We need to talk about The Handmaid’s Tale.
More specifically, the confusing new world we were introduced to in episode three.
In the episode, entitled Baggage, June leaves the Boston Globe building where she’s been hiding out for two months.
She’s picked up by Omar (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a member of Mayday, the resistance movement that’s helping her escape.
Together they travel to his bleak, grey apartment building in a part of Gilead we had never seen before.
The plan is for June to hide out there overnight, and then Omar would help her get to an airstrip, where a plane would be waiting to fly her out of Gilead.
Having The Handmaid’s Tale withdrawals? Alias Grace will also hook you in. We discuss, on The Binge. Post continues.
Omar and his wife, Heather (Joanna Douglas), are part of the lowest class in Gilead. They are what’s known as the ‘econopeople’. Heather is a ‘econowife’.
They also have a young son.
This scene has left fans with some pretty big questions, including who actually gets to decides who’s an econoperson, who’s a handmaid, and who’s a driver? And why are the econopeople allowed to raise children when the handmaids, like June, are not?
Diehard Gilead fans have offered some much needed theories online.