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.

Thanks. I’ve asked @mnhq to delete it as soon as possible.

metro.co.uk/2019/05/22/handmaids-tale-season-3-map-gilead-teases-upcoming-resistance-new-episodes-9654701/

There’s a map in the article and no spoilers as the article was published prior to S3 starting.

I’ll be amazed if Naomi Putnam is in the resistance. I think she is just like Serena Joy - she’ll do anything to have a baby (even take Janine’s).

I’m also wondering about Canada and Britain.

In the book it says that Britain and Canada do joint military exercises on the border.

It also says that some refugees move to the UK and Canada sends some refugees back to Gilead.

I would like the ‘Aunts Tale’, the ‘Marthas Tale’, the ‘Econowives Tale’ and the ‘Eyes’ Tale (especially if this was Nicks Tale)

I honestly can’t see how it will go to ten series’ unless it expands the universe to follow some more characters.

The epilogue says that Gilead became more strict so we know things will get worse!

I can only dip in and out of this thread as I’m watching ahead and don’t want to give anything away- just wanted to post in support because the other thread did get really weird!

If Naomi does turn out to be in the resistance then I’d be pleased. As someone else said, she is kinder to the handmaids than other wives. Although of course she stole Janine’s baby - but she could hardly refuse.

Maybe the writers are just trying to demonstrate the different levels of buy in to the regime amongst the ruling classes.

@Ricky44

I think the only bar we’ve seen is Jezebel’s and that’s an unofficial brothel/bar.

It would be interesting to see a bit more about how the econopeople live. Are they allowed to socialise and have hobbies. Or is it just work and church. I can’t see bars and pubs being encouraged. Margaret Atwood said the roots of Gilead are in the Puritans and I’m pretty sure they banned alcohol.

Eden’s execution was a turning point too. Did you see Serena’s face?

A lot of the wives may have supported the return to a world where women stayed at home and concentrated on child rearing while the husbands went out to work but didn’t know how brutal and repressive that society would become. Now they have no voice and no way of escape.

@ArabellaDoreenFig

A Nick’s Tale would be fab. We need to know more about him. My best guess at the moment is that he’s a triple agent.

Watching the Canada episodes with interest. I hope Emily is safe and gets to live as happily as she can with Syl and Oliver in Canada.

It gives me hope that Emily is married to a Canadian citizen and that Canada still recognised same sex marriage. Emily also (sadly) has physical proof that she was tortured for being a “gender traitor”.

I’m concerned that she seems to being depicted as a criminal though - they know she stole a car and ran over a guide and stabbed Aunt Lydia. I’m hoping that Gilead isn’t trying to get her extradited as a criminal. As Ivy mentioned, it does say in the book that Canada sends some refugees back but Emily in the tv series is on a completely different trajectory from the character in the book - Ofglen commits suicide in the book.

So, the mouth rings in the Washington episode. Atwood said that she didn’t include anything that hadn’t happened in real life, although she amalgamated the restrictive practises of various regimes from the Taliban to the Puritans. I can’t find mouth rings anywhere, is it supposed to just be a more visually shocking version of the burkha?

I just posted on the other thread that I thubg they are the equivalent of the scolds bridle.
Notice that there appears to be something similar under the loose fitting masks of " criminals".

Alexis Bledel plays Emily brilliantly. She is quietly traumatised but we saw her snap at the protest. I hope being arrested doesn’t get her extradited to Gilead.

Emily is a good person, intelligent, studious and law abiding. She married the love of her life and settled down and had a family. She’s done everything right all her life and she can’t understand why she would have such cruelty inflicted on her.

@endofthelinefinally

Thanks. Going to google scolds bridle and criminal masks.

I thought it was a way of representing the burkha - but visually more shocking.

They also say the mouth rings are voluntary. But when did they stop being voluntary and become obligatory? The burkha is supposedly voluntary but we know there is pressure to wear it in some societies.

The other thing, at one of this week’s mass hangings, there were 2 handmaids and a Martha. The Martha was Hannah’s Martha from the Mackenzie’s and she was being executed for endangering a child.

Do we know what the Handmaids did or were they just there to show that no one is safe? As I think there was a Guardian and Econowife on the scaffold too.

When we see the accused awaiting the hanging, you can see they are desperate to speak but cannot do more than a muffled squeak. Yet the mask is flimsy and loose fitting.
There must be a truly horrible device under those masks.
Looking at the designs and the history of the scolds bridle it must be something similar.
Historically they were used to silence women.
Nothing changes.

Also, the dance / ball in this week’s episode? Was that supposed to show that those in charge have different rules from everyone else? Like we see with Middle Eastern royal families. Although I think Atwood wrote the book whilst living in Eastern Europe during Communism so she might have been alluding to some of the communist regimes - rulers living in luxury whilst everyone else was in the breadline.

I’m glad Emily didn’t admit to anything else when she was being questioned by the Swiss. She told Moira later that she had killed a wife in the colonies.

When they asked her if she had done anything else that Gilead would consider a crime I’d have lived it if she had said “I fell in love with a woman, I read some books, I agreed not to go through with the ceremony and didn’t report the commander or his wife.”

We know Handmaids can be executed for not having a child.

They get 3 different placements of two years each and if they don’t get pregnant after that 6 years then they can choose to be executed or go to the colonies.

We don’t know if this is what those 2 handmaids were executed for as it doesn’t say.

I haven’t missed anything in those 5 Chicago women that June chose to be Martha’s, so they didn’t end up in the colonies? Or is that a storyline yet to be developed?

Yes, I think the dance was to show how the rulers live different lives.

It was also to show the reromancing of Fred and Serena or Serena playing Fred, depending on how you are seeing it.

Emily is one of my favourite characters. She’s been absolutely brutalised, more so even than the others. The difference between her life and Syl’s life, since they were separated at the airport that day is vast. It’s just so sad. I’m really rooting for Emily just to be able to live her life in peace now but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

The Chicago women seems to be planting a seed for future episodes. You haven’t missed anything that I’m aware of.

OfPious/OfMathew

Seems to be behaving like that to survive. It’s quite interesting that we’re seeing different reactions and survival methods from the different handmaids we’ve met. Janine, June, Emily.