Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 8: We all f***ing love Mark Tuello.

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Serena has been lighting up June's phone like it's Christmas.

It's always awkward when the woman who held you hostage for years thinks you're friends.

June, Luke, Moira and Rita are trying to have an uncomfortable conversation about it, but it's made even more difficult by the yelling and honking from protesters outside.

Canada's anti-immigration cohort is growing all the more emboldened, and has taken to racing down the streets of 'Little America' shouting about how Canada is for Canadians and sprawling graffiti on their footpaths.

New Bethlehem, meanwhile, is for Americans. Joseph's big, secret project is revealed as a mini-America, in Gilead, where refugees can reunite with their Gilead-based family in a more "liberalised" environment. 

He likens it to Hong Kong. "One country, two systems," he says, and that is... telling. Hong Kong has certainly had no issues with China attempting to assert its dominance - no sir!

I have many questions about how Joseph amassed such power so quickly, but I suppose executing a rapist Commander in the street may have helped put the fear of God into the rest of them.

As June scrubs graffiti and shuts down Luke's idea of moving to Alaska or Hawaii (more info on how those two non-continental states are doing, please!) because it'd take them further from Hannah, Joseph calls, right on cue, with another option.

And holy sh*t.

Joseph explains himself as some kind of world-saver. A guy so concerned about economics and plummeting birth rates that he hatched a plan to fix it, and used religious nut jobs as pawns to make it happen. The end justifies the means, etc.

Except they got a little out of hand and well, here we are. He's sorry about that part.

"Sorry about those years of torture! Oops! Silly me!" Image: SBS.

For seasons, I've been confused about where Joseph lies on our Handmaid's villain scale. He's been ambiguous, helping Mayday and June many times while still upholding Gilead to help himself. But this omission - that he willingly sacrificed women's freedoms, autonomy and lives to fulfil his goal - is proof he's very much in the same realm as Serena, Fred and Aunt Lydia. 

He offers June and her family a place in New Bethlehem, where she can read, write and live alongside Hannah once Hannah, a 12-year-old child, is married off to an old man and forced to run a household.

F*** you, Joseph.

Luke and June argue their decision. Luke is a firm no, hopeful that eventually Tuello and the Americans will come through for them. Fair. June is leaning more towards yes, because Tuello has really done jacksh*t, and Joseph, "the architect of Gilead" he may be, has actually helped her multiple times before. Also fair.

Meanwhile, Serena has been pumping breast milk and desperately calling everyone she knows from a Canadian immigration detention centre. It's... definitely a far cry from the day spa with Scandi decor and yoga that she spent months in as a war criminal. Sigh.

Mrs Wheeler - Canada's worst Alanis - regularly visits to collect her milk and gloat about fostering stealing her baby.

Joseph visits to tell her he has pulled some strings and got the Canadians to release Serena into Gilead custody - a.k.a the Wheelers house. Unsurprisingly, she's not stoked about it.

"I'm not going to live in the same house as my child's kidnappers," she says.

"Do you have an irony deficiency?" Joseph replies.

Goddamnit why do they have to write him to be so funny?

Across town, Tuello tries to convince June to stay in Canada. He admits the US is working on some sort of vague, military action but June does not give a sh*t about any of it. All she cares about is Hannah. You would think he'd have figured that out by now.

In a quest for more info on New Bethlehem, June finally relents and visits Serena.

Serena takes her opportunity, asking for help with getting a lawyer, a sponsor or honestly, at this point, anything that'll keep her out of that creepy mansion owned by baby thieves.

June nearly laughs in her face and tells her to go back to the Wheelers. 

"How do you go and live in a house with a woman who's trying to steal your baby?" she asks.

SERENA. YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS.

Excuse me? Image: SBS.

It's a truly insane thing to say, but June does have some advice. It boils down to... being her.

"You're gonna go back in there, and you're gonna act like a Handmaid. But the entire time, you will be plotting against them and planning your revenge."

The only way out is through. June knows that, and I'm fascinated to see how Serena uses this very helpful insight in the future.

Afterwards, June visits Joseph. And she RINSES him. It's glorious.

New Bethlehem is Joseph trying to quiet his guilty conscience, but ultimately, he cannot stop Gilead from marrying off Hannah. Gilead's gonna Gilead, after all.

At home, a package arrives for June: a video of Hannah, at her wife school.

It pushes her over the edge. She's going to go to New Bethlehem, with or without Luke and Nichole. She's a mess. Luke's a mess. And we are all SOBBING. Right? BAWLING.

They also take the tape to Tuello, because there is nothing stronger on this show than Luke's belief in the power of government.

In New Bethlehem, Joseph tells Nick and his eyebrows that he's convinced June to cross the border. They can all live in one big, weird extended family with Rose and their child! Fun!

I... I get the feeling Nick hates that idea.

It just feels like... this is not the face of a happy man? Image: SBS.

Serena puts on her best Ofryan act on return to the Wheelers, and they seem to buy it enough that she's able to bundle up the stairs to nurse a crying Noah.

Side note: the Wheelers' nanny (Martha?) seems like a lovely person. I hope we get more of her.

June gets the phone call we've all been waiting for while buying apples.

Tuello's located Hannah. They're going to get her. 

We get the closest Handmaid's will get to a 'frolicking in the fields' scene and it is everything I've ever wanted.

WE! LOVE! TUELLO! Image: SBS.

Did... did the episode just end on a hopeful note? On happy tears and hugs and cheers of "I love Mark Tuello"?

The Handmaid's Tale has conditioned me not to trust it.

A gut punch has to be coming.

Read more:

• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 1: How to get away with murder. 
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 2: GET THE F*** AWAY FROM HER. 
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 3: The wedding that wasn't.
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 4: KEEP YOUR SH*TTY STATE OUT OF CANADA.
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 5: This is why we have trust issues.
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 6: Nothing good starts in a getaway car.
  
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 7: Don't call June Osborne an angel.

Chelsea McLaughlin is Mamamia's Senior Entertainment Writer and co-host of The Spill. For more pop culture takes, recommendations and sarcasm, you can follow her on Instagram.

Feature Image: SBS/Mamamia.