The 5 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 10, Witness.

Warning: This article contains MANY spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale season three, episode ten, Witness. If you’re not caught up yet, bookmark us and come back once you’re ready to properly debrief. Ready? Let’s go!

Blessed be the fruit, friends, because The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 has finally found its direction and June is about to do the damn thing.

The muffin man Marthas have visited the Lawrence household to pledge their support for June’s batsh*t crazy plan to get children out of Gilead, Commander Lawrence is on board and THINGS MIGHT ACTUALLY HAPPEN.

I’m so excited.

Through episode 10, we learned a lot more about Fred’s icky attempts to gain himself more power by sucking up to Commander Winslow: He’s put in place a bunch of new regulations and they’re slowly rolling out the veils and ‘rings’ the handmaids in DC wear (they’re ‘voluntary’, apparently. Yeah right).

But Fred’s attempts at squeezing Commander Lawrence out to gain favour with Winslow and (probably) take June back to DC with him was a fail, and it gave us the most glorious line of the season:

“I mean, at least it wasn’t you.”

Even Serena thought that was a good one. Her face said as much. And then, when she tells Fred about the American diplomat whom I shall refer to as Mr Coconuts, well, she has to be plotting something big. Surely. Please.

Here are a few little details you might have missed in The Handmaid’s Tale season 3, episode 10, Witness:

June's burn was so good it cured her limp.

June was dealing with a nasty limp for most of the episode after enduring more than a month on her knees, praying at the bedside of Ofmatthew in episode nine.

But when Fred enquired if she was "alright" (Fred, you're an idiot) and she hits him with that glorious line that at least it wasn't him, she walked out of that room quickly, confidently and with no limp in sight.

I put it all down to the endorphins that came from seeing Fred look like this:

That contraception punishment is... yikes.

It turns out Gilead isn't taking a leaf out of Ramsay Bolton's book with that whole "The punishment for contraception is being torn apart by dogs" thing.

No. That gruesome death sentence comes from the Bible.

It's a reference to Jezebel (you'll recall that's also what the brothel and prostitutes in Gilead are called). In the Bible, Jezebel was a manipulative Queen who encouraged her husband, a king, to worship new Gods and steal land. In the end, she was thrown out the window by her own court and her corpse was torn apart by wild dogs.

These days, the word is often associated with an immodest or immoral woman... so in Gilead, where contraception goes against everything it stands for, they would definitely find that punishment justifiable.

Rita and Serena...

We need more Rita, tbh.

When Fred was suggesting making an example of Commander Lawrence, Rita is standing (blurry) in the background at the beginning.

When he mentions June specifically, the camera pans to Serena's face and her eyes twitch towards the right... to where Rita is standing.

The camera then focuses on Rita for a moment, who is looking back in Serena's direction, before the focus turns back to Fred and Rita's blurry figure slips out of the room.

It's small and subtle, but it points towards something secretive going on between the two of them.

Please let Serena be setting Fred up.

Maybe we're just setting ourselves up to be disappointed by Serena for the 12,000th time but... she's about to hand Fred over to the Americans, right?

The last few episodes have included way too many close-ups of Serena's hand, with the missing finger, and looks of disgust at Fred for it not to mean something.

There's no chance Mr Coconuts would even entertain the idea of handing Nichole back to the Waterfords and have her return to Gilead... Serena knows that. But if she can hand over one of Gilead's powerful leaders to the Americans, well, then she's got more bargaining power.

Eleanor was looking for a symbolic book.

Before Gilead, Eleanor Lawrence was an art professor and when she busts June in her husband's office she exclaims that she's looking for the "Taschen Gauguin".

Paul Gauguin was a French artist, best known for his body of work sexualising nude teenage girls from Tahiti. After dumping his wife and kids in Paris, Gauguin travelled to the South Pacific, where he took three young brides aged 13, 14 and 14.

Taschen was a book featuring many of his naked painting of women, certainly not 'appropriate' in Gilead.

He had said he was quitting a more opulent life in Paris for a 'paradise' in Tahiti, but then spent much of his time frustrated that the reality in Tahiti was not the paradise he'd imagined.

That sounds a little... familiar, doesn't it, Commander Lawrence?

Hmm.

This episode had a lot of plot development and with just three more episodes for the season, we're about to see some major drama. And also, hopefully, some sweet, sweet karma for Commander Fred Waterford.

*crosses fingers*

For more on this topic:

• The 5 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 9, Heroic.
• The 8 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 8, Unfit.
• The 7 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 7, Under His Eye.
• The 7 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 6, Household.
• The 7 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 5, Unknown Caller.
• Well, sh*t. Emily might be sent back to Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale.
• There's a new Handmaid's Tale fan theory that claims Nick is a rebellious American spy.
• "36 minutes into the new Handmaid’s Tale, I saw how refugees could be treated. It left me in tears."
• Just a bunch of juicy fan theories about the Handmaid's Tale in one convenient place.