The Handmaid's Tale S4 at C4 pace (no spoilers from Hulu subscribers)

[Faircastle]

A thread for those watching Season 4 of the Handmaid's Tale on Channel 4 starting this evening. There's another thread for those who have already streamed it via Hulu, so it would be good if we could keep this one free of spoilers for episodes beyond those Channel 4 has broadcast.

Definitely not emerald green to me lol

Those chunky boots they wear look really cumbersome to run in too. Hopefully they can lose the capes.

If the train takes 20 minutes to pass that gives J+J about 2 miles depending on how fit they are. I don’t think they would have good levels of fitness dues to how injured June was, her torture etc and Janine won’t leave her. If they stay on the road they are far too visible so wooded land? Not so easy to run through. So maybe they’ll manage a mile and a half? The guardians have cars and dogs. I can’t see how the can realistically not be caught.

Also the guardians have radios to contact other guardians. All the bus driver has to do is call his mates and say “there’s two lassies heading in your direction, round them up for me bud”

‘Can’t miss them, they’re wearing red with handcuffs.’

Oh I forgot about the cuffs! Now I remember the way they were running in slow mo with their hands swinging up in front.

I was imagining a river with a handy boat on it, and a sign saying "this way to Canada"!

Oh, that's good, Iggi, with a friendly lumberjack who's got some Tim Horton doughnuts and a big gun for scaring off bears (he wouldn't shoot a bear) and he knows his way around both a boat engine and women's rights.

Yes, I like him. He's always got some spare camouflage waterproofs too. He's a nice guy.

I thought the wives' dresses were green in S1 and then changed to teal... did my eyes change and they were always teal?!

In my head the book had the wives in green. But this adaption has always had them in teal blue.

But i could be remembering it wrong

I haven’t read the whole thread so sorry if any of this has been said but surely the other handmaids knew that June would be tortured into revealing their location? I thought they’d have moved on. But also I really don’t get the timeline and how long things are taking soo.

When I saw nick on the bridge I thought he was gonna be June’s new commander and she’d be his handmaid!! Actually think that would have been worse than a stranger

Maybe there wasn’t anywhere else safe they could get to in time.

I think the aging of the children is because June was in Gilead for about 3 years before she had Nicole. So Hannah would be 6/7 by the time Nicole was born.

When I saw nick on the bridge I thought he was gonna be June’s new commander and she’d be his handmaid!! Actually think that would have been worse than a stranger

I was hoping that he had organised a truck to help her escape. I've just thought after reading your comment but why hasn't he been assigned another wife now he's a high ranking commander. Unless he has and we just don't know about it.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

‘I can't see any change, except possibly a shoot on sight policy rather than recapture and punishment as referred to by a PP. ‘

And the establishment of Magdalene colonies- hardly an improvement!

Ah, yes, of course. Thanks Countess.

Re Hannah's age, she must've been 5 when Gilead came to being as we saw a flashback of her first day of school and we know June's been there 5 years now so Hannah will be 10 or there abouts.

It's the age of the babies that seems inconsistent to me. For example, Angela was born early in S1 so she should be almost 3 by now, right? Her birth was also way before June became pregnant with Nicole so she'd have to have been at least 1 when she became ill in S2 (which was after June gave birth) but still seemed much younger than that. And then I'm sure she was in a S3 episode and still an infant when i'd expect her to be toddling around.

I remembered which episode in S3 as soon as I pressed post! It was the one where they had a ceremony to celebrate the children of Gilead and there was a reception afterwards at the Putnam's house.

@WitchSharkadder

Reeling each other their names in the red Centre at the end was beautiful too, it was taken word for word from the book. Which is just proof that Margaret Atwood's writing is unbeatable.

I agree that that bit is in the book, but it's been annoying me because I think it's an inconsistency with the earlier TV series. In the TV series the handmaids all exchange names in the grocery store after Janine and Emily come back from the colonies - because they realise they don't know them - and it's a really powerful bonding moment.

They won't know all of them though? I assumed handmaids came in batches, when they processed a new group. Maybe not though.

I think that ending was a bit hokey but I don't care. I loved that kiss and the scene where they were running. Cried real tears when they shot the handmaids and when they got hit by the train.
I think gilead is starting to fall apart. I see it a bit like Islamic state. A regime like that has a short shelf life as the people in it die too regularly and get quickly disillusioned. The violence increases as a regime starts to fall apart.

From watching the earlier series, I decided that the Wives wore different shades of blue-green depending on the seniority of their husbands - though this could just be a wild theory.

That's disappointing @Horehound, about Elisabeth Moss being a scientologist.
They have announced a Series 5 to be released in 2022. I hoped that this series would be about bringing down Gilead, so another disappointment. At least if S5 is confirmed the producers might be able to afford some lighting, so we can see whats actually going on!!

And some more sensitive microphones, so we can hear the dialogue despite all the muttering.

I wondered whether the guard/driver of the bus at the end might be Mayday as he so ostentatiously announced his leaving the bus for his call of nature.

Yes, he shot the handmaids, but if he was part of the Gilead regime, then surely it would have been drummed into him that it's better to have an escaped handmaid (with the liklihood of recapture), than a dead one. Especially after what Aunt Lydia said to June about handmaid's being such a valuable resource.

Just a idea.

I also wondered whether Nick had arranged for June to be his handmaid when I saw him on the bridge.

Thought their snog was ridiculous. Unless the aforementioned driver was also Mayday/resistance. I'm not sure if Aunt Lydia and the other handmaids would have seen Nick and June from where they were sitting in the back of the bus.