Back to the codes of the tale in the Kingdom of Gilead

Like Margaret Atwood’s novel, the eighth episode of the dystopian series multiplies references to famous children’s stories, from “little red chaperon” to “Cinderella”.

LE contest contest. If we chose to literally translate the title of the novel by Margaret Atwood – like that of the series of the same name, including Ciné+ OCS currently broadcasts the sixth and last season -, such is the formulation which would be necessary. In fact, the masterpiece of the Canadian author, by offering a story of fictitious adventures admitted in a space-time with fuzzy contours and emancipatory reach, is fully part of the tradition of the literary genre which has made the renown of the Grimm brothers or even Perrault, even if it is often used to divert the codes, dystopia obliges. If the original book also pays abundantly into metaling, multiplying quotes and winks to certain famous children’s stories, the series created by Bruce Miller is not outdone. Which sows, over the episodes and seasons, references to Red ride or Cinderella, Like so many little white pebbles in our imaginations …

Proof of this is this eighth episode, which sees June (Elisabeth Moss) and very many servants return to Boston, the beating heart of Gilead, for a great celebration supposed to do. Where it all started, and where everything is going-perhaps-finish … an opus that also operates a return to the codes of the tale, and their subversion.

A little red riding hood can hide many others

From the first seconds, some beautiful tracksuit embarked us in the heart of the making of the iconic dresses of scarlet servants: dark red dye baths, cutting and finishing of their famous caps, storage of countless outfits on bearers on wheels. Not behind the scenes of Fashion Week, but those of the En Marche Revolution. “A figure of fairy tale, the red cape, Gently recalls the voiceover, that of June, prime contractor of the coming insurrection. They used our costumes to divide us, to dehumanize us. But tonight, these dresses will be our weapons […]. They dressed us in red, the color of the blood, but they forgot that it was also the color of the rage. » This episode, controlled by Daina Reid, responds to the eleventh of season 2, Holly, Already staged by the same director. June, about to give birth to his second daughter, found herself alone in a large abandoned house, lost in the middle of the snowy woods and followed by a wolf – and the pack of the soldiers of the regime. Obvious reference au Small red riding hood. This time, the heroine is no longer isolated: they are legion, under their caps, to want to emancipate himself, and it is the wolf’s turn to tremble.

Cinderella: tragic ball in Gilead, how many deaths?

By their condition and the way in which they are called, “servants”, the latter irreparably evoke the figure of Cinderella, reduced to the rank of domestic slave by his mother-in-law and the two daughters of the latter. Like her, June and her unfortunate sisters were martyred by their “adoption family”. From this ball where they are invited, all are waiting for only one thing: let it be their big evening. Not so much to find a shoe at their foot as to shatter the established order. Queen of the first degree blinded by her romanticism as a little girl, Serena, the ex-Master of Offed, parade in her ceremonial dress, convinced that they have been convinced with an authentic prince charming. Before seeing, on midnight, all magic dissipate and its carriage become pumpkin again … “They lived happy and had a lot of children” Will not be the last words of this story.

From Snow White to “Hansel and Gretel”: beware of sweets!

Among the devices imagined by the servants gathered as an army to free themselves from the yoke of their oppressors and take revenge, a poisoned cake made with the help of the Marthas, stoves attached to the service of the powerful families of Gilead. Not just any pastry: the cake of young spouses, a tour de force on red and white floors, which few guests will resist tasting. We obviously think of the red apple of Snow White and even more at the gingerbread house inHansel et Gretel (another young girl transformed into a servant). A witch bait that the rebels appropriate. Without faith or law? The end – like hunger – justifies the means.

q Episode 8 on Ciné+ OCS on May 6 at 8:50 p.m.