Motherland

The Handmaid's Tale 5×8

Moira: So many more of 'em now.
Lucas Bankole: Is this ever gonna end?
June Osborn: No. It's only gonna get worse.

Commander Lawrence: There's no little America without little Americans.

Commander Lawrence: Think of it as our Hong Kong. One country, two systems... Gentlemen, I believe that Gilead will replace the United States at the United Nations. But until that day, the greatest threat to our regime is the persistent fantasy of democratic values in the world it almost destroyed. New Bethlehem neutralizes that threat.

Serena Joy Waterford: I know I acted brashly. And it was just... the pressure, and, um, and the pregnancy.
Alanis Wheeler: That's right. The hormones, they'll make you crazy.

Alanis Wheeler: Stubborn little creature cries all day and all night. He refuses to eat. We've been doing the "cry it out" method for weeks, and he just continues to resist.
Serena Joy Waterford: Well, maybe he just needs to be held. He... He needs to be hugged. So that he knows that somebody is there for him.
Alanis Wheeler: That's not how "cry it out" works, Serena. It requires a certain amount of mental toughness.
Serena Joy Waterford: Mental toughness, huh?

Lucas Bankole: When we first got here, they welcomed us with open arms.
Moira: Naw, you see, you got here before I did. When I showed up, they were still polite, but they were starting to get annoyed. It was nothing like this though.

Commander Lawrence: Lovely weather in Toronto this time of year. Got a minute?

Commander Lawrence: America is dying. It's an idea that has outlived its usefulness. ... You need to understand that everything you value, all the things you're clinging to,democracy, liberty, justice, all that feel-good crap defined by a bunch of slave owners talking about how all men are created equal. All of that collapsed under the weight of late-term capitalism and rampant consumerism. It broke our pretty little planet, almost ended the human race. And Gilead, for all of our faults, we fixed that particular problem. We're having babies again.

Commander Lawrence: Unfortunately, I had to use religious nut-jobs as a delivery system, and I underestimated their depravity, but, uh, it was triage, and it worked.

Commander Lawrence: So now, with our success, we can afford to let up a little.
June Osborn: Are you gonna let Hannah out?
Commander Lawrence: No, I can't. But I can let you in.

Commander Lawrence: New Bethlehem. A new island settlement. No Handmaids, no hangings. Hell, you can read a novel, you can keep a diary if you want. A place where refugees can get amnesty and return to the Motherland.
June Osborn: Uh, are you fucking serious?
Commander Lawrence: Where one might visit their grown children running their own houses...
June Osborn: Are you talking about Hannah?
Commander Lawrence: I am.

June Osborn: Of course you don't understand how I feel. Of course you don't understand. Look what you did to Serena and her baby...

Lucas Bankole: June. Just... Just let me protect you sometimes, okay? Please.
June Osborn: The thing is, I don't need your protection. I don't need it... Hannah does.

Serena Joy Waterford: I'm not gonna be used by you, or Gilead, or the Wheelers.
Commander Lawrence: Who have, need I remind you, legal status to care for your baby. Which you, Serena, on the other hand, do not... It's the only way.

Commander Lawrence: Come on, Serena. You wanna be with your baby? Serena, come on.

Commander Lawrence: Where's the maternal instinct? Do you want to be with little Noah?
Serena Joy Waterford: I'm not gonna live in the same house as my child's kidnappers.
Commander Lawrence: Do you have an irony deficiency?
Serena Joy Waterford: I don't give a damn. I'm not a Handmaid.
Commander Lawrence: ...

Mark Tuello: Even if Lawrence is a Gorbachev trying to open the country up, he'll be succeeded by Putins.

June Osborn: There is nothing you can do for us. And Lawrence is offering us Hannah.

Mark Tuello: I'm asking you to just trust us. Please just trust in your country.
June Osborn: What country?

Serena Joy Waterford: Look, you can dismiss it all you want, but you were there with me in that barn. You and I, we have a bond. We have been through so much together.
June Osborn: Yeah... I turned the other cheek. Turns out, after all this, I... I guess I'm a better Christian than you.

Serena Joy Waterford: How? How do you go and live in a house with a woman who's trying to steal your baby?
June Osborn: Are you seriously asking me that?
Serena Joy Waterford: How did you ever... How did you ever live with me?
June Osborn: Um... Here's what you're gonna do. Okay? You're gonna go back in there, and you are gonna act like a Handmaid. But the entire time, you will be plotting against them and planning your revenge.
Serena Joy Waterford: Is that what you did?
June Osborn: Look at what happened to Fred. And look at you now.

June Osborn: Listen to me. You cannot help your child if you're not with them.

Commander Lawrence: You think I don't know the misery that I've caused? You think... You think I'm unaware? I was trying to save humanity. And, you know, I did. I fucking did it! Then it got away, away from me. It went septic. You think I wouldn't take it back? I would take it all back. I'd let the whole fucking human race just die out, just so I wouldn't have... have Gilead on my conscience.

Commander Lawrence: Countries modernize. Countries can get better. I've seen it. We start in New Bethlehem. And with those reforms and success, five years, ten years, all of Gilead could be like that. A place that doesn't trample on human rights a place that will let you leave. Singapore of yore, with any luck. June, I need you. Come help me fix it.

June Osborn: I'm gonna have to go.
Come help me make more of a difference in Gilead than Mayday ever will.
You really believe you can fix it?
I have to. I have to believe it. I have no choice. It's either that or, or yeah... kill myself, like Eleanor, y'know. One or the other.

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