TVLine Asks: Would The Handmaid's Tale Weaponized Wedding Cake Have Worked on You?
As real life and The Handmaid's Tale have taught us, the patriarchy isn't going to smash itself. And we don't begrudge an oppressed faction any advantage in winning its fight. But when we watched the Hulu drama's most recent episode, something leapt out at us: Isn't cake a really iffy hook on which to hang handmaid liberation?
Confused? We'll back up a moment. This week's Handmaid's Tale found Elisabeth Moss' June and Samira Wiley's Moira back in Gilead and undercover as handmaids in order to lead their enslaved sisters in mass murder. The wedding of Serena Joy to High Commander Wharton provided the perfect opportunity: June and Moira surreptitiously distributed blades to the scarlet-robed women during the church ceremony, then waited for the reception's guests to eat the cake that Rita had secretly drugged. Hours later, as the commanders slept at home in a medicated stupor, the handmaids spread out all over with the intent of killing Gilead's leaders in their sleep. June got the party going by offing Commander Bell, who'd been abusing Janine, his new handmaid. (Read a full episode recap here and hear what Yvonne Strahovski had to say about Serena's big mistake here.)
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The plan to drug the cake, while brilliant, did have one flaw: What if a commander (or 10!) didn't eat it? Maybe he was too full, or too drunk, or more of a pie guy? Haven't we all been to weddings where the dessert was dry or not a flavor we liked? And did the potential takedown of Gilead hinge on the very unlikely scenario in which 99 percent of attendees ate the cake?
When we asked Handmaid's executive producer Warren Littlefield about it, he chuckled and very gently informed us that we were no fun.
'It's part of the ritual of a wedding, right?' he said, laughing. 'Even those of us who are like, 'Oh, I'm on a diet, I can't have cake' — you have a little cake, right? That's part of the pact of your guests at a wedding.' We humbly counter that such a pact should crumble in the presence of overbaked sponge, but onward!
So now we're taking it to you, TVLiners. Do you tend to eat cake at weddings? Would you have been out like a light after Serena and Wharton's bash? Please weigh in via the poll below, then go to the comments with your thoughts, opinions and wedding-dessert horror stories. We want to hear them .
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