The handmaids tale-thread 6

[SisterNotCisTerf]

Let’s get June out of there!

She couldn't have sent the baby alone, and she couldn't have stayed with it - Emily's presence gave her the choice

I didn’t have that as the definite interpretation as, as said, I already thought they were indicating she was thinking she might not go when she put the photo of Hannah in baby Holly/N blanket.

I think she could have given the baby to whoever was in the car to take across the border. I admit it would have been harder than giving the baby to Emily, but I felt she was already considering not going with the baby.

To add, I didn’t think June decided from the start of the escape she was going to just let the baby get out, but that scene showing her put the photo in the baby’s blanket indicated to me she was starting to think she wouldn’t go with the baby.

I'm a long time lurker, never before poster on the thread but I really feel tonight that I have to comment.
I find the handmaid's tale to be a shocking story about the oppression of women. It's alarming really though that most people only see it under those circumstances. We can all see how clearly June is being oppressed and even Serena but we fail to recognise it in ourselves.
Things on this thread tonight have gotten really out of hand in my opinion. Now I can see that people might be feeling emotional after the episode and the spoiler. But the one thing that I try to take from the handmaid's tale is to learn from it. I think everyone from tonight could use some perspective.
Women seem to come together and we can't help but bite at each other. A simple thread where we are all commenting a mutual enjoyment has been spoilt tonight. There's been lots of people singling out one individual and to be honest I can't really see the need.
But my main point is this: how can we learn the lessons from the handmaid's tale if we behave like this. June is in this situation mainly because of Joy. The whole story is basically how one woman will watch another get hurt repeatedly and do nothing because it is not happening to her. It is also a prime example though of one woman biting at another just because she can. I'm not a feminist really but I don't see how we can ask for oppression to end when we aren't willing to do it ourselves. When women can't come and post online without being shot down.
To me this thread in particular should be a place for respect ultimately and I'm disheartened at the way it's ended tonight. Surely it's not too much to ask for people to be kind to one another, if you don't agree with what someone is saying then fair enough but some of the comments on here have gone too far. You're making judgements and using words that could hurt someone without even knowing them. Joy does this when she starts a world where women deserve to be raped because they're divorced.
I would hope that if I found myself in a situation like the handmaid's tale that I would speak up for others and I hope others would speak up for me. But I don't see how we can prevent women being oppressed when women continue to oppress others. Be kind! You don't have to engage with someone when you don't agree, you don't have to resort to name calling, ganging up or even ramming your opinion down someone else's throat.
Words can hurt people, even over the internet.

random question and quite a morbid one......when they carry out these "punishments" are they done as a surgery type thing and they wake up to find they are a finger or hand short......or do they do it in a medieval torture kind of way to gI've the punishment more clout?. If I remember rightly Emily woke up in a ward wearing surgical knickers and in obvious pain but not particularly aware of what had happened. And the commander who lost a hand, I'm sure there were scenes of him having surgery. I'm not sure why I ask, it has just intrigued me......such a barbaric form of punishment.

Im not sure how I feel about the ending. I can see why they did it, she had a choice to leave Hannah behind and I don't think she could do it. but it feels rather convenient to be a hook for the third series.
I can't see how nick will get out of this alive unless he shoots Fred?
Will be interesting to see the underground world develop in s3.
I think I might need to go back and watch it all again.....will it all be of C4 online?

Phew! I watched it as soon as it became available online & have spent the last 1.5 hours catching up on the comments!

One thing I've not seen mentioned - did anyone else think that June hiding with the baby waiting by the bridge was rather Moses-esque? Baby being hidden from danger in tall grass/rushes stuff. Moses's mum left him for someone else to protect. I had a bad feeling June would do the same. Then Emily appeared & June told her that she was getting out, not "we" & I felt like screaming "get in the van, June!" Moses went on to liberate the Israelites from Egypt - maybe Nichole will be instrumental in bringing down Gilead!

I don't actually think C Lawrence is evil. I'm wondering if he's just not emotionally literate to realise that she doesn't understand what's going on. He doesn't seek to reassure her because he knows what's happening is a good thing. Or possibly he's trying to keep it a surprise, but in a good way like a present. Maybe he didn't mean to be creepy when he asked her if she healed, he was attempting to show empathy.

I'm so desperate for series 3 now!

Randoml please......no more. There have been no comments on this for a few pages. It's not about oppression.....people just want to get on and discuss the show.

My life is pretty sad for various reasons . I long for Sundays when I get to watch THT and the cone on here and get everyone else's perspective. The bickering is shite!

agnu.....love that about moses!

I like the Moses line of thinking. I get why she stayed, I do. I can’t imagine having to decide between leaving with one child or getting one to safety and trying to get the other. It doesn’t bare thinking. I’ll be very interested to see how it goes and I can’t begin to think how she finds somewhere safe etc. I’d be in a blind panic and would probably get caught.

As am I but fair enough.

Don't you think at times though everyone has moments of Serena and moments of June. Serena acts from a dark place and forgets how it feels to be June. June acts reasonably and just seems to want Serena to remember. They both seem to switch roles and at times Serena becomes more oppressed and June still treats her quite respectfully. That's what I find poignant because it feels so absent sometimes in the modern world.

When Martha said 'I should done more to help' about Eden, I thought it was an odd thing to say. After all, what could she do do help? Didn't imagine that she was part of the 'Marthas.'

Dh and I watched it and both looked at each other at the end and went WOW!

Just joining the thread, I haven't watched last nights yet just love reading all the comments.

I can't believe it's going to be the last one for a year, maybe more if Yvonne Stravosku is pregnant?

Holly/Nichole was already on-track for the "moses" role before the escape - effectively the daughter of a princess, with her birth mother employed as her wetnurse. June was offered the chance to stay and could have brought up Nichole with feminist ideas hoping that she grows up with the strength to fight the system. June rejected that path when she told pharaoh to go fuck himself.

If anyone is Moses it's June. She has run away having struck an Egyptian and has escaped to the wilderness. She could now go and get on with her life but instead she has experienced an epiphany and determined to go back and obtain the freedom of her people.

I thought the episode was great but the ending was shite. The whole series has been about how babies need their mothers and yet June abandons hers after fighting so hard to be near her. Nope, I don't buy it.

Emily is a traumatised woman who occasionally has moments of dissociation when she stabs people. Not the ideal babysitter........

"Be kind." Female socialisation 101. That one poster was only singled out because s/he kept coming back and posting the same ridiculous statement over and over again. I stand by everything I wrote last night. By contrast I was called both a bitch and a cunt. But don't worry, I'm not sobbing into my cornflakes this morning.

Love the Moses angle. I hadn't thought of that, but crouching in the rushes has to be significant.

I thought it was screamingly obvious with the flashback and photo etc that June wasn't going to go, but I'd seen the spoiler so knew in advance. If I hadn't, I don't know whether it would have jumped out in the same way. Impossible to say.

Did anyone see the map that Fred was looking at in his office before he went to see what the fire was all about. It looked like 3 colours on a US map but I couldn't see any more than that.

Just thought it might be significant if it shows Gilead shrinking?

I thought it was screamingly obvious with the flashback and photo etc that June wasn't going to go, but I'd seen the spoiler so knew in advance. If I hadn't, I don't know whether it would have jumped out in the same way.

I had managed to avoid all the spoilers and yes it did become gradually obvious at those points that she wasn't going to escape without Hannah.

Did anyone see the map that Fred was looking at in his office before he went to see what the fire was all about. It looked like 3 colours on a US map but I couldn't see any more than that. I think there was a link to a map pasted in one of the earlier threads which was presumably a screenshot of that moment but it was on a site full of spoilers so I didn't look. Might try to find it now.

Yes, he was looking at a US map with three colours but don't know the significance.

Unfortunately I knew what was going to happen too, but that was from the previous thread and the troll. It meant I couldn't concentrate properly as I was trying to think how all this would happen. When the bombshell was dropped, nothing much had happened at that point, it just all started with AL and Emily.

Can I ask... did Emily tell AL she didn't go through the ceremony?

I loved how CLawrence asked Emily 'what are you going'... as she was kneeling in front the mantlepiece and she answers it's the ceremony tonight and he says 'I'm not putting you through that'. I think there was a collective YEAH from MNers all round the country at that point!

'what are you doing'
not
'what are you going'

No Emily didn't say anything when AL said CL had said the commander said it went well.
That's when the cut out your tongue comment came in.

I didn't see the ending coming til she put the photo in with the baby either. I do wonder where it's going and how many seasons it will go on for. I'm gutted I have to wait a year now though!

I hope Emily finds her partner and son in Canada and raises Nicole with them.

Rousette, I think he actually said "I'm not doing that with you" which I felt could have been read two ways at the time. Either "I'm not doing that repellent thing" or "I'm not doing that thing with you, you're repellent". Quite clever I thought.

There's a map and some other geography stuff here.