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.

I think she was given an opportunity to repent wasn't she? Also she was a married woman - the offense was far greater than if she had done the same things prior to being married to Nick.

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 ?

What's the significance of the song? Anyone know/have a theory? Was it just ironic given that she's basically living through hell on earth?

That’s what I thought. As she was singing it I thought she was actually going to change it to “hell on Earth”. And then there was the “false death” they were holding Natalie in. She was dead should have gone to heaven (are handmaids allowed in heaven?) but was being held here on earth until her baby could be delivered. So I interpreted the song as kind of “ha! Gotcha! Heaven for you is right here on earth”

I that meant that a baby was worth doing anything for, even holding a person back from heaven (death for). I saw changed emphasis on the “ooh baby, do you know what that’s worth” I.e. a baby is worth a lot more than the mother, so a mother can just be a human incubator.

OH yes that’s a good point Zazie. It’s almost like the lyrics could be “ooh, a baby! Do you know what that’s worth?”

Zazie yes! It feels that you are so right with your interpretation of those lyrics. There has been a lot of symbolism this series I think. Agree that the HM hug the other week looked like a heart; I was quite fearful about June’s possible fate when they positioned her right in front of the angel wings for the broadcast.

I liked the episode. I think Serena's fearful “I thought you were one of the strong ones” means she’s plotting and depending on June for something important, and is now a little worried.

Aunt Lydia is continuing to be interesting to me... I can see her breaking down at some point. She seems intrinsically kind but has mad flashes of intense cruelty when at a low, emotional ebb. I can see her role playing out a bit like Javert’s in Les Mis, or something.

I loved that episode. Can't wait to see Juneberries as the Pied Piper of Gilead.

I'm intrigued as to how they can assume all of the girls in pink are fertile just because they have reached menarche. Surely that would mean that none of the commanders wives have periods - to be assumed infertile? (obviously this would work with the book wives who are much older)

I think they do tests on the girls once they have their periods to assess their fertility

I wonder what happens to the commanders daughters who are infertile. Aunts?

But Male infertility is an issue too. So if a commander gets a virgin fertile wife and doesn’t produce offspring, do they institute forced divorces and try again?

I'd imagine they'd assume they went wrong somewhere with the woman's tests and give them a handmaid?

Yy, even if tests show a woman is physically fertile it's women who are intrinsically sinful, like Eve, so it's their fault if they're not pious enough for God to bless their marriage.

My theory about any infertile girls is that it depends who their commander-father is. If he's powerful enough she might be allowed to marry & given a handmaid. If he's not so important she'd be an aunt or possibly paired with an older widowed man as a companion for him.

Thanks for the lyrics interpretation - that makes a lot of sense!

Infertility is seen as being the women's problem, not possibly the men's hence the handmaids, although the reality is male infertility is dealt with secretly including June being set up with Nick or the doctor's offer to June in the first series. Rotating the handmaids around spreads the chances of two fertile people having the opportunity to concieve.

Heaven is a place on Earth struck me as an ironic earworm. June is stuck until the baby is born. Natalie was stuck between life and death. Life is pretty Hellish. "They say in Heaven, love comes first, we'll make Heaven a place on Earth" June has lost the people she loves, Luke, her children, her mother, Nick and has been isolated and socially insecure all series.

My understanding was they were measuring if the girls' pelvises were developed enough to give birth, not any in-depth fertility checks. When they are they'll be married off to young commanders, and if after X years they don't have kids they'll get a handmaid. I think anything too scientific wouldn't be in the spirit of Gilead.

The girl who was made to be Nicks wife was 15 I think? But she wasn’t a pink dress girl, she was an econoperson so im not sure if it’s the same process for them as the pink dress girls.

Someone help me with who is who.

Pink dress girls are children who were removed from people like June and given to commanders who had no children?

But then in Washington the daughters of the commander there (George?) also wore pink. So were they children that had been placed with them or were they his biological children with handmaids?

So all the pink dress children are commanders children either biological or adopted? And will be married off to other commanders sons?

Nick wasn’t a commander so he married an econogirl. But now he is a commander so would he have to marry a pink dress girl?

'And will be married off to other commanders sons?'

I imagine to young commanders rather than sons - they're going to be in favour of age gaps as with Nick and Eden.

I assumed that pink dress girls are all daughters of commanders regardless of how they were concieved/ aquired.

The blue dress colour difference was interesting as I haven't registered it occuring before. The wife obviously had a handmaid being pregnant for her, so no difference in status to Serena Joy from that angle?

For a slow episode with little actual action there's quite a lot to think about!

@RiddleMeThis2018 our remote has an audio des. button and when you press it it is either AS or AS crossed out which is what you are talking about

@Jojobythesea oooh thank you, I’ll look into that. It was just awful watching it with a man describing every visual detail, although a bit dystopian too. And I couldn’t hear the music!

I actually enjoyed that episode to the point that I'm probably going to stream and catch up with US time, I need to see where it is going. Promise I won't be along with spoilers if I do

Dull.

On another note, when the doctor was talking about the children having babies, hoe do they know which will be 'wives' and which will be 'handmaids?' Or will they all automatically become handmaids? Or is it assumed handmaids won't be needed after a while?

They'll all be wives Ginger, unless they 'sin' somehow.

I'm re reading the book and aunt Lydia says that in a few years econo-wives won't need to do everything as they do now. They are trying to build a new society where women are 'protected' from 'sin'. They are trying to clean up the colonies and improve the birth rate. In future handmaids won't be necessary because they will be able to populate gilead from their native population, but at the start the birth rate is low and the handmaids are 'sinners' so that makes them good only for breeding. I don't think they envisage having handmaids long term.