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

You cannot accessHulu from the UK

Yes, I should have been more clear about what I meant with the timing.

I think Nick can save his relationship with the Waterford's, at least superficially.

Fred isn't going to forget that Serena has said Nick is the father of the baby.

And we don't know what Fred will do with that.

But Nick is clever and he might be able to convince the Waterford's that the guards ambushed him and left June unknowingly.

If he has kept Fred's secret, not admitted that June was there to the guards, and managed to talk to Fred privately to explain, he might win back some trust.

If he wakes up or is interrogated and says "Commander Waterford sent me out here with his pregnant handmaid to meet her stolen daughter" then Fred is in trouble.

If he says "I was alone and Commander Waterford asked me to check the house as he had intelligence to say someone was after Commander MacKensie" then Fred looks good, nobody finds out about June, Nick seems trustworthy, and Fred and Serena can find June and bring her back.

They will know there was no escape attempt, and they will know Nick has protected them when he could have exposed them.

I don't know if that happens but that's the outcome I would like to see. Nick and June safe (ish) and still with a chance of escape because they've convinced the Waterford's this was just unfortunate bad luck.

Just realised I can't access Hulu from UK!

That's what I thought too Watermelon that the kicks had stopped.
I'll need to watch again as I was too tense but she said something at the start in her narration about making up good bits to a story. Then at the end she said something similar.

That's a really good point Tangelas
It will be a long week to wait!

Although the Oprah bit was FUCK YES OPRAH! It led me to thinking, she played Springsteen. Though they are both self made heroes they are also incredibly wealthy - those who got out probably had money and connections, enough to give bribes, private jet on standby etc

Tangelas - that might explain why she didn’t put the baby to her breast.
I thought when she woke up with the blood, the baby had stopped moving.

Are we saying the baby isn't alive?? She cried when she came out didn't she...

worried my friend watched it via show box.

Sorry pushed too soon, that's who survived there, the wealthy, and that's what would happen here too in a Gilead scenario

The Royals
Wealthy Slebs like Simon Cowell
Government
Business millionaires like Sugar and Branson

It's only the little people who would suffer

In the epilogue at the end of the book after the fall of Gilead it is revealed that June 's story had been found on some tapes that she had made. I assumed the narration was part of those tapes.

That's just what I thought but lots of others think the baby is ok. It was her narration that made me think that parts were true and parts were what she'd imagined.

I love the soundtrack on THT. Especially the contradictory tracks they play during the credits.

I thought the baby had died too - it looked really blue / gray at the end. I really hope I'm wrong though.

I think the baby has definitely survived. For one thing, there are two further episodes-if the baby had been stillborn and she and June were found at the beginning of the next episode, that would mean certain death for June, and where would the narrative go without her? I also think it's significant that the shooting with Nick was deliberately ambiguous - as a PP said, it wasn't Nick that was shot, so maybe some plot twist is about to be revealed that will see him come back for June and the baby. Come on Nick!

[not that I am wildly overinvested in all of this or anything]

Just Googled (don't worry not a spoiler) and good spot by Crinkle that the narration is from the book.
So looks like I read too much into that then

Held my breath that entire time. That was definitely a car at the end - I reckon it was the Waterford's returning & think the baby is fine. If she didn't cut the umbilical cord, would she need to put the baby to her breast?

@TangelasVine Junes lines at the end of the episode are taken from chapter 41 the book; 'I keep gong with this limping and mutilated story because after all I want you to hear it, as I will hear yours to if I meet you or if you escape, in the future or in heaven...or in some other place. By telling you anything at all I'm already believing in you. I believe you're there, I believe you into being. Brcause I'm telling you this story I will your experience. I tell, therefore you are"
I can't believe I recognised them and found the page after last reading it about 15 years ago!
Its a chapter which reads as June's stream of conscience. In a previous chapter she says that she's writing a 'Dear John' letter in her head. So she's speaking to whoever she might tell once she's free (eg. we the reader/veiwer) but she's also speaking to Luke as she doesn't know what's happened to him - so she could well be speaking to the baby or who she imagines the baby will become as an adult

It's been a while since I read the book but doesn't June's narration echo the book. I vaguely remember her apologising for the story being fragmented. Which doesn't make sense as the series itself has followed a certain timeline

I found that episode so tense.

Definitely a car at the end. I’d be surprised if it was the Waterfords - surely it would be more likely to be someone from closer to where June is, responding to the shots?

I'm also pleased that Serena missed her ridiculous birth ceremony.

So there's a third series NOOOOOOO

Was anybody else chanting shoot, shoot, shoot when she was lining up the shotgun?

I'm not normally one to vote for the violent option but I was kind of hoping she would take them both out with one shot to the head - knew it wouldn't happen but couldn't have happened to a nicer pair.

I'm also thrilled that she escaped the birthing ceremony. A small consolation if she ends up back with the Waterfords but at least Serena was robbed of her "moment".

I hope it's Nick in the car but I doubt it.

I'm eager to see how it's resolved. How will the Waterfords explain how the baby came without notice? How will the commander explain why he let Offred see her daughter?

I'm not sure I can withstand the tension.

For those people who are going away/on holiday. I'm in the Canaries and have just watched this episode on the All4 App. I assumed it wouldn't work as I think the iPlayer doesn't but it was fine!

A few random thoughts:

I thought it was interesting that Fred said to Serena that he thought Nick was loyal. Don't know why that surprised me.

Serena was absolutely terrifying when she stormed into the house. I really feared for June at that point.

I think there is a car at the end and most likely will be guards coming after hearing the shots. June seems resigned to this.

I don't think June had the energy to try and open the garage door after she slipped in the ice. Even if she had managed to drive away, I have no idea how far they are from the border with Canada and she would have had to give birth out in the cold.

The birth scene was so moving, with all the flashbacks to other births. I am in awe of Elizabeth Moss' acting.

Only two more episodes to go - based on the epilogue in the book Gilead lasts for a long time and there are insurgencies and purges of the Commanders, so there is a lot more that could happen in series three.