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

Telly addicts

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

959 replies

CruCru · 05/06/2018 20:29

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.

OP posts:
CruCru · 17/06/2018 23:34

She will stay for a few months to feed the baby. Then she’ll be moved on to try her luck with another family.

OP posts:
ZibbidooZibbidooZibbidoo · 17/06/2018 23:35

Janine had to stay and breastfeed for a while. Not sure how long. Suppose June will have to as well. I guess she will be moved on to produce for a new family. I assume each family only gets one child as there are so many in “need” of a handmaid.

MrStarkIDontFeelSoGood · 17/06/2018 23:39

I remember that with Janine. The Wife who Serena thinks hates her baby couldn't wait to be rid.

It's a short amount of time though, 3 months or so.

IIRC Fred and Serena were June's "last chance" she'd placed with other commanders before, if she had failed with them, Colonies.

Now she's had a baby, they will undoubtedly want to try her again

Ohsuchaperfectday · 17/06/2018 23:40

Ok janine was moved on. Just wondering as June is so feisty how valuable she will be. Janine produced baby but is still confided to death in colonies.

I did realise nick spied on Waterford.

Ohsuchaperfectday · 17/06/2018 23:41

Didn't realise

SleepIsForTheWeek · 17/06/2018 23:44

I felt that June wanted her time with her baby before she lost it and that's why she didn't call for help. She knew her life would be in danger once she miscarried and left herself out to die with her baby. She has nothing left, not even Nick now he is married.

Ohsuchaperfectday · 17/06/2018 23:46

But who would want to bring a life in to that brutal hideous world..

MrStarkIDontFeelSoGood · 17/06/2018 23:53

I think Serena will learn a lesson from this and be nicer... I hope so.

I think a lot of the credit for the little touches should go to Elizabeth Moss she just inhabits this character and is also an Exec Prod

MrStarkIDontFeelSoGood · 17/06/2018 23:54

Janine was sentenced for stealing Angela/Charlotte

Ohsuchaperfectday · 17/06/2018 23:57

I'm sure they could have still got her to breed though.
Also think it's all forgotten that June was kidnapped!! She seems quite free in the house.. Surely they all know kidnap was a lie and would be watching her closely.

And suspect who helped her.

Ohsuchaperfectday · 17/06/2018 23:59

Funny how much earlier on we got a glimpse of Serena life. I don't think she will ever help June she has massive burning jealously of her and only wants the baby. I think she will get worse or some massive back story will come and we will feel compassion for her

POPholditdown · 18/06/2018 00:23

I was also expecting Hannah to be one of the brides. The last one that revealed her face, the camera lingered on her for a bit longer. I’m sure she would be a reaching teens now, she was in school before Gilead started and it’s been a good few years now I think.

I’m expecting something to happen with baby Angela. They keep showing snippets of her in some sort of discomfort and the Wife is indifferent/woe is me rather than concerned about the child. I think the wife doesn’t even want her.

I did wonder why June would have gone outside. Maybe she was trying to get to Nick’s shed?

POPholditdown · 18/06/2018 00:31

Oh, I also think Aunt Lydia is being revealed slowly as a bit of a Gilead puppet master. I was as shocked as Serena to see her writing.

She's very casual and snarky towards Serena (respectful of Fred though). Even when Serena hinted that she’s not wanted (wih the doctor) Aunt Lydia just kind of went ‘tough shit Serena, try me’.

ZibbidooZibbidooZibbidoo · 18/06/2018 00:57

Yes I think you’re right POP about the puppet master thing. I reckon aunt Lydia is quite high up in the ranks. Higher than we are supposed to believe. I did think her interaction with Waterford when he asked about June was very “know your place commander”. He asked how offred was and she replied “the handmaid....(is well or something)” I enjoyed that moment I have to say. I do think Waterford comes across as a total idiot and it is apparent to all around him that are equal to or outrank him. He keeps getting put back in his place with little comments and gets that gormless look on his face.

TheHandmaidsTail · 18/06/2018 07:17

Sorry to harp on but I'm sure it was an incision. It was where you would expect a section to be because at first I thought the baby had been removed.

Serena's horror at seeing AL writing, when in the first series she was obviously a founder of the movement that ultimately disempowered her was brilliant.

Hygge · 18/06/2018 07:51

Pop That's what I thought about baby Angela. I don't think Naomi Putnam wanted a baby at all, or perhaps she just cannot bring herself to want Janine's child. Perhaps she doesn't want Warren's child either, she seems to dislike her husband just as much as she dislikes Janine and Angela.

She doesn't seem to like or care for the baby, I said it before last night's episode and when Serena commented that she was always complaining about her it certainly seems to be what they are doing with those characters.

Naomi also got in a dig about Serena's baby shower being less grand than hers was, so with those comments I thought that showed the falseness of the Wives friendships and how clearly Serena and Naomi dislike each other.

That might explain why Serena seems to be crying out for proper conversation with somebody. June had retreated into Offred, and said nothing other than the Gilead dialogue of false pleasantries, god-speak, and Yes Mrs Waterford, No Mrs Waterford, and even though that is what Serena engineered, it's not engaging conversation. And Fred has no interest in talking to her, he made that clear when she tried to talk last night. It took her comment about Nick to get his interest.

Emily pulling her own tooth out of her mouth with just her fingers and no sign of pain was awful. She's getting sick, and I thing this might be her prompt to escape, hopefully with Janine.

I don't think she's going to be stuck in the colonies to die, one way or another I think she will either escape to Canada or get taken back to Gilead.

The bit with her tooth reminded me of an article I read about those women in America who painted watches with luminous paint. They were actively encouraged to lick their own paintbrushes for a sleeker point, and they were not provided with any safety aprons (the men in the factory were provided with these). The women were told that the paint was safe, and so as well as licking the paintbrushes they would paint their nails with it so they shone when they went out dancing after work.

As a result, they suffered from radiation poisoning and became very sick and died. Including one poor woman who had bone cancer. Her jaw was so soft that her doctor just lifted it off her face with his bare hands.

That's what Emily's tooth made me think of. How easily her tooth just came out because of the toxic atmosphere of the colonies and what being there had done to her and all those other poor women.

LadyRochfordsHoickedGusset · 18/06/2018 07:57

Child bride thing was obviously uncomfortable viewing, girls did get married off at that age in this country in the Middle Ages. Henry VII's mother Margaret Beaufort was 13 and tiny when she gave birth to him, it nearly killed her and she couldn't have any more children afterwards.

All the actors blow me away in this but especially Elisabeth Moss, Ann Dowd and Yvonne Strahovski.

Thymelord · 18/06/2018 08:30

I thought this was a really good episode. Can't wait for the next one. Serena getting frustrated with June for her obedience and yes/no Mrs Waterford was interesting.

I wonder if June was pregnant with twins and miscarried one of them?

Agree with previous posters that Aunt Lydia obviously has a great deal of power. Her interaction with Fred as he came down the stairs was an interesting one.

Invisimamma · 18/06/2018 09:02

The child brides scene was so creepy. Obviously for the girls it is awful but also did anyone feel for Nick here? As a ‘good guy’ in this, how will he bring himself to do what Gillead expects of him with his ‘wife’ when he so clearly knows it is wrong.

Cacofonix · 18/06/2018 09:28

Yes this episode was good.

June wanted to let the baby die, I think, as she doesn't want to be responsible for bringing another life into the mess that is Gilead. When she wakes in hospital and realises she is still pregnant she makes the promise, doesn't she, to get the baby out of that. Which also rings with the idea that she has realised she can only rely on herself for escape. No one can help her, not even Nick, who is as stuck as the rest of them. Glad June is back!

The wedding scene was awful - and the conversation between Serena that Nick's child bride had just served to emphasise how young she was. Poor thing.

I think the colonies scenes must be serving a purpose - I think Janine and Emily are still going to be important and I'm guessing, as they are fertile, they'll end up back in Gilead. Otherwise what is the point of watching them work, suffer and die? We know life is shit in the colonies. Maybe they'll be returned as handmaids and more willing to live that life as the colonies are just so awful in comparison??

Serena came to a realisation I think about how powerless she is really. Especially when compared to Aunt Lydia. Lydia must be very powerful to be able to speak without worrying how people will ultimately feel as there is always that sense of you being betrayed by those closest to you. And she doesn't seem to worry. But she wraps everything up in Gilead speak, if you know what I mean. Yes the wives don't like each other at all!

Looking forward to the next episode.

EvilTwins · 18/06/2018 09:37

I think the scene with Naomi Putnam and baby Angela was quite interesting and put yet another slant on the whole setup - OK, so the wives are supposed to want the babies, and they are removed from their mothers so that the wives can have them but clearly Mrs Putnam has not bonded with "her" baby, which makes the fact that Janine so desperately wanted to keep her even more tragic. And Angela is a constant reminder that Commander Putnam was raping another woman - however Mrs Putnam sees that, the child is the result of her husband having sex with someone other than her. Gilead is awful - who's the winner there? The mother has lost her baby, the wife isn't satisfied and the poor child has no one who loves her. I'm not convinced the Angela storyline will run through particularly, but it was really interesting to see.

TheThirdOfHerName · 18/06/2018 09:41

Working in the colonies for any length of time will dramatically reduce their chance of conceiving, carrying to term and delivering a healthy baby.

I think Gilead sees a move to the colonies as a one-way ticket.

ZibbidooZibbidooZibbidoo · 18/06/2018 09:54

I wonder if the wives worry about what happens to them/what they do with themselves when their one child is grown. What is there for them? Their entire goal seems to be “procure child”. So they get the child, and raise it and then what? What is their purpose after they have raised their child? They can’t work, or cook or clean, or read. No handmaid to keep in check.

ZibbidooZibbidooZibbidoo · 18/06/2018 09:55

Presumably their child, if a girl, is taken from them when she reaches puberty to be married. Some of them will only have 12 years with their child.

MaryPoppinsPenguins · 18/06/2018 09:55

They must escape, there’s no point in seeing them slowly die.