The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 (UK Pace) - thread 4

[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

Someone on the last thread asked for a link to the previous threads:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3216737-The-Handmaid-s-Tale-Season-2

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3269725-The-Handmaids-Tale-Season-2-UK-Pace-thread-2

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3290403-The-Handmaids-Tale-Season-2-UK-Pace-thread-3?pg=38

I'm going to have to leave the thread this week. By the time I.come back, you'll be 2 episodes ahead of me and I can't risk seeing anything.

I think I'm taking it all a bit too.seriously

I think i might leave the thread too. Too many people making oblique references to spoilers they've seen. I can't keep track of who has said they've seen spoilers so I don't know who's posts im supposed to skip over.

I haven't seen any actual spoilers on here? I did say my DD said 'oooh next week is exciting' but that she's said that every week since the start! That's not a spoiler

if there has been any, I've totally missed them! I have NO IDEA what is coming up.

Don't say episodes are exciting! Don't say something awful's coming up!
Don't say ANYTHING about future episodes unless it's pure speculation & you have no actual knowledge!!!!!

I have no knowledge whatsoever and shall refrain from saying anything to do with anything that isn't concentrating on the current or past episodes! not that I actually have said anything anyway

I thought maybe Eden had told Fred about June and Nick being in love. Eden wants to get rid of Nick too, as the marriage can't work. She might think she'll get to marry the other guardian if the coast is clear.

Then Fred had set up the meet with Hannah to get rid of Nick and Offred.

But that doesn't explain why the guards weren't looking for June too.

How about if Fred has set this up to also implicate Serena?

I know it is a bit risky (re not keeping his house in order) but he seems to me to be in a bit of dangerous frame of mind: utterly convinced of his own power and right to rule over everyone but humiliated by the Canada trip (which in a warped way he can associate with June as Luke confronted him), humiliated by "his" two women doing his job better than him, enraged a man got promoted to commander by impregnating his wife etc etc.

What if in his mind he gets rid of them both and gets to marry again (fresh young thing like Eden) because it couldn't possibly be him who is infertile. If he makes it look like Serena, Nick and June were all plotting against Gilead and he cleans house then he might look strong and in control.

We know this might backfire on him badly but I think there is a chance he is so drunk on his own sense of importance he might do something extreme like that.

If Fred did set it up he could've known the schedule of the guardians who patrol the area & arranged it such that Hannah would be gone but June & Nick would still be there to get caught. A handmaid & a driver in an abandoned house would not be a good look. Perhaps his plan was that the patrol would see the car & go in to investigate. Fred could say the handmaid seduced the driver & they tried to steal the Waterfords' baby. Nick would be straight on the wall, June would join him after a C-section.

I'm not convinced though. He gave Nick that piece of paper with the address on - that's evidence that he sent them there. If he was clever enough to orchestrate a plan like that, he'd be clever enough not to leave any evidence!

I love a spoiler for soaps, but for something like this that I only get for a series I want to be able to figure it out. I rarely re-watch things - for me, the enjoyment is gone once the mysteries are known.

I really don't think that meeting was a set up.

Fred seemed mostly anxious that Serena didn't find out about it.

Fred is most successful when he works with Serena rather than against her. Their relationship might be a nightmare to us as observers but they've made it work for them for years. I think we forget that because we want her to see what a creep he is and turn him in. Odd that we're not saying the same about her and hoping he turns her in, she's been just as complicit in the rapes and we all seem to agree she's the brains behind Fred's success.

And this time, he was working against Serena, which is when Fred's plans usually go wrong.

He was happy with Nick until Serena made a comment about him being concerned about Ofred, then he asked the Head Commander what to do about Nick as he felt he needed a promotion. Serena was hoping that this meant Nick would be made to leave, instead they found him a bride and Fred was happy with that. He was jealous of someone showing an interest in his Handmaid, in the same way he was jealous when that other Commander said he wanted her. He wasn't worried that Nick was an Eye or anything like that. I don't think that's occurred to him. He just wanted to keep Nick away from his woman, and now Nick has a woman of his own to occupy him, Fred can relax again.

So I really don't think Fred was setting them up. It was just bad luck. Someone likely noticed two strange cars at the house or in the vicinity, and came to investigate.

They weren't looking for June, or for the other guard, or the Martha, or Hannah. They seemed to accept that Nick was alone and took him.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that next week Fred will get a call to say his driver has been arrested (hopefully not shot) for trespassing and he'll have to explain to Serena what he did and why he doesn't know where June is right now and they will have to try to find her without admitting she's missing again.

Fred seemed anxious RE Serena

Yes because she wants that baby

I don’t think it was a set-up. If Fred wanted to set it up so June and/or Nick were killed, why would he actually arrange for Hannah to be there? He could just get them to drive out to the deserted house and have them shot without doing dodgy deals with other commanders to have children delivered to remote places.

He gave June the photo of Hannah previously, so has used Hannah as a reward before.

Possibly he knows that by raping a pregnant Handmaid June has the power to drop him totally in the shit with Aunt Lydia and so arranged the Hannah meeting to make June grateful to him instead of vengeful.

Or maybe it’s another demonstration of his power. I can rape you, I can arrange for you to see your child. Don’t you dare tell me what’s within my power.

Or maybe it’s another demonstration of his power. I can rape you, I can arrange for you to see your child. Don’t you dare tell me what’s within my power.

I think it's this

Finally got to watch this last night and I SOBBED. Full on bawled.

I was cackling throughout the beginning, the look on Fred's face when the younger commander was talking about getting his own wife pregnant, then Serena's humiliation at the false labour - especially June's sass when AL shook her head at her.

*cracks knuckles - FEW THOUGHTS

• Could Emily have caused her commanders's heart attack because of her time in the colony? Perhaps made her toxic/radioactive?
• Nick didn't care about Eden kissing Issac because he doesn't care about her. He doesn't love her, if anything I think he's happy she's breaking the rules. I really cannot bear Eden though, I know she is supposed to be an innocent but I just cannot warm to her.
• All my hopes for Serena are gone. I don't think she regretted the rape though - I think her look towards the end of it was because Fred was very obviously enjoying it.
• Definitely think Fred set up Nick and June. I think he warned the guards about someone being at the house but not about who it was. He was hoping Nick and June were both caught and he won't be happy once he finds out only Nick was arrested, because he cannot come clean that he knew June was with him.
• Don't think Nick was shot, just knocked out. I really hope he doesn't end up on the wall. He's an eye and an informant to the higher commander, so hopefully he has some backing.

The scene with Hannah/Agnes was truly heart breaking. I'm not sure I've ever ugly cried at a programme like that before - and I cry at everything!

I am becoming addicted to this thread! Must get back to work!

Apologies if this posts twice - app is playing up on me.
I've just rewatched the part with the shooting. When the gun goes off it doesn't look like it hits Nick, and one of the other guys falls to the ground.
But when the camera pans back, Nick is on the ground and it's definitely him that they carry into the van.

I'd also been hoping during last week's episode that Serena would ask for political asylum in Canada, but it seemed the prospect of a baby in Gilead overrode any of her qualms. After the shocking ending this week I'm clinging on to the hope that Fred won't let the baby be endangered as it's important for his own status as Commander.

FFS - There is a massive and major spoiler on Buzzfeed's main page right now. I have been using all my willpower to stay away from spoilers and am really pissed off now.

Having seen the spoiler in the headline, I stupidly opened the article anyway, only to find another 4 spoilers so even if you are caught by the first - don;t be tempted to read on!

That's what happened to me Sally

It was buzzfeed too. Didn't realise it displayed the whole of season 2, clicked and got a load of spoilers

When the baby didn't come , I immediately guessed that this was all going to end in Fred raping June as a 'natural ' method to induce labour . I desperately wanted June to stop playing with fire .

@SallySynonym I also got spoiled because of buzzfeed! Their UK Twitter page posted something last week, I clicked straight off when I saw *spoilers warning, and the first comment was a huge spoiler may have just had a quick look at their site too and it was the same incident, so at least I know nothing new

Soubriquet

I had already avoided one article just in case but this one is right there in the headline (with a picture from a yet to be broadcast episode) so impossible to avoid. It is an interview with one of the cast members talking about how they felt about the moment when.....

Aaaaaarggh. It's UK Buzzfeed. What on earth are they thinking???

Why on earth do they do this?

I've managed to avoid everything but I consciously have to do that, although I appreciate it can catch you unawares

I got spoiled by the Apple News app, an article from The Hollywood Reporter flashed up and I clicked it before my brain connected about pace.

Buzzfeed UK have no excuse and should be royally slated for it

I was getting spoilers on my phone - got worried - but have now messaged them to say not to send more.

I'm confused about Fred. Even if Nick and June had left as soon as Hannah left, the other guards could have stopped them anywhere en route. But then again perhaps their suspicions were aroused by seeing a car at the deserted house. Do we think that it is Waterford's house?

If Nick tells them that he was sent by a Commander then he should not be punished, but then again, it might make things worse to make an enemy of Fred. I wonder if this gives Fred leverage over Nick.

Sorry for my ramblings. Trying to work out who benefits. And then there's June and her imminent delivery. Fred might send help.

Yes but Eyy, Nick's commander was killed in the bomb - he's rootless now...