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.

I’m really enjoying this series! Thoughts so far:

1. Poor Hannah, off to wife school at 12. I can’t imagine they stay in it for 6 years so it looks like she’ll become a child bride to a Commander’s son or something.
2. Serena propositioning Commander Lawrence made me laugh out loud. The most uncomfortable and unsexy scene ever. Part of me was hoping she would have the baby taken off her in Gilead and posted as a hand maid now she’s proved her fertility. But it seems she’s destined to start a rival Gilead offshoot in Canada.
3. Janine 💔 I’m really rooting for her. She’s so vulnerable and naive.
4. Luke - needs some character development. He’s currently raising Nick and June’s love child, there should be a lot more emotional complexity there.
5. June - I actually like that she’s so damaged and vengeful. So much better than living her best life on the speaking circuit and blending into Toronto society.
6. Nick - does he have a hand maid at the moment?

I know that Janine was poisoned … but why can’t she walk? Did she have a stroke as a result?

Nerve damage maybe?

Been on holiday so binged watched first 4 episodes. Still loving it but some scenes are so dark I can barely see what is happening. Maybe I should dust my tv.

Iirc when Luke and June were on the run in season 1 he got a gun for protection so he learn then. Think it was when they were in that cabin waiting to get over the border and he showed June how to use it.

Enjoying this more than I expected to, but very confused. Can someone please explain;

1. Why Serena was released?
2. Where is this new place she's just been taken to - is it back in Gilead? When I saw the W on the gate I thought she'd been taken back to her old house...

@Tulipomania I've no idea why she was released & was asking the same question. It's very annoying!

I assumed the house was still in Canada, but don't think that makes much sense either.

Also, given Serena was shot in the stomach in series 1 & that's why she couldn't have children, I find it annoying that she's now pregnant & no explanation as to how / why she's been able to get pregnant after all!

All that said, I'm still loving the show & really want June to kill Serena & bring the whole of Gilead down.

Be careful what you wish for! I dont think her new friend will be thrilled with Serenas new executive role what with all the reading, writing, socialising,e mailing and smart clothes wearing it will entail. And lurking behind the new friend will be the new friends Gilead loving husband who won’t want that sort of liberal bra burning nonsense in his house thank you very much.

I think Serena was impressed with the house ( as was I) she probably thought the W logo on the gate was for Waterford!

I’ve been pondering how June, Luke and Moira make a living. Given the birth rate is so low, it’s possible that Canada offers some fairly serious incentives for people to have children. Nicole is still really young - perhaps parents get a massive carer’s allowance.

Ah yes, I’d forgotten about that.

I'm enjoying the series too.
I don't think Serena is enjoying her life very much right now. Her well resourced office didn't have enough ink for her to write the invitations..the Commanders are still pulling all the strings.
The Gilead supporters in Canada are bat shit crazy. Her home/Gilead embassy is barely safe.
She must know her chances of keeping the baby are slim..yet being pregnant is very useful. June would have killed her otherwise.
Plus Luke is finally seeing things from June's perspective. Which makes them more dangerous together!

I'm wondering - when Serena has her baby, will her whole ethos, her whole belief, be shattered? We all know how our worlds turn completely inside out when we have a baby; doors open that we didn't even know about - will she then realise how awful, dreadful, unthinkable it is to have our baby removed from the mother - permanently?

She should be aware that once baby is born, that she may at any time (in Gilead, anyway) have her baby taken and given to a deserving, married couple. She's not thick, she knows she is only protected while she's pregnant.

I wonder if she will start to question her Gilead God-on-our-Side beliefs. Maybe she and June will team up to bring down Gilead at that point - when she realises that her daughter will not learn to read, or her son may be married off and expected to rape a handmaid once a month, and she herself could quite easily become a handmaid, at a Commander's whim...

I'm ashamed by memory is so bad, but about Serena being released, isn't it to do with the fact that originally both she and Fred were put on trial under Canadian law based on a complaint by June.

My brain's so fuzzy I cant remember those episodes but wasn't Serena found not guilty or no case to answer. And then whatever was decided about Fred in court was ignored in favour of the prisoner swap. Didn't June initiallly have another meltdown about that? Before hatching the assassination plot.

But now that Fred is dead, and Gilead has sent Serena as their official representative to Canada, who is not at war with Galiead but neutral, they have no reason to hold her or stop her from being an ambassador or whatever title she is meant to have.

I think Luke is only now despite everything, starting to understand how June feels after seeing the tv broadcast with Hannah. And also, is a cliched sort of way feels a bit challenged by not only Serena being scathing about him leaving June in Gilead, but also have June being scathing about this building regulation tactics.

And iss't Aunt Lydia just a tiny bit infatuated with Janine? And after her near death isn't this why she wants a different arrangement for Handmaid's. Note how frank Commander Lawrence was about the perversion of the other Commanders. (I posted last week about how he felt he wasn't part of that but knew he was responsible in terms of helping create Gilead.)

Like other's I am really bored of June and her faces. Not sure why they have decided that the lead character should behave in this way when all the others who have suffered similarly dont. (I think it is just lazy plotting and they are just recreating all those male revenge movies). I would have preferred that they put more into creating plots that explained not only how Gilead was still going, but all the other questions that have been raised about how long can Canada look after the refugees, how are others surviving. Why aren't there news updates about rebel activity. Cant remember if there is any part of what was the US that still functions as the US, and if so what is happening there.

Thearly episodes, maybe because they had Atwoor's source material was much more in depth in terms of providing the enviroment in which things happened. Now it is all about the next emotional blow out and revenge plotting.

I liked Joe's building regs tactics.

They need to find a friendly tax adviser, too. See if they can do an Al Capone on her.

Or keep sending her parking tickets.

I thought Serena being unable to get pregnant was more to do with Fred having a low sperm count/low sperm quality, as he couldn't impregnate June successfully so Serena used Nick for that. But being all-powerful males they wouldn't address it in Gilead. It must have been just luck when Serena fell pregnant.

I agree Fred wasn't the most fertile, but there was definitely a flashback scene in season 1 (or maybe 2) where it showed Serena getting shot in the stomach and meant she couldn't have children.

Unless I've completely made up the memory but I remember it clearly!

Definitely shot in the stomach and I think the presumption was she was infertile whilst it was probably his low sperm count.

Placemarking

Much prefer episodes not directed by Elisabeth Moss, they have less angry-June-super-close-ups . They're self-indulgent shots that now add zero to the storytelling and atmosphere.

I also hate to say it, as the first two series are some of the best TV ever made, but the gaping plot holes and lack of world building that Atwood does so beautifully means I'm glad they're wrapping this up next season. It's running out of steam.

Urgh…this was a dull episode for me. A bit of a filler no? Maybe I am finally getting bored with it but nothing seemed to happen really.

Tuello getting it from all sides…he can’t win with anyone. Felt a bit for him.

Whats going on with Esther? Is she going to come
back?

And yes to the plot holes.

I’m missing the beautiful atmospheric artistry of the first season…it was beautiful to watch and was really differentiated. This just feels like a regular show now.

I’m missing Nick too 😁. More Nick please!

I’ve just been listening to the Eyes on Gilead recap, & they had theories about where Serena’s ended up.

They compared her arrival there to a Handmaid’s at a new posting - unceremoniously dropped off to provide a baby, knowing nothing about where she was, greeted by the Wife - & observed that there was no way Gilead were going to let Serena raise her child as a single mother. Maybe this couple have been promised Serena’s baby.

Maybe this couple have been promised Serena’s baby.

I LOVE this theory!

That was my first thought too.

That would make sense!

Me too! It’s pretty clear that neither Waterstone is held in much regard in Gilead, they have effectively closed Serena down by monitoring and restricting what she can do in Canada, and now they have put her in the middle of nowhere with a woman who gives Mrs Danvers a run for her money. Once she has had the baby( must be soon surely) her bags will be packed and she will be begging Tuello and June for their help.