The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 (UK Pace) - thread 2

[CruCru]

Hi all

Here is the next thread for those who are watching The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 on Channel 4. Please don't put any spoilers on this - the other thread (for those in other countries who are watching ahead of the UK) is www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3239228-Handmaids-Tale-Season-2-SPOILERS-VIEWING-AHEAD-OF-UK-SREENING.

Welcome back, June. We hear you too.

I can't help but like Aunt Lydia a little bit in this episode. Just a little.

Yep June is back! I swear I thought that was going to be Hannah too when Nick lifted the veil. I think she would be much younger though? Mind you how old were those children!

I think Hannah will be 8 or 9. Those girls looked 12-15.

I'm hopeful for an escape effort now!

There was a little bit of light in the darkness this week.

The marriage ceremony in the colonies - "Cows don't have weddings". Just a little bit of light in such a dark place.

Soubriquet I bled very heavily for the last 12 weeks of my last pregnancy ( think soaked bed every night) due to placenta praevia and baby was healthy.

I wonder if June's baby will be premature but survive?

Curbside I just saw your comment about the Wives having different coloured greens to show their status as Mothers / 'Expectant' Mothers / Not Mothers.

I hadn't noticed but it's another interesting way to needle at the Wives and let everybody know their status at a glance.

Wow well, that was a difficult watch.

Found it really interesting how Aunt Lydia holds way more power than Serena.
Think lack of June narration was really significant. I reckon she’ll be back next week.
I wonder how much longer Emily will last.

Well that Child Bride sequence wasn't massively horrifying at all, nope.

At the moment I'm really struggling to see the narrative relevance of the Colonies. At the moment it just feels like a reason to keep Alexis Bledel on the show

Hygge I only noticed when the wives were sat in a row at the surprise wedding!

I keep hoping there’ll be a way to bring Alexis Bleidel and Janine back from the colonies. As a pp said, there doesn’t seem much point in them showing the viewing them just slowly dying... there’s got to be more. (I hope!)

What was the incision at the bottom of her bump? Checking on the baby somehow?

Also Ofglen, her name has slipped my mind, is showing signs of radiation sunburn now I think

Emily - what's radiation sunburn?

Ofglen is Emily.

I also wondered what the incision was.

Thank you Emily of course! I assumed that's what it was? The colouring on her cheeks. I think (from my reading of various 80s nuclear disaster novels) that radiation poisoning gives a type of sunburn appearance. I thought a nod to the story behind the colonies in the book, so we know Emily is starting to get radiation sickness

Escape plan with visit to Canada?!

Glad to see June appears to be back.

It wasn't an incision, it was a freaky looking belly button on the fake tv bump.

The child brides really made me shudder this week. Even DH said 'god this is horrible. What bastards!' Serenade Joy played a blinder with that one, really trying to hurt Offred.

I also wondered whether June didn't tell anyone about the bleeding because she wanted the baby not to survive, because she was fearful of Serena's wrath or something else.

What I like about this series is the way they build the tension, I feel utterly anxious all the way through. I'm also conflicted over Aunt Lydia and Serena-Joy - both parts are acted so well that you vaccilate between hatred towards their part in the whole atrocity and sympathy for being pawns, just surviving the best they can. Superb acting.

The lack of narration from June was excellent. June was gone. Broken last week, she left. This week we were witnessing Offred. Offred has no voice.

This week we were witnessing Offred. Offred has no voice

Whoever is responsible for all those little touches that make this such a compelling watch with so many points to discuss is amazing at their job.

I think June fell from the window after fainting from blood loss. I wondered if she was ignoring the blood loss because she just couldn't deal with anything. She was so disassociated that she couldn't do anything but obey orders.

Totally agree kala.

I thought the "cows don't have weddings" line was rather touching- Janine is trying to find some kind of beauty and humanity in that hellish place. Marx didn't just say that religion was the opium of the people (Emily's understandable view), but also that it was the heart in a heartless world. This seems to be how Janine feels- she is as oppressed as everybody else, but she's holding onto her faith as a way of resisting that oppression too.

Agree kala

And the music is fantastic.

What happens to June once baby born? Stays with family or moved on to breed for another family?