The handmaids tale-thread 6

[SisterNotCisTerf]

Let’s get June out of there!

But he was quite rough with her, and sinister. Do you think we were seeing it as Emily interpreted it?

I think Emily is more than capable of looking after Nicole; Emily is a mother herself and June knows that. She has the capacity to manage.

If we I had the chance to hand one child to the relative safety of a friend, then I believe I’d stay behind to find the other. I don’t think that’s far fetched. June knows Moira made it, so Emily has a good chance.

Once she’s in Canada, I don’t think June would ever be able to get back to gilead. None of the refugees have made a return journey as far as I recall. The American government in exile seems completely impotent.

For the last ten minutes of that episode, I almost forgot to breathe.

Couple of things:

How was baby Nichole going to be fed and nappy changed? I do worry about stuff like this.

We never got to know about Nick and the shooting at the 'summer house'. I think there is more to Nick than meets the glad eye.

I loved how June emerged Sith like at the end. She means business.

Fred is a psychopath. I do feel for Serena, so much misogyny internalised but I believe the rose tinted glasses have long fallen from her eyes.

Emily's despair was so visceral. Commander Lawrence is a strange character, probably high on drugs and alcohol - but his 'don't do drugs' had me chuckling.

Aunt Lydia deserved all that she got from Emily.

Blessings to you all.

Just watching it again... a bit I missed... when Serena stands in front of the Gilead men..
How demeaning, one of them says 'you forget your lunch today, Waterford?'

Fred's face to see his wife was pure evil.

Nichole will either be fed and changed because formula and nappies have been provided for her in the car, or she’ll just cry the whole way. This isn’t a holiday jolly so she’ll just be miserable if she has to. She won’t die, it’s not a days long journey.

As far as Emily is concerned Commander L could have been another Fred - all sleaze and pretend niceties, so I imagine that's why he came across as odd and unpleasant. It's the Handmaid's Tale after all, not "the story of Gilead".

Moira works at the refugee centre, so it will likely be figured out quickly that Nicole is June's baby. Moira might even adopt Nicole.

I'm glad the cliffhanger wasn't so extreme that I'm cross about waiting a year for resolution. I'm also quite glad they didn't go with the easy way out of June getting in the van. No one in Canada has been able to fight Gilead, so June knows she would have been helpless there.

Possibly @MaryPoppinsPenguins didn't Emily hallucinate just before stabbing Aunt Lydia? She imagined Aunt Lydia calling her Emily? Or did Aunt Lydia actually call her Emily? I'll need to watch it back!

We know from the book that June starts writing about her experience in Gilead.

I'm wondering if she doesn't get herself into Commander Lawrence's household or hides out in the 'summer house' as both have access to literature and writing. She has seen that Hannah has been allowed to draw and write and is being educated.

Clearly there are those who are in the Gilead high administration whose dream of Utopia has been shattered by a pseudo religious constitution.

Emily will get to a refugee centre and be able to tell them that this is June’s baby and June was the handmaid of Waterford. They’ll be able to work out from that who she is and luke will be contacted. Not sure he will take the baby though.

Actually, it's not writing but tapes? Must check. Anyway June does leave a 'diary' of events.

Luke will take the baby because he will see the picture of Hannah that June put in Nichole's clothes.

It was tapes. They all started & ended with songs & had June's words hidden in the middle.

Hannah was allowed to write?

Didn't June see a picture of Hannah's new family? There was writing on that picture, I'm sure of it.

How do we know Hannah is allowed to write? I thought no women were?

Sorry, Hannah drew the picture and there was writing on it.

I have just noticed a huge plot hole.
Further up this thread some posters hypothesised that gilead had been around for five yrs, going on presumption that Emily's son wS two in scenes at air port and we know he is now seven.
Hannah was at least five at the start, so five yrs on she would be 10 minimum but in the scenes at the summer house hannah did not appear to have aged more than 1-2 yrs.

I don’t agree. I think she seemed a lot older when she was reunited with June, hence why they went with a different actress.

Aha, that's so interesting
Different interpretations

Nick told Luke June that was pregnant. I think that was intentional, so that he is already mentally prepared for another baby. Not impossible that he would take her on.

I agree that the Summer House could have links to Mayday. The sports car and the fact that it was already tuned in to the pirate radio station ties in with this.

Did anyone else think it was funny when an exasperated Fred asked God for an obedient woman - must be so trying for him to be surrounded by women who can think for themselves.

His utter contempt for women really came through and it made me wonder if a lot of men actually, on some level, think this way.

Commander Lawrence said he was getting himself into all kinds of trouble... I feel like he said it in such a way that he thinks this will be it for him.

Is the actor scheduled to be in next season?

The women of Gilead (And those who live in similar situations IRL) possess untold restraint in that they haven’t sliced those commanders into slivers of flesh while they sleep. Honestly, how June held it together while Fred was whingeing about obedient women and sleazing all over, mentioning Hannah etc is beyond me. I would be on a wall long before now in Gilead.

Love the discussion on this thread - really makes you think.

I imagine Luke will take Nichole without hesitation - it's all he can do to help June & especially if he sees the photo of Hannah. However Nichole came to be, she's June's child & his daughters sister so any decent bloke would look after her. (& I believe Luke is decent, just a bit wet & useless!).

I think CommanderL was deliberate in not letting Emily know what’s going on. Need to know - if it all goes wrong, he can’t have Emily saying that it was an escape attempt. By keeping her in the dark it gives her deniability- although not worth much if they twig she stabbed AL.

Also, isn’t Emily CLs fourth handmaid? Is he getting them out one at a time?

I think the death of Eden was the catalyst for the Martha's. There were a group of them at her and her lover's hanging on the wall (their corpse's to be used later as pig food).

Just as Eden's bible was the catalyst for Serena to confront the Commanders.

Eden left a legacy.