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

Or the Mackenzies were happy to rescue a child from a child centre (as in season 1, ) and give that child a happy life and one that their mother would want them to have.

They didn't do the ripping.

I like the Mackenzies and I like that June gave birth to Holly, Hannah's sister there.

Thank you @Hygge re: the title of the book. I was trying to make it out, but only got as far as "How to use your miniature c ..."

I noticed the maps too and wondered if they might be significant.

Rescue a child? Children are gold dust in Gilead. You don’t get to rescue them, you get rewarded with them for being useful to Gilead, like Nick was rewarded with a wife.

There aren’t any nice, benevolent commanders knocking around who just accidentally ended up in charge, only total shits who support the regime and most likely helped set it up.

What did Aunt Lydia say about the econofamily who helped June? The man on the Wall, the wife to be a Handmaid and the child to be given to another family, wasn’t it?

Commander Mackenzie will know where Hannah came from. She was kidnapped, not rescued. Placemats I'm quite confused why you would think that. *

*obviously it's just a telly prog, so everyone can interpret it how they like

It seems that children are a status symbol in Gilead so there probably isn't an option for a Commander to say "no thanks we like our child free life" unless they want to end up on the wall.
The MacKenzies might see adopting a child, even though taken, as preferable to the handmaid monthly rape thing. Although who knows if they got a choice.
He does seem to be high up though with the war maps and the large house so I agree was probably involved in the establishment of Gilead.

Neither Luke nor Nick are very exciting.

My point is that Mackenzie and presumably his wife decided to adopt a child rather than force a handmaid into a rape scenario.

Hannah had already been taken. I'm not excusing the Mackenzie clan, but their actions seem more benevolent than that of Fred and Serena.

I think the MacKenzies are lower status than the Waterfords. Fred got to decide that their child would be taken to the house to meet June - presumably their consent wasn’t sought. We are also told that Fred is about as high up as a Commander can get (in the first season Alma called June Miss Fancy Pants for getting such a prestigious posting).

The MacKenzies’ house is bigger - but it’s also in the arse end of nowhere. Fred and Serena’s house is far more central and would be worth a lot more (in the same way that a Little house in Kensington would be more valuable than a big one in Staffordshire).

Fair point Cru - but the Mackenzies have 2 houses, the Waterfords only have one.

We don't know what the Mackenzies Town House is like.

American families I know who have remote, large country houses like theirs normally also have a huge apartment on Fifth Avenue or similar status!

I take the point the the Mackenzie’s might not be good people, but someone in that household tuned the car radio into Mayday. The fact the engine even turned on after so long (the all drive black vans now) points to that someone in that household was tuning in fairly regularly.

I wonder whether they just prefer the Free America music? I can imagine Gilead having appalling (or no) music.

I'm sure June fiddles with the radio? It doesn't just switch onto Free America Music?

I wonder where the miniature camera is! No detail seems wasted in this series - why that title and no other? [possible overthinking alert]

What was the name of nicks commander friend that was killed in the bomb? Was he Mackenzie? Too scared to google in case of spoilers !

Was it no Price or Pryde or something?

Commander Price.

Don't you think Nick and June would have got to know each other more deeply when she was hiding out at the Boston News site? So he has known her in other ways than just a hand maid in the Waterford's house.

I agree that I can't see the relationship lasting beyond its current confines, far too much trauma associated with it.

Agree June fiddles with the radio to tune it in.

I agree that Nick doesn't know the pre-Gilead June well if at all. But she's changed, bcome a darker, tougher and stronger person to survive, and Luke doesn't know the person she's become as a result of all that's happened to her and everything she's seen and done in Gilead. Plus presumably he'll have his own survivor's guilt to deal with if/when she returns. I think it would be pretty well impossible for them to make a go of it.

I couldn't tell if one car arrived at the end or several. I'm clinging to the hope that if it is just one then it might be friendly. If there are several then that is obviously Gilead powers, possibly with an ambulance etc, coming to get the baby.

Is episode 12 the last one in this series?

2 more to go I think

There’s 13 episodes in this series

Thank god. Still a chance we may see an escape