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.

From a plot angle, maybe Luke’s getting returned intact because somebody’s got to tell Moira et al that June’s been captured.

Luke's being dumped at the border.

I hope so @cushioncovers as there would be no reason to take him to Gilead other than to execute him and I want Luke to stay alive.

I'm pretty sure I heard one of the guards say 'he's no use dump him at the border'

I thought the guard said “he’s a neutral, dump him at the border”, but could be wrong. I assumed Luke has got some sort of Canadian refugee protection.

I thought they said Luke was "legal, dump him at the border" but he was a refugee/runaway too albeit a long time ago.

I think that June is on all sorts of wanted lists in Gilead whereas Luke isn’t. Him coming into no man’s land probably isn’t of that much interest in Gilead.

Yeah you're right I just remembered it as something like that. But he's definitely getting dumped at the border.

This is how I remember it too

I just watched last Sunday's episode and thoroughly enjoyed watching Putnam getting his just desserts. Stephen Kunken surely deserves an award for playing the ultimate creepy bastard. Lawrence doesn't get any credit for it from me though. He doesn't give a crap about the handmaids. Putnam was causing trouble for him politically and Esther gave him a convenient excuse to get rid of him. Esther's situation is horrific and puts a sobering spin on the anti-abortion/forced pregnancy laws in the US and elsewhere.

Lydia's character development this series is fascinating. From sadistic torturer fueled by the fires of righteousness to anger over "her girls" being used for kicks.

Serena is just disgusting. All the way through each series, we see how she's perfectly happy for "other" women to be enslaved, raped, objectified and infantilised but doesn't like it when it happens to her. She clearly took Mrs Wheeler calling her a single mother as a horrible insult that couldn't possibly apply to her situation. Her character arc is quite ironic given Attwood's public stance on who exactly constitutes a woman.

Serena's the most interesting character by far and it's hard not to feel a little bit sympathetic for her occasionally. Very occasionally.

Just caught up, what an episode!!

Great to see the slow horror dawning on Serena that the system she helped to create is coming back to bite her. Her only standing was as a Commander’s wife, she’s nothing in her own right as a woman, merely a baby machine and a vagina. She totally forgot herself and it’s been satisfying seeing her have a dose of her own medicine. That said, she is a very complex character and it will be interesting to see her finally with a child of her own, and how that changes her worldview.

June - well, how silly going with Luke, he should’ve gone alone. That said I think she will help Serena deliver the baby then possibly take them back to Gilead in return for her own release perhaps? It would be very vindicating for her to see Serena admitted for handmaid service while her baby is brought up by ‘suitable parents’.

Luke - poor guy. I like him but there’s nothing about him that is capable of navigating Gilead. He strikes me as just a big hearted softie who isn’t quite capable of the cunning and harshness needed to do some kind of jail break and get to Hannah.

Lawrence - shaping up to be my favourite character. Either things got a bit out of control and he ended up as a commander somewhat against his wishes, or he’s a double agent. Brilliant acting - every line is delivered just right. Can’t wait to see what happens to him.

Nick - he’s got a good mutual understanding with Lawrence that is probably key for both their survival. His wife seems nice, but he’s always been a bit lukewarm in my view and one dimensional. Can’t really say what’s going on with him to be honest although it’s clear he still has the hots for June.

Oh how could I forget aunt Lydia 🤯

You know what, I see good in her. I think she’s extremely misguided and traumatised from her own life events and truly wants to ‘fulfil her divine role’ but equally she isn’t turning a blind eye to the events unfolding in front of her with regards to Esther’s rape and the general abuse of handmaids. She just seems to have been slow on the uptake and needed evidence of it rather than seeing it for the huge grooming gang that it is. I think she’ll ‘switch sides’ and maybe end up with Lawrence?!

Wasn't it sort of implied in earlier services that Nick was some sort of double agent?

This series he seems to be being shown as playing by the rules irrespective of what it requires him to do.

Or is this part of the plan, by being a Lawrence side kick, as he is more likely to blur the lines.

Have I misremembered?

That makes more sense than neutral, I am changing to the legal camp.

Nick was an Eye planted in Fred and Serena's house. He's now been promoted to Commander.

In the earlier series, nick does have foot in both camps, he's an eye but he had contacts at jessables, he used contacts to get June out of Gilead, when June was in Chicago, you actually see him talking to a couple of Martha's from Mayday, she also reminded him that just because he was a commander now he shouldn't act like one by rounding them up on a wim( collected by gilead soilders in the back of a van) just to ask questions about his missing girlfriend.

Thanks for replies. I suppose whether it was his personal feelings about June that made him work with "the enemy" or whether he had established contacts. Didn't he work with the Martha network?

Also when Serena andFred went on some sort of official visit to Canada and Nick went too, didn't he go to some sort of debrief session, during which he asked to not have to go back to Gilead, but was told he was still needed there.

Then he sort of dropped out of the series only to reappear later.

Confused.

I don't think Nick's a true believer but it's been hinted that he's done things that are so awful that he won't get any kind of amnesty elsewhere. I think he's working against the system from the inside as much as he can.

I'd forgotten about that - was it not that he was asked to be a spy for the Swiss (??) but declined? You're right that they seemed to drop that storyline altogether.

Blessed be June the midwife - I assume!

Ooh actually watching live tonight….what a treat…I’m usually two days behind

I'll be a day or two behind. DS is still glued to the world cup.

Signing in. May the Lord open, possibly on the side of the road.

Maybe it'll have a manger ... :)