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 was expecting June to go back to Gilead at some point but not like this and not with Luke :(

At some point during S2 or S3, DH stopped watching because he found it too cyclical (June is in peril and/or captivity; she manages to escape; things are looking up; she gets captured again).
I'm starting to see his point.
I'll keep watching though.

So ... June has killed many people, sent hundreds of kids to Canada and murdered a Commander. She'll be straight up on the wall right? Oh wait ...

Very cross about this plot turn (hardly surprising though). The guy they met in the woods could simply have handed over that little data drive thingy when they first met and they could have all merrily have gone their separate ways.

Anyway, I'm sure June will somehow emerge relatively unscathed as I think there is another series in the offing?

On another note, did anyone notice the similarity between Serena's bedroom in the Wheelers' home and the one June had at the Waterfords'.

Yes, I agree. It would have been so much more efficient.

I wonder if part of the bowling alley bit was to show what it’s like to be a young adult in Gilead. I struggle to tell the ages of “teens” on the telly (partly because they always seem to be played by people in their thirties) but I guess Jayden’s age at about 15.

Hannah had started school before Gilead and is now twelve so would have been 6 or 7 at the start of Gilead - so it’s been about 5 years. For Jayden to not remember before Gilead clearly, he would need to have been under ten at the start. Much younger than 15 would be too young to be given a gun.

June and Luke are creeped out at first sight of the bowling alley because they’re so used to people having an ulterior motive. Jayden is just a lonely, bored boy who wants someone to bowl with.

I’m surprised at Hannah being sent to wife school at 12 (even though she’s “ready”). Even Gilead must know that breeding from very young girls isn’t a great idea. They’d get a better yield from waiting a bit longer.

The Tudors (the posh ones) would marry their children off very young but then have them live apart for a few years until they were ready to have children. Part of the reason Henry VII’s mother only had one child was that she was twelve when she had him - her birth injuries meant she never had more children despite marrying again.

Yes, there were so many echoes of June's experience as a handmaid. It's just a softer version of the imprisonment of the fertile woman.

I thought June & Luke were in no man's land when they were captured (near the pylons).

Can't believe Moira was getting pissed during it too - I mean!!!!

I wonder if it's actually Canadians who've caught them ?

I'm hoping it's Canadians @Abra1t as they didn't like like they were typical Gilead people.

Poor Jayden, he really did just want some company. So sad!

It could be so - as surely the would just have been shot otherwise?

Yes he could have given it to them, but then he wouldn't have had some proper human interaction that he desperately craves

Not the best episode in my opinion, could have lived without watching the bowling/dancing scenes. Although Serena's slow realisation that she's trapped was satisfying but sad to watch.

How do you think the final series will end? I can’t imagine Serena having an easy life inside or outside Gilead.

Oh the satisfaction of seeing Serena not being able to have the freedom she expected! Loved all the parallels to how handmaids are treated, and the commanders taking up her idea of a fertility centre but her not being part of it.

Very cross about this plot turn (hardly surprising though). The guy they met in the woods could simply have handed over that little data drive thingy when they first met and they could have all merrily have gone their separate ways.

Didn't Jayden say it was too dangerous to travel back in daylight?

Also what was the point of sending Serena to Canada if they're not going to let her do her work? They may as well have just kept her in Gilead.

They have declawed Serena. If they told her they would keep her basically captive she would have been better off selling whatever secrets she could for her freedom. That would be more dangerous, to have her as an enemy.

I like the idea that it might be Canadians that have captured them - refugee hunters?!

I'm not sure about Jaedon. I wondered if he was keeping them in the bowling alley on purpose, to allow them to be captured. He was leading them back to Canada along 'a quicker route' - or was he deliberately taking them towards danger? And who hanged the rapist in the woods? Not Gilead... 'they don't use words'.

The people who came out of the trucks didn't look like Gilead soldiers. They weren't all in black. And I don't think they had helmets on. Not sure who they are? But it was inevitable that June would end up back in Gilead. Luke going with her is odd. He hasn't got a clue how bad it can be.

Serena is getting her taste of being a handmaiden. It looks like the Wheelers are setting her up to take her baby away.

To the person who was asking who was looking after Nicole - Rita was with her.

It was odd that they all let their hair down while they were on a mission... June and Luke, Moira and Mayday woman all drinking... not paying attention to what was going on.

Not sure why Jaedon didn't just put the info about 'plums' on the tree for June and Luke to collect? Not sure why they went to the bowling alley at all? And surely that would have made way too much noise? That's why I'm suspicious that Jaedon wasn't who he said he was.

Do you think him stepping on the mine was his mistake - it was meant for June or Luke?

He visited her in her room the same way Fred did with June at the beginning and was very friendly towards her, similar to Fred when he used to play board games with June so I'm not so sure he's going to help Serena. Just use her to get what he wants.

I feel like it's being set up for Serena to turn against Gilead.

i think Jayden wanted to take them back to the bowling alley so he would have someone to talk to for a while. He seemed lonely. And the rucksack swap…he didn’t take them with him to the rendezvous point on purpose so they would have to go. That whole section filmed in the bowling alley was super stressful! I was like “omg SHUT UP!” All the way through it

Ezra is the guardian who has been looking after her not Mr Wheeler.

Ah ok. Serves me right for watching while I'm scrolling mumsnet. Must pay more attention!

They’re still making excuses to Serena at the moment. ‘Your baby takes priority.’ ‘Security concerns.’ I wonder how long before they start ‘respecting her culture’ by removing her access to reading materials?

Did someone say the "wife school " girls start breeding at twelve? I thought the school was to train them over several years into being obedient wives until they were ready to have children.