The Handmaid’s Tale Under His Eye: Plot Eats The Characters

Full spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 episode 7, “Under His Eye.”

The Handmaid’s Tale “Under His Eye” is the point where Season 3 stops letting characters drive the story and starts moving them around like plot pieces.

I thought I was baffled by “Household.” I was wrong. “Under His Eye” has me on a whole new level.

Every criticism of The Handmaid’s Tale comes with the usual disclaimer: this show is still beautifully made, powerfully acted, and capable of extraordinary emotional work. But there is a point where the craft cannot hide the machinery anymore. There is a point where you have to stop and ask, with complete sincerity: what are we doing here?

This episode is that point.

“Under His Eye” should be building on the momentum from Washington. The Waterfords have turned Nichole into an international political weapon. June has seen a more extreme version of Gilead. Serena and Fred appear united in their public campaign. Commander Winslow has entered the board. Nick’s past has been reframed as darker and more important than June understood.

Instead, the episode spends most of its time undoing, stalling, or rerouting those developments. The result is not character drama. It is plot management.

For the full Season 3 arc, start with our The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 recap, reviews, and ending explained hub.

What Happens In The Handmaid’s Tale “Under His Eye”?

“Under His Eye” follows the fallout from the Waterfords’ public campaign to reclaim Nichole. After “Household” appeared to set up a major political fight with Canada, Commander Winslow suggests that keeping Nichole in Canada might actually be more politically useful for Gilead. Fred agrees, because Fred is Fred and political advancement matters more to him than any actual paternal feeling.

Serena, meanwhile, seems to settle into an uneasy detente with Fred. She tours potential homes in Washington with Winslow’s wife, dances with Fred, and takes his word that they are still going to get Nichole back. That is a massive emotional jump for a woman who, not long ago, could barely stand to be near him after he helped enforce the system that took her finger.

June tries to get to Hannah, now Agnes, with help from Mrs. Lawrence. The plan fails, Mrs. Lawrence spirals, and the consequences fall on Hannah’s Martha. Ofmatthew reports what she knows, the Martha is executed, and June’s rage turns toward Ofmatthew in public.

In Canada, Moira and Emily connect over what they had to do to survive Gilead. That material is easily the episode’s strongest thread because it is built on actual emotional continuity instead of plot reversals.

The Episode Undoes “Household” Too Quickly

The first major problem is that “Under His Eye” seems to immediately undercut the momentum of “Household.”

Season structure matters. In the first two seasons, episode six carried a major pivot. “A Woman’s Place” revealed Serena’s backstory, widened the political world, introduced the idea that other countries were complicit in Gilead’s horror, and confirmed that Luke was alive. “First Blood” exploded the season’s power structure by injuring Fred, killing commanders, and shifting the June/Serena dynamic.

“Household” seemed to be doing the same thing for Season 3. It took us to Washington. It escalated the Nichole conflict. It brought Commander Winslow into play. It transformed Gilead’s public campaign into something larger and more frightening.

Then “Under His Eye” takes that engine and pumps the brakes.

Winslow suggests that leaving Nichole in Canada might be politically expedient. Fred agrees. Suddenly, the show’s supposedly urgent push to get Nichole back becomes less urgent inside Gilead’s own political structure. That could be interesting if the episode explored the tension deeply, but instead it feels like the story is repositioning pieces because it is not ready to pay off the conflict it just created.

Fred And Serena Do Not Track

The Fred and Serena material is where the plot machinery gets loudest.

Fred choosing political advancement over Nichole makes sense because Fred sucks. He is not motivated by fatherhood in any meaningful way. He wants power, status, recognition, and the feeling of being important. If Winslow tells him that leaving Nichole in Canada helps Gilead politically and helps Fred personally, of course Fred can be persuaded.

Serena is the problem.

Serena has been defined this season by her grief over Nichole, her fury at Fred, and her growing willingness to imagine a path around him. This is a woman who burned down the Waterford house. This is a woman whose husband helped enforce the rules that cut off her finger. This is a woman who has repeatedly shown she is smarter than Fred and far more aware of his weakness.

So watching Serena casually settle into house-shopping, dancing, and trusting Fred’s vague assurance that they will get Nichole back is a huge leap. The episode can say she is playing a longer game, or that she is tempted by status again, or that she is emotionally exhausted. Any of those ideas could work. But the episode does not dramatize the turn clearly enough.

Instead, Serena feels moved into position because the plot needs her there.

For where the Waterford fracture eventually leads, read our explainer: Why Did Serena Turn Fred In?

Plot Is Moving The Characters

This is the core issue with “Under His Eye”: the plot is informing the characters instead of the characters informing the plot.

The show needs Fred to hurt Serena without fully losing her yet, so Fred agrees to leave Nichole in Canada for political advantage while still pretending he is committed to Serena’s desire. The show needs Serena not to break from Fred yet, so she temporarily accepts a version of him that makes very little emotional sense given what came before.

The show needs June to stop focusing on the Waterfords for a moment, so Ofmatthew suddenly becomes the mechanism that blows up the Hannah plan. The show needs June to be a public symbol of Handmaid dissent without killing or removing her, so June refuses to pull the rope and later attacks Ofmatthew in front of everyone.

The show needs Mrs. Lawrence’s instability highlighted, so June takes her to Hannah’s school and triggers exactly the kind of crisis that puts everyone at risk. The show needs Lawrence to regain some gray after appearing too aligned with June, so June’s reckless choice gives him a reason to be angry and endangered.

Those are not natural choices. They are plot reactions.

That does not mean every event is impossible. You can justify pieces of it. But justification is not the same as drama. Good character drama makes choices feel inevitable in retrospect. “Under His Eye” makes choices feel convenient in the moment.

June’s Hannah Plan Makes Everything Worse

June’s attempt to reach Hannah should be emotionally powerful because Hannah is the reason June stayed in Gilead.

That is the wound. That is the engine. June could have escaped with Nichole, but she stayed because Hannah was still trapped. So any movement toward Hannah should carry enormous dramatic weight.

The problem is that the plan in “Under His Eye” feels reckless in a way the episode does not fully metabolize. June brings Mrs. Lawrence into the plan despite knowing that Eleanor is fragile, unpredictable, and deeply unsuited for the pressure of a covert operation near Hannah’s school. The result is exactly the kind of disaster we would expect: Eleanor spirals, the plan collapses, and the consequences spread outward.

That could be excellent if the episode fully centered June’s responsibility. But the story keeps moving so quickly through consequence that the emotional and moral math gets muddy.

June is desperate to get Hannah. That makes sense. But desperation does not erase the fact that other people keep paying for June’s choices.

For the larger explanation of June’s decision to stay, read Why Did June Stay In Gilead?.

UNLOCK BONUS EPISODES, PREMIUM PODCASTS & MORE Join The #NerdClan

Ofmatthew Becomes The Plot Device

Ofmatthew, also known as Natalie, becomes the episode’s most obvious plot device.

Her piety and loyalty to Gilead are not new, but the way the episode uses her feels blunt. She reports information that leads to Hannah’s Martha being punished. That gives June a target for rage. It also gives the show a way to isolate June, stir dissent among the Handmaids, and push the season toward its next crisis.

The issue is not that Ofmatthew would report something. The issue is that the episode needs her to become the instrument that resets June’s access to Hannah and forces June into a public break. She functions less like a person and more like the lever the plot pulls when it needs everything to collapse.

That matters because the show is at its best when even secondary characters feel like they have inner lives. Ofmatthew could be fascinating: a pregnant Handmaid who has internalized Gilead’s rules as survival, faith, fear, or all three. But here, the episode mostly uses her to trigger June’s next state of rage.

June’s Public Rage Is Understandable And Dangerous

June refusing to participate in the execution and then attacking Ofmatthew is supposed to feel like a major public rupture.

Emotionally, I understand it. June has just lost another path to Hannah. A Martha dies because of the failed attempt. Ofmatthew’s reporting becomes the face of that loss. June’s anger has nowhere to go except toward the person standing closest to the wound.

But the scene also shows how dangerous Season 3 June has become, and not always in a way the show seems ready to interrogate. June is not only resisting Gilead here. She is losing the ability to see anyone outside her own mission as fully real. Ofmatthew becomes the enemy because June needs someone to punish.

That is a compelling direction if the show treats it honestly. June’s cause is righteous. Her daughter was stolen. Gilead is evil. But none of that automatically makes June’s every act noble. The more Season 3 lets her rage radiate outward, the more it needs to ask who gets burned.

Mrs. Lawrence Deserves Better Than Plot Utility

Eleanor Lawrence is one of the episode’s most painful moving parts.

Her instability has been clear, but “Under His Eye” uses it in a way that feels both dramatic and a little mechanical. June brings her into a high-risk situation, Eleanor loses control, and the failure creates consequences for June, Hannah’s Martha, and Commander Lawrence.

Again, the outline works. Eleanor’s mental state should matter. June’s willingness to use people should matter. Lawrence’s household should become more dangerous because June keeps mistaking access for permission.

But the episode feels like it is checking boxes: highlight Eleanor’s disturbance, complicate Lawrence, punish June, remove Hannah access. The pieces are logical in summary, but they do not always feel organic in execution.

Eleanor is too interesting to function only as a pressure point for other people’s stories. Her pain should not simply be a trap door the plot opens when it needs the floor to fall out.

Canada Is The Best Part Again

The one part of “Under His Eye” that really works is Canada.

Moira and Emily connecting over survival is exactly the kind of material Season 3 needs more of. Their conversation is not about grand political strategy. It is about what they had to do in Gilead, what that cost them, and how they decide whether they can live with themselves now.

“We haven’t killed anyone since we left Gilead, so I think we’re good” is dark, funny, sad, and honest all at once. That line does more human work than most of the episode’s plot machinery because it lets survivors talk like people who know the absurdity and horror of what they have endured.

Emily asking if she can come to the protest is also strong because it shows her moving from private recovery toward public action. That is a natural progression. We have seen her silence, fear, reunion, and disorientation. Now we see her beginning to choose how she wants to exist in the world after Gilead.

That is character informing plot.

Season 3 Is Spinning Its Wheels

The frustration with “Under His Eye” is not only about this episode. It is about the season’s pattern.

June loves Gilead? June hates Gilead. Serena wants out? Serena wants back in. Fred and Serena are broken? Fred and Serena are dancing. Nichole is the central political crisis? Maybe Nichole is more useful in Canada. June is staying for Hannah? June loses access to Hannah again. The Handmaids might rebel? The rebellion gets slapped down and reset.

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

That is exhausting because it starts to feel like the show is delaying itself. The emotional material is there. The performances are there. The world is there. But the season keeps moving characters forward, backward, and sideways in ways that preserve the status quo instead of deepening the conflict.

This is where I start wondering whether the season should have been shorter. Ten episodes might have forced the story to commit. Thirteen episodes gives the show room to circle itself, and “Under His Eye” feels like circling.

Why “Under His Eye” Works

“Under His Eye” works in flashes.

The Canada material with Moira and Emily is strong because it feels character-driven. Their connection is rooted in survival, guilt, humor, and the strange relief of being outside Gilead while still carrying Gilead inside them. That is real emotional continuity.

June’s rage also has potential if the show is willing to treat it as a problem, not just a heroic symptom. Her attack on Ofmatthew is ugly and revealing. It could become part of a sharper Season 3 argument about how trauma, motherhood, and righteousness can curdle into something dangerous.

Why “Under His Eye” Struggles

The episode struggles because too much of it feels like plot correction.

Fred and Serena’s dynamic does not track cleanly. The Nichole conflict stalls right after escalation. Ofmatthew is used too bluntly. Eleanor Lawrence becomes a plot lever. June’s public defiance creates consequences, but the episode still feels like it is protecting the larger status quo.

That is the problem. The show keeps creating massive turning points, then finding ways to soften or reverse them before they can fully reshape the season.

The Handmaid’s Tale Under His Eye Review

“Under His Eye” is a frustrating episode because it exposes the weakness of Season 3’s structure.

The episode wants to be about consequences, but too often it feels like the story is arranging consequences to move characters where the plot needs them. That is not the same thing. Characters should make choices that create story. Here, the story keeps creating situations that force characters into place.

The Canada material is the exception. Moira and Emily work because their scenes grow naturally from who they are and what they have survived. June’s material could work if the show fully commits to making her rage a problem. Serena and Fred could work if the show stops making their relationship reset whenever the plot needs a different configuration.

But as an episode, “Under His Eye” left me asking the worst possible question for a show this good:

What are we doing here?

Mary & Blake Certified: C