Handmaid's Tale. EPISODE 5 (season 3). Channel 4, 07/07/19. UK pace. NO SPOILERS!

[OriginofSpecies]

Nice early thread to start the discussion for Episode 5 tonight.

We are watching Channel 4, UK Pace.

We have only seen episodes 1 - 4 so far.

Please, NO SPOILERS.

But they've already said there's no extradition process between Gilead and Canada

And surely he wouldn't leave the mobile phone and post-it note so obviously placed in her bag

I imagine she'd be searched before re-entering Gilead.

Surely an extradition - particularly of a female child - is a complete non-starter?

I'm disappointed they've gone with this as a storyline. They had a good basis for a 3rd series by focussing on Comm. Lawrence, the Marthas network and the Canadian diaspora perhaps helping out in the resistance. But they went back to the bloody Waterfords and the Nicole storyline again? Why?

@IcedPurple I totally agree with what you’ve said. I was waiting for the commander Lawrence storyline to get going but just don’t understand what’s happening there at all. Nichole reaching Canada should have been the end of that. I really wanted more of this resistance I thought would happen.

I just wish they'd get some higher wattage light bulbs.

Do we know how many episodes are in this season? A quick google tells me there were 10 in the first season and 12 in the second. I don't dare google it for season 3 in case of spoilers.

I wasn’t even expecting June to get re-captured so quickly. I’d hoped she’d be able to vanish in Gilead, at least for a while, & work with the resistance.

At least now Luke knows Nichole isn’t Waterford’s and that he can demand a DNA test - although at the same time, that would get June into even bigger shit.

There are 13 episodes in the series. So 8 more to go!

Oops. Well my quick google was not very accurate. It seems that there were (and will be) 13 episodes.

So 5 down, 7 to go.

Ha ha i can't count tonight either
5 down, 8 to go.

I need to go to bed clearly!

Surely Serena Joy is smart enough to realise that if they try and get Nichole back, the only way for Luke resist it is via a DNA test? So she is potentially dropping her whole family in it?

I'm assuming that the appeal is official Gilead rather than the earlier private Waterford response.

For an appeal to Canada, June's presence doesn't seem logical, but it's that psycological threat to Luke that June is controlled by the Gilead state plus the fear of the unknown being taken from the supermarket and placed in an unexpected situation.

I loved the use of cassettes too.

I think they’ll attempt extradition under the premise that Emily is a ‘dangerous fugitive’ like they said, who stole a baby. Remember she also killed a guardian with a car, tried to kill aunt Lydia, killed the wife in the colonies - they can argue with that record, she kidnapped a baby and they want both back. Her to be dealt with as a criminal and the baby for the ‘parents’.

I hope the simple action of a dna test will actually happen

Also loved the cassettes.

I am writing this from the second break juat after the phone call. If luke doesn't contact the authorities as some sort of precaution i will be seriously pissed. How can this even be an option a dap over to canada just to see the baby. I thought gilliad always had shortages due to trade issues

I didn’t understand the scene where commander Lawrence and his wife were sitting on the settee and June was looking through the gap in the door? I can’t get their relationship sorted in my head.

I guess the one weak spot for Luke would be that he is neither Nichole's biological nor her legal father. He's simply married to her mother, though he hasn't seen her for several years.

Still, I really don't think there is a chance in hell that Canada would return a baby girl to Gilead.

It doesn't matter what Emily has done, Canada doesn't extradite to countries where the person would face the death penalty and very probably also wouldn't do it on grounds of her not being given a fair trial and that Gilead uses torture.
However since this series is pretty much jumping the shark I expect that won't stop them.

I think a DNA test is guaranteed. They didn’t have June reveal Nichole’s true parentage to Luke for nothing. It’s important to the plot, rather than just because she wanted him to know.

Surely the mother's husband has the strongest "claim" to parental responsibility as a father unless/until a DNA test proves who the biological father is?

Not that reason and logic will necessarily apply in this fictional world which makes less and less sense the further we get from the original book!

June has given Luke "proof" in the recording that Nicole is not Fred's baby.

Surely the mother's husband has the strongest "claim" to parental responsibility as a father unless/until a DNA test proves who the biological father is?

Yes I suppose so.

I wonder what would happen in a real-world situation with a refugee baby with no parents? Wouldn't Luke have to apply to adopt her? He surely couldn't automatically have her just because his wife is her mother?

I'm fairly sure Serena isn't on board with the appeal. But she'll simply have as much say in it as June does.