MichaelaRae

Been binging this season’s episodes so far this week and one thing I’ve noticed (that I don’t remember noticing until this season) is that when they’re showing the post-reno exteriors of the house, most of the time, the windows are very clearly reflecting (pun intended? Maybe?) the exterior - like a mirror. Absolutely no transparency into the home during the camera work, just very clear, bright reflections of the houses / trees across the street, etc. And I’m wondering if they’re putting some sort of film on the windows for privacy (given that I imagine quite a few of these homes are becoming tourism stops) where you can see out from the inside but not in from the outside. And if so, I want to buy some. ;-)

Just caught up on the last couple of episodes and couldn’t believe the boys’ bedrooms - what a disappointing, personality-zero hotel room Sarah has given her children. I thought the girls’ rooms were sad - these were worse. The boys’ deadpan expressions told me they couldn’t believe it either. Just SAY you’re designing “their” rooms for television (and/or resale) vs. forcing your children to act on camera like it’s what they want. Blah.

Dear Handmaid’s Tale: you can keep trying to make Nick&June a thing but I’ll never really buy it. A) the actor is a nice guy but he’s not that good an actor - I’ve never bought it but b) more importantly, I’ll never forget that they were forced together by a patriarchal rape system that, despite some physical attraction, required them to have sex to keep them from being murdered and shared traumatic experience ISN’T love. Stop trying to make me think it is.

Dear Handmaid’s Tale producers: you can TRY to make me feel sorry for Serena for making her face 1/10th of the horror she rained down on women in Gilead. But it will NEVER, EVER happen. I have absolutely NO patience in fiction OR REAL LIFE for sociopaths who can’t relate to the hell they rained down on other people until they experience a fraction of it. It’s called empathy. Unless you’re a sociopath, it’s NOT. HARD.

If this is setting up for Serena to be Handmaided by the Wheelers (at least in the baby-stealing way - as of right now, she’s not being raped every month or beaten), I am Here. 👏 For. 👏 It. 👏 It has been my strongest wish for this show that Serena have her privileges stripped away and she face every single thing she not only LET happen to other women, but helped MAKE happen. Not even remotely sorry for that opinion. I want her to reap exactly what she sowed. If she somehow gets to keep her baby, I will be furious. I am not even remotely surprised that privileged blonde rich lady Serena is shocked that the traditional-values, believe-in-the-bible-no-not-like-THAT-MY-way patriarchy she helped make isn’t making an exception for super special her, but I am loving that she’s getting a rude awakening. This entire show could just become the “Oh, hey, Serena, guess that thing didn’t work out the way you thought?”show with every episode exposing Serena to her own hypocrisy and privilege on just one thing and turning it all around on her. I would watch that on repeat. Yes, Jaden could have passed off the thumb drive but a) it wasn’t a one-sided trade - he had backpacks to send back with them to Canada but b) I also believe he is desperately lonely and wanted some company, especially non-Gilead company. It probably isn’t safe to travel no man’s land by day so by bringing them back to his place until nightfall he gets the company and possibly keeps them all safer. Notice, he clearly took a different path to the border with June and Luke - he said “this way’s faster,” and sadly, that got him landmined. If they’d followed the map / path June and Luke used to get to him (which Rebel Cabin Lady said was designed specifically to avoid patrols), poor Jaden would likely still have his leg and June and Luke would likely be snuggling with Nicole (who is being watched by Rita - they said this right at the beginning). And also, he said the drive didn’t just have info on the curriculum or whatever, it was about the system and I believe he mentioned locations. So yeah, a little more valuable than what Nick told them. Aunt Lydia, I thought you were smart - telling a Wife, who seems a little jealous about bringing a sex slave into her house, that a particular sex slave caught their Commander’s eye is exactly the opposite of how you get a sex slave placed. Duh.

Just to be clear I was saying that Moira hadn’t suffered multiple rapes AND had her children ripped out of her arms. Obviously she has been raped, certainly more times than June. But Moira’s experience wasn’t June’s experience was my point. She doesn’t get to decide if June’s way of dealing with it is the best way and she doesn’t get to decide revenge is bad. Sometimes revenge HEALS. #askmehowIknow (but #notreallyitsnotafunstory)

I definitely don’t want to do “what about ism” but at the same time while Moira suffered something horrible, and she definitely DID, she didn’t suffer something multiple rapes and ALSO have a child ripped out of her arms (twice). Or eff that. Her experience was her own and every other handmaid or Jezebel or Martha experienced something different. So when she’s insisting on telling June the appropriate way to feel about Gilead, she didn’t experience what June experienced or Emily experienced or Rita experienced or anyone else. But she seems to have decided she’s the arbiter of how everyone should respond to being victimized by Gilead and I RESENT that.

Moira: “She’s not worth losing your family over.” What I WISHED June had said to Moira (who lived what, one YEAR in Gilead, compared to June who spent YEARS there, but also she should know this living one DAY in Gilead): “She’s WHY I LOST MY FAMILY.” Moira can take several damn seats.

Well, NO, but my reasons and Gilead’s reasons I feel like are parallel lines that will NEVER intersect.

I knew this episode was not directed by Elisabeth Moss before the credits rolled - her face wasn't staring directly into the camera for a cumulative 5 minutes throughout the episode. Oh, Tuello, please don't tell me you're still attracted to this evil hag after everything you know she's done. Love that Serena's poor widdle feewings are hurt because they're kicking her out but still wondering why they didn't just keep her to make her a handmaiden later. Y'all are just letting fecund uteri go now??

I’m sorry, but Serena is a MONSTER (you wanna talk “gender traitors,” Gilead, I’m looking at the women who willingly put other women into slavery for their gain - HI, SERENA!”) and while I don’t have great love for June at ALL (or Elizabeth Moss - sweet Jesus, can she direct an episode where she isn’t staring “dramatically” into the camera for 1/3 of the episode? No, no she can’t.) but only one of these two women was ritualistically raped and beaten and had her identity removed. Serena’s calculation to ensure the funeral was televised, to ensure that Hannah was the funeral “flower girl” (whatever they call that “ceremonially” in their “country” that is, what, 6 fucking years old?) and the way she looked into the camera after she kissed Hannah and held her hand and smirked? She KNOWS June is seeing this, she KNOWS it’s a literal THREAT (you killed my husband - who I so conveniently now remember I loved at one point, maybe after he gave me a baby because that’s LITERALLY my entire identity, wanting a baby - so I am making sure you know that your daughter is right beside me and can’t escape and ANYTHING could happen to her) and she cares about NOTHING except her precious standing, her precious respect and her precious baby (Nicole is a distant memory now that she has a “real” one to her). I want her separated from her son forever, forced to stay in her blessed biblical country of Gilead but as a Handmaid now that she’s proved she’s “fruitful” (those are the rules, sweetie, that you have so fervently clung to, sucks doesn’t it?) and suffer every bit of what her beloved “country” allows the unprivileged. I think you’re giving a lot more credit to Serena than 4 seasons of Serena have largely shown. Serena wants what she thinks she’s OWED because she’s a white conservative ‘Christian’ woman and what she thinks is “white conservative Christian women” appropriate - she might enjoy the “decadent” freedoms of Canada where you can yoga in a non-caftan but she thinks the Gilead way is BETTER overall since they believe in theocracy and “traditional gender roles.” She only “betrayed” Gilead because she wanted to spend time with the baby she stole (and promptly stopped caring about once she got pregnant.)

I don’t know…we haven’t seen any evidence that June said anything more than “Hey, I’ve got connections that are giving me access to my former commander so I can salvage him - wanna come? Blood sport will be fun!” They all seemed PRETTY HAPPY to be a part of it even if it wasn’t THEIR commander/aunt/wife, per the last episode of last season. They weren’t begrudging it. We have no evidence that she said “and then we’ll go after all of yours, so do this for me and then I’ll make it happen for you.” My feeling is that June was like “hey, fellow former Handmaids, Marthas, Econowives, whatever - got a shot at a salvaging for a mother fucker who really deserves it? Wanna come?” Yes, June’s actions are complicated and complex and I have all kinds of pro/con feelings about it, but I also never saw anything in last season or this episode that makes me think June promised them their own reckoning if they helped her get hers. She had the only connection to getting Fred into No Man’s Land. She didn’t NEED them to get him killed. She invited them along because she thought they might want in, but she didn’t NEED them to get Fred killed. She wouldn’t have had to promise anything. None of those other women had the connections she did - it’s not fair but yeah, June had connections they didn’t and she used them to safely carry out her vengeance. June risked a lot less due to her connections to salvage Fred than these women who are now all “we’ve got guns, let’s go invade GILEAD (NOT No Man’s Land) and fuck some shit up - hey, what do you MEAN you don’t want to plunge hell for leather into an OBVIOUS death trap, that OBVIOUSLY makes you a hypocrite even though you didn’t invade Gilead to get yours because you’re not that stupid.”

Well, well, well, Agent Tuello - I'm still not sure you see entirely through Serena, but I like you a bit more now for what you said to June.

Late to the party but finally started binging this weekend and evenings. Halfway through season 2 and came here to say that I’m ambivalent about Emily but JESUS CHRIST ON A CRACKER, SASCHA IS JUST THE WORST. I need him to get punched in all of his many smirky faces, many times.

So I finally started this series and I am full-on binging. But stopped long enough at the end of this episode to say that EVERYTHING about Merienne, her storyline, and Joe’s obsession with her bores me and she can just nope out of here any old time. At least his other obsessions were…interesting.

Got full OKC bombing vibes on this one and it HURT. I was a young adult when human shitstain Timothy McVey murdered adults and children in nearly the same manner. And the sheered levels of the building - yeah, they were definitely invoking OKC. I was shocked when they showed that Molly died. But if she did go, she went out a hero. Her walking down the dark corridor, completely at ease with the dark, was a beautiful visual. Karen, who I had little use for UNTIL this season, I will now mourn.

Seriously? I think Muriel is SUCH A CLICHE (and the actress has permanent HITG! “Not good enough to be a main character” itis)

I’m still mystified by the time warp of this series. Charmaine is literally 5 moths pregnant with twins, that we almost were present for their conception, and the main couple has broken up three times at least and are now pregnant 12 weeks with a daughter, the main guy got shot 6 months ago but also somehow it’s been 6 months since Mel showed up? I literally don’t know whats’ going on. I mean I’m used to some romance novel time BS but this is literally X Files time BS.

I honestly think I hate everyone at this point. Except Sean, and I hated him a LOT of the first 2 seasons.

I need the “STRYPAPER?” chick to stop trying to make fetch happen IMMEDIATELY.

I mean, I feel like he's just fucking with us now, doubling down on the most annoying bits of his previous commercials. The extra-vocal-fried "NOOOOOOOOW!!!" makes my ears bleed.

I haven’t watched GH or visited this forum since Scrubs took their happily ever after to Cali-forn-i-a but when CNN ran a brief story of a C-list soap star getting let go for refusing to get the damn vaccine because of FREEDUMB and the usual false info crap, and I look up and it’s The Borg…I hightailed it here to catch up on the media coverage FAST. Smell ya later, SBu. Couldn’t have happened to a more smug, lazy “actor.”

Why does the woman in the BMW w/ Alexa ad want to for real murder the little kid in the window upstairs? I mean, she glares and clenches her jaw like he has just shit on her BMW w/ Alexa instead of staying up past his bedtime spying on two adults making kissyface in the driveway. It's...an acting choice. That makes me want to call CPS.

June is never gonna be B or C plot, not while this is the Elizabeth Moss show.

I really thought when the run-Fred-run scene started, they would make him THINK he was going to die ("scare him to death"), making him feel a fraction of what they felt as women in Gilead - chased, persecuted, terrified, hunted - and then NOT kill him but then hand him over to Gilead for a big heaping gulp of the hideous system he created. That's what I WANTED to happen. While I can empathize with the particution, it was very unsatisfying for me. My scenario gave me the best of both worlds.