LeGrandElephant

I didn't understand what was going on there, Robin was going to marry Johnno real quick in the jail?? She was totally going to do that until she found out he'd been messing around with a teenage girl? So besides assassinating his character, it made her look like an idiot. And I couldn't really remember who the people were that she was burning the dress with because its been years since I saw the first season, but I don't remember anyone from the first season she was that close with in that way. And what was the deal with the guy she shot in the first season showing up, having a wife and kids all of a sudden, attacking her dramatically well despite being seriously crippled, and then no one ever mentioning it again? And the above complaints are just as relates to the first season. All the stuff that was second season only made absolutely zero sense. I'm not even sure where to start. Puss wasn't attractive or appealing in any way, and I never understood Mary's attachment to him as he just got grosser and grosser. Miranda's character was bizarre and who hires a surrogate with their affair partner while one of them is still married to someone else?? But at least I guessed early on that she wasn't really pregnant. And they left a lot of stuff unresolved. What's going to happen to those babies? They never clarified if the women carrying them wanted to keep them or if there was a ransom plan or what. They let Puss get away, despite plenty of stuff to hold him on. Robin keeps on just talking to him without arresting him or calling in backup. Why was what's his name hiding under the sand waiting to shoot... who? I guess he was hallucinating but it didn't make sense. Nothing in this season made sense. That's the bottom line: nothing made sense, not plots and not characterizations.

I wish there were episode threads, because I have no idea what’s going on in half these scenes. I guess I’ll be back once I’ve finished season 2.

Camille took the detective to the gang bang spot as part of a tour of crime scenes, so she clearly knew it could be considered a crime, whether or not she “consented” at that age.

At first I thought it might turn out to be about Adora and Camille being the baby, but I guess not?

Now that you mention it, could very well be. Surprised it didn’t occur to me earlier; I think I’m somewhat trained by fiction to suspect that whenever a sister is 14 or more years older than the next sibling. I guess I assumed in this case Adora had another kid late because of a second marriage, but we don’t really know the history of when she married Alan or anything yet. Anyway, now that’s ou mention it, I think your idea very well might turn out to be true. (I haven’t read the book).

I just don't pause. If I miss a word, I miss it (I do miss most of them). On the other hand, I agree about the super quick flashes, flash-backs, whatever they are. A few of them have made me jump, but a lot of them leave me feeling like I just missed whatever it was. However, I still haven't been pausing. I figure they'll make stuff clear eventually if its important.

This episode was really confusing. Not even sure where to start. Amma's behavior is bizarre, I don't know what to make of her - is she supposed to have some kind of personality disorder? (I also have trouble telling all the teen girls apart; it took me a little while to be sure it was Amma at the pig farm.) Are there rehabs just for cutting? Do rehabs usually have young teenagers share rooms with grownups? I'm not catching any of the words on my small screen but I like seeing the discussion here. I am glad that they don't seem to be critical clues, just an extra layer for fun, like "easter eggs".

I don't see how they could know that the person didn't use that loosening method - but maybe they can tell somehow (ew). In any case I think a better question is why someone would WANT to extract the teeth. As for physical strength, we know the body was left in the middle of town without anyone knowing, so whoever moved it must be a reasonably strong person - that wasn't a little kid; a 15 year old girl isn't that easy to lift up for, say, a small woman. But certainly doable for many women. So they are looking for a reasonably strong woman or an average strength man - that seems like it would rule out Adora, but who knows, maybe she has her weird husband or someone else doing the heavy lifting.

I binged the first few seasons of this and then got tired of it. One thing I never got was how Margie could have joined their polygamous family without even being Mormon, apparently? I was shocked in the episode where they were going to baptize Teeny and suddenly Margie jumped in to be baptized. How could any of them have been ok with one of the wives not even being baptized into the religion that says they should all be in this polygamous arrangement in the first place? Margie always seemed like she was raised in the regular world and I never understood why she would want to agree to this or why they would want her given how she behaves (except Bill would want her because she’s hot). I got tired of watching when it became clear they weren’t going to explain that kind of thing. But there was a line when she said she was trapped because she had two little kids and no other income, and that really rang true. The whole situation seemed very sad to me on behalf of Barb, Margie, and the kids. It only seemed like Nicki and Bill actually liked the polygamy thing.

Yes and I now take long term medication for anxiety, and generally I think it has helped a lot and I feel much less anxious overall, but it has had no effect on my desire to bite the edges of my nails. I find I do it when I’m bored, or thinking, not necessarily when I’m anxious. I’ve tried things like bad tasting nail polish and getting jewelry to fidget with instead, but not had any long term success. No finger infections but I do get colds a lot. On that subject. How can they know it was done with pliers and not some special tool?

I don’t think I’ve seen anyone directly interact with her but didn’t Camille and the detective talk about her? Now I think I might have a relatively mild version of this. I used to pull out my armpit hair with tweezers and I really kind of enjoyed doing it even though it hurt (if you’re severely myopic like me you can see each individual hair really well if you take off your glasses or contacts). “Meditative” definitely describes how I felt. Unfortunately it gave me a rash that was unsightly in summer tank tops. I managed to stop that with some real effort but I still bite the skin around my fingers compulsively and can’t stop even though I know it’s gross and sometimes it bleeds. Probably putting my fingers in my mouth all the time makes me get sick more often too. But then, lots of people bite their nails, so where’s the line that makes it a disorder? Ah good point. Wait, are you saying not everyone does that? (I’m being totally serious). I don’t understand why the teeth pulling means it must be a man. There are lots of women dentists.

Yes, I'm just saying I don't understand how the events of Season 1 translated into Logan being a drug addict instead of into Logan getting back and William once they got back to the real world, or any other possible outcome.

Yeah, that was really stupid.

Not so sure about that. I assumed they took a "snapshot" of Delos at some point in time and that's what the robot was based on, but that doesn't mean that his original body and mind didn't keep living with his wife during what years it had left. Regarding the line that Logan overdosed years ago: I really never understood what happened with Logan in season 1, and I guess they aren't going to explain it further. Is the idea that Logan was so traumatized by what happened on his adventure in Westworld with William that he became a drug addict? As I recall, last we saw William had tied him naked to a horse and sent the horse running off, but how does that translate into Logan losing his place in the Delos company in the real world and becoming a drug addict? (We haven't seen any drugs in Westworld).

During the whole Sakura funeral, I kept thinking "so, no one has bothered to tell Akane that she and Sakura are immortal robots, huh?" And then Maeve SAYS everyone has a right to choose their destiny, but apparently that comes with the caveat "unless you're a henchman who I will just kill". If she can make the henchmen kill each other, why can't she make them take a nap, or do anything else to render them harmless without killing them? And then when Akane and whats-his-name decide to stay, again, yes they get to pick their own destiny, but without the highly relevant information that they are robots and this isn't really japan and a big security force is going to arrive soon to kill them all. Don't they deserve to know that when choosing their destiny? Very inconsistent.

What makes you say that? re the map, look how close that one rebel zone is to Boston! Season 3?

Yes, apparently I am. From your description of the number of commercials, I think it’s worth it.

Wait I don’t have commercials on Hulu.

THIS is when/how Serena goes about this? What was she doing when this all started? Why did she expect Fred to save her when she knows he hates her? Why didn’t the wives do something more clever? I expected Josh to say “we’re not doing that” but I didn’t think he’d add the “with you” with such contempt. I WANT to believe he’s part of the resistance and wants to protect Emily, but instead he treats her with contempt and acts like he doesn’t want to have sec with her because she’s disgusting, not because he feels bad about the whole rape thing. I wish Emily would do some better-planned violence. That’s what I thought when she stole the car and ran over the guard, too. I would have thought (back then, at least) that a former professor who was apart of MayDay would have planned things out better. Now she’s so much more traumatized, its not surprising. The show is so darkly lit that I literally can’t tell if they cut off Serena’s finger or hand. I assume it will become obvious in a subsequent scene. Ok, a finger, to fit with Josh’s line last episode. But why can’t she keep wearing her wedding ring with just her pinky finger gone? Surprised Serena accepted June’s comfort instead of taking out her rage on her like usual. I thought there had been mention of how the Handmaids were kept away from anything they could us to kill themselves. But they can get knives from the kitchen? I guess the rules aren’t followed in Josh’s house, but it brings up the question of whether or not Offred could get a knife from Rita’s kitchen. June can’t control her rage anymore - what happened to first season June? She should take him up on the offer to stay. She has a better chance of escape near Nick and the baby, with the devil she knows... can’t believe Fred kept offering after she said go fuck yourself. Bradley Whitford is playing such a bizarre character, I have no idea what to make of him. Among other things, how could a guy like this have survived this far in Gilead? Holy crap June moves SO SLOW when time is of the essence. That map - two different pink parts not connected. So it can’t just be states or divisions of Gilead. I hope the pink parts are parts in active rebellion or something! Did Offred seriously take the time to write that on the wall? She would be the worst spy. Not to mention, besides the time it took, what if something went wrong and she had to go back there and pretend nothing was going on? In a situation like this being practical matters more than making a point! Maybe they just wanted to sell T-shirt’s with that slogan in that font. Nick, nows your chance to finally do something! Kill Fred and make it look like an accident! Say the resistance fighters who stole the handmaid did it! I guess June had to go through that conversation with Serena otherwise she would have raised the alarm? Would have preferred if the Martha hiding nearby had jumped down and knocked her out, though. I guess the whole purpose of Eden was so that Serena would be willing to let June and the baby go. I kept thinking June should take off her white cap that practically glows in the dark when hiding from searchlights. I guess they didn’t have time to get black cloth to wrap her and the baby in. The Martha’s seem to wear a lot of layers, couldn’t they give her some extra dark grey-green cloth? Don’t fold a Polaroid! Ok, so Josh IS trying to help the handmaids escape. But then why couldn’t he have been nicer to Emily? If he had told her he was on her side, she probably wouldn’t have freaked and attacked Aunt Lydia (at least not in an unplanned way). June needs to stop standing around thinking when the action is happening. It’s really getting old. Wtf are you telling me June isn’t leaving? She’s going back for Hannah when she has no power and no chance of success? How stupid and pointless. Didn’t she already go through the soul searching of leaving without Hannah in the almost escape in the airplane? She would have a much better chance if she made it to Canada and then hired some dudes to infiltrate and rescue Hannah based on her detailed info of the situation. She is just so impractical when it matters. Who cares what name the baby has next to YOU GOING ON A SUICIDE MISSION DOOMED TO FAILURE as you abandon it. I wonder if Emily isn’t going to Canada. I guess they have a year to decide. Maybe she’s going to the pink region on the map. I missed this, what drugs?

Ep 12: I had to look up why Commander Lawrence seemed familiar. That can’t be Josh from the West Wing, can it?? His voice does fit, but is he really that old now or did they put him in old man hair and makeup? I do wonder what’s up in that house. Does he regret what he’s done? Is he part of the resistance now? Why is their house so openly different than the others? The paintings, the women not even pretending to follow the rules? The comment about the penalty for reading? Has he changed his mind about Gilead? How has he not been purged by the others? Come on, say “it wasn’t you I was hiding from in the attic, only Serena”. Play the few cards you have, girl! As usual, so dark I can’t see anything half the time. They need a button that says “I acknowledge all these scenes are set in the dark but I still want to see them” that turns up the exposure by 3 stops. Emily seems so traumatized every moment. It’s sad, I thought she was actually returning to herself in the colonies. If she’s given up, what’s to stop her for just killing whatever commander she’s assigned to and killing herself? I wonder why there aren’t more poisonings in this world. Didn’t a book come out recently about how that’s what women did in the Victorian era in England, when that’s the only power they had? Why would they do anything with Eden other than make her into a handmaid? Or if not that, return her to her husband under the assumption that she was taken against her will, no matter what she said - Commander Waterford should be powerful enough to arrange that. I guess he didn’t want to. But then again, why not a handmaid? Doesn’t make any sense that they would drown a teenage girl who is so young they have no way of knowing if she’s fertile, and who would at least make an attractive sex slave for some commander. But we already knew Gilead is deeply illogical and inconsistent, perhaps even more so in the show than in the book. (Also, pregnancy tests aren’t accurate for a few weeks). Has it occurred to Serena that that is what could happen to “Nicole” someday?

I didn’t buy the idea that they had to have the guy plea guilty to rape in order to go after the catfisher. Here’s an analogy: a waitress is delivering wine to a customer. While the waitress isn’t looking, some dude, let’s say Bob, poisons the glass of wine. The waitress gives it to a customer, not intending to hurt him, but he dies from the poison. So instead of charging Bob with murder using the waitress as an instrument, they have to charge the waitress with murder and Bob as an accomplice? Doesn’t make sense. Or what about war crimes where a man is forced at gunpoint to rape someone - you can’t charge the soldiers without charging him? Again, doesn’t seem right.

I see it as part of her resistance, not going along with the idea that she’s supposed to be subservient and grateful, like she did in the first season. It’s not the smartest thing if she thinks she has a chance of gaining trust leading to an escape, but if she’s given up on that, I think it’s totally fine not to help Serena pretend this is all cool. I guess what I think is that it’s not savvy, because playing along better might possibly help her have a chance to get away. But I think it’s totally understandable and it doesn’t in any way stop me having sympathy for her. And I don’t like the idea that a woman who’s a victim in a horrible situation has to act exactly the right way in order for the audience to care about or sympathize with her. That’s a little too close to real life.

Don’t you think it’s a normal reaction of a person in a completely oppressed situation to use any little bit of manipulation they can? Throughout history women (and/especially slaves and servants) have been accused of being sly and sneaky and I think that’s a fair product of the situation they were in, with no other power to work with.

As far as not shooting Fred and Serena, besides aim, I don’t know much about guns and I doubt she does either, so I wouldn’t want to rely on having loaded it correctly, or on a gun that’s been sitting there for who knows how long being in good working order.

Hulu captions called if a wolf. Do we know who does those captions? Are they a canon source of info? I actually really liked this episode. However, I don’t watch the previews, but I will be mad if she ends up right back with the Waterford’s next episode, after all that.