mamadrama

Yes. Yes he did.

My viewing experience: Sitting on the couch with Gunther (puppy) who was curled up by me asleep. Suddenly felt the urge to pass gas and since it's my couch and my house...well, I did. I guess it was louder than expected because Gunther jumped straight up into the air, somersaulted off the couch, hit his head on the coffee table, and went tearing through the house yelping as though Satan himself was on his tail. So how's your evening?

She knew his schedule but he was held over by 3 extra months the last time and now it's 3 weeks. This is not Jovi's regular schedule, this is an anomaly. Yara was prepared for 2 months. If she's upset then she's upset. Her feelings are valid whether we agree with them or not, or even if they're irrational.

Well, shit. Now I want chicken.

In her own way I think Tiffany is just as useless as Ronald. She of the cold shoulders is also a professional martyr. As my nana would say "Get down off the cross, someone needs the wood." Julia's bodybuilding pictures are actually kind of incredible. And from what I remember from Sasha, even Russian trainers have to be certified. Then again, we're talking about someone who actually finds Brandon sexy enough to sleep with so... Yep, it's literally one of the most forgiving meats to cook. As long as you cook it through and don't let it dry out. With a fryer you don't have to marinate it, sear it, etc. It looked like random things in their cart, but it still looked better than Mommy Mike's Thanksgiving extravaganza.

There aren't any around here that sell rotisseries, but many people also know how to turn to Google if they don't know how to cook something. All you literally have to do is slap some spices on it, and butter if you wish, and stick that fucker in the oven.

And the most important part of the episode: Tiffany doesn't know how to cook a chicken.

The latest IG post of him dancing with Libby had me seeing it... I WISH they'd do more of that than the fighting bullshit we get every week. Julia is a former bodybuilder who won actual awards. She should get her training certification. Or else go in with Danielle and start her own pole dancing workout business.

Fyi: Ronald and Tiffany spent 3661 RAND which converts to $258 USD. Just, you know, if you're nosy like me.

No, I don't. He was taken away by the Eyes and left in No Man's Land. IF anyone ever finds his body then they'll probably just assume their own people did it. They were probably going to kill him anyway.

The best part of Julia putting on those heels and dancing was the look on the other guy's face. And then him trying to explain to her that she couldn't just dance, that she also had to break it down. There are definitely apartments and houses near Julia and Brandon for less than $1800. Petersburg, the nearest town, has several reasonable complexes with an average cost of $800-900 for a 1 bedroom. You can find 2 bedrooms for far less than $1500. Here's an example: https://www.rohoicwood.com/Floor-plans.aspx Can we hook Michael up with Danielle? Mike and Natalie are toxic. If the footage of #Hookergate exists at all then we'll never see it. TLC gets more mileage out of making us wonder.

I know Yara & The Move (like a 60's folk group) will be a hot topic of convo when the whole episode airs, so I'm just going to jump right in and start now... I do not believe that Yara truly sat there the whole time. I think that's something that lasted 10 minutes in real time and Sharp was able to spread it out. Yara's role is "the Princess." They're going to show shit that backs up the narrative. Grandma and Mom were laughing and genuinely seem to like her. It's even more obvious off the show. If Ronald had started painting from the back of the room then the cardboard wouldn't have been a problem. During #moneygate he DID actually say that he had the money, he's just brought the wrong credit card, but Tiffany plowed right over that and didn't react. Tiffany wasn't wrong about the food, but she's also whiney and bitch so it's really hard for me to take her side. Libby is constantly stirring the pot with Andrei. If you don't want your family to dog him then how about not talking shit to him in front of them? Was Julia's dancing supposed to be good? Honest question because I couldn't tell. She was basically just rolling her hips the whole time.

As an isolated incident I could wave it away a bit. In context, though, IMO it was crossing a line. He said that to her AFTER he threw an STD test at her (while refusing to take one there himself), repeatedly lied about not wanting kids, misrepresenting his height, and complaining about her hairy legs/house/handling his money (it was less than $2)/sister.

Probably because his drama was off show. The biggest sin the cast can actually make is being boring. TLC apparently doesn't care what TF you do unless you've violated your NDA or give them a normal (read: boring) storyline. If he'd have acted like a mad man on the show then he'd probably still be on it.

I think having a conversation about "sexual exploitation" is interesting. I think what happens in these discussions is that people are hearing different things, often things that aren't actually being said (or thought). Someone says "IMO what happened to X wasn't rape" and what the other person hears is "what happened to X wasn't bad." Then both sides shut down or dig in and the conversation grinds to a halt. When sex is a "choice" but the options are between sex or probable death/starvation/torture then is it really a "choice" at all? To me, I feel like Steven sexually exploited the women. He took advantage of their sexual servitude in Gilead, and maybe even just the fact that they're women in general, and gave them "choices" that were demeaning and awful. In that way he definitely sexually exploited them. It carries on with the Gilead theme that women are basically just a couple of holes who can sometimes bake bread. I do feel like there's a spectrum of awfulness here, though, and the fact that he recognized that June didn't want do it and "let" her walk away puts him a few notches below Fred and Winslow. Yeah, it feels weird to write That sentence but this show goes to weird places. That the women are forced to use sex as a currency is awful. (Makes me wonder what he'd have required if they'd have been men.) I can't overlook Janine's feelings in all of this, either. In that moment, regardless of how I feel as a viewer, she as a character felt empowered. She used sex to better their situation and she felt good about it. Yes, it was most likely coming from a place of trauma (some of it pre-Gilead), but in a world where Handmaids have zero say in their bodies (they're even told how and when to bathe) she was able to "choose". They had made the decision to leave and she, without input from June, changed their direction. That was important for Janine as a character. She couldn't organize an angel flight or bomb a bunch of Commanders or run over a Guardian, but THIS she could do. On his part it sucked, but on her part it may have helped her try to regain a sense of power over her body and maybe an attempt to take back the sexuality that everyone else, including the men who gang raped her, tried to take. That's sad and terrible, and clearly homegirl could benefit from some massive levels of therapy, but I don't want to discount her feeling of pride, regardless of how misplaced. I see a similarity between the Steven situation and the cell visit from Lydia. Janine's one of the most interesting characters on the show. She's equally strong and vulnerable. Janine's reaction when Lydia hugged her showed a plethora of emotion: fear, nervousness, relief...but never resignation. She takes things as they come and manages to exert her independence and spirit in ways that might be small but are still significant. When she hugged Lydia I saw a play on her face that said "this heifer is fucking insane but at least I'm not in a freezing ass vat of milk getting yelled at by June." Instead of fighting Lydia for just a second she appeared to make the choice of allowing herself to feel a small, but earned, modicum of security. She gave in not because she's weak but because she knew it would earn her a tiny bit of kindness and a change in her current situation. IMO being sexually exploited is just as "bad" as being sexually assaulted. One isn't preferable or better than the other, just different.

Take into consideration that my only frame of reference with magazine companies is The Devil Wears Prada and two scenes from Sex and the City, but it kind of seems like Scarlet's staff roster is kind of...small? And now 3 of the most important people who work there also live together?

That's one of the few things I believed. He could definitely be worth $2-3 million...on paper. I don't think he has $3 million in the bank but he could have it in real estate or investments. All he'd have to have done was buy a house 20 years ago that's now REALLY appreciated. Or he could've just been a tightwad all his life and put every penny into retirement. Regardless, homeboy is probably not going to have anything by the time she's done with him. So I know his toupee was crazy, but I couldn't stop looking at his Adam's apple. It looked like half a small scrotum.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Gilead men (and probably the women) are nothing if not hypocritical.

Atwood has actually said that people called her "June" name long before the series. She'd never give them confirmation, but it doesn't seem like the showrunners pulled it out of their asses.

Yeah, really. It also made me think that the asshat is so misogynistic that he thinks the only way to appeal to women is through their motherhood.

I definitely think there's some nuance here that's overlooked when turning this into a rape/non-rape issue.

Or her pain and trauma bleeds over onto every person in her life whether she means for it to or not.

Someone over at Cosmo or Jezebel sat down and figured out that's it only been a year or so since the series started. I forgot the exact timeline, but it's fewer than 2. I know we have to suspend belief for TV but this seems crazy. Jane was literally an intern 2 years ago.

I don't blame Yara. It's hard staying at someone's house for an extended visit. I lived with my in-laws abroad one summer and I thought I was going to die. I missed having my own space. And even the most well meaning MIL can be trying. Mine came and stayed for 3 weeks after our oldest was born. She was a big help, and I appreciated her, but there was constant judgment. I found myself like, "Look, I appreciate you taking him so that I can nap and recover but back off, lady" once an hour. Yara wasn't wrong with wanting to go home; Gwen wasn't wrong in wanting her to stay. They worked it out, good for them. I also got Yara's breakdown over the phone to Jovi. I had COVID a year ago and even though I didn't have to be hospitalized, I thought I was dying. I'm not generally a Yara stan, but I cut her some slack. There are 4 things that can cause major stress to a person: New baby, new move, bad illness, and job loss. She had 3 out of 4 during a pandemic.

I'm not surprised that Natalie and Mike have a rat, trained rats can be quite cuddly and intelligent, I'm just surprised that the rat hasn't fled the sinking ship yet.