Handmaids Tale season 4 for discussion (SPOILERS)

[BG2015]

What did we all think? I was a bit ??? when she was captured again!!

sorry *nil desperandum

You really had to suspend disbelief for the final episode.
Where did all the other women come from ?
How did they get to No Man's Land ?
How did June rope Nick in ?

Underwhelming

LadyEloise

yeah it was a bit that all of a sudden June can just call Lawrence and Nick anytime ,without the American embassy taking lots of time and precautions to arrange a phone call.

the other women where from the handmaids therapy group. Emily was also key to choosing this, her and June had been discussing it over the kitchen table.

it is utterly bizarre that such a negotiation and the pre arranged 'ok you will be all free to drive to no man's land and spend the night in the woods' and Gilead will make sure no one on the borders will see or notice or intervene.

but but but......
it really was cathartic!

I have listened to all the Season 4 Eyes on Gilead podcast now too, which was really helpful in processing it all.

Thanks @NewYearNewTwatName
I will listen to the Season 4 Eyes on Gilead podcast.

If Nick and Commander Lawrence are so readily available, why can they not get Hannah out ?

I loved the shock Fred got.

No Janine, Aunt Lydia or Esther.

I wondered too was Mark Tuello the father of Serena's baby.

I deleted the last episode after watching it. I'm sorry now as I want to rewatch the last 15 minutes again - will watch C4 when it's on.

It ended on "An eye for an eye" note rather than Michelle Obama's maxim of "When they go low we go high".

I think that whilst nick and Lawrence can do stuff that only effect them, like dealing with fred(Gilead wanted him out the way anyway, so not bothered by how nick and Lawrence go about it) they definitely wouldn't be able to interfere with taking another commanders daughter.

Serena baby is an odd one, as I too have an underlying feeling it is Tuello's. I'm sure there was something back in season 3 that alluded to it, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was.

I hope Janine and Esther have a bigger roll to play next season.

Did Mark urge Serena to run away with him at one point ?

@LadyEloise

Did Mark urge Serena to run away with him at one point ?

Yes, at least I think that happened too.

I have always felt Serna and Mark had sex that time.

Serna getting pregnant because she had sex with Fred once, just seems unlikely. There's been years of Fred not impregnating a handmaid each month. The baby being Fred's seems less likely than Serna getting pregnant after having sex with another man. (As June did.)

It just seems more likely Fred is infertile.

I thought it was very pointed the way June told Mark not to trust Serena. I think it was S4 Ep 8 or 9.
Season 4 whizzed by. I can't believe there were 10 episodes.

I found the scenes in Canada gave me much needed respite from the awfulness of the scenes in Gilead.

I don't remember Tuello asking Serena to run away with him, I just remember him offering to send her somewhere away from Gilead. Was it to Hawaii? Tuello appears to be married, he told June "my family lives here" when she showed up at that plaza when he was running. I don't think he'd have thrown away his career and his 'life' for Serena at that point. If he was willing to do that, he'd have said the baby was his. IF what we speculate is true.

IDK, the finale didn't require too much suspension of disbelief on my part. Some of it made sense if you thought about it in a certain way.

If I'd been a handmaid I'd have traveled anywhere at any time to be in on a bit of revenge against one of the men responsible for what I went through. And I'm sure the former handmaids, Marthas, & Jezebels have an extensive 'grapevine' with each other 'so getting the word out' to the former handmaids wouldn't have taken much.

I think June's communications 'link' with Nick & Cdr Lawrence was Mayday. Then she brought in Tuello once she was sure of Cdr L's interest in the exchange plan. Cdr L would have told Gilead that he had been contacted and wanted to negotiate Fred's release in exchange for the 22 handmaids. That plan would have had to have had Gilead's cooperation. They wanted Fred back desperately as they really didn't know what/how many beans he'd already spilled. They were anxious to stop him talking so they were probably willing to 'overlook' Cdr L's ability to be contacted by June as well as his and Nick's ulterior motivation for wanting Fred dead. And I think the plan was executed (sorry about the pun) in complete secrecy so that neither the US nor the population of Gilead were even aware of it. What remains to be seen is how Fred's 'disappearance' will be explained away to Serena and thus to the world at large.

June has been told that Hannah has moved 'far away' from the area in which June lived in Gilead and that she is under heavy observation and guard. I don't remember who it was, but someone told her that Hannah is 'impossible to get to'. IMHO, she's 'bait'. They know that June will not be able to resist trying to rescue her.

Next season should be pretty good. The aftermath of Fred's death, Serena's baby, AL vs Janine & Esther, the further actions of June. I'm excited.

AcrossthePond55

it was Nick who told her hannah was surrounded by guardians. They are aware that June wants her back.

I'm not sure June would know who to contact in Mayday who had direct lines to Lawrence and Nick. Plus many members of Mayday are pretty pissed off with June Osbourne as we saw when Nick was trying to trace her, they really don't see her as a hero, quite the opposite, because so many people die when trying to help her and she goes off and does her own thing.