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

@TheHandmaidsTail - I agree, that's I what I was trying to say but you've said it so much better.

The government agencies already knew, but the ordinary people perhaps weren't so aware until the letters went 'boom' and forced the government to act.

Anyone else getting really twitchy about any mention of spoilers!?

Yes!

It's like when people from the US thread popped in & said "Ooh episode six!!!!", so you spent that whole episode knowing something was going to happen...

I'd rather people didn't mention at all when they've seen spoilers about something big coming up.

Just popping on ready for Sunday

Yes exactly. I've got to skip those posters in case they've inadvertently said something that's a spoiler.

I've been well and truly spoilered by accident as I result I proof read every post I send to make sure it's kosher

Finally up to date so can join in the chat. I'm watching with my teenage son who is aghast.

Ah! New thread!

The non-mention of the previous posting is defeinitely weird, but I wonder if it's to stop viewers from dwelling on it and wondering why June never tried to escape before.

I also think it's probably there just so we didn't have to get through the 'firsts' - the first posting, the first ceremony. That would have taken too much time in the first series/the book (which I haven't read in 10 or so years, and I really need to find it/get a new copy) so they had her already know the ropes and just the family were new.

Were the letters written in Jezebels? Moira didn't seem to know what was in the package and was disappointed that they were "only" letters and not something to go "boom!" If they were written by the women in Jezebels, then I find it unlikely Moira wouldn't know what was going on.

One of the letters had been written by a Martha; no suggestion she had ended up in Jezebels.

I think they were somehow collected by the Mayday underground and smuggled into Jezebels and then out again via the butcher into June's hands. Is that the timeline? I daren't look it up in case of spoilers.

That's what I thought too, brokenshoes. The letters are from women and men trapped somehow within the regime, some are handmaids and some are the ordinary workers.

Re the sex of June's baby - she refers to it as 'she' but I noticed when Aunt Lydia was talking to Fred she said 'it will be a boy, strong like his father' and Fred actually stumbled. (He knows it's not his?)

I think the thought was they'd been passed out from Jezebel's Moira to June so they must have been written by the Jezebel's girls

Remember Moira went through Handmaid training and was there so there could have been former Martha's too.

I wonder why Moira was offered Jezebel's as a choice and Emily and Janine weren't ?

"Choice"= Jezebel's or Colonies

I wonder why Moira was offered Jezebel's as a choice and Emily and Janine weren't?

I don't know about Emily but I'd guess it wasn't offered to Janine because of her eye. Jezebel's was meant to be about eye candy for the men.

You always get the "special interest" crowd

I wonder why Moira was offered Jezebel's as a choice and Emily and Janine weren't? Moira only tried to escape before she got to be handmaid, Janine tried to kill a child and Emily stole that car after she had FGM

I don't think Eden will know about the letters reaching Canada, I don't think she's kept up to date with current affairs or news.

I also don't think she'll inform on Nick in a hurry, I think she's just desperate and lonely and having her head turned by Isaac might satisfy her for a bit. Isaac is clearly young & particularly evil by his treatment of Janine and I think a weak and impressionable teenager like Eden will be drawn to that.

Isaac may end up wanting to 'get rid of' nick. Both Eden and Isaac are young, passionate and volatile, and could cause a lot of damage in an environment like Gilead. (For themselves or for others) they are just teenagers after all.

I wonder why Moira was offered Jezebel's as a choice and Emily and Janine weren't?

Perhaps it was just luck? at Jezebel's they needed different types of women to provide variety and satisfy everybody's tastes.

Janine fitted the look & type they needed
At that particular time. And of course janine's eye would mean she wouldn't be picked.

I don't think Eden and Isaac would be brave enough to have an affair? The feelings could develop of course but they have been brainwashed into the gilead way of life and know they can't act on their feelings. They would end up being killed/hung/mutilated if they were found out.

Actually thinking about it, that could happen in THT as it's so bloody dramatic and shocking.

Issac is such an arrogant little shit. I could see him raping Eden

I think Eden absolutely would inform on Nick as a way to get rid of him if something develops between her and Isaac.
She could casually mention the letters to him. And he might know more than she does about what happened in Canada. So between them they might put two and two together.

I can't decide whether June is being sincere in the scene with Aunt Lydia where she tells her the baby needs protection, or whether it is a very clever strategy to undermine the Waterfords and cast doubt on their suitability to be parents.
Yes, the baby is at risk, but I feel there is more to it in terms of June building a relationship with Aunt Lydia.
Not sure if I have expressed that very well.

Thank you for the new thread.

I love how this series really makes you think and parallels real life. With the Syria refugee crisis public opinion went back and forth. Started off as concern over it all being men with smart phones and then there was the photo of the poor child that drowned then it swung the other way. Then the press were saying men were pretending to be children etc. And on it goes...
So can easily see Canadian press and public quickly changing opinions if there were shocking stories in the letters to give a more human element.

Do we have any idea how long Gilead has existed for, when the Handmaid’s tale starts? I am just wondering how old Eden would have been, at the inception of the regime, and how long they have had, to brainwash people like her.

My gut feeling is that it is only a very few years - 3 or 4, because June doesn’t look much older than in the pre-Gilead bits - but that doesn’t seem long enough to allow the regime to produce compliant young women like Eden.

I am confused.

I think it's been 3 years, someone mentions it in the first series

I think Eden was probably raised in a very conservative family - you do get those types, even in real-life America!

And I'm not 100% convinced that she is quite as compliant as she seems. There just might be more to her than meets the eye (get it?)

I guess the letters from the Jezebels will be key - Eden knows that Nick had them, so if she hears about them getting out in Canada, she will know it was him. The fact that they made a point of showing us that she knows about the letters means that it's going to hit the fan sooner or later, I reckon.

I feel for Eden. One possibility is that she gets off with Isaac, who then denounced her - so she is made to be a Handmaid. I think that would also be a terrible punishment for Nick - it would, at least partly, be his fault for being so cold to her.