The Handmaid's Tale Series 4 - finale coming up, no spoilers please.

[Clawdy]

New thread, looking forward to finale, but wishing it really was the last episode, with all storylines and characters ending satisfactorily.

@Theredjellybean

Why would Serena be allowed to give her baby to June? I think Fred's character always had a plan to go free but not back to gilead. He encouraged Serena to write a book after he realised return to gilead was not going to be the heroes welcome he hoped. I think his ideal is him free but Serena in jail, he would then get baby... He is father after all, and exonerated of crimes then there would be no legal reason he wouldn't get the baby. I think then he could return to gilead... Get nice new docile young wife... Or he leaves for neutral country and starts life again

"no legal reason he wouldn't get the baby"

..perhaps we then do find out it is Tuello's!

@ChequerBoard

I'm hoping the Last Supper reference.means that Janine & Esther will join forces to 'betray' Aunt Lydia.

Meanwhile in Canada there is no way June will let the Waterfords walk free. I suspect the Gilead survivors group from the library will be activated...

I'd say it's janine/Esther/Lydia related too

I thought the Last Supper reference was about June being betrayed. No-one else has been betrayed in quite the same way as she has, by Tuello or anyone else!

I was trying to work out (bit too much thought into it...) who was sitting in the same place in relation to Lydia that Judas is to Jesus in the painting. Fairly sure it was a random aunt though, which ruined my theory.

@ThisIsSimplyBeyond

I was trying to work out (bit too much thought into it...) who was sitting in the same place in relation to Lydia that Judas is to Jesus in the painting. Fairly sure it was a random aunt though, which ruined my theory.

Yes me too…I assumed AL was the one that was about to be betrayed/crucified but nobody sitting at that table was really a ‘big’ enough role to do the betraying (except maybe Janine who wasn’t exactly sat at the table…but she was there!). Anyway, I concluded that I was totally overthinking I think the betrayal was Tuello to June. I’m also hoping the betrayal is going to be a theme…AL by Janine and Esther, The Waterford’s each other…

If we take the overthinking to the next level, is there a crime in gilead that has crucifixion as the death penalty, that AL could be found guilty of? Something along the lines of treason might do it...?
But yeah, I have a tendency to do this with series' and I'm always wrong!

More likely it did refer to Tuello

What got me to treason (which is kinda similar to blasphemy in a religious state? - god wants it done this way, therefore you are doubting god to change things) is the AL was discussing "making this country right again" with Joseph.

If the wrong person hears that...

@AmazinglyGraceless

Ever since the June and Serena meeting where June screamed that Serena's baby would die in her womb, I've thought that June was going to somehow get the baby.

Now my prediction is that Fred gets free, Serena does not.

Serena gives June her baby to raise.

June exchanges the Waterford baby for Hannah.

I would love this!

Perhaps Serena will die in Labour in contrast to how they Wives used to pretend to go through labour with the Handmaidens.

I keep thinking that Serena might have her baby taken away from her at birth. Mimicking what happens to handmaids after labour

I think death in labour would be letting Serena off too easily. She needs to be alive to experience having her baby taken from her.

And I don't think it'll happen but I'm getting a whole lot of schadenfreudic joy at the thought of her being made a handmaid

@ThisIsSimplyBeyond

If we take the overthinking to the next level, is there a crime in gilead that has crucifixion as the death penalty, that AL could be found guilty of? Something along the lines of treason might do it...? But yeah, I have a tendency to do this with series' and I'm always wrong!

More likely it did refer to Tuello

Surely @ThisIsSimplyBeyond being hung on the wall is the Gilead equivalent of crucifixion?

@RiaOverTheRainbow

I think death in labour would be letting Serena off too easily. She needs to be alive to experience having her baby taken from her.

And I don't think it'll happen but I'm getting a whole lot of schadenfreudic joy at the thought of her being made a handmaid

I imagine that if she was going to be a Handmaid, she’d have to be sent somewhere nobody knew her. It could be quite awkward having a handmaid who was an ex-friend. Although some of the Wives might enjoy the schadenfreude.

I'd rather see Serena have the baby taken off her.

I could see the Puttnam's loving having Serena as their handmaid.

This is a random general question : if Fred was widely believed to be infertile, how come he wasn't tested? Do they not test men for fertility?

@SoupDragon

This is a random general question : if Fred was widely believed to be infertile, how come he wasn't tested? Do they not test men for fertility?

I presume any spilling of seed would be against the rules, plus I think all men are assumed to be fertile and any issues are because of the woman.

It's weird though, isn't it? They've come from a society where fertility tests and treatment must have been common place so surely they know how infertility works.

Yes, it's considered to be the woman's 'fault', the men are super fertile and all powerful etc

It's another reason to prove that it was never about more babies. What it did was give men chance to have more thsn one woman at their disposal. Couldn't have a fertile wife taking another man to make more Gilead babies if her husband was infertile.

It's all about the power of men over women.

@SoupDragon

It's weird though, isn't it? They've come from a society where fertility tests and treatment must have been common place so surely they know how infertility works.

With all this its a product of when the book was written. In 1985 fertility testing just wasn't as advanced as it is now.

Plus, it's only the 'taken over' generation who will know / remember what happened before.

Any child growing up in gilead would have no reason to not believe the world is how it has been presented to them. As an example, a friend of mine got into real trouble when she was teacher in China for doing a lesson on the NHS. It didn't fit with their narrative of the west and they were told to tell the students they'd made it up and there was no such thing.

Also, there are plenty of tales where women go through all sorts of invasive tests to look at their fertility, and the man (who basically just needs to walk into a pot) is only tested as an afterthought, and that would have been a lot more true in 1985.

Apologies it’s the daily Mail but seeing these Afghan women in their red capes made me shudder
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9914105/Taliban-burnt-home-Five-sisters-Kabul-airport-say-parents-leave.html

@OverByYer - the red clothing, looks like when they were at home, so maybe for an event or some such.
But it was the line about “their fair skin and delicate features” that made me shudder.
Even in that hellish situation the DM have managed to find women more worthy than others, with their features confirming to the DM’s idea of western beauty standards.

@NameChangeinHaste didn’t clock that. Geez