The Handmaid’s Tale (UK pace, so no spoilers from the US/Israel/Aus please)

[Ivy40]

This is a new thread where we can refer to the original book, published in 1985 (including the epilogue). Everyone is welcome to speculate on how the writers will get us from the book (end of series 1) to the epilogue (we’re assuming this will be series 10). Plus any other interesting plot developments that you have noticed.

No spoilers from the US/Israel/Aus etc please, as we in the UK are 2-3 episodes behind. We don’t want to KNOW what happens next, we just enjoy speculating and enjoy the plot development.

The basics:
Margaret Atwood wrote the Handmaid’s Tale in the 1980s, it was first published in 1985.

She said that she didn’t use anything that hadn’t happened in real life.

Series 1 finished at the end of the book.

There is an epilogue though.

Hulu have said that there will be 10 series.

We are assuming that series 10 will be the epilogue.

That means that Hulu have a lot of creative licence in series 2-9, as long as what they create leads to what we know is the epilogue.

Margaret Atwood is a consultant writer on the tv series.

The Testaments are being released in September 2019, written by Margaret Atwood. Set 15 years ahead of the ending in the original book and will be the stories of 4 different narrators, not June’s story. MA said that she based the Handmaid’s Tale on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, so we’re expecting “A Wife”s Tale”, “A Martha’s Tale” etc.

They were very efficient DirtyToiletBrush - I hadn't thought about the murdered women.

Well my gender traitor theory about Winslow and Fred getting it on is off the cards now. Winslow was just a predator, sex was a weapon to him. What an action packed episode.

We seemed to be heading towards finding out more about the Marthas / resistance at the beginning of the series. I would have liked to have found out more about that too. Maybe the econopeople, Marthas / resistance and Nick will be explored more in further series.

That was an econo family that they stopped with the one with the singing wasnt it.They were all in grey.

I do wonder if whats left of the u.s still has the death penalty and if they could use it against waterford.

June killing the commander was amazing but i don't see why she was given a gun and told they would be coming for them. They aren't going to know June was there and I don't imagine Jezabels is all that big on cctv.
For it to be acknowledged that a commander went missing there they would have to admit its existence. Jezabels is a big dirty secret so would the commanders disappearance be hushed up to save face.

Nousername.

That’s a really good point, I’d forgotten that the US has the death penalty and it would make sense for remaining US to still have it. Although I think some states have banned it.

The econo people had a very nice big house. I suppose that was their job, running it as a guest house.

I think the Marthas at Jezebels were used to cleaning up after violent incidents, possibly murders, of the women. This has been discussed in the other thread. The couple June passed in the corridor didn't bat an eyelid at her barefoot, bedraggled, bloodstained appearance - all in a day's work at Jezebels.

Yes, the family Fred and Serena stayed with seemed to be econopeople running a farm / guest house. They seemed to be religious. I think as long as they’re compliant, econopeople seem to lead a fairly normal albeit religious and repressed (compared to the West that we are used to) life - as someone above mentioned. We’ve only really seen snippets of econopeople lives though - we don’t know for definite what their “rules” are.

I wonder what Rita did pre Gilead. She seems intelligent with the air of a professional about her - calm, weighs up the info she has before acting.

@Nousernameforme

Yes re Jezebel’s. It seems to be a secret among commanders and also for entertaining foreign diplomats. I’m assuming there are guardians protecting it so they will know who goes in and out (to stop the girls escaping) but I don’t know how that would play out. They may get a senior Eye to investigate the disappearance of Winslow, so the powers that be may guess that something has happened at Jezebel’s but they could never admit to it publicly. I wonder how they will cover that up? Could they fake a hero’s death for him, to save face?

There is no news or internet so will people know that Fred and Serena are in Canada? Again, we’re seeing this through June’s eyes so we know at she knows. I wonder if Gilead will say Fred and Serena are missing presumed dead rather than in Canada to try and avoid any copycat actions.

I imagine they could twist it to make Canada look bad. Allowing citizens to steal and harbour one of Gileads babies and now arresting the parents.... I imagine there's a lot of angles Gilead could portray that from to make Canada look bad

Pink - yes. We know Gilead is repressive but we also have to assume that the bulk of the population (the econopeople) support the regime. Judging from the books we saw on Lawrence’s shelf and some of the flashbacks we know that there was a religious revival in response to the fertility crisis, pre Gilead. The econopeople may not even know that the Handmaids are forced into sexual slavery. Gilead tells the outside world that the Handmaids do their role voluntarily as it’s their sacred duty, so they may say that within Gilead too. The Marthas are econopeople but they are a small fraction of the econopeople population and most econopeople won’t come into contact with Handmaids.

This may be a bit of a stretch but now we know June / the resistance are planning on getting a group of kids out of Gilead. Maybe the high command could say that Winslow uncovered this and died trying to “save” the Gilead children from the “traitors”?

@CurbsideProphet

Joseph and Eleanor add a new dimension to the series. I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

They did mention last episode that there had been resistance to the ceremony from some commanders and wives. We know Lawrence doesn’t do it and the wife in Emily’s 2nd placement pretended to be ill to avoid it. So they did used to do checks on commanders households to ensure that the ceremony was being done, due to the resistance against it. This is something else that tells us that buy in to the regime varies in levels. Eleanor Lawrence is dead against it and unable to hide it. Naomi Putnam doesn’t seem too keen either.

It's very selfish of CL isn't it. He helped create Gilead and the regime, yet doesn't want to partake and puts the lives of the handmaids and Marthas at risk. As June says, the handmaids and Marthas have a responsibility to report those households which don't live in the correct way.

CL seems to have lost his place in the grand scheme of things if he can't pass checkpoints. He knows his time is nearly up, so I imagine the last 2 episodes will be just as tense as last night.

Even though it's drifted away from the book I'm still really enjoying the adaptation. I do want to know what happened to May Day. Did it just close down, or are the Marthas the new May Day?

Commander Lawrence may be ok now Fred and Winslow are out of the picture. Fred seemed to be the one causing problems for him.

I would say that Lawrence has a highly analytical personality but not much empathy. We think / assume that he was a senior academic specialising in economics. I could see him putting together the economy of Gilead but overlooking the human aspect because it wasn’t a feature of any of his models.

I thought the Martha’s were always part of May Day. I don’t think we know for sure but I’d assumed it was a collection of people resisting the regime - some Marthas, some Handmaids and in Nick’s case (if he was//is in May Day) then an Eye. Maybe some Guardians, wives as they become disenchanted with the regime over the years.

Emily was part of May Day back in the beginning and so was Nick in the book. No one has mentioned May Day by name like they used to in series 1.

I love seeing all the Marthas working together. The men behind Gilead really underestimated women.

I hadn’t realised that they hadn’t mentioned May Day by name, since the 1st series. Thanks for that.

We may not be seeing much about it because we are only seeing what June sees and she may only see what she needs to see.

The neonatal doctor that they got to see Janine’s baby was a Martha. The one that was at the Lawrence’s house was a Chemistry teacher. Maybe some of the others are from professional backgrounds and are using that knowledge in the resistance. As Skaife says above, Rita appears to be educated. The 5 Martha’s that June saved were a Lawyer, Software Tech, Engineer, Journalist and thief. Maybe some others are former police etc. It may have been a mistake to force educated, intelligent women into the role of Martha.

I've been listening to a Handmaid's Tale podcast from the beginning and they have been talking about May Day which jogged my memory!

Which podcast do you prefer? I like Eyes in Gilead.

I listen to Eyes on Gilead and Red All Over. As I've only just found it I'm listening to Red All Over episodes from series 1 and it's been a really good reminder of what's happened so far.

I have listened to Eyes On Gilead before, haven’t heard of Red All Over though. Thank you. I will check it out!

What an episode!

Chandler - I was actually open mouthed at some of it.

OK, I have another question about the hierarchy. How many Commanders are there? When we see the handmaids gathered together, even just in Gilead, not including all those we saw in Washington, there are quite a few of them so there must be a lot of Commanders about as each one was assigned to a Commander. And there must be a hierarchy within the Commanders class. Would these all be powerful, rich people or just believers and those who had bought in wholeheartedly from the beginning?

Just thinking/posting aloud.

Andylion - the doctor in the hospital episode (The one from Ally McBeal) was a Commander. So does he have a handmaid? Do all commanders get them, if they (their wives) are infertile?