking dad after mom said no. Commander Wheeler tells her that he will consider her request.

Going back to the raid, a circle of young women is shown reciting prayers, with Hannah among them. The girls are sent to bed, with Hannah continuing to pray in her tent, juxtaposed with a hopeful June watching the satellite view of the school from the war room. Hannah retrieves a drawing of plants and flowers from a religious studies book and signs it at the bottom. She uses Hannah instead of her Gilead-given name Agnes.

The raid comes to a maddeningly anticlimactic end. Gilead knew the raid was coming and assembled its anti-aircraft to shoot down all three planes, killing all soldiers on board.

Serena Makes a Bold Move

Lawrence calls June, expresses his regret at the “bloodshed” of the botched raid, and again extends his offer for June to join the moderate colony of New Bethlehem. An increasingly enraged June tells Lawrence that his late wife would be ashamed of him for his actions and that she hated him toward the end of her life.

Meanwhile, Serena is granted permission to attend the fertility clinic opening, and as she readies to leave, Alanis slaps her for going over her head to her husband. Serena is further cemented as a human being as she has become the effective handmaid of a household.

June wants to keep up the fight against Gilead and for Hannah, and Tuello suggests she reach out to Nick, as his offer to defect is still on the table. At the fertility clinic, Serena is seen pumping up Gilead and its successful births with visitors. After she’s allowed to feed Noah privately, she darts for the building exit and convinces a passing motorist to help her save her baby. June meets with Nick and again extends Tuello’s offer. Citing his new family, he turns it down.

Shots Ring Out

Back in Gilead, Commander Mackenzie is gloating about the country “defending its borders,” receiving praise from fellow oppressive regimes North Korea, China, and Russia. Mackenzie again calls for June to be dealt with. Drowned out by the chants of anti-American protesters, June herself is gathered with mourners for the fallen soldiers’ memorial.

As June helps the mission commander’s young daughter recite the Pledge of Allegiance to an American flag draped from a tree branch, gunshots ring out. In an intense slow-motion shot, June falls on the child to protect her as several bullets pierce the flag where June was just standing.

Was this a protester acting on the anti-refugee fervor, or Mackenzie finally taking his long-wanted shot at June? In a season rife with cliffhangers, we’ll hopefully find out in the season finale. We are still clamoring for that big incident that cracks the fragile and precarious “peace” between factions of the former US and Gilead. Ending with the start of this conflict will cap off season 5 perfectly, leading into the final season 6.

The Handmaid’s Tale deserves a great and epic ending. The attempt on June’s life could be the first shot fired in the coming fight.