This week's episode of 'The Handmaid's Tale' kicked off with our new favourite study buddies June and Serena chilling out in Commander Fred's office doing up some government documents for Gilead. It would all seem perfectly normal if it was any other show, but this is 'The Handmaid's Tale', and anything that looks in any way pleasant comes with a hefty price.
Their cosy work dynamic was disturbed by the arrival of Mr Waterford, rocking up with a new Ebenezer Scrooge-like cane to wreck everyone's buzz. Fred being Fred he is naturally unaware of the new dynamics forming in his house but as we know, it's only a matter of time.
The episode was dominated by the illness of baby Angela, with a recently returned Janine determined to see her baby while Serena, emboldened by her recent antics, decides she will take matters into her own hands when Fred refuses to let a highly skilled doctor - now living as a Martha - see the baby.
Both women get their way, June ensures that Janine can see Angela by talking it over with her new bestie Serena while the latter arranges for the doctor to see the baby while this is happening.
So far, high-fives all around to the women.
However, as we have come to expect with 'The Handmaid's Tale', there is always some deeply disturbing scene waiting around the corner and that came when Serena and June returned home from the hospital and were informed that Mr Waterford wanted to see them.
You know what came next.
Now, we can only hope that every whip of that belt on Serena will make her see how desperately f*cked up the world she has helped create is. Feeling sympathy for Serena Waterford was something that was barely imaginable in season one, yet here we are, alongside June, hoping she is okay.
What all this means going forward is hard to predict just yet, but it's clear the direction this show is going in: it will be the women that overthrow Gilead, and not just the Handmaids or the Marthas, all of them.
That is if baby Stepford over there in Nick's gaff doesn't kill them all first. Telling you, that little kitty is going to soon get claws.
