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.

Link to Amy Siskind's weekly list for anyone that's interested. Not comfortable reading. /semi-derail

I had the impression that June was Catholic. In S1E1, she saw a church being demolished and said that it was her father’s parish - where her daughter was baptised.

Was the prayer that she said for the dead journalists a Catholic prayer?

In the book, I think that she said that Gilead made a special effort to break nuns and make them Handmaids. The regime may be very anti Catholic - so her prayer (and the candles) is a rebellion.

I thought it was odd she didn't do an 'Eternal Rest'. That's the one we've always used in school.

When I was doing the book for A Level, there is a bit where June remembers watching cartoons on Sundays whilst her mother slept.

Teacher stopped us and said "what's the significance ?"

Even though it was Catholic school I was the only one to say

"They weren't religious"

They were atheist at least in the book.

IIRC her mother used to go on demos, of the 70s sort, CND and bra burning. This would have been more tangible in an 80s book

Can someone plse explain episode 2 of series 2. I didn't get it !

MrStarkIDontFeelSoGood Gosh, Id forgotten that. From memory, the book didn’t mention June’s father. Perhaps he was a Catholic (hence the reference to his parish on the TV show) and her mother was an Athiest?

In a nutshell, June is moved to a new location. The location is at length revealed to be the Boston Globe. It's workers were massacred in the basement, some by hanging some by firing squad. By finding their mementoes she builds a shrine.

Nick visits they have a power struggle and weird sex.

Emily is at the Colonies, a radioactive wasteland were traitors are sent to die. One of the Wives (Blue Dress) has been sent their for committing adultery.

They work on a chain gang. Emily pretends to help the wife with pills. Instead they kill her and she declares it revenge for her colluding in the rape of Handmaids

In flashback we see Emily be forced out of the classroom for being a lesbian and then her colleague lynched for being gay. She runs from work.

Her wife is Canadian and their son who is biologically hers has both passports. They were allowed to leave but Emily was held back as she was denied spousal privilege

Telling authorities she carried her own child is probably what led to her being rounded up as a Handmaid

Yes CruCru,

That's how she immediately knew Serena Joy as she used to appear singing in commercials flogging her books.

She is way older in the book

I think it’s interesting that Serena is younger. It changed the dynamic between her and June in a way that made it far more unsettling. Also the Commander being much younger.

Series 1was pretty faithful to the book - but the youngish age of commander and wife was a noticeable,change

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

I think the Handmaid chained up had been raped and impregnated by a Commander during the usual ceremony, but had then started 'misbehaving' and been punished.

Although the Commanders are all shits, I think most of those we've seen are justifying the Handmaids to themselves either as a Biblical thing (like the head Commander we saw in Season 1 who was very religiously motivated and ordered the hand of another Commander get chopped off when he sinned) or half-believing that the Handmaids actually like their situation (like Fred who wanted to feel he had some kind of bond with June, and when he took her to the hotel he said she could make noise this time and seemed to actually think she enjoyed the sex). Obviously it is rape, but I think many of the Commanders wouldn't want to rape a screaming woman chained to a bed, they want the veneer that this is acceptable and good, either because it's Biblical or because they pretend the Handmaid actually likes it.

I don't understand the toxic waste clear up. If they are actually clearing toxic waste they are doing it in a very inefficient haphazard way, and the Aunts supervising won't be protected by those masks. If they just want to keep the unwomen occupied until death surely there are easier ways to do that, or work they could actually do that Gilead would find useful? It just seems that if you shovel some toxic topsoil away you won't be able to start using the land suddenly afterwards!

I thought the woman chained up like a dog had tried to kill her self?

And her baby by proxy.

I'd love to see some Aunts and Wives having doubts and discomfort with what they are doing, and show how they have limited choices and ultimately some are choosing to hurt others to keep themselves safe. That would be really interesting.

In a choice between being an Aunt or reassigned as a Handmaid or Unwoman what would you do?

Serena and Aunt Lydia are fantastic characters, but it would be good to see some other Aunt and Wife characters more sympathetically. Surely only a minority would switch to having zero empathy in the space of a few years. I agree so far this series it has mainly been women oppressing women on the screen, surely not the point.

I'd love to see some Aunts and Wives having doubts and discomfort with what they are doing

Aunt Lydia was crying in secret in ep1 when they were all being punished. I wasn’t sure to take that as her showing her true self/remorse or whether she was crying out of happiness that June was pregnant.

I was half expecting her to ‘be real’ with June when they were alone and June was refusing to eat.

I wonder if we will ever see any conversations between the Aunts? I suspect they can't let their guard down as they never know who to trust.

It was telling how conditioned June had become. She said 'under his eye' to the man who had brought her to the Boston Globe. His response was just a natural response, not the expected response to that statement.

The new wife that Emily was resigned to was kind and even said she felt ill so will skip the ceremony Emily even said there’s only so long she can be ill for and the wife put her arm on her shoulder.

I wondered if Aunt Lydia was a bit relieved that June wouldn't be killed now she is pregnant, and the tears were a mix of relief and happiness. She does seem quite interested in June, like isn't the right word.

It does make me think of what you would do in such a society - and how far you would go to either protect yourself and to help others - knowing the potential consequences.

I don't think anyone can answer that without being in the situation. There's so many examples of the horror that people can do to control people and make them do their bidding.

I thought Aunt Lydia's tears were personal relief

She'd just suffered an insurrection from all her charges.

I'd imagine that wouldn't go down too well, but another pregnancy redeems her.

We have not actually seen much of who is governing here.

Who is the Big Bad?

Lydia, Fred, all underlings really

Episode 1 showed the end of the White House and Capitol.

So who are they, where are they ? There was this idea that other nations had formed in what was once the US I think

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

I think that even though wombs are so valuable, Emily and Janine just proved to be too much of a liability even to just keep imprisoned and pregnant. Plus it's example setting and the ultimate threat is to get sent to the colonies to die a horrible death.

Yes I always wondered if there was one single top dog dictator in Gilead, I don't think a particular name is mentioned in the book is it?

I thought the Commanders we saw meeting in season 1 were the top rulers, are there people above them?

again pp mentioned the lack of men in this and it's women being mean to women, the men in it are are portrayed as good eggs.

I think that's unfair actually. Who's a good egg? Nick? I'm not sure we're meant to trust him 100%. Who else? The commander obviously isn't. And a lot of the Handmaid's have a close bond, as do the women in the colonies.

I just figured june wanted to have some proper filthy sex with someone she fancies whilst not worrying about being heard etc. Liberating. Maybe I'm shallow.

There are always going to be issues with expanding the story. I guess the colonies are just a place for torture? Doesn't look like they're doing much worthwhile.

I’m getting a bit suspicious that Nick appears to have such freedom to be able to disappear off to be with June for hours at a time. He is a driver for the commander and serena joy. Surely they expect him to be around and he has to have permission to go off somewhere by himself?