Shortly after Commander Joseph Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) is initiated as one Gilead’s newest High Commanders, he learns that the very men who have helped lead the totalitarian nation are actually plotting his demise, a discovery Whitford says confirms the character’s idea of his worst possible fate.
“I think there’s an unreality of reality in the moment, but I don’t think he was [in disbelief],” Whitford told TheWrap, noting that he does not think Joseph was shocked by the revelation. “I think it was a terrible confirmation of his worst case scenario.”
It all goes down in Episode 5: “Janine.” After Joseph is dubbed as one of the newest members of the High Commander regime, the commanders invite Joseph to celebrate at their local brothel Jezebels, where Janine (Madeline Brewer) has been forced to live as an sex servant. Since Janine has been there, she has grabbed the unwanted attention of Commander Bell (Timothy Simons), a ruthless and abusive commander who wants Janine all to himself. However, just as he’s about to take Janine into one of the brothel’s rooms, Joseph stops him, telling Bell he would like to have sex with her instead — though this was merely a tactic he used to save Janine from Bell’s brutality.
“But leave the rough stuff to me; I want her back good as new,” Bell tells Joseph as he’s walking out of the room.
“You’re a pig, Bell,” Joseph replies.
“F—k you, Lawrence,” Bell snaps back.
“Why are you here? Your brains, your talent, your impeccable charm?” Joseph responds. “No one here likes you. No one, and no one respects you. Watch yourself.”
Once the doors are closed Janine thanks Joseph while also reminding him that he just because he’s a smidge better than the other commanders that does not make him a “good guy.”
“But, just compared to them, you are,” Janine says to him before letting him know that she has to leave. However, she tells him to stay in the room and then shows him a peephole the Jezebel women use to spy on the men coming into the brothel. The hole looked out into the lobby area where Bell and the other men are still sitting.
Indulging in his curiosity, he approaches the hole and overhears the commanders discussing plans to reform Joseph’s New Bethlehem — a tamer and less authoritarian version of Gilead — to become Gilead proper once they increase its population.
“Lawrence will be the unwitting father of the second-biggest coup in modern history,” one of the commanders notes.
“And then we put ’em on the wall,” Bell says insidiously, who objects to another commander’s suggestion to allow Joseph to remain alive and off to the side as they move forward with their plans.
But after a brief thought, and after Bell says he can get his father on board, Commander Reynolds says he “likes” the idea.”
“He’s done,” Reynolds says.
The camera then pivots back to a distressed Joseph who is now processing that his last days have been marked.
Whitford said Joseph, who is one of the co-founders of Gilead, is frustrated that he truly believed his his bright ideas would ultimately keep him safe from any harm.
“I think he got flattered by the possibility of the implementation of his ideas,” Whitford said. “It was like a recurring condition with this guy, that his big brain obliterates his humanity, and I think it’s a moment for him. I think it’s more about his own disdain for his own for his own naiveté … [He] got comfortable for a second.”
Even when reading the episode’s script, Whitford said he thinks the character could have predicted that the commanders may turn on him at some point.
“I remember reading it because as it was written, I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I would have seen it coming,’” Whitford said. “But then I realized there’s an interesting way to think about it, that my ego made me blind to that.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 6 is currently streaming on Hulu.
