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

[OriginofSpecies]

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.

I'm still cross that we're supposed to believe that the Mackenzies were uprooted to protect them from a handmaid, who would surely have just been sent to the wall.

I doubt June can be sent to the wall while the business with Nicole is rumbling on. If the Swiss come back and ask to speak to her again... “Um, we executed her for trying to see the other daughter we took from her.”

TeaStory I wondered that too. I thought perhaps he'd left her but then surely in Gilead's eyes she would be to blame for that so would not have been awarded such a high position in society.

OK, but they could have confined June to the house then.

I was waiting for AL to go psycho after her date with the Head. She's a ticking time bomb; somebody unhinged who used to pretend to be good. Now she's in Gilead, she doesn't have to pretend.
Sure, the odd bit of softness and empathy slips out, but it's rarely unconditional and without cost.

I also wondered at one point if AL was gay. Horrifically, I half expected her to make a pass at the young mother, when she was doing her make-up.

Ann Dow’s is brilliant, I agree.

Finally watched this episode!

I've been wondering- are there midwives in gilead? We saw someone delivering the baby I think, the one who shook her head? I wonder how that works and if they have to fill a different role when there aren't babies being born? This wasn't a great one to watch while 9 months pregnant but irl isn't this quite common and they just unloop the cord during the birth? Maybe it's supposed to be one of the many gilead fertility problems that the cord can become so tightly wrapped, or it's the lack of monitoring.

I kind of wanted the show to wrap up this season, but if they must keep it going it would be interesting to see if there's another country as fertility-focused as gilead but with much more focus on birth rate rather than misogyny under the guise of helping birth rate... it could be dystopian in a different way, all males and females forced to take fertility testing and all the women kept pregnant through ivf with constant monitoring and intervention and scans, and all the babies being sent off and allocated to families in some form of order... idk just something I wonder about...

I think midwifery is an Aunt role.

@Triskaidekaphilia congratulations and dont worry my son had his cord wrapped round his neck and is now a happy 11yr old. He did look a bit of a smurf when he was born though. It is common but midwives know how to deal with it.

You're probably right @TeaStory, makes the most sense, I was just curious as I think she was dressed differently for the birth.

Thanks @Binforky I'm not worried about that as I was aware that in real life it's common and usually easy to fix. Just the fear of stillbirth in general!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3656376-Handmaids-Tale-EPISODE-9-season-3-Channel-4-04-08-19-UK-pace-NO-SPOILERS?watched=1

^ thread for tonight's episode (episode 9).

Dieu
I agree with you re Aunt Lydia, the make up and the mother.
Was she fearful of her own feelings towards the mother and hence reported her so they wouldnt be in contact anymore ?