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.

@XanaduKira

Serena did have a choice just the choice of being a commander's wife gave her the most power so thats what she chose. She could have given herself any lower role that didn’t involve rape or murder.

Just like the Nazi’s had a choice to work in the concentration camps or not. They could still choose another role in Nazi Germany but they liked the power.

I don't disagree but her choices were very limited and if she stepped out of line (as she did), she would be punished severely.

Power corrupts and all that!

How did she have a choice?

She was Freds wife, she was instrumental in creating Gilead, she trusted her husband and hadn't thought about the implications of what they were building or how it would change them.

Married to Fred as she was pre-Gilead, she could not have chosen to be anything other than what she was, Freds Wife.

The other options, leave and run away, kill herself, attempt divorce and likely be killed as an unbeliever who knows far too much and is thus a danger... really, not real choices are they.

Like the mythical frog in the pan of water, by the time things got too hot for her, it was far too late to make any other choice.

I did enjoy this episode, but despite the great acting felt by the end it was too contrived to get Serena in a similar position to the one June had had. And of course Luke who sees to have a complete empathy by pass not understanding what June really wants or thinks. (this was made clear in the early episodes of their relationship).

My quibbles:
Surely the Wheelers and their only stunned henchman would have had people out looking for them. The only reason this might not have happened is henchman has a soft spot for Serena so maybe delayed telling them.
In the barn there was no water, yet baby was beautifully clean as where June's hands that had previously been caked with mud and blood and ...
And yes, how did they cut the chord - or maybe June just chewed through with her teeth
And ... no wonder I never remember plots if my mind is getting distracted like this.

And yes, Wheelers live on land in Canada but owned by Gilead and as was explained in previous episodes, Canadians treat any Gilead owned land as though part of Gilead.

re. Nick - yes to whoever said about the Swiss, that was it, but on the other hand surely they would never have approached him if he didn't have a reputation for collaborating with Canada. I'd forgotten about the Sons of Jacob. Have just read up on one of the fandom web sites and it says Nick was recruited, and that Aunt Lydia was an early member.

Sometimes in series like this I almost want a little bubble to appear on screen with a quick explanation when something is mentioned!

Married to Fred as she was pre-Gilead, she could not have chosen to be anything other than what she was, Freds Wife.

This. And in the flashback it’s clear she didn’t like the handmaid system initially, and that it was seen as extreme/shocking. A lot of MNers seem to live in morally perfect vacuums where they’re so certain they would’ve been the person to rebel/take a stand, but really they probably wouldn’t have.

I think Serena would truly have trusted Fred initially, when she handed her power to him. The flashbacks to their relationship 'before' seem to show a pretty well balanced 'equal' couple with him respecting her intellect, knowledge and skills.

I can easily see why she'd trust him, that it would work out the way she and he hoped, and that the idea that he'd betray that trust or the real implications of what they were building never entered her mind - until of course, it was FAR far too late. In fact I think until he beat her and had her finger cut off. I think she managed to pretend to herself that if things weren't how she'd envisaged, she'd still be ok up to then...

The flashback scene confused me- Janine was missing an eye in it already, however I don't remember her being pregnant twice? And wasn't June's and Serena's relationship quite fraught by then, and therefore there won't have been the understanding glances?

Excellent quibbles @IwantToRetire.
You did have to suspend disbelief.

I think she lost her eye during training.

Was it not her punishment for taking baby Angela?

Ill have to watch again but I didn't think Janine was missing an eye in the flashback in this ep.

I thought she had the eye removed in the training centre too

Yes she lost it at the Red Centre, she answered back once to often to Aunt Lydia but I think it was more to make an example of what the others could expect if they stepped out of line.

She was sent to the Colonies for that.

Yes, you are all correct. I just googled. She was supposed to be stoned as punishment for taking the baby but the June and the rest refused to do it.

You're brave to google - I'm scared to google anything because of potential spoilers. Even bleddy Amazon Prime has brief outlines of the remaining episodes of this series. Gahhhh!

Just finished yesterday's episode and now I'm feeling sorry for serena and pissed off with Luke even though I know why he did what he did. Brilliant acting

@LadyEloise1

Thanks! Just as I posted I remembered another quibble.

When June said to hospital staff baby was born 6 hours ago.

6 hours in which Serena slept, started breast feeding, had heart to heart with June, got to car, and then found a hospital.

Unless of course the car had sat nav and instead of giving birth in a barn, they could have got to a hospital that just over the hill / round the corner.

I get the feeling they are under pressure to move the story on with only 3 more episodes when they wasted so much time giving June gurning time as she went through yet another scream therapy exercise.

Well now she has a purpose. Put Luke in his place and rescure Serena and baby Noah.

I think they might go back and fill that 6 hour gap in the next or future episodes. Did Serena and June strike down kind of deal?

It was a bit strange how they were in a barn on middle of nowhere, no running water, 6hour gap and then boom in hospital. The journey must have been a bit of an ordeal, how did they know where to go, have enough fuel to get them there etc.

Janine had her eye taken during the first training session at the Red Centre - she said “Fuck you” to Aunt Lydia.

Later on in that episode she was pregnant - perhaps the birth was one of the first things that June and Serena did once June had been posted there. It would have been between episodes 1 and 2 of the first series (as Janine gave birth in episode 2).

I thought it strange Janine lost her eye in the very first episode but June "only' got foot whipping for escaping. Yeah they blamed Moira more as the bad influence but even so

there was def no love lost between Serena and June in the early episodes. It started with the first conversation with Fred where June said ‘see yeah' or something to him that made Serena see red

As for Nick, I do not think at first he offered to work for the Swiss. June offered Nick's services to the Swiss. Once they found out who she refers to they say that they would not work with Nick. Later Serena hints to June that Nick has served Gilead in a meaningful way as a crusader.

Serena’s sorry at the moment, but I’m not convinced she’ll stay sorry. I hope she does.

Luke just seemed to have caught up with June and now he’s one step behind again. I bet there’s fanfic somewhere where June & Serena end up taking off together… not Googling anything Handmaid-related until the season’s over though!

Sorry if this has already been discussed but why on earth did Serena not ask for asylum as an American citizen...torello made it very clear to her earlier in this series that's all she had to do and he'd ensure her safety in Canada...she didn't trust him then to keep her safe from June but now she must have trusted June...so not sure why it didn't occur to either of them...

Only just watched the last episode and I wept through most of it.