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.

The stark white of the hospital made the wives clothes actually look blue. In the gloom of gilead they always look green to me.

I always wonder at the different shades of blue/blue-green on the wives. Is it a 'rank' thing or just the 'allowed' colours from which they choose?

The wife waiting for ofmathews baby definitely was wearing blue-quite a different color to Serena's dress I thought

lioness87
I agree with you and your post of July 10th re Aunt Lydia and Noelle.

I thought the wives wore different shades because they could choose what they wore?
So the handmaids and Martha’s are given a uniform but the wives can wear what they like as long as they’re blue? Kind of to represent the fact they have freedom but freedom in a small parameter.
I just made that up though so it might be rank.
Maybe if they have a baby?

I always thought it changed once you had a baby..

I Googled around & couldn't find anything definitive on the wives' colours. Lots of theories, from 'rank' to 'having a child' to 'Virgin Mary' but nothing from the actual show itself.

Don't know about the next generation of handmaids, maybe they think they will all be wives and will be able to have heathy babies as they came from handmaids who could conceive?

I think that was explained in the book but I've forgotten!

A dull episode I thought with June losing it and being foul - but oh my, she steps out of the hospital and takes a deep breath of fresh air in relief and mild joy now that her ordeal is over and the goes back to hospital to spend time with the handmaiden she was vile to and provide company to her in her (unconscious) dying hours / days

That redeemed her for me!

Just watched the latest episode. Wow.

Me too!! Still collecting my thoughts-will back to offer them up in a bit

Ok first things first-why is June still at commander Lawrence's house? My guess would be that aunt Lydia thinks she has vowed June and turned June into just the spy that Gilead needs in this house (after June's change of heart at the hospital when she went back to ofmathew).
And what does she walk back into? A house that has been revamped into more Gilead appropriate decor, and Mrs. Lawrence who has now almost completely lost it.
I like that mrs Lawrence has a lucid moment and took June to the basement to find the red center files, although when that scene led into the "witnessed" ceremony I was horrified. Cmdr Lawrence was shaken and clearly did not understand the ramifications (we can always play canasta). He is so far removed from what Gilead has become, wrapped away in his own little haven.
June now has the right button to press-things are going south for the Lawrences, before too long the mrs will be dragged off to bedlam, and the cmdr will be in the wall for all the files he has been breaking, seems like the only thing left to do is head out of dodge-and take a boatload of kids with him :) I clapped my hands in joy at the table laden with muffins

Great episode! Can't wait to see how this plays out.

I'm pretty excited for this storyline. There are so many ways it could go! But how are June and Cdr L going to explain Mrs L's disappearance? And why is Waterford coming down so hard on Cdr L? Could he possibly be jealous of him having June or is he plotting his 'downfall' for other reasons? Is it ambition and wanting to impress Cdr Winslow? Or fear of him?

Yes, xiona, I think AL thinks she has 'broken' June, or that June is so guilt-ridden after Ofmatthew's death that she is now 'conforming'.

What I didn't get is Serena giving Fred the phone at a time when he's ostensibly being so 'pro-Gilead'. Is she so desperate that she's lost her reason? Why would she think he's ready to defect now?

And didn't you LOVE when June said to Waterford after the ceremony "At least it wasn't you!"?

This felt like the episode I have been waiting for all season !

I actually cheered (out loud to myself!) when June said ‘at least it wasn’t you’

Also I thought it was a good decision that the writers had Cdr L go through with the abhorrent ceremony to understand that he isn’t safe and his household will always be in danger.
Also the acting in that scene was amazing - we didn’t actually see anything but it’s one of the most suffocating and upsetting scenes that I have watched- (more of this please, no need for torture porn, all you need is great writing and great actors!)
And
I sobbed at the muffins!

I think Serena Joy has learned nothing, and her blind allegiance to Fred is going to lead to her being killed. (Even after everything she has done I still hope she escapes though!)

I am so excited about the rest of this series.

I think hiding the fact that Mrs Lawrence is missing will be the least of their troubles. No one ever sees her. How are they going to secretly remove all these children from families they have probably come to love and get the across the border before anyone notices they are missing?

Did anyone catch why Cdr Lawrence had to redo his house to Gilead standards? I know it had something to do with Stabler (can’t remember the actual character name) but I’m not catching on why (and why he seems to be higher ranking than people like Lawrence who I thought were at the top?)

I personally thought Waterford partially engineered this ceremony because of June. He’s obsessed with her. If he can’t rape her, he can at least control who does.

I thought the actual ceremony bit was well played (I’m so glad it wasn’t graphic) - June basically leading it, telling everyone where to stand, telling Lawrence how to detach. It was complete role reversal.

I particularly appreciated the small detail of Lawrence ‘asking’ for June’s consent.

Think AL said it was because of Waterford's new regulations, one of the things he was introducing in his district after being in DC. The other commander mentioned their also bringing in veils and rings but more slowly.

Wondered why Lawrence seems to be losing power (though the other commander mentioned Lawrence still has influence) - re decorating & attending meetings rather than the others coming to him. Suppose not showing what was happening re power plays illustrates how Gilead works but would like to have seen more of it. The "witnessing" was definitely a direct warning to him.

The Waterfords seemed to be out of favour after their house burned down and the baby taken but he turned it around in DC and is on the up.

But I don't get why Serena chose such a time to mention the American agent.

Yes, the new regs are about bringing the Wash DC regime to Boston. Who knows why.

Other than possibly Fred doing all of this to get Nichole back. Cdr Winslow made a very oblique threat about Fred cooperating in order to get her back. As twisted as Fred is, he loves Serena madly, in his own weird way. He wants to have her back the way she was, adoring his male superiority. He knows that she's lost all respect for him. He thinks he'll get it back by getting Nichole back for her.

I wondered about getting all the children corralled too. All the Marthas in the various households would hav to be in on it.

The scene where June wove the fantasy about her son for Janine was what made me cry. Like a mother reading a fairy story to a child. The muffin scene made me laugh out loud with joy!

I think this was the best episode so far this series. I kind of felt it got back to the basics of the abhorrent nature of the 'ceremony' (without having to be graphic about it), and we got to see how broken Cmr L and Mrs L now really are. But it balanced it out well with the hope of getting the children out.

I feel anxious for the next few episodes though as I can't see how June is going to pull this off without herself or the other handmaids / marthas going to the wall.

Thanks to all those clarifying about the new regulations. I missed that it was Fred bringing them in, I thought the redeco was because of Winslows visit.

Grasping at straws, but does anyone think the veils and rings will push AL over the edge? She wasn’t happy with seeing it in DC, and she did give a cheery push back when Winslow talked about them.

I wonder if she will want to protect the handmaids and end up part of June’s plan. As horrid as AL can be, she does show a glimmer of care every now and again.

I think janine will get a ring.

They need to do some serious belief building in the next couple of episodes as I have lost all faith since ofmathew was just shot. The only thing that was keeping the fact that June hasn’t been put on the wall yet or maimed believable was the fact that fertile handmaids were precious.

I don’t think I can take June having any more narrow escapes while she bellows about rebellion over the chiller section. It’s ludicrous.

Elizabeth Moss acting is just so hammed up, eyes twitching and jutted our chin all over the place, I think she peaked with the ‘madness’ too soon and then had no where to go. She needs to rein it in a bit so it can go up a level again.
That bit where all the handmaids had their heads down except June?
And didn’t a commander lose a hand for having untoward relations with a handmaid and there Waterford is bold as brass chatting to June in front of everyone.

My prediction for the end of the series is that commander Laurence gets caught and put on the wall ferrying the children over the border but the children and his wife escape.

I agree about the belief building - one thing that has gotten a bit lost is the handmaids are supposed to be sacred - honoured above all. And yes we know they are beaten and raped - but Gilead has to keep up the fallacy that it’s an honoured position and the handmaids do it willingly otherwise they really are nothing but sex slaves and the whole house of cards falls down from that.

AL has consistently been a believer- I think she genuinely thinks she is helping save ‘her girls’ and she is clearly uncomfortable with the way DC runs things- as it is moving away from the founding tenants of Gilead (honoured handmaids et etc) and I think she may well end up on the wall for pushing back against poor treatment of handmaids.

I think Serena is going to become more and more uncomfortable with the double standards and hypocrisy and eventually Fred will sacrifice Serena to secure his own position (I don’t think he is interested in baby Nichole beyond how she can further his career) .

And yes to theory about Cdr Lawrence sacrificing himself to get the others out.

Can fred sacrifice serena though? He’s in a bind there.
If he can’t run his household how can he run Gilead. I think any transgression on her part would impact him.
Unless by sacrifice you mean beating into submission? Which I can definitely see happening.

I totally agree about AL, the wall is the only logical place for that character arc to end.

For someone who claims not to be enjoying this series I’m taking it very seriously