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.

I've never worked out if Aunt Lydia writing is a fantasy or actually true in the book.

There should be two screenshots with my post above to show it in the book where Aunt Lydia is writing.

I love how they are using speech from the book for conversations with June's mum.

I thought that June had stayed the night in the empty house, and left early the following morning, joining the throng of econowives heading for work. I'm sure there's a significance to the econowife who spoke briefly to her, and who saw the map, but I can't think yet what it will be.

So... anyone else thinking that the soldiers apparently recapturing June are actually part of Mayday? As in, the pilot was a double agent who'd given away the safe house (and possibly undermined other aspects of the resistance) which was why they shot him. And now spiriting June and the driver to another safe house.

I've assumed that a lot of men were killed, and many others have been sent to the front, wherever that is, to fight for Gilead.

I hope we find out how the Mexican in S1 knew June's name and background.

Unless it took all day to get the train and then walk to the airstrip, she left in the evening. The sun was setting when she got to the planes. I wondered where everyone was going as well?

So... anyone else thinking that the soldiers apparently recapturing June are actually part of Mayday? As in, the pilot was a double agent who'd given away the safe house (and possibly undermined other aspects of the resistance) which was why they shot him. And now spiriting June and the driver to another safe house.

Ooooh, so the pilot was delivering them back to the Commanders?

So we don't know what happened to the Econofamily then?

Is it in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four that the children of the proles are encouraged to spy on their parents and report any misdemeanours?

That's the feeling I got with the little boy in the family who took June in. I thought that he would blab that there is a lady in his apartment. Maybe he did... we just didn't see it happen.

So... anyone else thinking that the soldiers apparently recapturing June are actually part of Mayday? As in, the pilot was a double agent who'd given away the safe house (and possibly undermined other aspects of the resistance) which was why they shot him. And now spiriting June and the driver to another safe house.

No, I didn't think that at any point. There seemed to be way too many big cars, lights, soldiers, guns etc for it to be Mayday - IMO! If that many could have successfully got into Gilead, then surely they would have been capturing more than just June.

That's the feeling I got with the little boy in the family who took June in. I thought that he would blab that there is a lady in his apartment. Maybe he did... we just didn't see it happen.

I did think it strange that no one seemed worried that the little boy would tell someone about the strange woman staying in his flat!

The child in the apartment obviously reminded June of her own family dynamic, and was thinking she could have been one of the Econowives if she hadn't committed 'adultery'. I can't remember whether she told Adam her name?

Either way he could have given her away by accident.

I don't think it's Mayday. Because a third series has been agreed. So resolutions are going to be a long time coming!

Oh, regarding the Econo People. I've just read an article which says that the mother in that situation is probably not the child's bio mother (his birth mother would have been taken away to be used as a handmaids)

The Econowives are infertile. They are not left alone because of their virtue, they just aren't any use to the upper classes. So June's thoughts about this aren't really true - she's just wishing she could have escaped the life of a handmaiden.

I don't think she told Adam her name. This little exchange between June and Adam was interesting. Probably is just an innocent exchange between them, but obviously the writers of The Handmaid's Tale don't put anything in by accident and it's all got a deeper significance.

June - What does the bell do?
Adam - It warns people so they can come and help

Yes, I keep forgetting that most women in Gilead are infertile aren't they? It's part of why it all kicked off.

It's also possible that June is thinking that without the birth of Hannah (after marrying Luke) the authorities wouldn't have known that she was fertile. Remember when Emily and her wife are trying to escape with their child and someone demands to know who the biological mother of the child is (it's Emily - who then became a handmaiden)

@outoftime... I don't think that's right. Children were only removed from the sinners.. And all children were then given to commanders to raise.
Non sinners, first marriage, no reason for gilead to 'punish'.. These were econo people and they were effectively left alone as long as they toed the line.
I can't recall in the book anything about these people having children removed from them.
That makes it all become rather unbelievable... Normal, Christian, non sinners all allowing their children be removed with no Christian justification.. That would actually go against what gilead stood for.
Plus the wife says to June that she would never give her child away.. Implied that she, the wife, would not give her little boy away

Plus... As the commanders and their wives all so desperate for a baby why would a precious child be given to am econo family?

I have a silly question (and I have read the book but it was a long time ago) but is 'Gilead' the whole of the USA? Is where June lived with the commander like the Washington area? Where did June live before the war, was it somewhere on the East Coast? Are there people living on the Westcoast, like in California and Washington state?

When that pastor did his sermon at the Royal Wedding he was talking about Gilead, and for a second I was like 'oh he has been watching The Handmaid's Tale' 😂

I think it is Boston... Gilead referred to as North America.
Definitely there is reference to the civil war in the South fkorida region on going

So... anyone else thinking that the soldiers apparently recapturing June are actually part of Mayday?

Me! I hope this!

No. They shot the pilot.

I think it must have been the econowife's child as she said they were threatened with being a handmaiden if they didn't toe the line. So they must be fertile.

I don't understand if they knew she was at the flat why they didn't get her there. They wouldn't want to have taken any risk of losing her, what with the pregnancy. I think it must have been something to do with the safe house being compromised.

Susan, I thought the Econowife said that they were threatened with being handmaidens if they were "fruitful", as in got pregnant. Could have misheard though, as I didn't have subtitles on & it was a bit mumbly at times.

I think the econo family got busted because the safe house was compromised and someone gave them up. If the authorities knew they were harbouring June they’d have been there like a shot so I think their disappearance was unconnected. Then the pilot was shot in the same operation. Maybe by then they knew June was there, or maybe it will be a surprise for those dragging her out of the plane.

I still have sympathy with Moira. She is in limbo (like pretty much all refugees). Plus working on Jezebel’s must have been rank (and quite traumatic - worse than June experienced).

I thought the Aunts were allowed to read and write. They probably kept lists of the Handmaids and their misdemeanours / punishments.

I wondered whether the Econowife just kept the family out for much longer than usual in the hope that June would leave. It’s much safer for them if the child doesn’t know too much about the lady in their flat.