Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

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

999 replies

Aridane · 03/05/2018 12:09

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
TheBadgersMadeMeDoIt · 10/05/2018 22:40

I found this the most upsetting episode yet. The brutality was always hard to watch but seeing June gradually lose her spirit and give in was absolutely crushing.

I'm suspecting the focus might shift to Serena for a while. She's a brittle character, feeling very insecure at the moment knowing that another woman - supposedly inferior in status - literally controls her future. And she has always been torn up that the revolution she helped to bring about didn't go the way she planned. She always believed that women had a different role to play from men. She was all for women being the home-makers, nurturers and child-rearers while the men put on suits and earned money...but in her crazy god-bothering way she was a kind of feminist. She thought that if more women took on those roles by choice they would generate their own unique power ("Do not mistake our meekness for weakness" or something...?) It rather backfired for her though when the crucial "by choice" element was taken away.

I can't help feeling that ultimately, somehow, she and June are going to find some common ground and end up helping each other.

Snoopyokay · 10/05/2018 22:58

I'm glad that Nick is still there and hopefully he can get through to June. It's like she has been brainwashed by Aunt Lydia.
Do Serena and the commander really think that Offred/June was kidnapped or are they just going along with it to stop people from talking?

MyDcAreMarvel · 10/05/2018 23:06

I really thought it was Nick in the plane, are you sure it isn’t.

OohMavis · 10/05/2018 23:18

Definitely wasn't Nick.

Praisebe · 10/05/2018 23:27

Their just going along with it to stop the other wives and commander's from speculating i mean you wouldn't want them thinking you had a handmaid who was disobedient and willfull would you ? It sheds a bad light on their beliefs

Praisebe · 10/05/2018 23:28

The guy on the plane was Commander Wells' driver not Waterfords he looked nothing like Nick

QuackPorridgeBacon · 10/05/2018 23:35

Praisebe It really truly gets me angry. Like when janine was in labour and they were all crowded around the crazy women helping her with breathing etc. And what fucking glow! The first time I see any pretence at feeling anything pregnancy related I had to laugh, like a proper in shock what the fuck is going on? Kind of laugh. It’s (for me) one of the crazier parts of the entire show. It’s madness. My partner is next to me for the latest episode and even he looked up and sai “what the fuck?” Deluded, very deluded, they can’t believe it surely. I think I’m very invested in the show and I too, believe she is broken. I think the repetition at the end signifies that somewhat, like the saying, broken record.

QuackPorridgeBacon · 10/05/2018 23:39

TheBadgersMadeMeDoIt I have the same thoughts about serena. She’s does come across like someone who has huge regrets but is letting it come out in anger towards the one person who can’t do anything about it.

MyDcAreMarvel · 10/05/2018 23:39

Ok , I watched it on a iPad mini so maybe that’s why drivers looked the same.

MyDcAreMarvel · 10/05/2018 23:40

Off to watch episode four.

MynameisJune · 11/05/2018 06:25

@thebadgersmademedoit I think help might come from Serena Joy as well.

BG2015 · 11/05/2018 06:52

Is the whole of the USA now Gilead? How on earth did they gain so much power to overrule the whole country? It's such an enormous country I can't believe there aren't pockets of areas where people are self sufficient still.

Was there a civil/ nuclear war? Is that what the colonies are?

OohMavis · 11/05/2018 07:59

I think it was a series of nuclear disasters and resulting infertility from agricultural pollution, rather than war, though I'm not entirely sure.

Them being sent to 'clean up' nuclear waste would be futile in the real world so is simply a death sentence/punishment.

HamAndTomato · 11/05/2018 09:05

In the book I think Gilead is some of the US but not all of it. Think there is talk in the book of a civil war/rebellion being fought in Florida.

Watched ep 4 last night. Love seeing the Waterfords again even though they are so unlikeabke. I think the actress who plays Serena Joy is superb - she’s so cold and harsh but at the same time you can see how desperately she wants a baby and how she herself is in part a victim of the system that she helped set up. Creepy when she was stroking the bump and talking to the baby - June really is just a uterus and nothing more to her.

QuackPorridgeBacon · 11/05/2018 12:05

HamAndTomato I think stroking the bump was probably the most understandable bit. If a woman has a surrogate they get to talk to the bump I think and feel kicks. Serena knows she will never feel what June does and has no way to bond with the baby beforehand and that’s all she wants. She’s cold but also deeply sad I believe. All this stop smoking ta bad for be baby lark pisses me off though. Their body has nothing to do with June’s and carrying the baby. Pretending so is creepy and weird.

BG2015 · 11/05/2018 18:30

I think all the 'ceremony' stuff is weird.

And all those intelligent, independent women are just baby making machines or slaves.

I hope the third series sees a massive uprising or revolt of some sort. I need it to have at least some sort of happy ending.

TheBadgersMadeMeDoIt · 11/05/2018 18:50

I hope so too. It's heartbreaking at the moment. After all that preamble - finding out about the resistance, finding out Nick is a rebel, escaping, hiding, almost getting away...only to end up back where she started but even worse off, because now she's lost the will to fight? I read the book 20 years ago and was desperate to find out what happened next. Now I feel absolutely gutted.

Also - there's a bit of a plot hole if I'm not mistaken. The story up until the point where Offred left the Waterfords was supposed to be taken from a secret journal that was abruptly abandoned when she was taken away. If she'd ended up back at the Waterfords' wouldn't she have carried on with it? Or am I remembering wrong...?

BG2015 · 11/05/2018 19:42

I need to re-read the book. I read it years ago too.

BBQsAreSooooOverrated · 14/05/2018 13:38

I've just watched the second episode. It's good so far. I was Shock watching the beginning of the 1st episode!

Praisebe · 14/05/2018 20:54

Anyone seen the trailer for the next episode ? Looks like its curtains for Nick

Praisebe · 14/05/2018 22:41

Just watched a few more trailers on YouTube and it doesn't show signs of getting better anytime soon.
It looks like commander Waterford gets some revenge on Nick

MyDcAreMarvel · 15/05/2018 13:34

Found this podcast bbc dramatised version of the book online. It’s really well done.
www.radiodramarevival.com/episode-190-bbc-radios-the-handmaids-tale/

eloisesparkle · 15/05/2018 17:50

My recording of Episode 3 cut out just before the end. What happened please. She was thanking the Waterfords for having her ( back).
The stupid Eurovision ran over time so that impacted on my recording of THT.
It's bleak. ShockSad

CadleCrap · 15/05/2018 22:39

Who was it that got their tongue cut out?

Praisebe · 16/05/2018 06:09

The one who spoke up for Janine can't remember her name

Swipe left for the next trending thread