mamadrama

Yes, I watched the episode and remember it well. It's highly possible for different people to watch the same thing and walk away with different reactions and conclusions. It doesn't make one person right over the other; the great thing about art is that it's often open to interpretation. If we all agreed on everything then this would just be an echo chamber. 😊

And even resistance movements can have assholes and rapists. Being anti-Gilead doesn't automatically make a person good. That's kind of the scary thing-not being able to fully trust anyone, not even the "good guys."

I don't see June as a heroine either. I think the word "hero" gets thrown around a lot. Many of the things that she gets applauded for are things that wouldn't have been possible without the help of others. ie, she may have organized the Child Exodus but it never could've happened without the help of the other Handmaids, Marthas, and Commander Lawrence. As the series goes on I keep thinking of June as an anti-hero. What I CAN accept is that June is a normal person who regularly gets into abnormal situations and reacts in ways that often benefits the people we're rooting for.

When June was at Lawrence's she found some records of the kids and Handmaids. One mentioned Caleb's death, but I can't remember if it gave a cause.

When the gunshot went off, right after Vincent walked outside you can see someone else moving quickly in the upper right hand part of the screen. Could be important, or could just be a crew member who accidentally got caught in the shot, but they're definitely there. Vincent also looks over there in their direction. I have no idea what it means. I don't know, but maybe? There's a long period between them hearing the gunshot (night) and Kate being rescued (day).

I watched an indie film (low key fantasy) called STILL and I was halfway through it before I realized Madeline was the main actress. Good film and, yeah, she really is pretty.

They've started mid August+/- for at least the past 40 years. There may be a variance of days, but it's not a significant difference. Some schools might start a little earlier if they're expecting a bad winter. It gives a cushion for makeup days.

It made me think of the kidnapping of Annabelle Huggins.

I feel like "Annabelle" could be Kate's coping mechanism, Martin's gun (the one his dad used), or Martin himself (in a PSYCHO/Norman Bates' mother kind of way).

The last shot we see of Janine in the trailer is of her running with June through bombed out Chicago. She's not in the clip of the boat. I really hope they don't kill her off. I'll gladly sacrifice June in her place.

Mayday didn't get Emily out, the Martha network and Commander Lawrence did. We don't know that an actual organization helped June-all we saw were Nick and a few helpers who may well have just been sympathizers. We don't know who organized the safe house that the Handmaids were in. We only know that they got there by way of a good Guardian. Mrs. Keyes did not seem to be long to any organization. The Murrows farm was arranged by a Jezebel. All of these things depend upon inference. We assume that they're Mayday, but that doesn't mean they are. None of these situations HAVE to be connected. Each one can be looked at and separately explained. It is not uncommon to create and talk about a mythical organization or group that's going to "save" people. It offers morale boosters and hope. Over time it can take on a life of its own and become an urban legend. In Sarajevo such a group was invented, and that group was said to be smuggling supplies in and people out via a secret chamber. The group was on a grand scale and people thought the group was their salvation. In reality it was a handful of unorganized people and the secret chamber was a dirt tunnel dug under a farm house and beneath the airport. @greekmom made an excellent theory that's never been discussed on this board before. Sure it might not be true, but at least it opens up a conversation. June has made the point several times already about how THEY are the ones they've been waiting on. That they have to save themselves.

The Handmaid thing is theoretically about kids, but in reality is about power and control. If it were truly about infertility and population increase then there are at least a dozen things that they could be doing differently to ensure live births. There are better ways than sexual servitude.

Do we know that the stockpiles are "huge"? Show World weapons may differ from Real World weapons. We know rebels are still fighting in various parts of the country. If the US has enough to take on the European Union or Russia then why haven't they been able to knock out the rebel fighting?

Same with the war in the Balkans. By the time the US got involved Bosnia had almost burned to the ground. (Quite literally in some places. I spent a lot of time there post war.)

Yeah, that was weird. And if we think about, it's never felt like an actual organized group was behind most of this. A "sympathetic guardian" got them to Mrs. Keyes-a woman who was willing to help because she'd been brutalized. The Marthas got Emily and Nicole out... I don't think June loves nick, either. Emily had more chemistry with the poor Martha who got hung. Then again, it's hard for me to read Nick since IMO he has less personality than a bowl of (blessed be) Froot Loops.

Milk tankers were popular during the Depression era, but they were mostly used in the UK. One milk car held around 3,000 gallons. Some had buffers. They didn't last long because the cars were so heavy that it was hard to move them. Imo they wanted the visual of white liquid and the maternity symbolism.

I feel like they're setting up Aunt Lydia for some kind of redemption arc, or at least that she's playing both sides. I hope not. She and Serena both need to be punished. @greekmom gave me some food for thought. What if Mayday isn't real?

Adam's foundation needs to be toned down. The differentiation between his face and neck is distracting. That's all I've got.

Dannnielle is just breaking my heart. I don't think we're watching normal reality TV here, I think this drama is mostly real. That's not what I sign up for when I get invested in a reality show. It's not funny or entertaining when I wind up feeling bad.

Yeah, that was my point. Maybe God isn't giving her strength or patience because he literally doesn't want her to stay in this situation.

If ICE ever thinks that the Ick's divorce was a fraud to get Bert over here then all they'd have to do is show them this episode. I don't think there would be any question that the marriage was unequivocally broken and over.

Someone said that Hannah was too old for playing with that doll. That's what they do to women there, though. They infantilize them until it's time to teach them embroidery and marry them off. They're either "girls" or wives. Me looking at Hannah's "Handmaid lite" outfit while she's in the cage: 😣😵 That's creepy AF. Me in my private school uniform in the 80's:

That doesn't jive with earlier scenes where they literally talk about not being able to have sex or when Fred and Serena almost do it and then stop because it's against the law. I don't think either of them believe they'll be returning. They're locked up in another country and are charged with heinous crimes.

It's true. I've sold the rights to 3 of mine and I know if they ever make it out of developmental hell (not likely) I'll be lucky if they resemble the original. Some things just don't translate well to screen. Some things need to be condensed or add no real value when the story's time needs to be economical. As a big fan of a book, part of me wants to see the show or film adaptation follow everything to the letter-kind of like Polanski did with ROSEMARYS BABY. The other part of me, however, treats it as a completely separate entity. It makes it easier to enjoy it on its own merits. You kind of expect liberties to be taken and some of them might be huge. After all, it's one short book compared to what's now 4 seasons on television. Shit's gonna change. Every scene needs to happen for a reason and that reason shouldn't always be "it was in the book." So far I'm liking a lot of the new settings and characters they're giving us. I wish we'd had more time at the farmhouse because the little missus was/is a trip. I like watching the Handmaids interact with one another.

And with each interview Elisabeth Moss gives it gives me less and less hope that this will change. It's gone from reasonable to unrealistic to irrational. There have been MANY recent tv shows based on books (Game of Thrones, Vampire Diaries, Big Little Lies, Outlander, Orange is the New Black, The 100, Anne with an E, Pretty Little Liars, Sharp Objects, The Queen's Gambit, The Sinner, etc) and they've followed their source material on different scales. IMO if they're more focused on staying true to the source than in telling a good, engaging story then that's a real problem. A very close relative of mine wrote a book that was turned into a popular and critically acclaimed period series on Netflix last year. The author died several decades ago but we, the family, had many sit down discussions with the various series developers. Nobody is ever under any illusion that it's going to strictly follow.