How ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Turned Washington, DC into “Gilead on Steroids”

If you watch one episode of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3, make it today’s all-new installment, “Household.” For the first time, June (Elisabeth Moss), the Waterfords (Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski), Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), and Rita (Amanda Brugel) leave the Boston-area of Gilead and travel to the new capitol, a perverted version of Washington, D.C. There the Washington Monument has been transformed into a Christian cross, ranking Commanders have large families full of healthy children, and Handmaids’ lips are pierced together, locking them in eternal silence.
The characters each have unique reactions to this version of Gilead, ranging from horror to jealousy, and this trip may change the fates of all our characters. But where did this vision of Gilead’s capital come from? And what did it take to pull off?
“It all goes back to Margaret [Atwood]’s book,” The Handmaid’s Tale showrunner Bruce Miller told Decider. “In the book Gilead is the whole country, but our piece of Gilead is just outside of Boston. She references that things are different in other places — more conservative, less conservative, more restrictive. It’s not just the reach of Gilead’s power, but it’s what the people [living in these places] want. So, I made the decision early on that what you want to see in DC is a version of Gilead that June is fighting against, something that is potentially coming.”

The Gilead represented in Washington, DC is the nation taking its ultimate form, and as such, the city itself had to be changed to reflect that.

Miller said, “Someone once described DC as the city with the greatest home field advantage in the world. That’s what it’s built for. And I wanted Gilead to say, okay well how would they make it Gilead’s home field advantage? What would they want it to look like? Gilead is a very prescribed place. It’s very put together on purpose.”
“The first, I think most powerful symbol, was taking the Washington Monument and turning it into a cross,” Co-executive producer Warren Littlefield said. “I think that immediately says, this isn’t the Washington that we know and love. And that suggests Gilead is on steroids. Washington is a more powerful, more aggressive version of any Gilead that we’ve seen.”
Littlefield also shared that in order to tell this part of the story, the production team felt they had to shoot on location with “boots on the ground” in Washington, DC. “For two mornings, I watched the sunrise from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It was unbelievably powerful. To film there, to watch the morning joggers go through their routine, and as they came up the stairs and got closer to Lincoln, they looked over and there we were,” Littlefield said. “And they had to stop, they had to stop and engage with us because it was such a powerful symbol into their morning routine, that we were there. Pretty chilling.”

Serena Joy and Fred Waterford have come to the capitol with June to appeal to Gilead’s elite for assistance pressuring Canada to give back baby Nichole. The main power player they meet there is Christopher Meloni’s Commander Winslow. He and his wife Olivia (Elizabeth Reaser) have managed to raise a massive family that resembles a dark, hideous, ironically fascist version of the von Trapps. Serena and Fred are overwhelmed by how happy their household seems.
“What I wanted to show with the von Trapp aspect  — that they have a lot of children — is the idea of what power gives you in Gilead, and what would tempt Serena. What would be a life that was presented to Serena that she just could not say no to? And the idea of having a family, not just one child, but children, and happy children, and loved children, and children you get to play with, I think is so tempting and tantalizing,” Miller said. “Serena doesn’t go back on her promises easily. And I think that for her to betray June is a big deal, and you would need something big to push her. The family is just another example of power. It’s about power.”

Shockingly, one true believer in Gilead seemed less than enchanted by what she saw in the capitol. Ann Dowd told Decider that the trip starts as an exciting vacation for Aunt Lydia.
“You know, we’re out of town! How often do you get to go on a road trip? I don’t care what anyone says, I can imagine her on the train [going],‘Isn’t this nice?!’ She falls asleep on the train, but ‘Oh! We’re going to the Capitol! It’s supposed to be great here!’ But then she realizes it’s whoa. What’s all this about? You know, wait a second. There’s something else happening here,” Dowd said.
Specifically, Handmaids in the capitol all have their mouths covered in what appears to be a meek measure of subservience. However, it’s later revealed that in Washington, DC, Handmaids have their mouths torturously clipped close with what look like bull rings. Miller says this is the voluntary “vow of silence,” and these women have chosen this. Well, sort of.
“But that’s how those things start. It’s voluntary, then it’s recommended, then it’s required. And it’s horrible even if you can convince someone to do that. It’s terrifying,” Miller said. “By the way, the appliances that the actors wore were very comfortable, not horrible and gross. They were actually very easy and comfortable, and not painful at all.”

When June asks Aunt Lydia if she wants the Handmaids silenced, the tough Aunt actually softens and reveals she doesn’t. Dowd explained this surprising turn from the character’s perspective to Decider.

“I want their inner beauty to surface and speak for itself. The goal was not to punish my girls; it’s to bring them to a relationship with god, to realize that in fact, at the core of them is the soul of goodness. That’s what I’m trying to reach, and I know it seems harsh, but the world around us has fallen apart,” Dowd said.

“So I don’t want them silenced. Goodness, no! And I don’t want their beautiful young faces covered. It was sort of lovely, the respect, but not all the time,” Dowd said as Lydia. “When we go for a prayer service perhaps, but hang on. No, no, no, no, too far.”
By the end of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3, Episode 6 “Household,” things seem more dire for June than ever. Sure, she’s gotten one daughter out of the hellacious Gilead, but now the Waterfords are literally turning Nichole’s escape into an international crisis. Serena has betrayed her, and Nick (Max Minghella) refuses to speak up for their child. (Oh, and now Serena knows Nick’s not exactly a great guy, either.)
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3, Episode 6 is the moment the fight feels to have reached its crisis point for June; we’ll have to see how she rises up, and who might surprise her and offer her aid.

Watch The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu