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Original poster

The Handmaid's Tale S4 at C4 pace (no spoilers from Hulu subscribers) Thread 2

999 replies

OverByYer · 08/07/2021 09:53

Under his eye

OP posts:
BIWI · 09/07/2021 13:24

@Iggi999

BIWI it doesn't end like that?? But I think we should stop discussing the testaments tbh as something will be said that seems spoilery sooner or later Grin
No of course it doesn't end like that ! Grin

But it's the same type of ending - all tied up rather too neatly and quickly at the end. As if she couldn't be bothered any more.

GoingGently · 09/07/2021 13:24

I have never even read THT but I need to... just might be too much whilst also watching the show and listening to podcast!

LODReturn · 09/07/2021 16:15

I re-read THT when the first series came out. I had forgotten how amazing it was. Can't remember if it was A level or GCSE English we studied it for. Had hope DS would have as a GCSE text so I would study it with him but he didn't.

I was impressed that the first series portrayed lots of things as I had visualised them from the book. Usually I read a book and then watch the film/series and think 'no, you've got it all wrong'.

WitchSharkadder · 09/07/2021 16:19

IIRC I studied THT for AS level. I've re-read it so many times since and I agree that it's a book every teenage girl should read. It is absolute perfection and I think I liked the TV series (S1) so much because it captured the essence of it so perfectly, which is extremely rare IMO.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/07/2021 16:44

I found that studying To Kill a Mockingbird for O level spoilt it for me, @WitchSharkadder - it sounds as if studying THT had the opposite effect for you.

I have never reread TKAM since, and didn’t read her new book either.

CurbsideProphet · 09/07/2021 16:48

@LODReturn the writers from THT have said they are not following the story arch from The Testaments. They may consider making The Testaments as its own standalone programme.

GoingGently · 09/07/2021 18:50

I did English lit A-level and everything. Not sure how I avoided it at school to be honest! I remember other classes in my year doing it. We got of mice and men instead i think!

Faircastle · 09/07/2021 20:36

I've been outvoted for use of the TV this Sunday evening (apparently there's something else on that some people in my house want to watch?) but I have access to another good-sized screen which can stream All4 and I've discovered that I can watch Channel 4 live using that.

Praise Be!

WitchSharkadder · 09/07/2021 20:59

I was also put off To Kill a Mockingbird @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius, there was just something about THT that I fell in love with. It sounds very cheesy, but it sort of unleashed my inner feminist. My mother is very odd in her views, girls don't go to university, they work in a shop until marriage when they give up work to have babies and remain very happy changing nappies and scrubbing floors etc. I spent my childhood proclaiming very feminist opinions (I will not change my name on marriage, I will always have a job, etc) and THT validated them and gave me a name for them.

XJen · 09/07/2021 21:28

So I was watching the last episode on my phone and the point at which they were on the bridge kissing, my phone went into 'nighttime mode' and everything went black & white. I thought that it was part of the episode, to emphasise the fact it was a dream sequence. I'd sorted it out before the end though, so I saw the train scene in full colour...

WilheminaVenable · 09/07/2021 21:59

Oh god it’s just been on gogglebox and I’ve now seen it 3 times and it’s still a shock every time. It’s such a good scene in that you can’t take your eyes off it the tension when they realise they might escape and the hope on their faces when they're running, think that might be up there as one of the (many) worst scenes in the show 😭

Original poster
OverByYer · 09/07/2021 22:57

I just watched too on gogglebox. Even worse second time around. Had a little cry.
I bet the guard will be in the shit for 4 Handmaids being killed

OP posts:
vivariumvivariumsvivaria · 10/07/2021 09:24

I don't watch goggle box, but caught it when they were talking about the HMT.

Agree with PP, they were on the tracks. Dammit.

Guard will already be on the wall, Lydia will have had a tough week. June and Janine are living in a lovely women's commune that's set up in a space behind a waterfall that is invisible to any baddies.

ONE MORE SLEEP

Twelvetimestwo · 10/07/2021 09:25

@StormyLovesOdd

I'll be watching THT on Sunday as I can't stand football, never watched a match and I'm certainly not going to start now.
Then how do you know you can't stand it?
ElephantOfRisk · 10/07/2021 11:37

The train thing didn't have any effect on me. I live near a level crossing and trains are regularly cancelled because of suicides. More often this last year. I suppose that has more impact than the TV show where it was just something my brain noted as they aren't real people.

Looking forward to tomorrow, we are not fussed with football (and aren't English) but I wish them well.

GoingGently · 10/07/2021 12:28

Gosh @ElephantOfRisk that's horrendous! Sad

ElephantOfRisk · 10/07/2021 12:40

It is, our local police Facebook page is also full of missing persons requests, thankfully most end up with the person being safe and well but we had a body found today :(

I don't live in a particularly populated area, our council is about 40k population but police force covers a few councils.

I can imagine how often trains and tubes are stopped for the same reason in London.

CrouchEndTiger12 · 10/07/2021 12:59

@Its90minutestonight

So why do you think June didnt bash Aunt Lydia's head in? I know their relationship is 'complicated' but I thought June was in a new hard core mindset now.
No idea but she should have. If she had hit her then Lydia couldn't have called for the guard and 2 wouldn't have been shot
vivariumvivariumsvivaria · 10/07/2021 13:07

Good question, 90.

Has Lydia done anything to protect Hannah? That's about the only reason I can think of for not killing her.

Or Stockholm Syndrome, but I don't think June fits that profile.

Original poster
OverByYer · 10/07/2021 13:29

Yes if June had knocked AL out they could have all escaped. Maybe June has some empathy for AL as well as she too is a product of the regime? She acts like she does to survive and in that respect is similar to June. Self preservation

OP posts:
TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/07/2021 14:47

Guard will already be on the wall, ‘Lydia will have had a tough week. June and Janine are living in a lovely women's commune that's set up in a space behind a waterfall that is invisible to any baddies.‘

The trouble with that is that after a day or two June will decide she has to go and look for Hannah, but she will get captured and inadvertently betray the commune, who inexplicably won’t mind.

GoingGently · 10/07/2021 15:27

Anyone else holding onto (false) hope that the guard was a plant and he only shot them with rubber bullets?

JacquelineCarlyle · 10/07/2021 15:37

Id not considered that @GoingGently, would be great if that were the case but somehow after the Martha's being chucked off the building, I'm ready for them all to be dead Sad

colouringindoors · 10/07/2021 19:47

I found the guard shooting the Handmaids totally destroyed any believability (?) of June not being put on the wall for getting all the children out. There feels, annoyingly too many inconsistencies which I don't want as I still enjoy it! Conflicted...

colouringindoors · 10/07/2021 19:49

I'll be watching Monday...