Handmaid's Tale. EPISODE 9 (season 3). Channel 4, 04/08/19. UK pace. NO SPOILERS!

[OriginofSpecies]

This is the thread for Episode 9 (season 3) of The Handmaid's Tale.

We are watching on Channel 4, UK pace and have only seen episodes 1 - 8 so far.

Please, NO SPOILERS.

I can't believe we're up to Episode 9 already! I hope it all starts coming together in the next five episodes.

RiddleMe I had subtitles on and I don't think there was anything leading said by the Doc. Although he did say what legacy are you going to leave for your daughters, or words to that effect.

I presume June got her head together and is going to fight back.

i thought it was really good, it was all the small things, the needle in her finger...she didn't pull her hand out quick like we would she just looked at it and pulled it out slowly like what did it matter, she could be dead any moment. The girls in pink who were the next to live their lives in Gilead and how you could see and hear by her tone how much the girl Rose didn't want the life she had coming.
June hit rock bottom then came back up with not the same plan she had had all this time to save just her daughters but to save all the children and to bring down Gilead. I think the kindness of the Dr and Serena not mentioning her cut arm and Janine telling her how selfish she had become helped June to see all of this.

GoingplaceZ I heard what she said she still don't understand why it took an hour to show/say what we already know which is that June does not want children to be growing up in Gilead. So, whatever it leads to, we already had that information anyway. So disappointing.

I think it was to show June going a bit mad, and then coming back from the brink.

Agree, The Atwood Touch is a little missing.

I still like it, though.

He asked juneberries what she was going to do to honour her daughters. It appeared to be a lightbulb moment and then June told Natalie she was going to get all the children out and make Gilead hurt. presumably that will take another 7 seasons though.

Am I the only one who didn't find it boring?

It felt rather repetitive of other series - June going mad in hospital like when she lost hope in the Waterfords' house in series 1, birth leading to her making a resolution like in series 2.
Presumably she is going to get loads of kids out somehow as the series climax.

As others have said it was all feeling a bit contrived and implausible.

Juneberries!

I didn't think it was remotely boring. I was on tenterhooks wondering what June was going to do.

I certainly don't need (or want) "action" every week.

The young girls - if they are fertile, then they won't need a handmaid? Where does that fit in?

@OhYouBadBadKitten no you’re not, I didn’t think it was boring either!
As I said in my earlier post I think this was a way of punishing June, and I think it served as a very effective way of showing how Gilead can punish people without laying a finger on them. I thought it was a really good episode.

poster GoingplaceZ on the UK threads we’ve already said we don’t want entitled idiots saying 'oh wait for 7 is really good you’re in for a shock' ask me me me

the girls in pink will get married to a guardian or angel so won't need a handmaid but will be able/expected to have children of their own

I thought the point was June realised she had been trying to get herself killed because she had lost hope. She now has a purpose again. Perhaps talking to someone who knew and respected her mother helped.

Ah Billy from Ally McBeal was a joy to see after all this time

I also thought it was a good episode. I'm intrigued as to why Serena didn't report June, and neither did the Doctor. Something big is building, I can just feel it.

June's hair looks lovely. I guess that's down to no sun damage and baby making diet.

I also quite like handmaids boots.

Perhaps the doctor is like many ordinary people caught up in Gilead. He's not a true believer, but has stayed quiet to protect his family. He knew and respected Holly, so it made sense he wouldn't report June.

Serena knows that they need June for their promo videos. She can't have anything get in the way.

hungryhippie it better had. I did wonder if the doctor was sympathetic to the women and perhaps not as fervent a supporter of Gilead added might assume. I am hoping the fact that Serena didn't report June is that something is brewing. She seemed genuinely shocked when she said she thought June was one of the strong ones.

I like their boots too. I wonder where you can buy them

Obviously something big is brewing, they will have been writing the series by numbers and it needs a climax.
The test of whether the series works overall will be how far the climax manages to pull together all the bits that felt random and pointless in previous episodes and feels like it flows inevitably from what went before, or if it feels tacked on and contrived. But I have no doubt there will be something big.

That episode could have lasted 15 minutes. It felt very drawn out. Nice touch AL giving Janine the red eye patch. The little girls having their period check.

I thought the baby born last episode was a what did they call them a shredder or something??? basically stillborn I assume because of the pollution and they knew it couldn’t be saved.

Excellent episode. It was about June hitting rock bottom and - thanks to Janine's honesty, Serena's leniency and the doctor's compassion - pulling herself out of it. The change in her face when she went back in to talk to Natalie was striking.

Now for the one-woman mission to snuggle all the children out I can see how they are going to try to fill so many seasons now 🙄
Still at least there is some hope of more action to come.

(I wondered about pale/dark green, too. Is it fertile wives v infertile wives? Those who are (biological) mothers v those who are not?)

The episode was brilliant. Yes it was slow but every scene was packed with meaning or beauty or madness.
They don't care about wasting June's fertile months as she's with Waterford now who isn't doing the ceremony anyway. I think everyone knows that Waterford postings are in name only, but they can't reassign June because Waterford wanted her and he's powerful.