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.

Do we know who the other flatmate is with Moira? The one who said: Blessed be the fruit loops

She was a handmaiden who escaped and was on the run with the group and met Luke in season 1 she didn’t talk much due to the trauma

Hopelessly Holly is June’s Mum.

Paradyning, that’s Erin, a handmaid who escaped the red centre and fled to Canada with Luke on the boat. She has been mute since due to trauma.

Placemarking, thanks for the new thread!

So Holly was in favour of the rise of Gilead?

Also placemarking 😁

Ah yes! Thanks

Anyone else finding it painfully slow and boring

I find all TV drama painfully slow. Radio drama can’t have people taking ages to walk across a space in silence. It has to be excellent telly in others ways to make me suffer it.

Checking in

I like the pauses in The Handmaid's Tale. There's a lot of attention to detail / expressions. Most dramas like to signpost the viewer to the next event. This seems more subtle.

No, I doubt she was, OutOf, she’s an ardent feminist that’s why I was confused about the symbol being in her house. I wondered if it had a more general meaning that the SoJ adopted & subverted or something and thought posters here might know. I might have to do some extensive googling because it’s bugging me

I must admit I’m not as gripped with this series as I was the 1st one. I had no idea who Erin was. Struggling to remember her arriving in Canada with Luke. Maybe I missed an episode?

There was an episode about how Luke got to Canada and she was in that.

Placemarking.

Thanks CruCru

Fingers crossed June is OK. In the book, I think the implication was that she had escaped - or at least, that is how I read it - so it would feel wrong if the series went a different way.

Here miss!

(Thanks Cru)

I was thinking about Moira’s reaction to the guy who had just escaped who admitted to being part of the group who strung up gender traitors (like Moira) including his ex, and that she said it would get easier and directed him towards counselling. She worked so hard to contain her anger.
Comparing this with the reaction of Emily to the Mistress who she killed for standing by every month while the Handmaid was raped.

When the regime falls will people act more like Moira, or Emily?

I can't believe that the raid was Mayday after the relief of the handmaids not being hung at the beginning of the series, she can't get that lucky twice. I think she will be taken back to Gilead and her story there will continue but she won't be taken back to the Commander's home. It will give the opportunity to extend other characters while reminding us of the oppression of Offred/Gilead. I think this is going to be bleak for our protagonist

I think that this series is a little slower as being released from the confines of the book they can explore back stories and other aspects eg the colonies more.

When the regime falls will people act more like Moira, or Emily?

But Moira is part of the new, free world but Emily is still encaptured.

STDG

Yes but we've had that bit IYSWIM

At the end of the novel she leaves in a van at Nicks instruction - she doesn't know and the reader never knows if she is going to her freedom or her execution. So we can't look to the end of the book for clues because that's played out now.

The final, final bit of the novel is the idea that the book we've just read was a taped interview with June now being discussed by scholars in another country, a very long time later.

What I mean is, if they wanted to go with the book they'd have had to make it one series only, so don't bet any future plot on how the book ends

Moria wasn’t containing her anger at the bloke, she realised that she wasn’t the only victim in the situation, the bloke didn’t kill his ex lover but had seen him being hung and was scared of the situation he found himself in and managed to flee. If anything Moria felt sorry for him.

I think Moira probably felt a huge mix of emotions. I took her non-response (apart from telling him where the trauma counsellors were) as her not being able to handle anyone else’s story yet.

I think they’ve been quite clever regarding the book ending and tying it up.

In the book, Offred recorded the tapes while being hidden by Mayday in Gilead. It is unknown whether she properly escaped or was recaptured (IIRC, they discuss it being likely she was was caught as there’s no record of her making it to Canada or the U.K.)

We could easily imagine she recorded her story while waiting all that time in the Globe offices, thus staying true to the book. Also, it explains why the tapes ended at that point and didn’t continue and gives them free rein to go wherever they want from his point.

I wonder whether the fertile econocouples would try not to get pregnant too often. You wouldn't want the authorities to start noticing how fertile you were. If you were managing to produce a baby every two years or so they might start thinking you could serve Gilead better as a handmaiden.

I would expect that June would be sent back to the Waterfords. She is pregnant, supposedly with the Commander’s child, and therefore has to provide them with the child.