The Commander is drunk when Offred visits during the evening. He immediately belittles her, or diminishes her, by calling her “fair little one.” The diminishing will continue, though. In a big way. He has a surprise for her. It’s a slinky costume from the time before, probably used for a “slutty” Halloween costume or the like. Such costumes had all been burned in the Manhattan Cleanup (sounds like Manhattan Project, an important event for inventing the A-Bomb. This situation is ridiculously not like that.) Leading up to the current Gilead regime, the people who made and sold the provocative costumes were publicly shamed, made to wear dunce caps like in the olden days in schools. (Can you imagine if this were still a punishment today?) So, Offred knows he must have gotten this from the black market, the deep black market. Offred partly feels diminished again by this, but partly she wants to wear it because it would be a rebellious act against Aunt Lydia — a rebellious act like a teenager has against a parent. She figures he must have something really...