Spoilers below for The Handmaidās Tale season three.
The fundamentalist zealots on Huluās The Handmaids Tale have been inspired by Nazi imagery from the very beginning, be it the ruling Commanders who wear their uniforms just so, the destruction and vandalizing of shops and businesses run by Gileadās chosen scapegoats, or the forced labor camps where they send anyone who doesnāt fall in line.
But in āHousehold,ā the sixth episode of the third season, we finally get to see what Gilead has done to the nationās capital. Written by Dorothy Fortenberry and directed by Dearbhla Walsh, the episode takes Elisabeth Mossās June and a cavalry of her oppressors to Washington, D.C. Itās still the center of government, and itās where June learns that things could get much worse for herself and her fellow Handmaids than she imagined: In the capital, Handmaids have their mouths wired shut, formerly beloved U.S. landmarks and monuments have been shattered or reimagined, and no Commander would even remotely consider bending the rules.
āWe wanted to heighten the horror and the power to really show that Gilead had set up, in a real way, a government that they imagine is going to be around for a thousand years,ā says Fortenberry, who grew up in D.C. The episode projects the helpless doom of those who lost the will to fight against their masters. The visit conveys a stern message to June and the other Handmaids: āThis is just how it is now. And it will always be this way. So get used to it.ā
We talked to Fortenberry, Walsh, series creator Bruce Miller, and production designer Elisabeth Williams about how exactly the episode turned our nationās capital into an Americanized take on the Third Reich.
The Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial
Juneās first glimpse of D.C. under Gilead comes from her train car window: The towering Washington Monument has been turned into an enormous white cross. Miller points how that this act of hostile rebranding was inspired by actual history: As fascism spread across Europe in the first half of the 20th century, so too did the destruction and remodeling of statues and landmarks.
āIn Germany, it was a combination of nationalism and a cult of personality,ā Miller says, explaining that, during the rise of the Nazis, āthereās so much symbolism about Nazi Germany and thereās not so much symbolism about Germany ā¦ so Gilead is trying to eclipse America. Everything is Gilead. Itās not America and not God.ā
Further into the episode, June and Serena Joy Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski) have their latest row as they gaze upon the now-headless statue at the Lincoln Memorial ā one of the few scenes that was actually shot in D.C. during the cast and crewās sole day of filming on location in February. The shoot had to wait until the end of this past winterās government shutdown, and while the production schedule would probably have only allowed for a day of shooting in D.C. anyway, things were even more rushed because of worries that the U.S. government might shut down again. (If native Fortenberry had her druthers, she would have included shots of specific neighborhoods, shops, and Rock Creek Park).
The Memorial and National Mall were open to the public that day, meaning filming could only happen in five-minute intervals. Production designer Williams says most shots actually had regular people in the background who had to be painted out. (You know, so as to avoid a coffee cup incident). In continuation of the showās bizarre and unfortunate parallels to our real world, Fortenberry says some bystanders saw the costumed actors and assumed āanother day, another demonstrationā against the Trump administration. āPeople in D.C. have gotten so used to seeing handmaids walking around,ā she said.
Union Station
Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) stresses to June when they arrive in D.C. that Union Station architect Daniel Burnham was a āheretic.ā (Burnham was from a family of Swedenborgians, while his associate on this project, Pierce Anderson, was raised Mormon.) Therefore, Aunt Lydia explains, his neoclassical marvel simply will not do in their new country of Gilead. Instead, the two take a long escalator ride north from the train tracks and disembark into a glassed-in, gray utilitarian structure adorned with lots and lots of their new countryās flags.
āWe wanted the escalators to rise up to uniformity and order,ā Walsh says of the scene. āHouseholdā is the first episode sheās directed for the series, and she watched documentaries and researched places like North Korea and Nazi Germany to learn how people behaved, moved, and operated under such strict authoritarian control. She shared images that inspired her with Williams and others, while director of photography Stuart Biddlecombe also found images that shaped this scene.
Williams, who with her team won an Emmy for the seriesā production design last year, says the repetition of the red banners with the black-and-gold detailing are āinspired by Nazi Germany,ā while also stressing that āmany totalitarian regimes actually have that dogmatic, regimented look.ā
As for the design of the station, Williams says she and others involved wanted the āominous feel that you get when you remove all of the accessories ā¦ and just leave the starkness. The flags that are basically a constant reminder that Big Brother is watching.ā
The National Mall
The final scenes of the episode, which are set at and around the National Mall, happened during the end of the D.C. production day and included 200 extras. Itās a chilling scene onscreen: Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) is the appointed speaker for an address overlooking the Reflecting Pool, and heās enjoying every moment of the spotlight as he launches into prayer on the importance of offspring, pleading that āhisā infant daughter be returned home after an āabduction.ā
Uniformity and perfection were key for the rally scene, and both were part of some of the Nazisā favorite pastime of public speeches and marches. Miller says he wanted to give the audience a feeling like āweāve been invaded.ā He was specifically inspired by the 1991 Disney movie The Rocketeer, which included an animated Nazi propaganda movie with soldiers lined up in such a perfect order that it looked fake.
āIt always stuck with me: that idea of ranks and ranks and ranks of similarly looking people and the power of that with the [flags and] symbols behind it,ā Miller says. āWe can get away with making Gilead look a lot more beautiful because itās important to Gilead to look beautiful. Itās a curated image.ā
āThe ceremonies are the point,ā he added. āThey want it to look like everybody is always together.ā
Williams says they would have done more set dressing, but the National Park Service has strict rules in place to protect and respect the Lincoln Monument. Therefore, there was also no dais for the characters to stand on and no flags were placed on the cobblestone steps. (The ones seen onscreen are VFX.) Still, she says, āThe simplicity of the flags on the sides and it being very symmetrical and clean and pure made it very compelling.ā
The scene is terrifying not only for its magnitude, but because of the symbolism carried over from a few moments prior when June gathered her strength at the headless Lincoln Monument. There, Walsh created the eerie optical illusion of our heroine leaning on the remains of the statue in such a way that it looks like she, too, has been decapitated.
You can almost hear Juneās inner monologue as she processes her options: Should I rip the muzzle off my mouth and scream about as many of Gileadās injustice as I can before getting a bullet to the head as the cameras roll? That would make her a martyr for the whole world to see, but may also cause more Handmaids to suffer and the Commanders to enact harsher regulations upon those who donāt rise up. Instead, she stays mute, realizing the power she does have when a sea of ladies in red standing alongside the Reflecting Pool imitate her actions and kneel.
Walshās interpretation of what Juneās silence is meant to tell us with that final close-up show? āI may be silent, but my work here is not done.ā