Handmaid's Tale Season 2

[Anonymous]

Just saw the last episode and I am so glad June has resolved to fight back. The episode was so depressing that I thought I might be done with the series.

[Anonymous]

The commander clearly has feelings for June. Remember when he grabbed her thigh when raping her?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The commander clearly has feelings for June. Remember when he grabbed her thigh when raping her?

Or at the least doesn't want to share his "property." I don't think he cares at all about her as a person.

[Anonymous]

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if you think this show rings eerily true

...then you are an alarmist, similar to a doomsday [b]prepper.

There are good people on both sides of the two major parties. This book/show is so FAR from today's reality. I'm not complicit, nor a MAGA supporter, but I do know that this would not happen today. I will be highly irritated if the producers try to draw a straight line from MAGA to Gilead.

+1. Please provide evidence of something concrete that has Happened that’s similar to the show.

I mean I’m not getting carried away but it’s undeniable that the blend of Christian extremism and misogyny from the show is ascendant in America. To pull a few episodes that would be right at home in a Handmaid’s Tale flashback, NC Bathroom Laws, Fox News, “incel” murderers, Liberty U, Melania, that “religious freedom” EO draft that circulated, etc etc

Not allowing men to use women’s restrooms and vice versa is akin to the handmaidens take?!

I hate Fox News but don’t know what comparison you’re drawing there either.

Melania?!? What does she have to do with this??

You’re an extremist.

Totally! The flashbacks in HT are all about creeping social and governmental restriction of gender roles. The bathroom bill is a solid example. The right wing pearl clutching about the boy scouts is another. Transgender military ban, etc.

Melania is totally relevant. She represents both surface reverance for a regressive gender-specific ideal (she shows up, she is beautiful and deferential, and she rarely speaks) and the obvious breakdown of the theoretically underpinning morality. She’s his third wife and his constant philandering and related shenanigans renders her carefully crafted image ridiculous or at least a little sad as long as she publicly ignores it. Melania is very blue lady.

To be clear, I don’t care what arrangement Melania has with her husband and she’s under no obligation to discuss it. I think a big part of the problem is the role of First Lady and I would love to see it go away or be blown up by Melania or someone else. I hate to be even a little critical of Michelle O, but she very deliberately (with good cause, I know!) left that on the table.But there’s no question that Melania is relevant to the GOP, particularly the men in power, claiming the mantle of Christianity or a family-centered morality while very consistently and obviously living otherwise themselves. Which is extremely related to Gilead.

Again, not saying we’re on a path to Gilead or anything but to deny the obvious connections is to be deliberately obtuse.

I don’t see any connections. Instead I see human rights and freedoms only improving and expanding.

1. The government hasn’t been overthrown
2. fertility rates are at record lows due to CHOICE
3. IVF is more accessible than ever
4. the women’s movement is stronger than ever (#metoo)
5. record number of powerful men have been brought to their knees for harrasament
6. record number of women are running for political office
7. Gay rights have improved in recent years and only continue to improve as gays are increasingly accepted
8. The economy is great with record unemployment
9. Just as high of labor participation by women as in decades past

I don't know why you're being so obstinate about this. No one is saying Gilead is now, or that we're on a road to Gilead. Only that the references and parallels are unmistakable.
That's like saying the Hunger Games isn't saying anything about media or idk that Hamlet isn't relevant to contemporary politics.

Also, imma set google news to one week.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/us/politics/trump-funding-abortion-restrictions.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-reverses-obama-era-protections-for-transgender-prisoners/
https://www.news-leader.com/story/opinion/readers/2018/05/19/politicians-have-no-business-judging-greitens/623369002/
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/donald-trump-rudy-giuliani-mueller-investigation-fbi

[Anonymous]

Curious about the colonies. Is there more info in the book? Where are they and what are they digging?

[Anonymous]

nick is super hot this season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about the colonies. Is there more info in the book? Where are they and what are they digging?

They are cleaning up nuclear waste. The book doesn’t go into many details about the colonies that I can remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about the colonies. Is there more info in the book? Where are they and what are they digging?

They are cleaning up nuclear waste. The book doesn’t go into many details about the colonies that I can remember.

It seems like they are taking nuclear contaminated soil, putting it in bags, and ??
I mean you really can't "clean up" nuclear contaminated soil after all.
And if it was really nuclear waste, I think most would be dead in a matter of weeks. They could toil for a couple weeks in the fields but then they would basically keel over.
They should have better thought out the idea of the colonies and the purpose since they are getting the chance to really fill in the details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about the colonies. Is there more info in the book? Where are they and what are they digging?

They are cleaning up nuclear waste. The book doesn’t go into many details about the colonies that I can remember.

It seems like they are taking nuclear contaminated soil, putting it in bags, and ??
I mean you really can't "clean up" nuclear contaminated soil after all.
And if it was really nuclear waste, I think most would be dead in a matter of weeks. They could toil for a couple weeks in the fields but then they would basically keel over.
They should have better thought out the idea of the colonies and the purpose since they are getting the chance to really fill in the details.

I agree completely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:nick is super hot this season.

+1 million

Somehow, best feminist on the show. I am dying/horrified to find out how he deals with his stepford child bride. One of the reasons Nick stays so hot is we haven’t had to watch him do really horrible things even though we know he probably has.

[Anonymous]

I’m loving this show. I’m the type that doesn’t pick up on little things or often overlooks things (and don’t have time to re watch or rewind and watch a specific scene again), so I apologize, but a few questions:

- So did both Serena AND the commander want to marry nick off (Serena, to punish June. The commander, so June is still ‘his’)?
- I HATE Serena. But, there have been a handful of moments where I feel like she’s about to soften up, or we’re about to see a scene that makes us visually understand her attitude a bit more. Am I the only one?
- Aunt Lydia - hate her too. But same thing. Do you think she’s redeemable given the right circumstances/ past?
- The colonies. Are they actually doing anything or is this strictly punishment/ a means to an end (death)?
- June and nick. She finds out her husband is alive. She’s very much in love with her husband (judging by the flashbacks). But is still having feelings for nick. I know that infidelity/ affairs/ having feelings for someone else isn’t new, and given what she’s been through, all rules are thrown out the window. But still.... she’s fighting like hell to get out and find her daughter and husband. Is that the elephant in the room then, with her and nick?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving this show. I’m the type that doesn’t pick up on little things or often overlooks things (and don’t have time to re watch or rewind and watch a specific scene again), so I apologize, but a few questions:

- So did both Serena AND the commander want to marry nick off (Serena, to punish June. The commander, so June is still ‘his’)?
- I HATE Serena. But, there have been a handful of moments where I feel like she’s about to soften up, or we’re about to see a scene that makes us visually understand her attitude a bit more. Am I the only one?
- Aunt Lydia - hate her too. But same thing. Do you think she’s redeemable given the right circumstances/ past?
- The colonies. Are they actually doing anything or is this strictly punishment/ a means to an end (death)?
- June and nick. She finds out her husband is alive. She’s very much in love with her husband (judging by the flashbacks). But is still having feelings for nick. I know that infidelity/ affairs/ having feelings for someone else isn’t new, and given what she’s been through, all rules are thrown out the window. But still.... she’s fighting like hell to get out and find her daughter and husband. Is that the elephant in the room then, with her and nick?

I think the colonies weren't well-defined/fleshed out in the book and the tv show follows the book fairly closely. Obviously, cleaning up nuclear waste doesn't make sense. They would all die within a matter of weeks. It would make more sense to have the colonies as a penal colony (forced labor + isolated from general population).

[Anonymous]

- June and nick. She finds out her husband is alive. She’s very much in love with her husband (judging by the flashbacks). But is still having feelings for nick. I know that infidelity/ affairs/ having feelings for someone else isn’t new, and given what she’s been through, all rules are thrown out the window. But still.... she’s fighting like hell to get out and find her daughter and husband. Is that the elephant in the room then, with her and nick?

You are right, she is now in love with both Nick & the new baby, and Luke & Hannah. Originally she was fighting to get back to Luke & Hannah. Slowly she is realizing that may be impossible, and she should just fight like hell for Nick & the new baby. It's a bridge she will cross when she comes to it.

[Anonymous]

Why didn't Offred say anything when she started bleeding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why didn't Offred say anything when she started bleeding?

Either because she was afraid that she would be blamed, afraid that if she lost the pregnancy she would be punished or she has ambivalent feelings toward the pregnancy and part of her wanted to miscarry.