The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2

[CruCru]

I’ve just heard that this will start in the US at the end of this month but Channel 4 haven’t said when they’ll start showing it yet.

Watched all the first series and was eagerly awaiting this next one. Just watched yesterday’s episode. I think my heart was in my mouth the whole time. I don’t know if I have a weak stomach but I felt pretty stressed/sickened from start to end!

Have just watched my recording of it and had to put hand over my eyes at the ear cutting scene. Definitely darker than s1, not sure I'll be able to stomach the whole series. The handmaids' acting was amazing, they put so much into the body language to convey the pain and stress - I was reminded of one actor who impressed me in Anthony and Cleopatra by the RSC - he played a soldier who angered Anthony who sent him off to be whipped and when he reappeared on stage for the rest of the scene even without visible wounds he conveyed his agony through body language.

One episode a week is enough for me. I need seven days to get over the stress of watching each episode.

Thirteen episodes this season I think I saw so a long series.

Horrifying TV but unmissable brilliant TV!

Completely agree proud.

Is anyone else worried that Hannah might be used to get June to come back/ do what they want?

I don't think the scene from season 1 where Syrena Joy took June to Hannah was unintentional. Syrena knows where Hannah is, and threatened June with harm to Hannah if there is harm to her baby. I think this will be used against her - but that implies that they will know where June is.

Yes they would have to have a way of relaying the threat on Hannah to June. They don’t seem to have TV or internet do they?

Radio 4 review this evening said the rest of the series is still a tough watch but eases up on the torture-type stuff.

Omg I'm traumatised after just watching ep1/s2

That's good to hear SomethingOnce because I couldn't watch another episode like that. I wish they had put some warnings on before the start. I hate the word triggering, but for many that would have been and so some warning would have been appreciated.

On a slightly different angle, DH and I discussed whether it had got a bit silly/implausible. The handmaids’ fertility is supposed to be very precious and scarce, so it seems odd they’d torture them, make them stand in torrential rain in stress positions etc. It puts any current pregnancy at risk and stresses them all out so they are less likely to get pregnant. DH said he’d expect them to be coddled. Even all the punishment FGM, amputations and burns risk sepsis and death. From a purely “animal husbandry” point of view, Gilead sucks.

I thought it was going to be worse than it was. I was 99% certain they wouldn't kill June off in the first 10 minutes, so I thought they might hang one section of the three. The hand maids are so valuable to Gilead, it would never make sense to execute all of them.
I think they got it right though. The programme is about women's suffering, so it would have been completely in contrast to S1 to have liberated June straightaway. Glad they finished with hope at the end, though. DH accompanies me (can't really say he watches it avidly) and moans that it's so depressing as there is no hope.
I think Lydia's backstory is going to go one of two ways:

1. She was a massive anti-abortion campaigner who fervently believes that the child is more precious than the wishes of the woman carrying it. Perhaps she has been imprisoned for it and has experienced first hand what it's like to have no control.
2. She had a regular life but saw everyone around her die in the revolution and is desperate to survive.

I wonder if Lydia was horribly abused and this is her way of paing it forwards/being in control for a change, though your anti-abortion syance may be correct. She certainly does fervour convincingly.

I wonder if Lydia was horribly abused and this is her way of paing it forwards/being in control for a change, though your anti-abortion syance may be correct. She certainly does fervour convincingly.

I swither between thinking terrible things must have happened to make Aunt Lydia how she is, and thinking she's a principal member of the underground railroad and needs to be entirely above suspicion and unassailable. When I first read the book (at handmaid age) I had no sympathy for her whatsover, but now that I'm aunt age, she's one of the most fascinating characters for me. The actress who plays her is utterly superb.

I thought straight away that it was a false execution, there being no way that Gilead would lose even a proportion of those fertile women. I think action this series will shift to the underground railroad and the rescue of Hannah. I have a hunch that somewhere along the line June will have to make hard choices about Hannah's safety versus the safety of a large number of other girls and women. And I think her mother will turn up somewhere, either already active in the underground railroad, or rescued and then active. Also wondering whether we'll see more of the colonies - I think their mention in the first episode suggests we might.

For those wondering about Aunt Lydia's back story, does anyone remember the moment in Season One pre-Gilead when June and Moira are jogging and you see them pass a disapproving AL in civvies.

I think in the book Moira said that she saw June's mother on some footage of the colonies.

EglantineP Was that actually Aunt Lydia or was it just another "Aunt-like" woman?

Ann Dowd is a fantastic actress. Worth watching 'the leftovers' for her alone, if anyone hasn't seen it

Who was the man who helped June escape in the meat van? The one she thanked with a hug. Have we seen him before in series one? I thought it might be the person who first tried to help June, Luke and Hannah to safety, but wasn't he hanged? Or was it the person who handed her the bundle of letters? Or neither of those people?

I thought it was nick

I might be totally misunderstanding the character of Lydia and I’ve read the book twice, but I have much sympathy for her. I think she’s playing a part. I think she hates what she does. I think she hates how weak she is and was probably secretly envious of the girls refusal to stone Janette to death. She’s a victim of Gilead too, just like the soldiers of corrupt regimes like the third reich and Isis. Do they want to be there? It’s all about control.

brokenshoes - the man was just an unknown driver. He was in the uniform of the lower orders.

Nick was waiting for her in the warehouse place.

the-handmaids-tale.wikia.com/wiki/Butcher_(unnamed)

I just checked the cast list on imbd which led me here. I thought I recognised the character - it's the butcher who handed June the package of letters, who is obviously working for the resistance.

OMG brokenshoes! Well spotted!!!!!

One episode a week is about all I can handle, it's so emotionally charged for me. I find it so... frustrating, frightening and am outraged that these things could so easily happen and women will lose all "progress" that we've achieved. I can imagine us easily sleep-walking into such a society.

DH has chickened out of S2, although he did watch all of S1 with me - he finds it too harrowing, the wuss.

Agree that S1 was a lot easier to stomach because it roughly followed the book. The unchartered territory in this series will have me hiding behind the sofa each week!

Thank you! I think it was the effusive manner in which she thanked him that made me think we had seen him before.

CruCru I was certain it was Aunt Lydia but will have to rewatch (except have given bil the DVD)