The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 (UK Pace) - thread 3

[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

xsquared thank you. Can't believe I missed that twice!

Serena and June might appear to be working together for now but Serena would turn just like that, and June will be treading on eggshells and could be discarded just like that when she's had the baby. I don't think Serena has had a change of character, she's just ruthless and protecting her interests.

I think after being so long without a voice, Serena would find it difficult to just hand the power back to Fred (or men in general) if/when he recuperates. Perhaps women rising up at every level of society (Serena literally changing the rules, the handmaid’s swapping names, Eden -perhaps- seeing this and becoming complicit in this small act of rebellion rather than ratting them out) will be the thing that brings down Gilead. I assume that May Day is mostly operated by men as they are the only ones with enough freedom to organise he selves, with some women joining in (and in the case of Ofglen actually sacrifising herself for men in another way) but perhaps this latest episode is an sign that the women have to save themselves?

*handmaids not handmaid’s
*themselves not he selves

Sometimes I hate apple....blessed is not that particular fruit....

Yes that is quite strange about Odettes death. She was already dead but an Odette Johnson was named as one of the dead in the bomb. So.. either that was a different Odette (but that's confusing to use that rare name in this particular episode while the camera is on moira), or they have been given the wrong name(s) of the bombed handmaids. Would that be Canada getting the wrong information, or are they being given names of those already dead on purpose to hide those they still have? Or maybe not that many handmaids were killed after all and they are saying that to make the remaining handmaids feel angry about the bomb?

Or they could have included her in the presentation of confirmed dead as moira has named her as one of the unknown dead so they were just announcing her death at the end of this list?

Was Ofglen carrying the bomb or just the detonator?
It seemed such a massive explosion.
Were explosives already in the building?

Does anyone wonder about Nick? He seems like the character with a lot of freedom. Nobody watching him . Goes where he wants . He's never had to kill anyone or get his hands dirty ( aside from the forced marriage situation ). Has he had to report and get innocent people killed ?

I thought the same as SoniaShoe, an unnamed now named so announced, especially as Moira then went to the place where they remember the dead/missing.

I also found the funeral chilling. The words were reminiscent of Remembrance Day and made me think they see the handmaidd as soldiers. The lack of reference to Christianity as I know it is kind of weird. They said that Commander Price (?) had gone to his eternal rest but no mention of heaven or anything like that. I was expecting the word Martyr to be used too and it wasn’t.

I really want Serena to start taking control now and for her to have a “good” side but I suspect that’s asking way too much!

What chilled me most about the funeral was the 'we will remember them' claim about people who weren't even allowed consistent names. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Oh I agree! And then Aunt Lydia going through the “names” Horrendous. I wonder if they have names on their grave stones - if they have stones. And if that’s the case, would they really put “Ofneil”, “Ofstephen” etc. Such a contrast to see the Canadian news reporting real names, though I do wonder how they knew - who was getting the names out of Gilead?

EvilTwins the woman said "our contacts within Gilead". I'm pretty sure from season 1 that they are an equivalent of an embassy for the Americans who made it to Canada and still have loved ones left behind.

I really thought that was Rita, I’m so glad it wasn’t.

I think I missed something, how did Serena get rid of the guy doing the investigations?

I found it a bit odd that Moira's baby was several months old when she gave it away. Yet he was planned to be given away before conception. And she suggested to Odette that she was just recovering from the birth. Maybe in the US they just can't employ newborn actors, I know in Call the Midwife they have to be at least a few weeks old which is why they never looked newborn.
That annoyed me, but yes small fry in the context of the episode.

Also bothering me how the "embassy in exile" in Canada is focussing so much on the bomb. From what we gather dozens if not hundreds of people are being murdered every single day.

Once he got June pregnant, I'm baffled as to why poor Nick hasn't come to a sticky end yet tbh.

I also don't think the odette that died in the bomb could have been the same one as Moira's partner.

Re Moira’s baby - I’d assumed that they’d used a child older than hers would have been because it’s quite hard to get actual newborns on TV shows. I may be wrong - but she said that the couple she was surrogate for were nice so would want to make it as easy for Moira as they can.

RE Moiras baby.

It was $250,000 for a healthy baby remember - maybe it had to pass all its health milestones for a while

I would assume Odette has been named as she was now identified.

Before she was an unknown woman.

X post with Cru!

I wondered if they thought babies were more likely to survive if they stayed with the birth mother and breastfed for a while? Given there were so many late miscarriages and still births there may have been more newborn fatalities too.

How ironic that $250,000 for Moira becomes worthless ...

Agree on Nick, he seems to roam around freely, how does that happen, he is after all only a driver?

Puddle... Sometimes I hate apple....blessed is not that particular fruit....

I thought the funeral was fairly decent for Gilead (although I hadn't picked up on the similarities to remeberance services). I was half expecting them to throw them all in a mass grave.

But I was a bit at aunt Lydia saying she wanted to end violence. How about you stop putting people's hands on stoves, cattle prodding, lashing, hanging, cutting tongues out, FGM etc!

The more visibly you mourn the victims, the worse the terrorist atrocity looks.

As they only quote the bits of the Bible that suit them that means most of the NT is out. Though in series 1 Aunt Lydia would tell the handmaids “Blessed are the meek” which is from the Sermon on the Mount. June commented in her head that they always miss out the next bit about inheriting the earth.