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.

The darkness really annoys me.
Surely the thing is with living in a repressive regime like Gilead is that the appalling comes to seem normal and you get on with daily life despite the horror. Filming everything either in darkness or washed out and grey seems to say the opposite. But I think the interesting thing about Gilead is the way it works for some. If it’s relentless misery for everyone it can’t work.

Absolutely @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius, thank goodness for subtitles!

@Iggi999

As horrendous as it would be in that "colony" I think being with other women and not having to be forced to be around a commander and his wife daily would be an improvement. They will need to feed and not massively overwork them as well due to their reproductive status. So better than the colony others (Emily?) ended up in.

In The book the colonies radioactivity meant that with time your teeth would fall out and skin would melt off would probably also lead to infertility

@AlohaMolly

Can I just ask… what colour does everyone see the wives’ dresses as?

I think Serena Joys name is a play on words from Arwood. Calm, peaceful blue but also calmly happy and joyful - like a woman typically 'should be'.

In reality she's a stress head (due to her infertility) and in many ways as brutal as the men of Gilead.

Kind of also echoes in the blue dresses

*Atwood

They were definitely blue. I remember during a school lesson dissecting a whole scene about some radishes in a bowl. They radishes represented the maids, the calm water was the wives. The hand maids were floating in the wives pool or whatever

In The book the colonies radioactivity meant that with time your teeth would fall out and skin would melt off confused would probably also lead to infertility

June and the other handmaid's were being sent to a farming colony not a radioactive clean up colony. There's no way they'd risk the unborn children by exposing them to radioactivity.

@Crinkle77

In The book the colonies radioactivity meant that with time your teeth would fall out and skin would melt off confused would probably also lead to infertility

June and the other handmaid's were being sent to a farming colony not a radioactive clean up colony. There's no way they'd risk the unborn children by exposing them to radioactivity.

I meant the colony that Emily ended up in

@JoeGrundyWasMyRoleModel

What did Commander Lawrence mean when he said to June "Gilead was due a makeover and thanks to you it got one"?

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

There do seem to be an increasing number of situational illogicalities and plot holes.

I wondered whether maybe that was a reference to the dead/injured Commanders following the poisoning: new leadership roles suddenly available?

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.

I think Nick arranged the whole thing. When they got to the interrogation centre at the start of the episode he stressed to June that he wouldn't be able to help her if she didn't tell them where the rest of the handmaids were. I suspect he knew that, when she told them, all the handmaids would be rounded up and sent to the rape farm so he organised drivers from Mayday to make the handover at the bridge - including the guy who supposedly needed a pee just before a train was due. I think he was giving June the best chance he could to survive.
There are curtains all around the back of the bus where the handmaids sit so that they can't see where they're going. The driver would've seen the kiss but not Aunt Lydia or the other handmaids.

I think Nick was just trying to keep June alive. If she gave the address, they'd let her live (though I'm surprised at that tbh!) I don't think he is trying to get her free, just alive.
I think underlying a lot of the "can't believe they haven't killed her" moments is the basic arrogance of those running Gilead. Women are nothing, handmaids are less than nothin. No real threat to them.

‘I wondered whether maybe that was a reference to the dead/injured Commanders following the poisoning: new leadership roles suddenly available?’

Ooh yes! That makes perfect sense.

@BattyOrange

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.

I think Nick arranged the whole thing. When they got to the interrogation centre at the start of the episode he stressed to June that he wouldn't be able to help her if she didn't tell them where the rest of the handmaids were. I suspect he knew that, when she told them, all the handmaids would be rounded up and sent to the rape farm so he organised drivers from Mayday to make the handover at the bridge - including the guy who supposedly needed a pee just before a train was due. I think he was giving June the best chance he could to survive.
There are curtains all around the back of the bus where the handmaids sit so that they can't see where they're going. The driver would've seen the kiss but not Aunt Lydia or the other handmaids.

This also makes perfect sense.

I think Serena Joys name is a play on words from Arwood. Calm, peaceful blue but also calmly happy and joyful - like a woman typically 'should be'

Yes, I agree. And you're right, the SJ we see in both the book and TV series is the opposite.

I may be recalling this incorrectly but wasn't Serena Joy her stage name from her time as a television evangelist? (Book).

Agree with WitchSharkadder about Nick. If he was a double agent they'd have used it in the plot by now, I think he's committed atrocities because those were his orders and that's why the Swiss didn't want anything to do with him and June will find that out at some point.

Do you mean when Serena told her that in S3?

I don't believe nick is a double agent either. For how many years does he have to spy before the other country(IES?) Intervene? Nah doesn't seem plausible to me.

I was answering your question, you asked - who would Nick be working for as well as Gilead, if he was a double agent?

You don't think Western countries have agents embedded in places like Iran, Russia, Niorth Korea, China in the real world?

Spies operate for years, decades even, if they can get away with it. How long has it been since before Gilead came into existence and now? 6/7 years?

It was very kind of someone to make sure Janine always had a co-ordinating eyepatch.

I think Nick had something to do with the escape, or will have something up his sleeve.
Can't believe the rape farm I mean I can, Gilead is sick, but it still shocked me!

@Crinkle77

any scenes that really stick with you?

Most of my fave scenes are tied up with the great music. First series when June leaves the house the night after the scrabble game to meet Ofglen, has a bit of a flirt with Nick, but it's not Emily but the new Ofglen all to Simple Minds Don't You Forget About Me. Then when Luke finds out June is still alive and gets her note and Nothings Gonna Hurt You Baby playing in the background. Finally Kate Bush's Cloudbusting in series 3 when the Martha's clean up after June has killed the commander. So many good scenes and excellent music.

I agree with this!

See also This Woman's Worth (Kate Bush apparently never allows films and TV shows to use her songs but made an exception for THT) and I Say A Little Prayer. Just brilliant

I wonder if the rape colony is a newly created facility in response to the fact June and co are massive flight risks and also to punish them for it. Made specifically for them. We’ve never heard June or anyone else mention them before and the way aunt Lydia told June sounded like she knew she was telling her this new information.

I'd love if the Waterfords werent in it anymore, and Serena hearing "you're pregnant" was her Larry David ending. Queue the music bop bop bop...

I loved Janine's scene with her baby in an earlier series, singing I Only Want To Be With You.

As someone said upthread, I thought the colony sounded like an improvement upon being posted in a household. But hopefully we shall never know and the story will move forwards and not sideways.

My heart always breaks with anything about Hannah.

I thought Nick was behind the escape too. He is doing what he can to help her live. (I know the kiss was cheesy and unrealistic but I loved it after such an otherwise horrific episode).

I also wondered if it was Nick who had leaked information to Canada that June was alive. The lady told Luke that they didn’t expect any more information. Maybe Nick felt that he would put himself (and June) in too much danger if he risked contacting them again.

Maybe I’m investing too much in Nick?!

well i enjoyed the kiss