SuzieSioux

This is no surprise. Whoopi has never met a rapist she didn't love.

The past two nights I have had two The View dreams in a row, and I don't even watch this show much anymore. The first night I was watching an episode where Jedediah was back for an interview about her new baby, and she never got to say anything because Whoopi and Meghan were talking and then they went to commercial. Jed would've been sitting there for 30 secs max. Kind of realistic, come to think of it. Then last night I dreamt I was one of the new panel members for The View and it was Abby's last day, and set in Los Angeles. Her behaviour was lascivious; she kept threatening to flash her breasts at the male guest. Before she left I complimented her on always looking well put together and Whoopi became really sad because I didn't say the same about her, and she started warning me that my career could be over like that as one day someone may ignore me like I did her.

You put that perfectly, that is what I sense from her too.

Paula has a tattoo? Uh-oh! That's a big no-no in her precious, precious Bible! I never warmed to her - she has a complete "lights are on but no one's home" look in her eyes. Doesn't surprise me at all that she feels she can break the rules of her own faith but insists others should keep them, even when they're not part of her faith. Sounds like a typical religious nut. That story about her wanting to set up fake pregnancy centres in order to trick women into not getting abortions is creepy and disturbing.

Agreed. It gives the regular hosts more energy and everyone tends to be on better behaviour when there is a guest there.

I keep getting images of Sippy Cup sitting in that spot in my mind; I hope this isn't some kind of psychic flash! 😜😂 As far as Abby leaving, I'm neither happy nor sad about it. Just "meh". Kind of like my feeling towards her generally. They can do a lot better than her, but they can do a lot worse too. The one thing about Abby was that she could be really annoying, almost to Meghan levels one day but you never felt your annoyance with her carried over to the next day. I liked her moments like when she teased Joy about making smaller lasagne than last time. Haha, Meghan would be quaking in her boots daily if Ana Kasparian was on the panel. I think Ana's said though that she enjoys the freedom to discuss issues the way they do at TYT and I can't imagine she'd have that freedom on The View.

😂😂😂

Well, Mother Teresa turned out to be a cunt, so Meghan would be in good company there 😂.

Personally, when a show does the legwork and threads start coming together like that, it's one of the most satisfying things about television, so I will be really sorry if the whole thing feels rushed. The Troubles are worthy of their own series as it is, so the lack of any groundwork here is a bit frustrating, to be honest.

I've been making my way through The Crown only since just before Christmas and have been surprised by how much I've enjoyed it. I was worried going in that it was going to be soft propaganda for the royal family, but instead have been very entertained on the whole. But this episode, I have to say, was not just the most boring hour of The Crown yet, but I feel possibly the most boring hour of television I've ever seen. I was almost climbing the walls waiting for it to be over. And I like slow moving drama generally as I feel it allows for better character development and more in depth discussion of the history they are portraying. It was a shame, I felt, that more wasn't done with Princess Alice before the mention of her death in this episode. She lived an even more fascinating life than they portrayed, and quite frankly was worth more than all the other royals put together.

Thanks for this, I've often wanted to try her recipe. It's interesting that it contains both onion and garlic which is considered a huge no-no in Italian cooking.

Because only in America could a show as poorly produced, researched and presented as The View get to number 3?? I think Meghan must be on some kind of patriotism autopilot. She's so weird.

And then when we think back to the way he treated Moira when she came to give Serena her hour with Holly it reinforces my annoyance with him. Had he been playing Serena and was merely trying to get Moira to be quiet and get out of the room to make it seem like he was siding with/protecting Serena so she stayed comfortable and he could get what he wanted out of her later that may have been one thing, but speaking to Moira like she was a naughty child and hurrying her out of the room when she mentions Serena's horrific crimes just because he liked and/or pitied Serena is just awful.

Absolutely. I'm reminded of that saying: without religion, good people will do good and evil people will do evil, but for good people to do evil it requires religion. SBS Australia has a podcast on the show every week, which I only discovered a few days ago. I listened to one episode to see what it's like and they had an interview with Amanda Brugel and I really warmed to her. She is intelligent, knows her stuff re: the book, and was just a delight. I was so glad to see her character get safely to Canada and just to add: how perfectly did she act that moment when Rita realised she was standing on free ground? That was great! I do hope she appears next season. I thought, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, that they mentioned she had been discovered and arrested somewhere, but your point still stands anyway. I did the same as others have said though, and switched my brain to entertainment only mode - no worrying about how much it makes sense, and I enjoyed the episode enough. I do agree with other posters though that while I want to see Serena punished, I was unsatisfied with the way it unfolded in this episode. Truello seemed a lot less smart and like he was playing people, and more like he was genuinely upset to find this out about Serena.

This is a great question and I hope some people in the know can give some answers/ideas on this. I'm not American or Canadian, so I have no familiarity with the border, beyond looking at Google Maps, but I have been wondering recently how easy it would be for people from Gilead to cross into Canada. I enjoy thinking about the real world possibilities of shows like this. Gilead could have checkpoints at the roads that cross the borders obviously (though seems they didn't in this particular case), but there's a lot of space in between roads. I'm very curious as to how they would be defending the border in its entirety if this were real.

There is a brief mention at the end of the novel that Canada was rounding up refugees and sending them back to Gilead (similar to, for example, what China currently do with North Korean refugees). Perhaps they were too scared to speak up while in Canada in case they were deported? The Professor mentions this as being a reason why it would've been better for Offred to escape to England. Also, there is mention of Save the Women campaigns being particularly big in England so there was knowledge out there, but there is also mention of refugees being scared of speaking out even there in case retaliation was taken out on loved ones back in Gilead (body parts being sent to them in the mail etc.). Another similar real life thing happening at the moment in my country is that people from China, even if they are citizens here, are having their families back in China threatened by the Chinese government if those here speak out politically about what is going on back there; particularly if they are Chinese muslims. Information would still get out of course, and it would be interesting to know what happened between the fall of Gilead and the symposium that resulted in so much loss of it. There is mention that the Gilead elite got rid of a lot of information themselves, particularly during purges. It's fun to speculate, anyway!

I. Was. furious when he spoke to Moira like that. He also told her that was "uncalled for" directly after she spoke of the exact actions Serena had taken that made her a rapist, and her responsibilty for the nightmarish country Gilead had become. I want to believe he's playing the long game, but his aggression towards Moira was too real or something. Like, if they want us to think he's playing Serena, he needed to deliver lines like that in another way. Or maybe just give him different lines. So as far as I'm concerned Spy Guy can go fuck himself.

I wouldn't be against having Sara back. But I also watched the video of Sara's clips, and I'm not sure "logical" is a way I would describe her, haha. 😜 (I do love Tara's videos though!) During her time on the show she mostly spoke in a whole lot of platitudes and "I saw this great quote on Instagram" type statements and didn't she once claim Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings were "OMG so in love 😍"? I remember her lecturing gay people on the "Sarah Sanders gets kicked out of a restaurant" issue, and how rude I thought it was of her to try and dictate to a minority group the proper manner in which to stand up for their rights. I thought at the time that it was obvious that if her brother weren't gay she wouldn't be such a self-professed "LGBT ally". I feel she was the original "both sides" member of The View to be honest. Hardly a deep thinker. But she was also likeable, seemed to be a joy to work with, and was probably the most professional host on the show. Also when she got corrected on things she accepted it and moved forward, rather than carry on like a certain other host we could think of... or two. I would prefer Sara there than either Whoopi or Meghan. But I'd prefer a more intelligent panel member above Sara.

I wonder if we may see more of Emily in relation to what happens to Serena from here on in. Remember that speech she gave to the wife she poisoned in the colonies? About how she should die alone and in pain because she was a rapist too? I'd like to see Emily get more of a platform to remind people in the free world of the complicity of the wives in this scheme too. Also, seeing as the show loves to throw in real world happenings, I wonder if Serena does get her freedom whether we will see some of the refugees from Gilead taking a kind of personal revenge on her à la the female collaborators in France after WW2?* (*I have never seen Game of Thrones, but am aware of some of the scenes in it, and isn't there a scene with a female character who has had her head shaved and is paraded through town? So I can imagine the writers of The Handmaid's Tale probably wouldn't want to emulate that too much at the same time.)

It was brutal, but Gary was also such a toady I couldn't feel that sorry for him and I'm not sure we're meant to see him as anything other than pathetic. His loyalty wasn't virtuous, it was creepy. Everyone in this show was a morally dubious person in some way, with the exceptions of Richard and Marjorie I would say. Don't forget in the same episode where Catherine and Marjorie loose their cool with Selina because she's prepared to give up same sex marriage, Gary is right alongside Selina, rolling his eyes and smirking at them with her. After hearing how enjoyable this show was, my friend and I binge-watched the entire show in a month, and just loved it. I think that it was a bit cleverer under Ianucci, but really it was enjoyable the whole way through. Loved how interesting even the smallest of characters were, and how hilarious it was to see them pop up all the time. Loved Karen and Minna! As soon as they stepped onto the screen I was laughing. I also thought it was refreshing for an American show to make fun of its sacred cows (the military, religion, Israel) along with everything else, which you don't see much on US television. They can hold the banner of "we make fun of everyone" higher than most shows who say that but then chicken out in some areas. It was very much intentional I feel that the first (and last) thing we hear Selina say as president at the end is: "What can we (the US) do for you (Israel)".

I don't have anything else to add to the discussion, but have to give another thumbs up here for "Cloudbusting" at the end of the episode, that song is a tune and a half. I'm mostly excited to read about how people on this forum heard it for the first time ever during this episode. Do yourself a favour: go one further and get yourself a copy of the album Hounds of Love and enjoy! Edited to add: I just remembered this episode also had "Only You" by Portishead in it. Whoever was organising the music for this one was on point!

I hope you don't take this as rude as it's not intended to be (hard to get tone right on message boards, I find) but my first response to this statement would be: "And?" Meghan is part of the 1% who would have absolutely zero compunction after the removal of rights for the rest of us, just so she could stay wealthy. She's said things time after time on The View and elsewhere that have made it very clear she is a horrifically entitled brat who cares very little about anyone else who may be suffering, unless she can tie it into herself. There is video after video after video online of all the awful things she's said and the awful behaviour she's shown. If given any sort of real power she would be dangerous for other women. Which gets me thinking more broadly: Fellow women can be evil just like men. If we have to reign in speaking the truth just because someone is a woman, or because they use emotive issues like fathers' deaths and miscarriages to avert criticism, then we are doing the work of these horrible people for them. They know they can rely on our good natures time and again, which is why they do this. If Meghan is still getting criticised after this story has come out, it's her own fault for being such a cunt. I don't think she's lying, but I do think it's not out of the realm of possibility to think she's cunningly using this story for her own ends. She's shown us before that this is the type of person she is, she doesn't deserve credit, especially when she never gives it out in return. As the old saying goes: "Fool me once..." I know people in my real life who've also been through horrendous things (including miscarriages and parents' deaths). I'm talking "raped by a priest at 5 years old", "whole family shot by the Khmer Rouge" - stories like that. Do you know what unites these people? They are extraordinarily kind. They went through horrific situations and they never want other people to feel even a smidgen of what they have felt in their life because they know what it is to suffer. People like Meghan use their suffering against others. This is a sign of a fault in their own personalities, not something excused by their suffering.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Meghan is the type of person who will always have a story like this to pull out when she's getting criticised too much on her own behaviour. She can't face the justified criticism, so she brings out an emotive topic like this to embarrass people into being nicer to her. And if they aren't nicer to her, so her thoughts go, they'll look awful for piling on to someone who's suffering. She's a pig. Except that's mean to pigs. Maybe a "ciunna lorda" would be a better description (capisci, Joy?) I went to school with girls like her. I think we're all wise to her game. Totally understand. I'm made fun of for being way too sensitive about other people by friends and family, and I have no empathy for Meghan either.

"When in doubt, I mean, when in any situation, never give Meghan McCain any credit." 😂