I knew there was something off about her relationship with Luke but I didn’t expect it to be an affair. Part of me is uneasy because I expected to feel unbridled sympathy for Offred and participating in cheating is one of the least sympathetic things to me. Another part of me is also pleased because it’s good for us to work through what it looks like to have empathy for imperfect people— people who have done horrible things, but are also in horrible situations of their own making or not. There’s not a single person on this earth who is a perfect saint and if we think that there are we deceive ourselves and refuse to do the work of sorting through things for ourselves.

That being said, I’m also wondering if perhaps there’s something else going on here. The word “flight“ makes me wonder if Luke’s wife is somehow bad or not his choice and that’s the reason for the infidelity.