C4 / UK pace: No Spoilers Please - Handmaids Tale returns anyone else excited?

[Ladybird69]

YEY. just seen the new season is starting 23 October. I binge watched the others earlier in the month so can’t wait for it to start again. The ending was a shocker that I didn’t see coming. I can’t wait to see where they’re taking it. Will serena joy get let go because she was under his orders AND she’s having a baby. Or will she get put into jail and baby taken away when he’s born.

@LadyEloise1

No def not stupid lol.

I think his wife killed herself because of the ritual they forced them to do, along with the over all guilt of what they were involved in

That's what I understood too.

Lawrence is supposed to be an inscrutable enigma I think.

I am in two minds about Janine’s future prospects, either she is going to swallow the kool aid and become Aunt Lydia’s little helper with the other handmaids - which will mean she is story lined doomed to have a sad end - or she is going to somehow escape with Angela and live a happy life in a cosy home in Canada.

I’m hoping that Janine will tell Lydia a few home truths & that Lydia will listen. Especially after what Lydia said during her prayers.

He certainly is.

I think of Lawrence as someone who wants to believe he is a GOOD person but who, fundamentaly, is missing an empathy chip.

Like Dickens (bear with me!!!). Dickens' writing is known for its great humanity, shining a big mirror up to the injustices in the world at that time and appearing to be fundamentally on the side of good for humankind. Full of compassion and clear morals.

BUT Dickens himself, in his personal life, was a twat with very little time or empathy for the people around him. I don't think he was faking the care in his writing, but he was much better at being kind when it was to distant people who did not bother him with their messy and specific wants and needs and fears. When up close and personal he had no time for them.

I think of Lawrence in a similar vein: happy to be on the side of 'good' when thinking about big, distant issues but when it comes down the messy aspect of implementing those morals in his life, does not have the appetitie or aptitude for it.

I think of him as having seen Gilead as an intellectual and dispassionate solution to a pressing and extreme problem: global infertility, which could depopulate or even eventually wipe out the human species. Use 'antisocial' women with proven previous fertility to reproduce and reward those men you want on side with controlled sexual access to them and the status of children. You wipe out crime and create a safe environment for raising children. No more Aunt Lydia experiences with feckless parents (mothers)! Women who deserve punishment for their fecklessness or promiscuity who can reproduce can benefit the state, but not themselves, obviously, because they are fallen.

The Gilead solution measurably works because the handmaids do produce children. Your population doesn't fall as much as other populations.

But the reality is appalling at a human level. He has enough humanity and empathy to be appalled, and feel guilty, but not (yet) enough courage to pull on the brakes.

I agree @Abra1t

IIRC Lawrence was the financial brain amongst the Commanders. It was him who set up Gilead' s economic structure.

They therefore turned a blind eye to him and Mrs Lawrence not toeing the party line on the Ceremony and other vital bits of Gilead culture and creed

I wonder who Serena’s staff are going to be & whether they’ll be expected to follow Gilead rules?

That lot with the candles will probably be rushing to apply for positions.

This is my understanding too. I loved when Lawrence dingied Tuello at the front door of his home at the dinner…maybe we can catch up after dinner? <bemused chuckle> “alright then!”

I’ve just binged this seasons Eyes on Gilead up to episode 503 and there are two “delicious” bonus interviews - one with Tuello which is really good and one with Janine which was brilliant. Recommend - no spoilers - just some nice insight from the actors on their characters

I thought that the story behind Lawrence was that he genuinely loved his wife, but had put her through the torture of Gilead because he opted to be part of it because he thought his plans (financial?) were superior, essential. Cant remember the detail.

But realised too late that in focusing on that he had become part of a society that he hadn't signed up to.

So every now and again he does little acts of rebellion, but ultimately accepts that he has become part of a deeply repressive and violent society.

And maybe even more so now that his wife is dead, because he could have previously thought if I defect I can give her a better life, but now she is dead why bother.

Can I jump in with something that's probably nothing???

Tuello, talking to June after 'the' murder, walked away, saying 'don't let the bastards grind you down '

Is this not what was written in Latin on her wardrobe door, in the early days?

So, coincidence, or what? Or am I just making stuff up in my fevered imagination???

It was also written on the wall that Waterford's body was hung so he may have been told of that detail of the murder.

I find little details like that in handmaid's tale are rarely coincidences, they slip lots of little details in.

They had pictures of the murder scene I thought?

Maybe it's a symbol/slogan for Mayday.

Ooh!

Could Tuello have said it to let June know he knew she as responsible ?

Maybe it's a symbol/slogan for Mayday.

The slogan was written inside Junes cupboard at the Waterford's house. She obviously wrote it on the wall where Fred was hung.

Tuello will have seen the photographs of the murder scene and used the slogan to let June know he knew she had killed Fred - and he didn't blame her!

@LadyEloise1

No he had already said he knew it was her. Something about how sometimes only the strongest people can do the awful things that need to be done.

I think he just wanted to show solidarity

I dont understand what happens to the children are the girls married off to the boys or to older comanders? Are they fertile or do they have to use handmaids?

In one of the earlier series there was a pregnant wife at some event or other so I suppose it depends.

I’m re-reading The Testaments and that has more about what it’s like to be a Commander’s daughter in Gilead, so I’m watching with interest to see if they’re going with that.

With children being at such a premium in Gilead, especially after Angels’ Flight, I wonder if Serena will be expected to send her child back there?

Blessed Sunday.

Blessed day!

Pleased they finally mentioned the whole 'mass infertility' once again. Felt like it had been completely forgotten