Serena-Joy: A Perfect Character (Work in Progress)
- Todd
- Feb 14
- 6 min read
Updated: Feb 23
I accidentally hit publish instead of save, so my one reader a month can just follow my process as I re-watch, I guess:
How in the hell are we going to format this, chat?
Also, spoiler fucking alert. For, like, the whole show. Right now, spoiled up to S3 Ep12
If nuance was a person:
Author (in the Before) and trad wife to Commander Fred Waterford.
Literally wrote the book on Gilead.
Petitioned for the stripping of women's rights, including the right to read her own books.
Blamed women for the declining birth rate, said that lack of traditional, Christian values were to blame.
Understood that fertility could be used as a motivator/common ground for fear among the people.
Believed in her cause and thought she was willing to give up everything for it.
She's such a complex character.
In a single scene, you'll watch her heart get broken and maybe even feel for her, but then she'll instantly redirect that pain onto the next person.
Hurt people hurt people, right? This bitch does that well.
She's an incredibly powerful woman, an amazing speaker. She has such gravitas and charisma.
And we watch pieces of herself get watered down bit by bit as she quickly loses any power among the Commanders of Gilead.
First, she isn't allowed to speak during their meetings, can't offer ideas, then her husband puts her in that traditional wifely role she herself petitioned for.
She's to focus on her home, the garden, and knitting, nothing more.
Basically going through a breakdown the entire series.
Desperately wants to be a mother and is shot in the stomach by a protester, rendered infertile after one of her speaking events during the Before.
"It's the only thing she's ever wanted."
Gets beat by her husband and he calls it being firm.
Says he'd been too lenient with her and needs to show her discipline.
"We all have our roles to play. Serena needed to be reminded of hers."
Feels powerless in the world she helped create and abuses those beneath her.
Convinces and then helps her husband to violently rape June and is complicit in every single other rape that happens to June and the other women in Gilead.
Testifies that she believes all the children of Gilead should be able to read the Bible and gets her finger cut off for reading, pushes her in a new direction:
Gives up "her" daughter, Nichole, to try to get her out of the world she created, wants her to have a better life.
Burns her house down after finally becoming semi-disillusioned with Gilead.
Visits June at her new posting, looking for any form of comfort.
"Do you think about her? How do you stop?"
Reminiscing about their baby is the first time she smiles in a long time.
"She isn't mine."
"Serena, only a mother could do what you did."
"We cannot count on them. They hate us, Serena. They are not on our side."
"You're scared. Use it. Maybe we're stronger than we think we are."
"Wear the dress, pull the strings."
Even fucking Fred is like, I thought this is what you wanted, our daughter's safe in Canada.
Like, this motherfucker knows how bad this world is, wants to keep "his" daughter safe, and still inflicts this onto people.
I want to be with her, but that's impossible. I just want this to be over.
I don't know what it is that you tell yourself so that, you know, so that you can sleep at night, but Nichole is going to know exactly where she came from and how brave her mother was for getting her here. That's her story. You're never going to be anything to her.
You want to know what I tell myself? That she was my miracle. And that I let her go because I wanted a better life for her and so did your wife, okay? So, if you can't honor my wishes, then honor hers.
Proceeds to go back on that once she thinks she might be able to get Nichole back, even though she knows that she would never be safe in Gilead.
"I pray for Serena, may she find her way back. May she see past her broken heart and remember that Nichole is better off where she is. May she convince Fred to let things lie. Or may they both get hit by a fucking truck. I'm honestly down for either."
"This isn't love! You can't love! You don't know how! Serena, you built this whole world so that you could have someone, but it didn't work. You're small. You're cruel. And you're empty. You will always be empty."
You helped to create this world, how long did you think it would be before it came for you?
The government makes room for exceptions
Well, this one ends with both of you on the wall.
Maybe we deserve it, I mean, at least it will all be over. You'll be fine. It's our sin.
Asks Fred to betray Gilead so that she can get Nichole back, but fucking loop-de-loops him and works out a deal with the Canadians to turn Fred over.
Gets to see Nichole and during drop off, Moira fucking delivers this banger:
Who are you, really? Just because you got some new clothes doesn't make you any different. You are still the same woman who held my friend down so your husband could rape her. [That's uncalled for.] Fuck you. You know, he raped me, too, at the whorehouse. Treated me like shit, like I was worthless. Look, I am who I am and I... have sinned plenty, but you, you are the gender traitor.
I'm only on Season 3 Ep 12 in my re-watch, so bear with me as I play this out scene by scene before I actually make something of this shit lol
Perfect example of fighting to disenfranchise others and then being upset when they finally come for your family and your rights.
She's fine dehumanizing other women, but doesn't understand why she is getting treated as less than.
She's the Women for Trump type:
Doesn't realize how negatively these things her and her party are striving for affect her, her children and her family, until it's too late.
Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi-esque - upholding the patriarchy at their own detriment.
Some women feel saved by Gilead, while most are crushed under its boot.
I love that this show manages to show the contrast between those who preach Christ's word and those who actually follow His teachings.
How oppressive Christianity can be when perverted, when cherry picked, when weaponized.
Faith does not live in how you've memorized The Bible, but how you treat others, how you show respect and give dignity to all, and your personal relationship to God-- whatever that may be.
Jesus would never support the teachings of Gilead or of the Republican party.
Serena-Joy looks like Portia De Rossi and watching this and Arrested Development back to back is weird.
Esme and Stabler are married and have like ten kids lol (also, Stabler's wife is named Olivia lol)
Bro, women have their mouths fucking stapled shut, their eyes gouged out, clits fucking removed, are killing themselves and Serena is like: greater good, mysterious ways, bullshit.
Aunt Lydia is another character so filled with complexities that I might write about eventually.
Eleanor Lawrence is the only wife worth saving in Gilead (minus the literal brain washed child brides).
She's been broken down and hates that her husband's book and ideas were part of the blueprints used for The Colonies. She fucking hates all of it and really does try to help June.
Joseph is a war criminal, he can't cross the border. He would be jailed for the rest of his life or killed... and he would deserve it.
Her death is hard, but I think that her soul was able to finally find peace.
Have to add: this show absolutely does the book justice.
It takes its liberties where the book ended.
The book leaves more to the viewer's imagination, while the show forces you to watch every atrocity, see exactly what the future entails, and step by step how we got here.
I don't necessarily agree that the excessive brutality towards women being shown every single time to get the same point across, but that's another issue to pick apart.
Note that Margaret Atwood specifically used examples in her book that have happened in history to real people, real women.
There's a scene where June quotes Margaret Atwood, which I very much appreciate:
“Why do men feel threatened by women?" I asked a male friend of mine. - - "They are afraid women will laugh at them," he said. "Undercut their world view." Then I asked some women students in a quickie poetry seminar I was giving, "Why do women feel threatened by men?" "They're afraid of being killed," they said.
Margaret Atwood's famous quote ("men are afraid that women will laugh at them, women are afraid that men will kill them") in its original form. Source: 'Writing The Male Character' (1982), p. 413 in "Second Words – Selected Critical Prose 1960-1982" (2018)”
Someone once said, ‘Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.’
June: Season 2, Episode 8.
"And here's what we do, we watch them. The men. We study them. We feed them. We please them. We can make them feel strong. Or weak. We know them that well. We know their worst nightmares. And with a bit of practice, that's what we'll become: nightmares. One day, when we're ready, we're coming for you."
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