The Handmaid's Tale - Hulu Original (**Spoilers**)

quickbeam

Stand to be corrected, but I don't remember any of those named parts in either the book or the show. I'd actually assumed that Gilead and the Colonies were the lower 48 while the USA was Alaska and Hawaii.

Didn't Nick say something about running away to California last week? June said that would still be Gilead though.

iamwhoiam

quickbeam wrote: »

Stand to be corrected, but I don't remember any of those named parts in either the book or the show. I'd actually assumed that Gilead and the Colonies were the lower 48 while the USA was Alaska and Hawaii.

Didn't Nick say something about running away to California last week? June said that would still be Gilead though.

Did Nick say to Hawaii ? Mind you I could be wrong as I find it hard to hear Nick at times .

Dandelion6

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Did Nick say to Hawaii ? Mind you I could be wrong as I find it hard to hear Nick at times .

He said Hawaii after June pointed out, in reply to his first suggestion, that the west coast would still be Gilead.

Agent Coulson

Now that was just a stupid ending for me.

Of course I know why they did it to continue the story from inside Gilead next season however hopefully that's is the end of the torture porn for June and next season is about bringing down Gilead and we start to see more of the resistance movement.


I didn't see the Marta Underground coming to the rescue however I kind of figured out who the leader of the resistance was going to be last week alright


Oh and Aunt Lydia Ann Dowd is just such a wonderful actress.

Under His Eye

Blessed be the fruit!

I agree it was a suck ass ending. So action packed compared to the other weeks slow episodes.

Did anyone notice the map on Fred's desk?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Ugh. That ending. I also get why they did it, but it was a stupid decision.

Apart from that, strong finale. Hopefully we see more of Bradley Whitford in Season 3 too.

wakka12

I was so afraid we were going to lose aunt lydia from the cast there for a moment! That would be tragic

Very flat episode though overall I thought..really was expecting a big finish finale. But it wasn't very different to the other episodes, as in some good bits, but still a bit slow too, and I thought there'd be more of a twist or more action

Exclamation Marc

Well that's me done with The Handmaid's Tale.

Utterly crap ending which makes little sense in the grand scheme of things other than to crowbar keeping the story in Gilead. Nothing in the ending was anything more than a "we've already been renewed for more seasons" device.

In contrast to the first season which was very good, this season has been a total trudge packed with misery and quite difficult television for very little payoff.

It also furthered the notion that the writers really have no idea how to define their characters, they're all over the place.

Exclamation Marc

Also:

End of season one : I'll escape Gilead because things are so awful and there's no hope for me or my daughter.

End of season two: Despite the last year being even worse than before given the physical and psychological torture, realising that I was right about there being no hope AND that I'm really screwed if I stay around, ah sure I'll stick around.

Nonsense. Shark, jumped.

Purple Mountain

This may be a dumb question..
With our world becoming more secular and a lot of people turning their back on organised religion, I can't see how a cult/organisation/order like Gilead could garnet so many followers in the name of religion and the bible?
Like it seems to me it would have been more appropriate to have been set in the last century when superiors in religion were veneered and the flock believed/were brainwashed that they were inferior and the powers that be weren't questioned.

Purple Mountain

Purple Mountain wrote: »

This may be a dumb question..
With our world becoming more secular and a lot of people turning their back on organised religion, I can't see how a cult/organisation/order like Gilead could garnet so many followers in the name of religion and the bible?
Like it seems to me it would have been more appropriate to have been set in the last century when superiors in religion were veneered and the flock believed/were brainwashed that they were inferior and the powers that be weren't questioned.

Simple answer is that we here in Ireland are living in a society that is becoming more secular but a lot of states in America are actually going the other way.

And the book was published in 1985.

Slydice

That was well done.

Cool to see her holding back for Hannah. Boss level.

Liked the plot device of "where's Rita" followed by HERE'S RITA!

Duckworth_Luas

Max Prophet wrote: »

Or the splotches in the yellow section ? Any idea since it makes sense to you ?

Seriously?

They include the largest fresh water lakes in the world!

Liam O

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Also:

End of season one : I'll escape Gilead because things are so awful and there's no hope for me or my daughter.

End of season two: Despite the last year being even worse than before given the physical and psychological torture, realising that I was right about there being no hope AND that I'm really screwed if I stay around, ah sure I'll stick around.

Nonsense. Shark, jumped.

Did you miss the part this season where she met her daughter?

I'm not saying the motivations make total sense but when you think about it she had not seen her daughter for a long time so hope was starting to wain. After meeting her daughter and being lured with the promise of more meetings it's a different story now.

wakka12

Purple Mountain wrote: »

This may be a dumb question..
With our world becoming more secular and a lot of people turning their back on organised religion, I can't see how a cult/organisation/order like Gilead could garnet so many followers in the name of religion and the bible?
Like it seems to me it would have been more appropriate to have been set in the last century when superiors in religion were veneered and the flock believed/were brainwashed that they were inferior and the powers that be weren't questioned.

Its just a show, of course this wouldn't be possible in any western country

Exclamation Marc

Liam O wrote: »

Did you miss the part this season where she met her daughter?

I'm not saying the motivations make total sense but when you think about it she had not seen her daughter for a long time so hope was starting to wain. After meeting her daughter and being lured with the promise of more meetings it's a different story now.

Of course I saw that, I've watched every episode.

But she was happy to walk away in season one and fight from 'abroad'.

It makes absolutely no sense for her to stay and try and fight from within now, renewed hope or not. She's also now abandoned her second daughter who could end up absolutely anywhere.

It's shoddy writing that screams 'we need to keep this in Gilead, but have little clue how to logically make that happen'.

kunst nugget

wakka12 wrote: »

Its just a show, of course this wouldn't be possible in any western country

Hmmm... The Tea Party movement in America has a massive religious whackjob element to it and with Mike Pence is second in command in the White House, it is gaining more and more influence in shaping America. Factor in the swing to the right that's taking place in the Supreme Court and we're looking at America becoming a deeply conservative country over the next few decades. Will it be Gilead proportions? I seriously doubt it but I suspect it's definitely going to be a less pleasant place for women and minorities.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-tea-party-isnt-a-political-movement-its-a-religious-one

The whole point of the novel was Atwood looking at the cultural revolution in Iran and transporting it to the west.

Sleepy

Aside from it being a plot device as blunt as a sledgehammer, June's decision was utterly stupid, which TBH, is kind of in keeping with her character: she's never been smart.

What does she offer any resistance movement? She can hardly go back to the Waterford household. She's not a soldier, reservist or even a scout leader. She's an editor. She has no practical skills to bring to the table.

What she could be, is a symbol. In a world suffering from reproductive problems, she and Nicole would be guaranteed press coverage and could be the beacon for the rest of the world to rally around to put pressure on world leaders to group together to liberate the USA, putting an end to Gillead. And I'd expect someone who worked in publishing to recognise that. Instead, she's going to go off on some half-brained attempt to rescue Hannah that will result in her being re-captured and back to being ritually raped and abused.

*slow clap*

Liam O

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Of course I saw that, I've watched every episode.

But she was happy to walk away in season one and fight from 'abroad'.

It makes absolutely no sense for her to stay and try and fight from within now, renewed hope or not. She's also now abandoned her second daughter who could end up absolutely anywhere.

It's shoddy writing that screams 'we need to keep this in Gilead, but have little clue how to logically make that happen'.

She has not abandoned her second daughter. She has left her with her best friend.

June sees the cracks beginning to form in Gilead now. Whereas before Serena and the wives were idle supporters of the administration there is now a feeling that they are uncomfortable with the direction that Gilead is heading.

Whereas before she had no clue about her daughter's whereabouts and if she was even still alive she has had interaction with her and that, coupled with the maternal instincts gathered from her new birth have strengthened her resolve.

She was pummelled into passiveness and had given up hope. That has now been regained along with her humanity, starting with resisting the rape at the end of her pregnancy.

Sleepy

She's still utterly lacking in skills and resources to do anything about her situation though...

kunst nugget

Purple Mountain wrote: »

This may be a dumb question..
With our world becoming more secular and a lot of people turning their back on organised religion, I can't see how a cult/organisation/order like Gilead could garnet so many followers in the name of religion and the bible?
Like it seems to me it would have been more appropriate to have been set in the last century when superiors in religion were veneered and the flock believed/were brainwashed that they were inferior and the powers that be weren't questioned.

https://www.tribes.org/web/2017/2/6/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah

Exclamation Marc

Liam O wrote: »

She has not abandoned her second daughter. She has left her with her best friend.

...

Whereas before she had no clue about her daughter's whereabouts and if she was even still alive she has had interaction with her and that, coupled with the maternal instincts gathered from her new birth have strengthened her resolve.

But that's patently untrue. June would know from her first escape that there is no guarantee, and more so an unlikelihood that the escape would not be successful.

If June's experience holds true (and there's no reason to assume it will happen any other way), the baby and her best friend will be captured somewhere and returned to Gilead, or worse. And as her best friend is not the mother, if they are caught, she'll be hanged and the baby will disappear into the system. Sure, there's a risk she'd be caught herself again but she has burned every bridge at this point anyway.

So essentially, no, she has no idea where her second daughter will end up. Sure she hopes she will escape but there's no reason to believe she actually will.

It's sloppy inconsistent writing.

June is walking back towards a society that chopped off a high ranking officers finger for the 'gall' of wanting children to read the bible, a society that has shown it will murder heretics or those that do not ascribe to 'God' and a society where every man is armed to the teeth. Not only that, but she is returning to Fred (or near Fred) where he will be out for her blood for taking their child, where the marthas will be fuming that they risked their lives for her to change her mind, where Serena will now be angry that her child has been ferried off without her actual mother or 'Gilead' mother, and where Nick has legitimately put himself on the line for her.

It all makes absolutely no sense. This ending needed to happen at the very end of the show with her making an escape. Her turning back is pure 'ehhhh we have x more seasons to air, that's the reason why'.

soiaf

Purple Mountain wrote: »

This may be a dumb question..
With our world becoming more secular and a lot of people turning their back on organised religion, I can't see how a cult/organisation/order like Gilead could garnet so many followers in the name of religion and the bible?

In this version of the world there is worldwide infertility, babies are extremely rare. This is bound to have an extreme influence on the thinking of many people, they can see no future. In a world like this it's certainly possible that people will turn to anything that (to them) brings hope.


In terms of the episode itself, it's hard to disagree that the ending felt forced, I'm not sure where they can go with this in season 3.

Mrcaramelchoc

Well **** it anyway i was expecting a lot more from that ending.......maybe she turns into liam neeson in the 3rd season and rescues her daughter taken style.ffs

Max Prophet

Well we swapped close ups of offred’s sour puss for ofjoseph’s sourpuss instead.

fritzelly

Very silly ending
Fighting to see her daughter then

suddenly gives up her baby

Under His Eye

It makes no sense at all.

LionelNashe

Good tension again, but I agree that they didn't explain the sense of Offred deciding to stay. What does she think she can do?

Except, come to think of it, she did take a good long look at the economist guy when he was dropping Emily off. So maybe she's going to do something that relies on him in some way. He was being set up by the last couple of episodes to be some kind of psychopath, although possibly not a sadist, so it feels like a bit of a cheat for him to be suddenly altruistic.

"Go f**k yourself, Fred." That was funny. And I guess Aunt Lyd will be wheelchair-bound if she manages to make it into season 3.

fritzelly

She's in season 3 - confirmed and kinda glad, like her for all the wrong reasons but looks like she's softening

Icsics

Awful finale & after all the focus on breastfeeding/pumping etc how will Emily feed Nicole? So now June has lost 2 daughters