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

Eden tempted nobody, she's a child.

Checking in.
Love these threads.

But you get banished from Gilead by being sent to the colonies for a slow death, so she wouldn't be that lucky.

I realise she's a child I'm discussing the motif of the name 'Eden' @LeisureTime Religion is obviously a trope within the series

And if Eden & Isaac were caught together I bet Gilead would instantly cast her in the role of the temptress.

Little that means Eden will be banished from gilead

Or turned into a handmaid?

Don’t hand maids have to be of proven fertility? Eden isn’t

I think there are possibly hidden meanings in the names too. Issac in the Bible was born to an infertile couple - his father was over a hundred years old. I can imagine it's a popular boys name in Gilead. And Eden as a reminder that women are sinners (in Gilead logic anyway)

Don't the Handmaids have to have proven fertility?

Just catching up with last few episodes. Why don’t they baptise and have godparents in Gilead?

It's quite common not to baptise in far right American Christian groups ime. You don't get baptised until you are old enough to choose to do it yourself, and it's generally not called a baptism.
I'm not sure why that is precisely. I think it's to do with the concept of being 'saved' at the moment you consciously recognise Jesus as your saviour etc which obviously babies can't do.

Adult Baptism in my experience is a bigger thing in fundamentalist Christianity

I wish mumsnet had been around when we had to analyse books at school......it makes it so much more interesting to engage in discussion and hear what other people think.

The only biblical baptism is BELIEVERS baptism so you have to have enough understanding of God to believe that you are a sinner, need saving and that Jesus is "the way, the truth, the light"

Babies/young children can't really make the decision to repent etc

The adult/child baptism thing is a theological position. More evangelical churches tend to adult baptism because it's a choice you can only make for yourself. You can argue it either way from the bible.

I don't think the name Eden is about temptation, that would be Eve. Eden is paradise but also a fertile land so maybe there's something in that.

I'm new to these threads - hope you don't mind if I join in...

I reckon Eden will realise she can get rid of Nick by reporting him for having the bundle of letters...or she will tell Isaac and he'll do the reporting.

I think the question of when Serena will "turn" is fascinating. She's had it brought home to her in Canada that she's currently a collaborator. She urgently needs to save her own skin by joining the other side.

Maybe June, Nick and Serena can all bundle into a car and run away. With the baby.

I don't think we will see Serena change her stance this series. Yes she is in a hell of her own making, but she is also stubborn and proud, and desperately wants June's baby. If she helps June escape or bring down Gilead she loses the baby which she has come to think of as her own.

If anything I wouldn't be surprised to see her mistreatment of June escalate soon. She must be feeling guilty, uncomfortable and generally pushed off after Canada which might cause her to lash out.

I loved June's renewed determination to get out, but I just can't work out how she will do it. Maybe nick will sacrifice himself to get her out somehow.

Welcome Huguenot.

I too think that Serena will lash out and become quite sadistic whilst she struggles with her feelings on all of this. She's been compromised before and suffered a beating because of it, and will need thinking time and whilst that is happening she will prove to her husband that she is truly onboard, whist she is thinking what to do. Just my take on it1

Thanks, Roussette.

I think Series II is a very interesting study in collaborators and what makes them tick - the decisions they make. Serena has been told she could maybe have babies of her own in Hawaii - but perhaps she can't, because of having been shot in the pelvic area. Maybe June's baby is indeed her last shot.

Serena has been told she could maybe have babies of her own in Hawaii - but perhaps she can't, because of having been shot in the pelvic area. Maybe June's baby is indeed her last shot.

That's my guess. So that bloke wasn't just offering something that wasn't possible, he was reminding Serena that the baby she sees as hers is actually someone else's. Maybe that was an extra incentive for her to want to get rid of June ASAP.

I've just been thinking about Serena in her greenhouse, and how upset she was about some seedlings which had died. It's even conceivable that she was pregnant when she was shot? (Just a wild speculation.) Then she would feel she was owed a baby.

We know, and Serena knows, that Fred is infertile. So she would not have been pregnant.

Ooo that makes total sense

He thinks it's just that Fred's infertile

She knows that they have NOTHING that can help HER

that was an own goal on his part

Love this thread

Fred's obviously infertile which is why she was so ready to get Nick involved.
I do think due to the shooting she is now infertile, but possibly wasn't before - and this bitterness is what led her to becoming such a driving force of Gilead. She begrudges the handmaids for their fertility and her anger and resentment made her spiteful - of course, now it's too late and the reality is finally hitting. In the shooting episode she's giving a speech, getting people behind her being really impassioned, but on the hospital bed she is indignant and lashes out how she could - through Gilead.