Contents
Jezebels
Overview
Serena Joy proposes Offred conceive with Nick and dangles a possible photo of Offred’s daughter, which she later delivers. At a district Prayvaganza, mass arranged weddings proceed as Ofglen pushes Offred to seek information.
The Commander smuggles Offred to Jezebel’s, an illicit club for elites, where Offred reunites with Moira, who reveals her escape, capture, and forced placement there. The evening ends with the Commander’s awkward sexual attempt in a hotel room.
Summary
Offred reflects on stalled time, aging, and longing for ordinary domestic fights with Luke. On the Wall she sees new bodies and learns “Mayday” is the resistance password. Back home, Serena Joy recruits Offred to try conceiving with Nick, promising help and later hinting at a photo of Offred’s daughter. Offred secures a single match from Rita, fantasizes arson, and recalls the Commander’s justifications for Gilead’s changes.
At a district Prayvaganza, Handmaids are corralled while Wives and lower-ranked women watch. Ofglen shares that Janine’s baby was a “shredder” and that Janine blames herself for using a doctor. The ceremony features mass arranged weddings and scripture on female submission and childbearing. Ofglen reveals the network knows Offred sees the Commander and asks her to gather information.
Alone, Offred remembers the failed border escape with Luke and their child, and debates the meaning of love that once structured her identity. Serena then brings a Polaroid of Offred’s daughter, alive and changed, which devastates and sustains Offred.
That night the Commander offers a “surprise,” dressing Offred in illicit lingerie and makeup, and smuggles her through checkpoints to Jezebel’s, a hidden club where elite men mingle with sex workers drawn from former professionals and “unassimilables.” He rationalizes the place as “human nature” and business facilitation.
Offred spots Moira and meets her in the washroom. Moira recounts escaping the Red Center by posing as an Aunt, traveling via a Quaker-run Underground Femaleroad, then being caught near the Maine border. After torture without marks and a film about the Colonies, she chose Jezebel’s over exile. She describes Jezebel’s permissive same-sex arrangements and the Aunts’ and Commanders’ indifference.
The Commander takes Offred to a hotel room identical to one from her past with Luke. Offred, exhausted and disenchanted, resists emotionally as the Commander awkwardly initiates sex, exposing the futility and imbalance of their arrangement on the eve of the Ceremony.
Who Appears
- OffredNarrator; debates time, hope, and risk; learns the Mayday password; is urged to conceive with Nick; receives a photo of her daughter; is taken to Jezebel’s; reunites with Moira; endures the Commander’s sexual pressure.
- The CommanderRationalizes Gilead, hosts secret visits, smuggles Offred to Jezebel’s, shows off status, and presses for sex at a hotel.
- Serena JoyProposes Offred sleep with Nick to get pregnant; later brings a Polaroid of Offred’s daughter as leverage and reward.
- OfglenConfirms the resistance password Mayday; shares news of Janine’s ‘shredder’ baby; urges Offred to gather information from the Commander.
- MoiraFound at Jezebel’s; details her escape posing as an Aunt, aid from Quakers, capture near Maine, and coerced placement at the club.
- NickChauffeur and Serena’s errand man; proposed by Serena as a covert partner; drives Offred and the Commander to Jezebel’s.
- Janine (Ofwarren)Appears diminished at Prayvaganza; her baby was a ‘shredder’; rumored to have used a doctor and blames herself.
- RitaMartha; reluctantly grants Offred one match and offers an ice cube; represents guarded domestic authority.
- Aunt LydiaRecalled in teachings about love and submission; emblem of punitive control and earlier tortures mentioned by Moira.
- Jezebel’s Aunt/MatronArmed supervisor at the washroom; enforces timed breaks and rules over the club’s women.