Handmaids Tale, Season 2: SPOILERS / VIEWING AHEAD OF UK SREENING

[Aridane]

I'm starting a thread for those of us watching Season 2 and who want to discuss ahead of its screening in the UK.

So far I've watched the first 3 episodes.

God the 1st episode was grim.

This was definitely compounded when they were thrown out/at the air port.

I absolutely LOVED the look on Fred's face when the Canadian official said "The rest of your meetings are cancelled. You are not welcome here anymore". Priceless! The face of a bully being told to 'get tae fuck'!

This episode was so good!

I wonder if Aunt Lydia will intervene and convince Serena that the baby needs breast milk or something like that so June can stay? I'd love to see Aunt Lydia's background. I loved when the gay man said 'You are no longer welcome here'.

Argh! Showbox still hasn't updated with episode 9 - I'm desperate to watch (& trying to avoid the spoilers...)

Itscurtains

I got it on terrarium tv (similar app to showbox) watching it now

@Itscurtainsforyou Have you tried Sockshare? Pain in the arse for pop ups but fine once you get going (ie none mid programme)

H raised an interesting point. Why didn’t Luke say “You stole my daughter” to Waterford as well as “You raped my wife”.

I'm watching in the UK but read this thread because I can't resist spoilers.

I don't know where they can go with this now, presume you've all watched the promo for next weeks.

What else can they do? Anyone got any ideas? They surely can't send June on another assignment because it's got to be about the main characters.

Is there any way to legally watch in the UK? (at faster than channel 4)

I'm happy to pay for it but am wary of illegal downloads etc

Is anyone getting the ad for "Waterford Place" housing development popping up in this thread? Talk about malgorithms :)

I wonder if the focus in series 3 will move to Serena, they have been really building her character this season, rather than another series focused on June in Gilead. Which would eventually run out of storyline.
Hopefully that means that June can escape to Canada. I don't know how she could conceivably escape again. I really really hope they don't kill June off. I'd love to see her adjusting to life in Canada.
I did even wonder if Fred might 'release' her as an appeasement to Canada if there is a public outcry and Luke becomes prominent in news/ social media. Unlikely though as she would surely be highly criticism of Gilead once in Canada. Unless Fred is still deluded enough to believe she likes being a Handmaid?
Will there be something wrong with June's baby, a "shredder"? What would happen to her then, the Colonies? If Serena doesn't get her baby from June what will she do, will she work to escape herself/ damage Gilead?
Or will Fred himself have a downfall (in the book he is purged) perhaps after his disastrous Mexican trip? Or if it is discovered that Fred's driver transported the letters? In this case the baby would probably go to a different home, where June would likely be accepted for six months breastfeeding (from where she could hopefully escape!)

I wonder if somehow the Waterfords and/or Nick are going to come under suspicion for the smuggling of the letters. The Cmdrs of Gilead may have their heads up their arses but it's too big a coincidence for them to ignore. There are some Cmdrs who seem to have it out for Fred and it would be a perfect opportunity to get rid of him.

At the end of every episode there just seem to be so many ways the storyline could go. It's what makes it such enthralling watching, even though it's also upsetting at times.

I took it that Nick passing on the info about what happened in Canada to June and telling her he loved her so quickly after returning was because he expects to be found out. He was emotional because he doesn't think he will live to see the baby.

I was interested in the 'tourism' comment that was made whilst they were in Canada.

Why on earth would anyone want to visit Gilead? There's no evidence of bars, cafes, shops etc, there are guards with guns every 100 year DS. Are there hotels? What would they do/visit? No theatres, museums or even street signs. Plus there's the possibility they would be detained.

And people visiting Canada, surely they would defect (unless of course they totally believed in the regime) then they would seek asylum or become illegal immigrants.

It's just a ridiculous suggestion. Gilead will fall before that ever happens (I hope)

• yards not years DS!!!

I don't know BG2015. Look at other countries that have suffocating regimes, Saudi Arabia for example, people do visit and people who live there leave and return back home.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uPwPmaBh0Qo

Yet people still live there, the UK even do business with them. Brits even emigrate there for work.

You'd probably find in a regime such as Gilead there are lots of supporters, especially those who've been brought up to know no different like Eden. The women probably even see themselves as being protected.

Remember Aunt Lydia saying in series 1 that normal is only what you're used to, this will all become normal soon.

Gilead citizens would probably visit somewhere like Canada and think how immoral everyone was.

I think it may come to crisis point where June has the opportunity to escape, but without Hannah and without the baby. What would you do in that situation? I don't think I could leave.

www.boredpanda.com/afghanistan-1960-bill-podlich-photography/

It’s amazing to see such beautiful images of Afghanistan before the the war and the destruction of such a beautiful country. Gilead is very much real around the world.

Some other examples. There’s children and women growing up in these environments not even nothing the difference between what’s normal and the reality in which they live in.

But many of these women haven't been given a choice in where to live.

June and the others don't want this choice, there country is no longer theirs.

So let the people who WANT it stay and let the others go. Then they will have no bombs/resistance. Gilead would succeed with people who believed in it.

Plus Fred talked about extradition of people out of Canada? Americans wouldn't be let back into Canada if they travelled to Gilead, Europeans, Asian people, etc would but not Americans surely?

It's not a civilised regime/country.

I got the impression, when he talked about illegal immigration/extradition, that he was talking about Canada returning the refugees to Gilead.

I watch on a site called watch series. You don't have to download, but it does have a couple of popups at the start (none in the middle) which can be avoided pretty easily by adblock. Not sure if I can post the link as its probably not legal but yeah, google watch series. It updates really quickly after its been on hulu.

Now landed on showbox - what an episode!

The only people who would want genuinely to live in somewhere like Gilead would be cruel powerful men, cruel weak men and cruel vindictive women. All three groups would have to be quite comfortable with the idea of the physical, mental and sexual abuse of the people around them. There is nothing in Gilead for anyone who is decent at heart, as most people are.

Remove the reasons for fear and the consequences of rebellion, and it would become three hundred or so psychopaths alone in their grim, grey wilderness. And there wouldn't be a viable womb among them.