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

I am increasingly worried about Nicks wife. I think she is so fanatical , and so very young and immature , that if she suspects either Serena or June she will happily report them. Look how suspicious she was that Nick was a "gender traitor" when he didn't sleep with her. I think she is a very loose cannon.

Ive had twins in nicu and its amazing the difference skin to skin contact with the mother can make to a baby's stats.

There's no way they would've let Janine see the baby, let alone cuddle her like that. They all fell asleep while she was cuddling her?! I couldn't get past how unbelievable that was.

Also the guards seem noticeably softer, letting june push them away?!

I wonder if the guards aren't allowed to just shoot the handmaids anymore, as so many were killed in the bomb blast?

Maybe all the seemingly more relaxed stuff is due to the bomb blast. Perhaps the powers that be have realised that the scare tactics (that mock mass execution at the beginning) isn't going to keep them in babies.

I like the fact that it's unpredictable - for those of you saying "no way would that happen" I think we just have to accept it - it's not like this is an historic thing where we can look at facts and say that it wasn't like that.

frog, I am afraid I agree. this is a mother who proposed to murder her baby. In real nasty totalitarian states you would kill the mother, not let her see the baby. Now would you just accept June's statement she was kidnapped - I suppose the fact they cannot torture her yet to get the truth as she's pregnant might explain it but it's unlikely. However it remains a good programme and I like it.

@EvilTwins I agree with you.

Margaret Atwood took her inspiration from everywhere for the book, and said that everything you see has happened to somebody, somewhere.

It's not just one particular country, culture, or faith, so a bit of unpredictability is allowable.

That said, I also found it hard to believe that Aunt Lydia and the Putnam slept while Janine held the baby, but perhaps that again was meant to be symbolic of Janine being the Mother and not giving up, when everyone else had, rather than strictly realistic.

I think they are stretching a lot of things to make the plot work this time round. I didn't believe it when they brought the 2 highly dangerous loose cannons Emily and Janine back from the colonies and just put them back with the other handmaids but clearly they had to do it so all this could happen plus whatever they have lined up for Emily.

I'm hoping we do see Emily again.

She seemed totally shocked to be back and we've barely caught a glimpse of her since she arrived.

I'm trying to see the bits where you have to stretch your imagine a bit as a sign that all these Commanders are a bit unstable, out of their depth, and in disagreement.

Fred in particular because we see him this most, seems like he's a spoilt boy who got lucky, rose to power because of other people's brains and money. I can see him as similar to Trump's sons and son in law and even Trump himself, getting into power on Daddy's money. Perhaps even even worse as a Brock Turner type, spoilt, never had to face any consequences before.

Now he's in power he's not up to the job.

And the other Commanders as similar. Power hungry, not really knowing what to do next so doing whatever suits on the day. The older/better ones being the force that got Gilead to power and the younger/crapper ones thinking they can take over now because the hard work is done and the rest looks easy and they want their own way.

Fred is a cake and eat it type of guy. This is only America when it suited him to have his wife speak. Now it's Gilead when it suits him to keep her silent. Marriage is sacred when it looks good for him. But Jezebels still exists.

A Dictator can do as he likes, he doesn't have to be consistent because he's never wrong. Nobody will question banishing Handmaid's one day and dragging them back again the next. Because God. Because Scriptures. Because I said so.

So I put the inconsistencies down to that. Inadequate men being inadequate while thinking they're never wrong.

Even if bringing Janine and Emily back from the colonies is plausible, and I don't think it is, I can't see the sense in sending them back to exactly where they were. Surely it would make more sense to split them up and put them somewhere else where they were less likely to cause trouble.

Maybe the eyes being less vigilant and everyone's seeming more relaxed is to do with the orders that Serena and June were putting out.

And listening to this nutjob say that anyone who goes against Trump is going against god's will for America... that scares me. The way the US has changed since Trump has been in power is the beginnings of the Handmaids Tale.
I am going to link this only because the short clip of him talking just reminded me of what a Commander would say and this is NOW in the States.

Feel free to ignore. It was just very relevant I thought.

hillreporter.com/pat-robertson-says-people-trump-revolting-gods-plan-300

So baby Angela got better? She wasn't a Shredder?

What a strange turn up.

Fred is so nasty. However I wonder if he had to do it. If it was found out that Serena had been in his office etc he would have to prove that he'd punished her accordingly? Maybe not - maybe his pride was hurt that his manliness was usurped by a female or two.

I don't know what will happen to June now. Hopefully she is untouchable due to being pregnant but who knows ?

@Frazzled - maybe they had to go back there in particular because that's where the bomb was and the Handmaid's were killed? So that's where the shortage of women is.

They could possibly have transferred some Handmaid's from elsewhere in Gilead and sent Janine and Emily to replace them, but perhaps the families didn't want to lose the Handmaid already with them.

But we have to allow them some leeway for it being a TV programme. I can understand why they'd make some stretches to keep an established cast rather than bringing in new people for more realism.

Re Emily and Janine being brought back from the Colonies - presumably they have been screened for disease (not just radiation sickness)? I think Emily told the Wife that there was E. Cool in the water - I’d worry about bringing a Typhoid Mary into my house.

So I put the inconsistencies down to that. Inadequate men being inadequate while thinking they're never wrong.

I like that thinking a lot. Makes total sense.

Cru - yes, in the book it was post nuclear incident, but, the first series said it was environmental disaster. The Mexican politician wanted their Handmaids because their population was dropping and they couldn't produce food. So, I wasn't sure if it was environmental issues caused by nuclear disaster, or updated to be plain old environmental disaster - which is more relevant today than in the late 80s.

Well, for now.

I assumed that the baby was being drugged to keep her quiet at home & also got a cold but the combination of the 2 made it seem more serious. Presumably they sedated her when she was hooked up to machines but that was no longer needed once the female doctor had said all they could do was keep her comfortable. Once the sedation & the effects of whatever she'd been given had worn off she woke up & was better.

They did a full battery of tests on the baby. If she was being drugged at home surely they would have picked that up?

I just think the point of the storyline was to highlight how important the mother/baby bond is and maybe show that the children suffer under the regime too.

I think the day just fell asleep thing was meant to show that they were sitting a vigil with the baby expecting her to die but only Janine had the adrenaline to keep going all night as is natural. It may happen that Mrs Putnam is forced to accept her as au pair until the child is “out of danger”

they not day

The last scene with Janine and her baby was iconic—Madonna and child, sacred and innocent, untouchable. Something so powerfully female even Gilead can’t pervert it.

I agree, I managed to get through the episode without a tear but was a bubbling mess at the end. Nothing can replace that bond.

The last scene with Janine and her baby was iconic—Madonna and child, sacred and innocent, untouchable. Something so powerfully female even Gilead can’t pervert it.

I wonder what Serena would have made of that scene if she'd been there?