What is the genetic concern mentioned in today's episode regarding Nick and Rose's baby?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did Lawrence propose to Naomi esp since he turned down the same setup with Serena?

I can’t tell with him anymore. Maybe to solidify his influence and status with the other commanders? Not taking another wife made him an outcast. And Serena is too much of a wildcard for him. Naomi is more likely to stay quiet. Although what a great character arc for her if she started interfering and messing up his plans.

Yeah, I don't see Naomi being an "easy" wife.

Anonymous wrote:Why did Lawrence propose to Naomi esp since he turned down the same setup with Serena?

I can’t tell with him anymore. Maybe to solidify his influence and status with the other commanders? Not taking another wife made him an outcast. And Serena is too much of a wildcard for him. Naomi is more likely to stay quiet. Although what a great character arc for her if she started interfering and messing up his plans.

Why did Lawrence propose to Naomi esp since he turned down the same setup with Serena?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I missed something. Where did the video of Hannah at the school come from?

From the Zip drive June and Luke got in no man’s land.

no it was in the mail

And definitely from Gilead or a Gilead sympathizer based on this week’s episode. It was a setup. I was afraid June was going to end up playing along with Lawrence after the failed rescue. I really don’t want to see her compromise her beliefs and integrity anymore. It’s time to fight. If she does go into New Bethlehem, I hope it’s with an actual plan to take them down alongside the American government.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I missed something. Where did the video of Hannah at the school come from?

From the Zip drive June and Luke got in no man’s land.

no it was in the mail

Anonymous wrote:I missed something. Where did the video of Hannah at the school come from?

From the Zip drive June and Luke got in no man’s land.

I missed something. Where did the video of Hannah at the school come from?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I predict the Americans bomb Hannah’s school. They know they cannot extract her. They don’t want June to go back and the only way to prevent that is to take away her reason for returning. That’s why we heard the plane when Hannah looked up at the sky. Lawrence will confirm that Hannah survived and June will be angry at the Americans and go back to be with Hannah.

They will not follow the Testaments.

I think that's what they want us to think, but goodness I hope that's not true. Bombing a bunch of young girls wouldn't exactly endear the Americans to the rest of the world.

The previews are often actively misleading.

I tend to think they DO get Hannah back, but that it's not as seamless a return as June is hoping for (and as she knows deep down it won't be). But that the American military action spurs new hope to take America back. We spend the rest of this season and the next dealing with the fallout, including the recognition that some people in Gilead are not monsters and are actually happy.

Re: this episode:

-I am enjoying a defeated Serena, but I need old Serena back at some point. I thought the interactions between her and Lawrence, and her and June were really good. Even if I don't totally buy that Serena is quite that clueless.

-Speaking of Lawrence - that scene with June was interesting. I did find it odd that he's pitching New Bethlehem to Nick as some awesome place where he can have a this tidy little family reunion, like nothing else has happened.

-Need Janine and Esther back please. And what is happening to/with Naomi? I am going to be hugely irritated if Naomi and Angela/Charlotte just disappear.

If I were Luke, I would’ve joined Mayday. I would’ve tried to get a position with the dregs of the American government. I would’ve joined the soldiers fighting in Chicago. I would’ve become a smuggler for refugees. Something. Anything.

So next episode- do you think they bomb the Wife School? In the last scenes, I hear airplanes and not the stealth "we are going to extract someone" kind.

I think Luke was doing everything he could think of doing short of returning to Gillead (and why would he do that - he didn't know where she was or how to get her, he just would have been captured and most likely killed himself)
On the outside he can, and seems to have, continuously advocated with the American-in-exile and Canadian governments, putting as much political pressure on anyone he could think of as much as he could.

Do we suggest Brittney Griner's family aren't doing anything because they aren't executing a rescue mission into Russia?

I think his character is boring and not well written, but I don't think there's any scenario in which a luke rescue mission makes any sense.

Anonymous wrote:Two moments in this episode really got me in the feels. First, when June was sobbing about how she needs to be with Hannah. As a mother, I felt that. I was crying right along with her.

Second, when she yelled at Luke for doing nothing for years. Damn! That was a long time coming. I’m surprised she didn’t say it sooner. He needed to hear it.

I agree with you on first part. It was heart breaking. So difficult to watch as a mother.

I’m conflicted on the second part, what could Luke have done? Honestly. A suicide mission? Like imagine going into North Korea to save your wife and kid with zero resources.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ethnicity doesn’t play into the universe of the handmaids tale. It’s mentioned a few times “that commander doesn’t want a handmaid of color” but probably because he and his wife wanted to maintain the cognitive dissonance that it is their child, not necessarily racist.

As a WOC, it’s hard to believe that a racist regime wouldn’t be racist but I think taking that layer out gives a breath of fresh air. I for one, at sick of seeing black people playing roles of slaves, maids and thugs. Even though the commanders and wives are the villains of the story, having a society where poc are not just relegated to “lower class” is refreshing.

Should say “hard to believe a fascist regime wouldn’t be racist”

In the book the Jews and POC are all deported from Gilead. That’s one of the changes I did not like in the show, because the fascists always scapegoat the Jews and POC. I understand it from a diversity of casting, it’s definitely a dissonance.

Anonymous wrote:Two moments in this episode really got me in the feels. First, when June was sobbing about how she needs to be with Hannah. As a mother, I felt that. I was crying right along with her.

Second, when she yelled at Luke for doing nothing for years. Damn! That was a long time coming. I’m surprised she didn’t say it sooner. He needed to hear it.

I've been waiting for this for a long time. He's completely feckless. I'm surprised he's even still around.