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.

Just one more thing, before I go to work...

Do the Aunts get the blame when a Handmaid misbehaves? We’ve seen Janine in the Bridge - Janine and Commander Putnam got the blame for that. Emily stealing the car and running over the guardians, a suicide bombing at the new Rachel and Leah centre, now OfMathew in loaves and fishes. Or is it expected that some of them will crack as they don’t accept their “sacred purpose”?

I’ve got something to add before I dash off too. I think it’s important to understand the differences between what is accepted as normal in the US and the UK, in terms of religion.

If you can find it then there is an episode of the Graham Norton show where he interviews Jonny Depp, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Marchant. They discuss the differences in religion between the US and UK in that. It struck a cord with me as I lived in the US for a year when I was younger.

I think understanding this is important to understand the Aunt Lydia backstory.

The Graham Norton episode I mention above is on YouTube.

@Ivy40 It's both

"The evidence on the whole favors Waterford. We know, for instance,that he met his end, probably soon after the events our author describes, in one of the earliest purges; he was accused of liberal tendencies, of being in possession of a substantial and unauthorized collection of heretical pictorial and literary materials, and of harbouring a subversive."

@nousernameforme

Thanks!

Interestingly, it doesn’t say Waterford was definitely executed. It just says that the evidence in the whole favours him.

Actually, ignore my last post. It does confirm that Fred net his end soon after the book finished.

Coffee not kicked in yet.

If its as the book says and was killed not long after what would be series 1 then our Fred is living on borrowed time. I wonder if they will do away with him. Maybe the move to Washington is less a promotion and more keeping an eye on him? He has had a bit of a mess to deal with of late.

One handmaid hung herself.
The next one got pregnant, then escaped, then they wanted her back, only for her to get the baby to Canada. Now she is being all uppity (Aunt Lydia said they never had a problem with OffJoseph until the Waterfords)
His wife did his work whilst he was incapacitated from the bomb and then went on to read causing her the loss of her finger.
His driver's wife had an affair under his nose with a guardian causing them both to be put to death.
His house burnt down mysteriously
His wife left him to live with her mother
Then his wife popped over to Canada (Surely she is being watched now)
Running a visually pleasing propaganda campaign doesn't seem to make up for all that.

Just to clarify what a spoiler is (for this thread).

It’s someone who says, I’ve watched 2 episodes ahead and x dies, y has an eye removed and z escapes to Canada.

We aren’t classing anything from the book, including the epilogue, as a spoiler. We can speculate on what happens in the book and how it may link in to what’s on the tv programme.

We’re up to episode 8 in the UK at the moment.

@Nousernameforme

Thank you, lots of food for thought in your post. I think Freddo is definitely being set up for something. Agree with other posters that Serena may be setting him up too.

Someone else posted that the “visually pleasing propaganda campaign” might be seen differently outside Gilead, and maybe part of what eventually causes an international outcry. If Canada and the UK are as liberal as they are today then it could be seen as evidence that Gilead has turned some of its citizens into sex slaves. I think official Gilead (has been official for about 5 years) has been a secret society to the world outside of Gilead.

There are no tourists from Gilead. Someone else mentioned that Serena went to Canada on a cargo plane and speculated that there were no passenger planes in Gilead as there was no need for them. We also saw the outcry when Luke posted the Handmaids letters on social media in series 2 - Fred and Serena were expelled from Canada, even though they were there as Diplomats, which is pretty major. I think the abuses that Gilead is inflicting on its citizens is only gradually leaking to the outside world. I wonder if that “propaganda campaign” might eventually be seen as another one of Fred’s cock ups?

Interestingly, there are tourists in the book. I think there are some Japanese tourists in Gilead (wearing short skirts I think, horror!). They try to speak to June. Wonder why that was missed out of the TV programme.

@shitwithsugaron

If you’re in the UK then I think episodes 1-3 have now disappeared off 4 OD.

The only place I know of is YouTube.

@Skaife

I think the satellite phone is significant too. They did a long close up of it in her bag. My guess is that Serena is doing some kind of dodgy deal with Mark Tuello. Not sure that will work out as she plans though, surely the Americans will consider Serena to be a war criminal and human rights abuser?

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria

Yes, Hannah’s Martha (Frances) was executed for letting June know where Hannah would be. The official Gilead law she broke was “endangering a child” though. OfMathew (we know her real name is Natalie now), reported the conversation between June and Frances to Aunt Lydia. OfMathew had overheard them in Loaves and Fishes, I think.

I was quite touched by June’s synopsis of Frances’ life pre Gilead. It just shows how normal things seemed for some people, right up to the coup.

I think the satellite phone is significant too.

The satellite phone makes me think that there is no way the internet wouldn't be part of a resistance if this were really happening today. Somebody, somewhere would be sitting in a basement and posting videos to the whole world.

@Andylion

Yes - outside of Gilead, I think all the technology that we’re used to is still going. The Gileadeans are selective about what technology they use though. I bet they’re still using military technology though. Just not letting their citizens have access to it in case they use it to coordinate riots, rebellions etc.

I went to Cuba about 10 years ago, before we all had smart phones. They had Internet cafes but Cubans weren’t allowed in them, only foreigners and you had to show your passport before you could go in. I also went to Vietnam around the same time and they had locked down Facebook because someone had criticised the Vietnamese government on there.

@Andylion

I’m not techie at all but I’m guessing that even if someone managed to smuggle a smart phone in they wouldn’t be able to get online as Gilead has disabled all the networks. My comments about Cuba and Vietnam are just to show restricting access to technology, that’s used to communicate and difficult to monitor, is something that present day repressive regimes do to control their citizens.

Last night's episode made me feel like things are starting move on now and we'll see more than just the Waterfords trying to get Nicole.

@curbside

We live in hope!

Waterford was using a laptop in an earlier series - looked like some form of Commander communication. Wonder if people outside are trying to hack in?

@OOAOML

That’s interesting. I missed that.

The book was written in 1985 so preinternet. Use of modern technology is something the tv writers would have to take a call on.

In the book they had TVs, I think, but the only programmes they had were state propaganda and religious indoctrination.

A satellite phone is different from a standard mobile / smart phone as it connects to a satellite rather than phone mast / internet network. So technically a satellite phone could still work in Gilead, as long as other countries still have satellites near enough to pick up the signal when someone tries to use it.

Tuello gave Serena a satellite phone.

The internet is still going outside of Gilead - Luke used social media to publish the Handmaid letters in S2. I think Gilead has blocked the signals in Gilead’s borders somehow.

@OOAOML

I don’t remember seeing Fred on a laptop either. Well spotted!