Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Original poster

Handmaid's Tale. EPISODE 8 (season 3). Channel 4, 28/07/19. UK pace. NO SPOILERS!

163 replies

OriginofSpecies · 28/07/2019 19:56

This is the thread for Episode 8 (season 3) of The Handmaid's Tale.

We are watching on Channel 4, UK pace and have only seen episodes 1 - 7 so far.

Please, NO SPOILERS.

Last week's thread took a rather strange turn, so please, play nicely people.

And I shouldn't have to spell it out, but when it says "Please, NO SPOILERS", that means we don't want people who have watched ahead to come on here and deliberately or inadvertently reveal what is actually going to happen in future episodes.

Anything else is speculation, whether that is based on what has already taken place in the TV series or is based on events in the novel (including the Historical Notes epilogue).

Just because something happened in the book doesn't mean it's also guaranteed to take place in the TV series.

Blessed day.

OP posts:

JoxerGoesToStuttgart · 29/07/2019 09:37

Thanks skaife

Yes I also thought ALs back story was lacking. Rejected by one man (after a very very brief encounter) doesn’t cause such a huge impact on a normal person. AL was already well on her way to becoming what she is before that happened. Maybe they’re going to show us further back in her life although I doubt it. I think we’re supposed to accept that one event is what triggered her cruelty to women and children.

BrienneofTarthILoveYou · 29/07/2019 09:51

I think it showed that she had a rotten character before Gilead, not that the rejection by her headmaster triggered it. Gilead then gave her an outlet for her nastiness. Wonder where the headmaster is now? Dead, escaped to Canada or still teaching in Gilead?

JoxerGoesToStuttgart · 29/07/2019 09:55

The principal actually seemed lovely. I wonder if AL had graciously accepted his need to wait for physical contact for what it was rather than a rejection of her, and began a relationship, would we be looking at a very different world than Gilead. She was one of the founders/original architects wasn’t she? Or would they have just found someone else to fill her space?

CurbsideProphet · 29/07/2019 10:01

Yes Aunt Lydia could have just said to the principal "oh gosh sorry I've had too much to drink" and he would have said "yes me too, that's why this shouldn't go any further tonight". He wanted to build a relationship over time and she chopped off her nose to spite her face out of shame. Lust is a sin after all.

I think June is also untouchable in case Switzerland want to talk to her again. Any injury would reflect back on the Gilead regime.

Clawdy · 29/07/2019 10:04

Found the Lydia back story annoying and implausible. A night out goes wrong, and she turns on a mother and child she had been getting close to.

Original poster

OriginofSpecies · 29/07/2019 10:12

It was interesting to see Aunt Lydia's back story. Strange to see her with her hair down and much softer facial expressions. But even before she reported the boy's mother to social services (or US equivalent), there seemed to be definite hints at her Jekyll and Hyde character. Aunt Lydia was almost relishing the boy's mother being late and was disappointed she arrived before Aunt Lydia could take him home.

There also seemed to be an uncomfortable moment between Aunt Lydia and the principle when they were sitting down in the club. He was complimenting her, she started to look a bit uncomfortable, then she said "I'm fond of you too", which didn't quite seem to fit with what he'd just said to her. It could simply be her lack of experience when it comes to dating, but I also wondered whether she was remembering a misdemeanour from her past.

OP posts:

CruCru · 29/07/2019 11:13

I wonder if it was more that, should Lydia have to take the boy home, she’d have had justification for reporting to social services. If the mother is a bit late every day, it’s probably infuriating for the teacher but not enough to reasonably take action.

I think that after the man said he wasn’t ready, Lydia then decided the person she was going to be. She’d tried on the persona that the boy’s mother had suggested and it hadn’t worked for her.

It wasn’t all that shocking when Lydia gave her report to social services. The law by then was that if a child was not being raised in a “moral way” (or something like that), teachers had a duty to report it. Presumably Hannah’s teacher had a duty to report June when she didn’t come to pick her up.

The boy’s mother was often late picking him up, swore in front of him, fed him junk food and sent him to school dirty. I can imagine that lots of teachers would be annoyed about that.

legolimb · 29/07/2019 11:51

A busy episode.

Poor Janine. Hope she's OK?

Aunt Lydia back story was interesting. I guess she was embarrassed to have been so 'forward' and then rejected. She took it to heart.

Skaife · 29/07/2019 12:06

@legolimb

Yes it was a busy episode, compared to some in series 3!

Original poster

OriginofSpecies · 29/07/2019 13:01

It was interesting what Aunt Lydia said about June and the Lawrence's - something about sometimes there is a bad apple (ie June), other times it's the barrel that's rotten (the Lawrence's).

Why does AL want to remove June from the Lawrence household? Does she genuinely believe that June is being badly influenced by who she has been placed with?

OP posts:

TeaStory · 29/07/2019 13:08

I want to know more about “I was married... uhhh... he was a mistake.”

I reckon Lydia did something AWFUL in the past and is projecting.

Pemba · 29/07/2019 13:18

Would they really have shot a pregnant handmaid? Don't you think they would try to do a quick Caesarian? Not sure what stage of pregnancy she was at, though.

Sort of felt sorry for Ofmatthew/Natalie, obviously something very traumatic must have happened to her in the past for her to become so enthusiastically pious. And then being ostracised by the other handmaids etc. just pushed her over the edge. I think she seemed to be quite young?

MyDcAreMarvel · 29/07/2019 13:22

I thought that was unrealistic to shoot to kill.

GileadWivesAreFashionIcons · 29/07/2019 13:35

I can’t stop thinking about the AL story, I think it was so clever and it’s really got to me! Wanted to expand upon my comment earlier in the thread to explore it a bit more.
The way I saw it, AL was someone who was living quite a lonely and solitary life, not through choice, she had her students and colleagues and a nice apartment but apart from that there seemed very little in her life. She clearly cared for Ryan, and there was some level of religion in her life, and a definite disapproval of the lifestyle lived by his mother.
I saw the story from then on as her opening herself up and making herself vulnerable, and daring to picture a life where she had a family and a partner who cared for her. I think it took a lot for her to do this, and got the feeling that she almost couldn’t believe her luck that it had happened to her. When the principle stopped things, I think in the back of her mind she was already expecting rejection and that’s why she reacted the way she did. She was hurt and embarrassed and cross with herself, and on some level she blamed Ryan’s mother for putting her in that position, and coupled with the concerns she clearly already had I don’t think it’s a huge leap to see how someone would have acted in the way she did (to be clear, I am not condoning it and would NEVER do this myself! )
It got me thinking, we talk today about society being more lonely and isolated than ever, and it seems to me that pre-Gilead was the same, so actually I can see how if people had the opportunity to escape the loneliness and be part of something bigger, as AL has, then they’d take it. I’m not saying it’s right or I agree with it, just that I can see how it would appeal. Rather like Nick’s backstory in the earlier series.

Pemba · 29/07/2019 13:37

Yes, I would have thought that since the beginning of Gilead they would have had women freaking out all over the place, and since pregnant and fertile women are apparently so precious, wouldn't they have been trying tranquillizer darts?

I wonder if Aunt Lydia will be in trouble now, so many bad things have happened on her watch.

Ivy40 · 29/07/2019 13:38

@pemba

I don’t think they shot to kill. They shot her in the arm/shoulder to disarm her before she massacred Aunt Lydia/the other handmaids.

Pemba · 29/07/2019 13:43

Oh OK, but she was dead, right? (I think my subtitles said something about 'body squeaking (?!) as they dragged her away.)

Oh yes I suppose she could have shot several of them, didn't think of that.

Andylion · 29/07/2019 13:48

Apparently it's Emily Althaus. Not sure what she's been in but she did look familiar.

Kukudio! I missed that completely.

JoxerGoesToStuttgart · 29/07/2019 13:50

I also thought they shot her in the shoulder. The way her body twisted with the impact looked like it was a shoulder shot that spun her round.

I think AL has never trusted C.Lawrence. I remember when Emily went there AL made some comments, I can’t remember what, but they suggested she wasn’t a fan of his. Something about the way he runs his house- she doesn’t approve.

TeaStory · 29/07/2019 13:57

The way AL’s voice cracked when she heard that Ryan would be adopted by a couple desperate for a child, “So many people, so much love... to give” - I think AL was desperate for a child herself, and it’s driven her mad. Now she hates fertile women who aren’t ‘proper’, who don’t parent like she would.

Invisimamma · 29/07/2019 13:58

This episode was better than last week but the story is still so disjointed, the birth, the handmade shooting and aunt Lydia storyline didn't really fit together at all. It just jumped about randomly.

I also agree about monitoring during.labour etc, surely with the birth rate being so low they would do all they can to make sure they arrive safely.

Ivy40 · 29/07/2019 14:01

@Pemba

That was just my take on it.

The loaves and fishes scene was a bit of a blur and I was taken by surprise as I wasn’t expecting so much action in one scene, given how slow S3 has been so far!

I rewound it and had a better look - it looks like her shoulder jerked before she fell so I took that as being where the bullet hit her. I could well be wrong though.

CurbsideProphet · 29/07/2019 14:35

Don't the handmaid's only see a doctor to confirm they're fertile and the rest is left to god? When June went to the hospital in early series 2(?) the doctor said he could help her get pregnant, as a lot of the commanders were infertile. So she wasn't pregnant at that point.

The focus is on "women's work" - monthly checks and birth is watched over by the aunts - and the will of god. If a baby isn't born pink and crying then it's god's will that is hasn't survived. Or the fault of the handmaid.

AGnu · 29/07/2019 14:43

I'm wondering if Natalie might still be alive. I imagine she'll be locked up until she's given birth & then either sent to the colonies, killed or maybe put in Jezebels. Not fit for proper society but still potentially fertile.

I have a theory that there's more AL backstory to come. Her comment about her husband being a mistake could go alongside her comment about her nephew. If her husband did something to her nephew she could feel responsible for being the link between them but not technically at fault if she wasn't involved. That could've led on to her being quite a closed off, religious person until she encountered Ryan. She's expressed a need to just help one person... She wanted to help him by taking him home with her but then his mother turned up & spoilt that plan. I think she's doomed to keep trying to "protect" children who don't actually particularly need protection because of whatever happened to her nephew.

ComeTheFuck0nBridget · 29/07/2019 17:48

@AGnu that's a really interesting theory about AL, it fits well.

I didn't consider Natalie not being dead, but I hope she's not! As a fellow rule follower, I can kind of understand why she behaves why she does (although, she took it too far with Hannah's Martha). I'd be interested to see more of her story.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7