[S01.E11: The Reunion]

On 3/1/2023 at 2:23 AM, Door County Cherry said:

I really thought some distance would cool things down a bit but there was a lot of "It was personal" being thrown around and making it seem like the traitor who won, who didn't have a choice but to be a traitor, was a bad person for being a traitor.  That was her job. 

I have a lot of empathy for Andie. In real life, I love to watch hidden role games, but I don't like to play them because I find it upsetting to think that my friends are manipulating me, even if i know it's just for a game. If Andie wasn't used to playing those kinds of games, or being on reality shows, I 100% understand how they could make the mistake of being too vulnerable or trusting too much and then get hurt by that.

It's just that I think the lesson to learn is, "I went too deep with people in a setting that wasn't appropriate for that, and I ended up getting hurt" vs "Cirie hurt me on purpose."

Cirie was actually in a really awkward position, because she seemed like she was genuinely trying to be nice to people who were being vulnerable with her, and whom she liked, but also she was trying to play a game where she was secretly on the opposing team and couldn't reveal it.

On 3/1/2023 at 2:23 AM, Door County Cherry said:

Cirie didn't make any obvious mistakes but she was playing with traitors who did.

She was clearly the best Traitor, but I would argue that shanking Arie in the finals was a mistake. He could easily have tried to expose her and take her down with him, and she just got lucky when he didn't.

[Season 1: Episode Talk]

Just binged this all at once. It's basically Werewolf with gameshow elements, and I like Werewolf and gameshow elements, so I had fun.

The two things I found most interesting were:

1. The way that everybody knew that any one of them could have been chosen as Traitor, and that the Traitors weren't chosen until the first episode, but then many of them started to talk about the Traitors as if they were bad people who were betraying the group because of a character flaw and not because Alan touched their shoulders.
2. The way that many people got fixated on somebody they didn't like, and wanted to believe that that person was bad and therefore a Traitor -- and how they were so confident about that, based on nothing but vibes.

In the end, I was most excited to see Cirie play, so I was happy she was a Traitor, and I think she played well -- but I have mixed feelings about how personal and nasty it got sometimes when they all ganged up on somebody for banishment.

On 1/16/2023 at 12:52 PM, Irlandesa said:

Some feel like Arie knew Cirie was telling the truth about needing the money and bowed out.  I think he just realized his time was up.  He came to the finale with his fellow traitor and two people who were her strong allies. 

I don't think Arie really had a winning argument once Cirie threw the red smoke.  Cirie never accused him of being a traitor in her speech. (By the way, I really appreciate how this version didn't have a traitor outright targeting another traitor unless the faithfuls started the push.) If he accused Cirie of being a traitor, he'd have to explain why she, as a traitor, threw the red smoke if she assumed the rest were faithfuls.  At the end, if there's only one traitor and three faithfuls, the traitor wouldn't have a motive to eliminate a faithful because they win the whole thing.  A traitor only would need an elimination if they didn't want to share the pot with their fellow traitor.

I agree that there wasn't any way for him to get suspicion off himself at that point, but he could have tried to take her down with him out of spite, which is honestly what I would have done. IMO, he was being extremely polite by just taking himself out of it and letting the game play out as it would.

On 1/23/2023 at 10:05 AM, Lady Calypso said:

The challenges did pretty much nothing overall. They were basically filler since the challenge wins didn't mean anything for most of the game. They earned money, yes, but there was no punishment for a challenge that was lost, especially the team-based ones.

I agree that the challenges didn't add anything. Some were fun to watch, but they had nothing to do with the main task, which was figuring out who's a Traitor. At least on The Mole, the Mole is motivated to sabotage the group, and you're gathering intel during the challenge. On this show, no one had a motivation to do anything differently during the challenge, and the challenge didn't show you anything about who they were.

On 1/23/2023 at 10:05 AM, Lady Calypso said:

I also did not like another traitor being recruited near the end. There was no need for that; it just made it impossible for the Faithfuls to win. I know they need to have a contingency in case all the traitors go out early, but Cirie and Christian didn't need a third traitor. They were doing just fine and it evened things out with the Faithfuls by having Cody go when he did. The Faithfuls already sucked at that stage. The Traitors didn't need a solidified win by having Arie join them. The Traitors had the win locked down by episode three.

I 100% agree. They need a Traitor in the game until the end, and I get that, but Cirie would have made it without throwing Arie in the mix. I think doing that just confused things.

On 1/24/2023 at 2:02 AM, 30 Helens said:

My thoughts exactly. Where everything before this had been an exaggerated parody of a reality game show, suddenly there were two crushed people with real emotions and real tears, and that was not fun to watch. I guess I was expecting more of a Survivor reaction, where players either shrug it off with a “good for you, you got me”, or become total Bitter Betties (which can also be fun). Maybe in future seasons players will learn not to invest so much emotionally.

That reaction, and the reaction some people had when they were getting bullied off the show made me feel like maybe it's not awesome that we psychologically torture people for entertainment, you know?

It's easy to say that people should keep perspective and remember it's a gameshow, but I also know that, once you're in it, and you're not sleeping, and it's all you think about, and the other contestants are the only people you see, it starts to feel like a really big deal.

I don't think it's Cirie's fault for playing the game as designed, and I also don't think she was unnecessarily mean about it from what we saw. But, production is choosing these people and creating these situations -- so they're taking people who are emotionally vulnerable and open, and being like, "What if everyone betrayed you?! What if we let you think you won and then you didn't?!"

Like, some people are more seasoned, and they get that it's a game that involves lying and good for them -- but other people probably shouldn't be playing, and it's not 100% on them when they get hurt. People behind the scenes are making choices about how much to twist the knife.

On 1/24/2023 at 4:37 PM, Johann said:

I also found it frustrating that they thought that one girl was a traitor because she wouldn't share the map and seemed to be sabotaging things.  Why would a traitor do that?  They stand to win the same pot.  Would be different if the money not won by the faithful was put in a separate pot for whichever traitor won, if that happened.  Performance on challenges meant nothing.  I think there should have been separate 'pots' so they could use that to suss out the traitors.

I found that confusing/annoying, too. And I noticed that, in the second episode, Alan verbally clarified for everyone that no one has a motivation to sabotage on purpose & everyone wants to succeed at the challenge.

But then that goes back to the issue where there's no point to the challenges.

On 2/27/2023 at 5:51 PM, Kingdom said:

1. Only 2 traitors had been banished at this point.  How in the world did Andie and Quentin not realize there was at least 1 traitor left and both voted to end the game even with 4 people left?  Am I missing something?

I was confused about this too and, as ever on this type of show, I wish we had more knowledge about what the contestants were told and what they understood the rules to be. Because I'm not sure whether they knew they'd started with three Traitors or not.

[S05.E10: Safe]

6 hours ago, burghgal said:

3) Why would they take a train to get out?  They could've used disguises taken Rita's car and driven to Alaska.  Tuella could've given them the fake IDs to use.  It's not winter so the Yukon roads would be open.

"Why didn't they drive to Alaska?" is probably the best question anyone's asked. Why didn't they drive to Alaska? Like, I can't imagine that it's more dangerous than Hawaii. It has a country between it and Gilead. WTF.

3 hours ago, chaifan said:

I get it - they had to separate June and Luke to set up the final season.  Forcing June to leave and giving a semi-legit reason for Luke not to be able to leave was the only practical way, short of killing off Luke. 

It felt to me like they introduced a clumsy plot development to split June off from Luke, and then an even clumsier one to split Nick off from the wife he loves so much so that June and Nick can reunite and the love triangle I hate can just keep spinning. 9/10 they get back together but Nick sacrifices himself to atone for his sins and save June.

Then Luke shows up and he's like, "What did I miss?" And June's like, "OMG we found each other again."

19 hours ago, greekmom said:

Most Canadians are passively aggressive.

Can confirm.

[S05.E10: Safe]

Tuello was so proud of himself for helping that I knew something would go wrong. The actor keeps playing his scenes with more and more sorrow and gravity, and I like to think it's because the character's confronting his own uselessness and failure.

Imagine if this were a better show, and June and Serena had been apart for a couple of seasons, having different journeys that made sense, and then they suddenly saw each other on the train in the last minute of the season. Imagine how suspenseful and intense that would be. Imagine that the last line wasn't "Do you have a diaper?"

10 hours ago, Helena Dax said:

Also, we're supposed to believe that the Canadians feel such hostility against American refugees that when Luke attacks/kills the guy who is trying to kill his wife, they would arrest Luke.

It feels normal to me that he would get arrested if he killed someone. But I do agree that it seemed alarmist for June to conclude that everyone would hate them and try to kill their kid if/when it was revealed that he killed a Canadian.

There's an interesting angle here where maybe she's having an extreme reaction because of the trauma she suffered earlier -- eg, immediately concluding that they have to flee the country before it all happens again. But the show seems to think she's correct, so.

8 hours ago, HMFan said:

I knew when I heard the baby crying that June was going to bump into Serena.

I knew it too and I smiled like the Grinch because I love the idea that, no matter where June goes, there's Serena, just casually standing there.

I also love that June just abandoned her stroller in the middle of the train.

7 hours ago, greekmom said:

They are on the train to Vancouver BC to catch a plane or a boat ride to Hawaii.  Personally the whole thing reminded me of the Jewish people boarding a train thinking they are going to some remote place and then shipped off to the camps. I wouldn't be surprised if they (show) pull a fast one on us and those people on the train are actually headed to New Bethlehem. 

I had the same thought, though I don't know why it would benefit Tuello to put his own people on a train to New Bethlehem.

7 hours ago, greekmom said:

Nick - for publicly going against Lawrence.  He had a great shot of working the system, getting intel and leaving with Rose in tow. 

So far, Nick's whole characterization is that he keeps getting asked to be a spy even though he's bad at it. It doesn't really surprise me that he'd agree to spy for Tuello and then, five minutes later, blow his cover and punch Lawrence in the face.

[S05.E09: Allegiance]

5 hours ago, PsychoDrone said:

Finally, what about the Gilead sympathizers in Canada?  Pretty sure, Gilead wouldn't object to people, especially women, wanting to move there.  So, why don't they immigrate to Gilead?  What is stopping them?  In current times, you hear about some crazy person wanting to join the Taliban or other designated country.  But, we don't see or hear women praising places like Iraq or Saudi Arabia.  If we did, people would tell them to move there.  The world knows how Gilead works.  If they TRULY believed in it, then they should move there.  Show should address this.

Maybe the pro-Gilead Canadians will move to New Bethlahem. Someone's got to -- they've built it up too much for no one to go there.

[S05.E09: Allegiance]

LMAO the blue-haired girl is my favourite character. The way she just stares at Serena and her insane, no-context request and then she's like, "You know what? I'm in!"

Otherwise, I really didn't enjoy this. I think I actually hate June now? I decided while she was on the phone with Lawrence and she cycled through, like, five different motivations, from randomly being Walter White at him to begging him to save her daughter to telling him to fuck himself to trashing the landscaping... and then every emotion she expressed was conveyed by shaking her head.

Also, I think it's unkind for people to picket while the Americans are trying to hold a memorial service (why they did it there instead of at the embassy or something IDK), but a scene where a little girl learns to say the pledge of allegiance while looking at a photo of a brave soldier who died... kind of made me want the Americans to go home?

10 hours ago, HMFan said:

When Serena was that close to the door, I was like, Serena, run because you may never know when you will get the chance again. That maid knew all she needed to do was give Serena the option. The maid is certainly seeing a glimpse into what Gilead is and how it will jeopardize her personal liberties.

That was the most tense moment I can remember in a long time. I didn't care about 99% of what was happening, but I was still like, "Go, Serena. OMG, go now! You don't get another chance!"

3 hours ago, Helena Dax said:

I'm glad Serena was able to run away. The situation with the Wheelers was bizarre and although I'm no expert in Canadian law, I'm pretty sure that their actions were illegal.

Honestly, my main thought when Mrs. Wheeler slapped her was, "Okay, there's an unambiguous assault." I'd say I don't know how they think they can get away with this, but apparently in the universe of this show, they can?

3 hours ago, Helena Dax said:

To me, this thing between Naomi and Lawrence makes zero sense from his pov. She's officially barren, which means they would be assigned a Handmaid. Lawrence wouldn't want that, and I doubt he could just pretend with Naomi there.

She already has a child, so I think that's probably enough to satisfy Gilead, at least for a while.

[S05.E08: Motherland]

This was, by far, my favourite episode of the season. Lots of interesting ideas and interesting dilemmas for the first time in a long time, all framed around the idea of how you live in a world where you accept that Gilead gets to exist and your hopes of dismantling it aren't going to happen.

On 10/26/2022 at 9:47 AM, Black Knight said:

I liked Luke's point about not bringing Nichole into Gilead, and I noticed June didn't argue it. I think Lawrence is misjudging Nick's POV a lot here. No, Nick would not like to have both his wife and June in proximity, and I'm guessing he would also probably prefer that his daughter with June stay safely away from Gilead.

Disagree. I hate Nick, and part of the reason is because I think he never wanted June to be free -- he just wanted her free to be with him. I think bringing her back to Gilead in a way where he's allowed to be with her is exactly the outcome he wants.

On 10/26/2022 at 12:27 PM, Quickbeam said:

Bradley Whitford’s performance was so nuanced. Nice work. 

After years of going "What's his deal? What's his deal?" I feel like I understand Lawrence's deal, now. And I think Bradley Whitford is really good in this role. You want to like him. Even if this is similar to what he does most of the time, he does it really well.

On 10/26/2022 at 1:26 PM, Helena Dax said:

I liked it, but I can't stop feeling that now things are only happening just because. I mean, why, why would the Wheelers get Noah's custody? Perhaps Gilead can ask for him, since his parents are from Gilead, but why would Canada give him to the Wheelers? Has Serena told anyone what's the deal with them? Has June?? To me, this part of the story is absolutely bonkers.

Even when she was pregnant, I didn't get why she wasn't trying harder to report the Wheelers to the authorities. They're not actually in Gilead -- you're not allowed to just take someone hostage and hold them against their will. Also count me as another person who doesn't see why the foster system would ever give this kid to the Wheelers as opposed to normal foster parents.

Also, if she's released from detention, now, there would be a process for her to get her kid back. The Wheelers couldn't just unilaterally decide to keep him.

On 10/26/2022 at 5:29 PM, iMonrey said:

I'm not sure I understand who is behind the "military operation" Tuello is talking about either. He is not Canadian, he represents what's left of the American government. I assume there is some sort of American consulate in Toronto and we've heard the reference to "little America" before. Does "little America" have any kind of standing military left, or are they being backed by the Canadian military for this operation?

I think it's been implied that America still holds part of real-world American territory and they're actively at war with Gilead, still. They're just losing.

4 hours ago, RunningMarket said:

The immigration protests seemed reminiscent of the recent convoy protests across Canada, with the big trucks and all the honking. I'm guessing that's where they pulled that imagery from.

I had the same thought. And I had never considered babies while that was happening, but wow. It would be so terrible if your kids couldn't even sleep because people kept honking all night.

[S01.E10: Who is The Mole?]

1 hour ago, PurpleTentacle said:

I call deceptive editing. Kesi was basically a non-entity in the first half of the season. It's cheap to just totally hide the mole. Of course she was super suspicious in the second half, but if you don't have any opportunity to figure out who the mole is from the beginning, what's the point of this show?

I rewatched some the earlier episodes, focusing on the finalists and, if your attention is only on them, then she starts to look more suspect. In the prison task, I actually think she did a really good job -- Joi was placed in a cell that had a worse view of Kesi's door than the other contestants had (and I was curious about whether that was on purpose -- exactly the kind of thing I wish they had explained or recapped during the finale) -- and the Kesi's strategy was to keep yelling instructions to Joi that took her away from the door and got her to focus on the key she couldn't reach instead. It sounded like she was trying to help, but it really dragged out how long it took them to do the task, while also making it look like Joi's fault.

There's always been a tension on this show, though, where it's more fun for the players than the viewers, partly because we don't have the same opportunity to gather information on the mole.

[S01.E10: Who is The Mole?]

I'm actually kind of confused about how Joi lasted this long if she's been voting for Will since the beginning, but maybe almost nobody picked Kesi, and it was a game of who spread their votes out the best?

I was also kind of hoping for more after material where they showed how Will figured out it was Kesi, or discussions people had about their suspicions behind the scene.

For me, the apex of this was season two of the original series, where the finale revealed how the two finalists had known who the mole was for several episodes and traded info -- how one of them had figured it out before the other and accidentally let it slip, because they assumed the other finalist already knew. And then it was a contest to see who did the best on the quiz.

In this case, though, it seems like everyone was kind of bad?

I still enjoyed watching it, and I like Kesi, so I'm glad she got to be the mole -- the ending just wasn't as suspenseful and revealing as I hoped it would be.

[S01.E09: Cold Hard Cash]

I'm honestly not sure if it's Kesi or Joi, and I love that. Even though I wrote Joi off because of the $25k, I rewatched some of the early episodes in preparation for this, and she does act super suspicious. I ultimately still think Kesi is the mole, but we'll see!

I thought Avori would make it to the finals, and I was rooting for her, so I'm sad to see her go. If Will and Joi are really the last two contestants, then the two people with the biggest chips on their shoulders made it to the end, which is kind of a bummer. I like Kesi a lot, though, so I'm still happy if she's the mole.

[S05.E07: No Man’s Land]

Serena: "June, you're like an angel. 🙏 One of those fucked-up Old Testament angels that smites everyone and drinks blood."

Here's my thing: people changing their minds about what their motivations are over and over again doesn't create conflict an tension. There was a time in the past when the June/Serena alliance was interesting, but that story reached its climax when Serena gave Nichole to June and let her escape so they could have a better life. Everything after that has just been needlessly rehashing the same points in their relationship -- like backing your car out of a ditch just so you can drive into the ditch again.

This season has been the worst, IMO, in that it feels like someone just decided they need to be mortal enemies again so that they could build to this unearned moment where they (again) learn to be friends.

To me, it didn't feel dramatic or authentic -- it just felt like, "Okay, cool. When Serena makes that face and pretends to be helpless, it works on women, too."

1 hour ago, chocolatine said:

Yes, the eye patch came later since it wasn't part of the "regulation" handmaid uniform. Aunt Lydia had it made especially for Janine as a token of affection (never mind that she was the one who made Janine lose the eye in the first place).

Honestly, that's a pretty good summary of how Lydia's affection works. She plucks out your eye and then gives you an eye patch because you are her favourite. (Also, I had totally forgotten that they used to do that makeup on the actor every episode back in the day).

[S01.E06: Mountain Mole]

8 hours ago, PurpleTentacle said:

So did I get the chain challange right? Everybody would eventually have the opportunity to grab the exemption and lose the team all the money? Yeah in that case you are better off just grabbing it, if you are the first one, because somebody will eventually. That money is never going to land in the pot, either way.

I guess that's true, if we assume that the Mole will grab the exemption even if they're the last person -- then the best possible outcome is that you don't get the money but none of the players gets an exemption and no one sleeps on the floor. I think it depends how much you value not making people sleep on the floor.

[S01.E02: Take No Prisoners]

On 10/9/2022 at 6:22 PM, Dani said:

Casey’s behavior was also suspect in that whole thing. She hears Greg say, “You wanna hear “hey” from everyone”, Pranav and Greg motion to her to run and get the others and she runs out and doesn’t come back. What was she thinking?

I had forgotten about this, but it's one of my favourite moments. Where Obvious Greg is like "Oh, you want to talk to EVERYONE, each of us INDIVIDUALLY, of course you can do that. Let's start with Pranav..." and what they all took from that was, "Cool, let's tell the other team our plan and wander down the hall."

At the same time, I thought his self-serving thing of "I'm not going to LIE; I'm just going to mislead them" made him sound way less convincing than if he'd just lied.

[S01.E08: The Bird Cage]

I'm so torn. Kesi's behaviour seems the most suspicious lately, but Jacob's talking heads sometimes make me think it could be him, because he words things strangely -- like when he was like, "Down to four players, except five players, the fifth one being the mole" or when he said "The mole is trying to trick the players" (or something similar) instead of "The mole is trying to trick us."

Avori also made it sound like she split her votes between Jacob and Joi -- but that could be the show misdirecting us.

Finally, I know they don't want the players to talk to each other after the elimination because they don't want them to share information about who they voted for and whatnot, but it's so awkward and sad that they have to just leave silently.

[S01.E07: Spot the Fake]

Joi calling out Jacob makes me a little more suspicious of Joi, but I think maybe she's just hard to get along with?

I liked Will's pearl necklace. I don't know if he just started wearing it or if I never noticed it before, but it looked really cool.

LOL at Greg saying that, when he leads a focus group, be plays good cop and bad cop by himself. That's not something it would ever occur to me to do with a focus group, but I can see it being his strategy.

I feel like Kesi and Jacob are still the most suspicious people from the guessing game, though I think I suspect Kesi more.

[S01.E06: Mountain Mole]

Ha ha ha -- this is what I love. Challenges where you have to double-guess everything, and someone being selfish. Good cliffhangers this season.

If I were the mole, I think I would put the money in my own bag. If I get left behind, we lose $10k and it's not my fault. If I get to go to the end, I won $10k for the team and you can't suspect me. Meanwhile I'd try to get the other two people left behind somewhere. However, I don't think any of the people with money in their bags were playing that angle, so...

8 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I was shocked to see Pranav go. He was still on my list of suspects, though more in the middle, but I also was genuinely enjoying to watch. Plus, he's one of the only smart players in the game who I was rooting for. He was probably my top pick to win, even.

I liked the Parnav/Avori alliance a lot -- and Avori is one of my favs because she seems to have such a level-headed attitude about the game. I was sad to see them split up, especially if it's because she made him think she's the mole.

8 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I'm still at Kesi, Jacob and Casey as the Mole. I think those are my three suspects. I think everyone else is clear for me. Although Avori insisting that Jacob is the Mole is either gearing her to a win, or surprising me in a Jacob elimination next.

Jacob and Kesi are the two that stand out to me, and I'm undecided about Casey. I think, this episode, they could have just been showing random footage of her taking appropriate breaks and talking to people, to make it seem like she was stalling on purpose. There's a lot of waiting around on shows like this while the cameras get moved, etc.

I don't think it's Joi, Avori, or Will. Greg, I'm also not sure about.

[S05.E06: Together]

I felt zero suspense about what Serena would do -- from the moment she said she had to "be there" when June died, I was like, "Okay, so you and June are starting up your odd couple comedy again. I guess that's a better way to escape the house than going to see that weird doctor."

Also, that was the moment I realized Serena might be smarter than me. I had been saying, "I don't understand why she isn't more confrontational about them holding her prisoner," but the reason was exactly for this: so that she could manipulate them by making them think she was cooperating, just like June used to do.

Otherwise, LOL at Lydia 2.0 with more compassion. She deserves to get screamed at by a teenager.

15 hours ago, chocolatine said:

ETA: I wonder what happens to Naomi and Charlotte now after Putnam's very public execution. I really want Janine to be reunited with Charlotte by the end of the show (much more than I want June to be reunited with Hannah), so hopefully Charlotte doesn't get reassigned to an out-of-town commander's family. I don't see Naomi being allowed to keep Charlotte and continue living in the style to which she's accustomed. She's too old and unattractive for Jezebels, and doesn't seem to have the housekeeping skills to be a Martha. The best she can hope for is becoming an Aunt, but colonies are more likely if Lawrence and Nick want to wipe all traces of Putnam. Naomi doesn't have Serena's negotiation skills, so she can only hope the commanders pity her enough to spare her from the colonies.

Naomi didn't do anything wrong, though, so they would probably just marry her off to a different Commander, wouldn't they? Maybe she'll be the one to marry Lawrence, since they all keep bringing it up.

I actually expected Janine to ask what would happen to Putnam's kids; I was surprised she didn't.

9 hours ago, Baltimore Betty said:

It only took a couple of days for Serena to see where things were heading for her, a prisoner in someone's home, being told what to eat, when to eat, when to rest, etc...she became very worried about her freedoms and was plotting her escape, does she see any parallel in her life and the one all the Handmaids, Martha's and Unwomen were forced to live?

As soft as I am on Serena, I doubt it. I think that, in her mind, the distinction isn't suffering vs not suffering, it's deserved suffering vs undeserved suffering. She thinks she's a good and important person, so she doesn't deserve to suffer, and her suffering is wrong. She thinks the handmaids were bad, unimportant people, so their suffering was deserved, and that made it right. Totally different things.

9 hours ago, Baltimore Betty said:

Will June have to deliver Serena's baby?

Oh, yes. Now that you've said it, I'm sure this will happen.

6 hours ago, AntFTW said:

This part I get. The activity of catching people and sending them back to Gilead happens in No Man's Land, I understand that part. However, his house is in Canada. His wife and other assets are in Canada.

What I am not understanding is how is he able to do that from Canada? Are the people on the ground from Gilead or Canada? How are they being paid, because I imagine they are not doing this for free? Is Wheeler paying salaries from Canada? Is Gilead funding it and letting Wheeler call the shots from Canada?

Well... we've learned that no man's land is a magical place where you can commit murder and Canada doesn't care, so maybe they don't care about whatever this guy's doing either? It seems kind of fantastical to me that everyone's allowed to just step across the border into this other territory and do whatever, but it's internally consistent so far, I guess.

2 hours ago, crashdown said:

June might have done something very, very dumb in naming Nick and Joseph as her allies to Wheeler's guys. We'll see if that gets dropped or becomes an important plot point later.

I also thought it was dumb for her to say her own name. Like, why not even try to lie and say you're someone else? But I bet the thing where she asked for Lawrence and Nick will get ignored.

[S01.E05: Human Lie Detector]

55 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

Joi, once again, messes up with her horrid navigation skills. Even if she IS the Mole, I would call her one of the worst Moles. Or maybe she's one of the best by being so obvious, people thought she was too obvious. Honestly, I would have told Joi "hey, you're driving, I'm navigating." But if Jacob is the Mole, letting her take the blame makes it easier for him to fly under the radar.

Jacob is at the top of my suspect list, partly because he was happy that Joi was his navigator. It also makes me laugh to think that maybe the mole's strategy this season is to just let the contestants play to their weaknesses and mess up the tasks on their own.

55 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

As for the Bomb twist, it seems like fun. Of course Joi/Will make it to the end; they seem to get the most confessionals out of everyone. And of course it's Joi who has the decision. This woman has cost the team so much money, not just in that one mission, but in team missions, and she's "lost" at which option to choose on the exemption or the money? As she said, she's greedy and wants to win, but man, will everyone hate her by the end, especially if she's not the Mole. 

If Joi isn't the mole, I think it's hilarious that she's doing more than the mole to sabotage their pot. She definitely seems like she'd be okay with winning a $0 pot just to get there. But she also seems to think her best chance to win is to continually skip the quiz, which makes me doubt how well she'd do in the final. (FWIW, I understand wanting to skip the early quizzes because you're just guessing at that point, but the farther you go in the game the more you should hope to do well).

I'll really, really laugh if Joi gets to the end with another contestant, that person wins, and then there's like $15.50 in the pot because of Joi.

[S01.E04: Bank Heist]

1 hour ago, Lady Calypso said:

Of course Joi was the idiot to bet almost their entire pot. Even if she IS the Mole, that's such a stupid move because it'll make people want to get her out and not work with her or trust her. When you're the Mole, you WANT people to somewhat trust you, to an extent. If she's not the Mole, she just allowed the Mole to probably skate by and the Mole might want Joi in the finals so that the others can get her over them and the Mole can win.

This is the move that makes me think Joi can't be the mole -- firstly because it's such an obvious thing to do, and secondly because I don't think the producers wanted somebody to completely drain the pot. They immediately tried to give 10k back for no reason, and the contestants turned it down.

It could be a double fake-out where her plan as the mole is to act so much like the mole that no one thinks she can be the mole -- but I doubt it. That seems too risky and complicated.

[S01.E03: Knowledge Is Power]

This is where I started to get interested in this season, because of the dossier dilemma. I wish that the rules around some of these challenges were explained better, or that we got to hear them exactly as they were described to the contestants, but I still had fun trying to game out whether or not it made sense to read the dossier.

I also love watching everyone pat themselves on the back for being too moral to lose money from the pot by reading the dossier, and then immediately agree to lose money from the pot by betting on who read the dossier.

[S01.E05: Human Lie Detector]

Oh no -- I didn't realize we only got five episodes this week. It was slow to get going, but that's kind of how I remember The Mole being. I'm fully into it now and suspicious of everyone.

[S05.E05: Fairytale]

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I think the point was to give June and Luke this one moment of peace and happiness so it would be that much worse when they were caught and whatever horrors await them now.

The happier they were, the more afraid I was for Luke. Purely for meta reasons; not because the show built tension. June isn't going to die yet, so it felt like they were fattening him up to be more depressing in death.

One thing I thought about again in this episode -- I think I get that they're trying to make June the more stereotypically masculine person in this marriage and Luke the more stereotypically feminine -- and I don't hate it -- but it's also not quite landing for me, and I don't know why.

[S05.E05: Fairytale]

Here's what I wish: I wish June and Luke embarked on a dangerous quest because they actually needed to get something important. It doesn't feel like anything the characters are doing follows from anything else -- it just feels like the writers are trying to stir the pot to keep the story going.

16 hours ago, Armchair Critic said:

Moira’s face when June said she was going with Luke is all of us. 🙄

I loved that moment, because it seemed like maybe they were going to try to turn it into a three-person idiot expedition, and Moira would agree to go too, but then, no -- we just cut to her handing off the backpack and saying goodbye. Smart girl.

5 hours ago, Redrum said:

I think where I am annoyed is that I don't need it sugarcoated for Serena.... and I don't want it sugarcoated for Serena. ... I want an Aunt zapping her with a stun gun when she backtalks Mrs. Wheeler. I want Mrs Wheeler bitch slapping her for not properly lowering her eyes to Mr. Wheeler. I want her in the red dress being told her baby is NOT her baby, she will have that baby and suckle it only if Mrs Wheeler is ok with it and as soon as that child can be weaned, she will be trotted off to another childless couple where she will be fucked against her will for more babies.

I don't want that for her or for anyone. And I personally feel like I watched enough of it in season one.

[S05.E04: Dear Offred]

Am I crazy or did Luke say he didn't want the state to take Nichole away because she was their best chance to get Hannah back?

And then we got a clunky scene where he needlessly met with Serena in person, to establish that he wanted to ask her to get Hannah back, and then she said a bunch of Gilead stuff, but looked over his shoulder to let him know they weren't alone.

Is Luke going to trade Nichole to Serena for Hannah? Is that where this is going? I only sort of care.

On 9/29/2022 at 5:52 PM, greekmom said:

I never really understood why Serena was so gungho when Waterford and co. told her what was going to happen to the women (no reading, writing, etc).  My only guess was at that point Serena was so desperate for baby that she was going to say yes to anything to obtain one.  

I don't think she was necessarily in the room when that decision got made, but in so far as she was involved, we've seen from the flashbacks is that Fred used to treat her a lot more deferentially before she lost her rights, and she probably assumed that that would continue.

There are certain women (who are usually religious) who have an attitude like, "You just need to find a good man, and then you can trust him to protect you and put your fate in his hands, and it won't matter if you have legal rights, because he won't ever try to hurt you." I think this might have been one of those situations -- she thought Fred was a good man who would make sure she was okay, and she didn't realize what he would turn into once he thought he could get away with it.

This narrative (that I'm kind of making up) also gives her a way to blame Fred instead of blaming the system that she lobbied for and created. If Fred had been a better person, and if other particular men had been better people, and done what they were supposed to do, everything would have been fine -- so she doesn't have to conclude that the system inevitably produces this outcome; she can just conclude that particular people were bad.

On 9/29/2022 at 6:35 PM, Anela said:

Serena calling her Offred, is just another slap in the face. June is a person, not a possession of her dead husband. She continues to dehumanize her.

It's also a show of dominance because it deliberately evokes memories of a time when June was helpless and Serena got to bully her and ruin her life. It's kind of like if someone had a mean nickname in high school and you put that in cursive on their invitation to the reunion. Only, like, x100.

[S05.E03: Border]

On 9/25/2022 at 11:48 PM, lucindabelle said:

it’s the collective amnesia that irritates me (and the show never acknowledged it). At the height of Nazi Germany you could not have found one adult who pretended that Jews had never lived among them. And yet all the women agree to pretend they can’t read.

It bothers me too. Even in the first season, the vibe was almost like the Handmaids had been kidnapped and taken to a foreign country -- but then it's like, "No, wait. Literally all of these characters were American until, like, a year or two ago."

I think the aspect of it that gets me is how people in Gilead speak to other people as though they believe that those people have only ever lived in Gilead and somehow aren't familiar with the concept of anything else.