Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 US PACE! ##Spoilers for UK viewers##

[AcrossthePond55]

We had a similar thread for season 2. This is specifically for those watching on Hulu in the US/elsewhere or UK streaming at the US pace so there be spoilers ahead for those watching at UK pace.

Please no spoilers if anyone has ‘advance knowledge’ of season 3 beyond the current episodes.

I’ve watched 2 of the 3 episodes dropped today. I’m pretty satisfied with things so far..I admit I got a bit emotional when it was clear that Emily and Nichole made it to Canada.

My only niggle right now is Mrs Lawrence. It’s pretty obvious she’s suffering from some type of MH condition. Yet everyone (pro Gilead)seems to buy Cdr Lawrence’s ‘she’s just tired’ or whatever excuses. Seems to me they’d be on the lookout for people outside the acceptable norm and anxious to ‘deal with them’.

I’ll be watching Ep 3 later tonight.

Well, the next episode will drop in just under 5 hours, but the real question is..........will I still be awake to watch it!!

Plus I've recently started watching Big Little Lies when DH goes to bed and that's at just about the same time.

Decisions, decisions!

Wow!

OMG has anyone else watched the new episode yet. The rope is so shocking, June is going to get herself hung if she doesn't get control of herself again, she's taking too many risks.

I think the back story for commander Lawrence's wife is that she had a forced abortion or something, there was a comment when she was walking with June, something like "it was for the best"

Yes! I agree, June needs to rein things in, at least for a little bit. She's starting to get desperate and desperate people make mistakes. God only knows what's going to happen now that she's attacked her 'walking partner'.

The rope thing was horrible, horrible. But then I remembered how they had the handmaids stone someone to death in Season 1. And how Aunt L tried to get them to stone Janine but they refused. I wish I knew the reason behind having the handmaids responsible for (some) executions. Is it to instill the fear of 'this could be you'?

How did you read June's expression during the execution of the MacKenzie's Martha? She looked almost as if she was angry at the Martha (for getting caught?), or am I misreading her expression.

I think Mrs L's comment had to do more with her going along with Cdr L's wishes that they not and that in the end it was 'for the best'. Kind of a double meaning; concern that her MH might affect a child plus not wanting to raise a child in Gilead.

I'll also say that I was upset about June using Mrs L to get out of the house, knowing how fragile she is and that Cdr L keeps her isolated away to avoid her condition becoming known. June endangered her for her own selfish (albeit understandable) reasons. The fact that June didn't stop to think of the consequences if something happened (which it did) shows how desperate she's getting. She endangered, not just her life, but her position in Cdr L's household, a position that gives her not only more freedom but also a very powerful protector.

I'm starting to feel a bit frustrated by June. Obviously her desire to get Hannah back is obvious and understandable, but she seems increasingly happy to put others at risk, and she's getting so reckless in her behaviour she's clearly going to get herself hung soon. She needs to let the dust settle and then set up a smart plan with the commander to get Hannah back. It was bloody obvious she was never going to be able to just walk into the school and see Hannah for instance.

There is an interesting play off in the latest episode between the killings that were committed by Emily and Moira...that they still are not sorry for...and the deaths that are mounting up as a result of June's behaviour, but not by her hand.

Emily and Moira, in comparison to June, have objectively suffered much worse, and IMO their killings seem much more justified. Whereas June has had an opportunity to get out and didn't take it and now more people are losing their lives.

I did like how at the end it was Janine who was first to June's aid...after all the times when it was the other way round.

I really loved series 1, and although series 2 was incredibly hard going, at least it was consistent. This series seems to have lost it's way a little bit. We get the revelation about Nick and Serena has a satellite phone, and then we don't hear about those things again. Emily and Nichole making it to Canada felt like a massive relief, but now we are back in the land of no hope again. I don't even know what I want from it anymore. Because even if June got Hannah, and they were given the chance to get out, can we even trust her to go? If the only point of the show is to watch humans in an endless cycle of misery, it is then beginning to vindicate the critics that have been calling it misery porn since s1e1.

The mouth rings are totally pointless, because surely they threaten the health of the handmaids...risk of infection, lack of nutrition etc. Serena says to June at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial that she should have put the ring in her mouth on day one...but on day one mouth rings were unheard of. Even Aunt Lydia was shocked at them. So to me the mouth rings just feel like a lazy attempt at a shock factor and not much else.

The threat to the status of refugees in Canada is much more terrifying than the mouth rings, IMO.

I really loved series 1, and although series 2 was incredibly hard going, at least it was consistent. This series seems to have lost it's way a little bit.

I agree Shimmersun. I think I said upthread somewhere that I hope the producers don't try to make too many series out of this, and ruin it like they did 'Lost' by endlessly dragging the plot out. Series 1 and 2 were really jaw-droppingly powerful at times, but this far into series 3 I'm not feeling as engaged as I did the previous two series. If I'm honest I'm starting to find the whole 'Waterfords fight then make up again' and 'June has another failed attempt to get to Hannah' a bit relentless.

June pissed me off, too.

When leaving the school with Mrs Lawrence, June was wistfully looking up at the school for far too long. I actually shouted out, "well hurry up then!?!" as my anxiety was on alert regarding the guardians watching her, watching the school..

Now she has the sin of roughing up a sanctimonious pregnant handmaid. Curse her! Curse her!

Anyway, I am scared the refugees in Canada are on borrowed time. I'd be eying up another country far, far away if it were me. Something fishy is going on.

I agree, Tanselle. If I were a refugee (especially a fertile woman or a former insurgent or vocal dissident like Luke) I'd be looking to go 'underground' FAST and not waiting around for any negotiations to be finished.

I really don't think the Refugee/Diplomacy storyline is too farfetched. It appears that Canada (and other countries?) are afraid of Gilead's 'military strength' by which I assume they mean their nuclear arsenal. Gilead has obviously shown that they have no compunction against using nuclear weapons since the Colonies were established to 'clean up' nuclear bomb waste. And the Swedish envoy made it clear that was why Canada was 'negotiating' and that she hated having to ask such incriminating questions.

It wouldn't be the first time that innocent refugees have been sacrificed for political expediency. God knows that certain refugees here are being treated as political tools by the Trump Administration, who is only too eager to send them back to war-torn and/or dangerous countries, albeit basically to keep their racist, xenophobic base happy.

I wonder what the viewing figures are for this series? I too feel they are dragging the storyline very thin now.

BG

As of right now, it's trending about the same as Season 1 was at the same point and a little lower than Season 2. Season 2 had the overall highest viewership.

Just caught up and have to agree, again, that this season is just......wrong. June is getting away with too much and as much as I am rooting for her, it just doesn't fit into what we have been shown in the first season. Like there's no way the guards, the wives, the Aunts etc would let June do all this stuff. I don't want June to suffer but I just think she is openly breaking rules and getting away with it which just doesn't fit into the Gilead we have been shown.

And don't tell me that the whole audience of Handmaids, guards etc didn't hear June and Serena's slanging match in Washington in that big echoey building (the capitol building? Sorry I am pants at famous places) while they were shouting at each other (ep 6). I'd guess you'd have heard that loud and clear where the Handmaid's were sitting.

Absolutely. There's no way June would have gotten away with all this given have brutal a regime Gilead was shown to be in the earlier seasons. And they even basically said in this most recent episode that Aunt Lydia knew she was trying to get back to Hannah again, as that's why they hung the Martha to "save" June from temptation. I can't imagine Aunt Lydia or the guardians just overlooking June trying to "kidnap" (in their views) Hannah on a regular basis without June have had a hand chopped off by now, or an eye gauged out like Janine.

Interestingly the critics review of this season is much the same as ours: www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2019/07/03/the-handmaids-tale-season-3-episode-7-review-under-his-eye-fails-to-impress/#4cdf754a34a6

An FYI;

The building in the scene between June and Serena is "was" the Lincoln Memorial. A memorial dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president. A man dedicated to both equality and the preservation of the Union. Naturally, Gilead wouldn't want that particular man (or his words) to be honoured and remembered. Not a man who presided over a war to free slaves.

The HUGE cross shown across the reflecting pool from the Lincoln Memorial is "was'' the Washington Monument. An obelisk dedicated to the memory of George Washington, our 1st president. Gilead added the cross arm, making it a cross.

Someone on FB (on a thread about birthday cards with a Handmaid’s theme) has said that THT is not about the rape and enslavement if women - it is about female empowerment. I am speechless.

I watched an interview with Elisabeth Moss where she was saying that they explored the idea that together women are stronger and that when they turn on each other they lose strength. She also said that the red outfit had become a symbol of women's power/empowerment because its been used in protests and is now instantly recognisable as a sign of women coming together to be heard.

Maybe that is what is meant by it being about empowerment?

Though I don't know how I feel about that. I think it's too convenient to switch the discussion to that, rather than keeping the focus on the crimes of men, mysogyny and the subjugation of women, where real change is needed.

I think it's about both, honestly. About the subjugation of women and the many forms it takes, and the strength and unity it takes to fight back even if you're in the most powerless position. The show can (and does imo) make both points.

I can see how it is about empowerment, @AcrossthePond55 and @shimmersun - but I still think that the themes of enslavement, rape, forced surrogacy, and subjugation of women makes it an inappropriate subject for birthday cards.

Wait...they have Handmaid birthday cards? Ones that are approved and/or licensed by the makers of the show?

Yeah, that's not on at all. It trivializes the meaning behind the show.

Oh wow.

Yeah that is fucked up. I think I misread your post.

Me, too. I totally blanked on the card thing.

I still wonder if they're officially licensed products. Something tells me no.

It’s a Thortful card - here.

Jeez.
I just don't think a show like THT lends itself to marketing. I Googled a bit and found a few 'authorized' items on the 'official' MGM merch site. Phone cases & shirts with the 'nolite etc etc' phrase on them. Apparently they were going to market a 'Handmaid Wine' but there was quite an uproar so they dropped it.

Believe it or not at one time some lingerie firm was offering a sleep set in 'Offred red'. Gag.

You may as well try to do marketing tie ins to 'Schindler's List'. Some things just need to be left alone and not capitalized on.

Think for me, season one set up Atwood’s gut-wrenching vision of the injust and greatly suffering Gilead then became more of an adventure story in season 2 & 3, a Mary Sue antithesis tale.