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

But she could have said Mother meaning Mrs Putnam. Too obvious I guess

Meaning but not meaning

I'm afraid I found the Serena whipping scene gratuitous and probably put in for shock value - a bit of "torture porn" as one critic described it.

I felt the same clawdy. It is another scene that I felt didn’t need to be shown. They could have cut away before the actual whipping began. We knew what was going to happen. We didn’t need to see and hear it. Sometimes less is more.

I thought Janine singing was going to end in the sounds of the baby being taken away from her.

Me too Golden - I watched the credits right to the end expecting to hear the screams when they removed the baby.

This series keeps getting better. It’s so beautifully shot - nothing is clumsy or accidental.

Realised tonight that Eden is in the grey woolly knits of an econowife. I feel sorry for her - she just looks lost the whole time. No idea if she will do something drastic with those letters. I doubt she has any idea what they are. It might spur Nick on to get out though.

I thought Janine's comment about her new commander was telling, not having to give him blow jobs etc. It seems that Putnam treated it more like an affair than the intended handmaid relationship, perhaps to justify it to himself or even let himself believe it was consensual - I can't remember if that was implied in the first series. That would explain why he was willing for her to see the baby and also another reason why Mrs Puttnam hadn't bonded with the baby, maybe even hates it.

As per a pp comment there is a lot of disbelief-suspension necessary in this series. Hard to delve more into the story without making it seem preposterous and somehow weakening the regime.

@MsJuniper there was all that implication that janine was crazy because she thought there was more to their relationship than handmaid/commander - do you remember? I def got the impression he had feelings for her - or at the very least fancied her!

I’d like to think Serena would view the beating as a small price to pay in order to have done everything possible to save a child’s life and that it would make her more determined than ever to work with June to do what she’s believes is right

I fear however that it will drive them apart.

I’ve found this episode the hardest one to watch by far. Especially as I have a baby the same age.

I'm afraid I found the Serena whipping scene gratuitous and probably put in for shock value - a bit of "torture porn" as one critic described it.

I do agree with the gratuitous nature of it as an observer but also think from his point of view he felt it necessary. The Commander has realised that Syrena has too much power - more so than him - and he needed a way to put her back in her place. Although it wasn't mentioned he must know that she was behind getting rid of the new Commander, plus over-riding his objection to getting the doctor in. He was sending a very clear message that he is the important one.

Serena's personality is much more evident in this series than the last. That thrashing in front of June must have been so humiliating for her (apart from the pain)

I thought that was a really interesting episode. really love reading your interpretations- it gives it all a completely different meaning after reading this thread each week.

Yes, he is using force to try to show who is the boss.

Serena strikes me as a person who resents sympathy when it's directed at her.

She wouldn't have liked June watching and pitying.

Sorry, typo, don't agree, don't think we needed to see it.

And yes, I agree that he humiliated Syrena in front of June on purpose. It was a loaded message to her what he is capable of if she doesn't comply. I think that might be why she went to speak to him, to show that she isn't Syrena's ally.

I suppose from Waterford’s perspective serena undermined him entirely infront of the handmaid by firstly allowing her to flout the rules by reading but not only that, she allowed her input into documents that were being passed off as his work. His name was on the work of a handmaid. If anyone found that out (which they could as I suspect the work was far superior to his own) he would be professionally humiliated. We’ve had hints in the past that other commanders thinks Fred needs to get his house in order. This would just be the final nail in the coffin for that. I think he did it not only to put her back in her place but in front of June because he needed serena to feel humiliation infront of the tool she used to undermine him. “Use her to undermine me? I can use her too”

Jannie definitely wasn’t considered crazy for believing they had a relationship

Had it all been in her head and considered unrequited ardour then Warren Putnam would still have two hands

I get the impression that Fred has done that to Serena before. She knew what he was getting at as soon as he started moving the chair.

I wonder if now Serena will know how a baby thrives with its mother she will keep June on and if the baby is a girl, try for a boy as the Commander would want a boy?
Or has June been too close for comfort and she will want a new Handmaid? Would she just have one child and that would be enough?

So many questions, really gripped by this!

@MrStarkIDontFeelSoGood you're right - I had forgotten about that!

Fred will have followed the bible in order to see beating Serena as something he was in the right to do.

From the Old Testament....
“I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” (1 Timothy 2:12)

And another.....

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22)

And yet he had no problem with getting Serena to break the rules when it was in his interests. But then she has to go back to knitting.

Hopefully she will have a tipping point somewhere. Fred's refusal to help with the neonatologist Martha must have made Serena wonder how far he'd go to save June's baby. Or even, if the baby's a girl, whether she'd want her to grow up in Gilead.