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.

Yes, I thought June praying was supposed to portray the way that the leaders of Gilead have abused religion and Christianity for their own gains, a bit like ISIS did with Islam. Although I wouldn't have had June down as religious in the first place anyway?

The sex scene was awful - and such a contrast to the one in the first series where her and Nick have sex the first time (well technically second) which I thought was HOT!

It really was a bit of a nothing episode. Emily killing the wife...I don't know about the point of that really. We knew her back story already. It was interesting to see that things seemed to happen so quickly - one minute she's still working at the university (obviously the women can't work thing hasn't happened yet), then she shows up for work and her boss has been lynched. Or is she just supposed to be walking past?

I would have thought realistically that the women can't work thing would've happened prior to lynchings of people. Same with the mass murder at the Boston Globe, there is still a woman/women at work there. It makes Luke and June's decision not to leave earlier seem strange - especially since Moira's June's best friend and is gay... You'd think they would have known things were very very bad.

Although maybe they are showing how fast everything happened?

Yes good point Apile - when they showed June being told she had to leave her work she still seemed quite shocked. But if this was in a place where gay people were already being lynched at work, and there had been a mass slaughter at a newspaper place, then June a) probably wouldn't be that surprised b) probably would have already tried to leave?

I am ahead of the series but I enjoyed episode 2. Gilead affected everyone and June being at the Boston paper just showed the carnage that occurred into order to what they had today. The innocent lives lost and family’s gone forever and those people just went to work like a normal day.

I think June’s tribute to those who had fallen was beautiful they never got a funeral or remembrance and even though she said a pray it was from Christianity not the cult religion that gilead wanted her to follow. It was the only thing she could do to honour the victims.

I thought seeing the backstory of Emily was good and just showed how quickly things changed and she was so close to leaving. It was also nice seeing her in her work capacity and with her colleague. The colognes were also an eye opener this season. I would love a backstory for Janine.

In regards to the sex I think it was a form of control for June. She had been used a cattle to bred every month and had no say in it. This was her opportunity for power and regain control she had be sub pressed for so long.

Agree that the timeline seems a bit wonky. Are we to believe that the lynching of gay people happened within days of June being sacked? Otherwise it makes no sense.

Also, I get the reason for the sex and what they were portraying but that could have been done so much better than that pathetic lazy ass porn show for the male gaze.

I would love a backstory for Janine.

Don't we already have that? Or am I getting muddled between what was in the book and what was in S1? (I don't want to mention Janine's back story in case it's a spoiler for anyone who hasn't read the book.)

The timeline is working well for me. I think the point they're making is that the descent into chaos was very sudden. Possibly the lynching and the expulsion of women from the workplace were within days of each other - I think they could have been. But whichever came first and however long between them (I don't think it makes much difference to the plot), I think people's capacity for telling themselves this is as bad as it's going to get and it won't get any worse is huge. That was why back in the 1930s so many Jewish people didn't try to flee central Europe until it was too late. There were lynchings there too, and people thought if they hung on things would get better.

I'm with Zibbidoo in getting the reason for the sex but thinking they could have shown it very differently. It completely lacked the subtleties I've come to expect - contrast it, say, with the seduction scene in the commander's office in S1, where every changing expression on June's face told a million stories.

I'm surprised Janine went to the colonies - last I remember seeing her she was in a coma? When they said in E1 that she'd been sent away, I assumed that was a fib

RE what are they mining in the Colonies, my suspicion is nothing. A bit like chain gangs breaking rocks to no purpose

I did wonder how Emily escaped the fate of the woman chained like a dog in episode 1, for all her refusal to cooperate, she was still a viable womb. Unlikely they would send her to get cancer and die when they could just keep her somewhere and keep trying to impregnate her

Same for Janine really

No we don't have a backstory for Janine yet

We know she was gang raped and she has a son called Caleb who was taken but that's all we know

I did wonder how Emily escaped the fate of the woman chained like a dog in episode 1, for all her refusal to cooperate, she was still a viable womb. Unlikely they would send her to get cancer and die when they could just keep her somewhere and keep trying to impregnate her

When written like that, it just gets to the heart of Gilead. Women seen as viable wombs who can be chained like a dog and repeatedly impregnated.

The sex scene was awful - and such a contrast to the one in the first series where her and Nick have sex the first time (well technically second) which I thought was HOT!

It was Nick flipping June round and taking her from behind which made me go . Surely you’d let the woman take the lead in June’s circumstances where she’s been systematically raped for months/years.

Re the colonies, I wondered if they were removing contaminated topsoil. If they were, it was a half-baked, not very systematic effort. If you were serious about reclaiming the land, it would be quicker and more effective to use diggers/machinery. If it was about punishing the women, it seems like a slow death, during which Gilead has to feed, house and clothe them & contaminate useful ‘aunts’. Altogether, a stupid way of going about things.

Based on my post above, I find that broadening things out beyond the claustrophobia of June’s existence in this season is stretching the credibility of Gilead as a functioning theocratic state.

I wonder how it would work done in time order - with the backstories being in time order - and the slow inevitable build up to the horror that is Gilead?

Just the changes in society, the new laws, the people wondering when to leave etc...before it's too late.

I do wonder how it would conclude?

If they aim at continuing it my money would be on some kind of war with Canada, when the true depth of atrocity is realised but in what is so often the way of things, in victory over Gilead the rebels will lose their souls and become monsters

I'm starting to wonder if Nick is playing her. Still in Boston when she could be reaching the border now?

Will he use her to become a hero of the nation and a Commander?

In the book, and we must not forget we are now outside of Margaret atwoods original story, the regime orchestred many events to look like terrorist attacks, this was to death stabilise the country and allow them to come in with laws that would seem as emergency protective measures. Hence no, people did not notice how bad it was until too late.
It's conceivable that the Boston globe office massacre was at the time portrayed as a terrorist attack.
I can't recall if it is explained in the book.

'death stabilise'... De - stabilise... Oops.
Could be likened to our fake news

It was Nick flipping June round and taking her from behind which made me go

Yes and it was so fucking predictable. I knew that was exactly where it was headed. Yawn. Who is writing this stuff? And who are they writing for??

I think the flashbacks are really interesting. I get the feeling that some of it (women not being allowed to work, June having to have Luke’s signature on her pill prescription) is “official” but some of it is just people reacting to things unofficiallly. Emily being told she wouldn’t be teaching next semester was a decision made by the university. Her boss removing pictures of his boyfriend from his office was something he did to protect himself (he thought) The boss said that his boyfriend had accused him of being a collaborator - it was chillingly like Nazi Germany. The lynching of the boss was clearly not an official thing (or was set up to look unofficial) It’s highly likely that different areas would not have known what was happening, other than the official stuff. Also, government only communicated what it wanted. Emily didn’t know about the change in the law - obviously it wasn’t made public knowledge. The attack at the Boston Globe may not have been widely reported - assuming the staff there were killed for reporting anti-Gilead material, who’s going to risk reporting on a massacre? It’s frightening how all the individual stories come together but I don’t imagine those involved knew what was happening outside of their immediate vicinity until it was too late.

Just caught up. I was in bits during the airport scene with Emily and her family.

Emily didn’t know about the change in the law - obviously it wasn’t made public knowledge.

Look, this has happened in the last 18 month in the US. The new Trump administration started making changes to immigration policy on the fly and enacting it through executive orders signed off by Trump. I thought the inclusion of someone in an ACLU tabard in the airport scenes in episode 2 could not have been any more obvious about the parallels, as during the knee-jerk Muslim ban (since overturned in US courts as unconstitutional) ACLU and immigration lawyers stationed themselves at US airports to help families and individuals getting caught out by the new policies.

We've been following shit like this on the Trump threads for the last 18 months and there have been many instances of laws implemented like this at the drop of the hat. The latest scandal about separating migrant/asylum seeking children from their parents at the border has been done exactly the seem way - it is estimated that 1,500 of these children have gone missing from poorly-screened federal foster carers (federal screening is much weaker than state social services), some of them handed over to traffickers. Some parents have no idea where there children are and nor does the state. Children as young as 11 months have been separated from their mothers and shipped to the other side of the states. If the parents get contact at all, it is a phone call every few weeks. I get that some of you are worried by the Handmaid's Tale, but this is happening right now in the US. It couldn't be more serious and there's nothing far-fetched about what we are seeing on THT.

This interview with an ACLU lawyer and a specialist who works with asylum-seeking families is worth a watch:

I get that some of you are worried by the Handmaid's Tale, but this is happening right now in the US. It couldn't be more serious and there's nothing far-fetched about what we are seeing on THT

Amy Siskind has been keeping a list of all the subtle changes (and not so subtle changes) in the USA.

As was discussed last time, it's the slow slow changing of laws and the environment people live in and the very quick changes so people don't have time to react till it's too late.

I often wonder what it was like in Germany and the rest of Europe as fascism rose and people wondered if they should go. I wonder how it was like in Syria and other countries more recently.

I wonder how many people from mainland Europe who have made their home in the UK have taken that decision to leave recently.

boatyard I follow the Trump threads (long term lurker) and the Handmaid's Tale terrifies me for exactly the reason you say - life is already imitating art.