S04.E03: The Crossing

[Dobian]

Great escape plan.  Instead of threatening to beat Lydia over the head with the cattle prod, how about you zap her in the face a few times so she can't cry for help?  Well June's impromptu escape plan only got four out of the other five handmaids killed.  Good work, June!

[Umbelina]

I guess this is the place to put this, because it's the last time we saw Hannah.

I thought they kept recasting the role of Hannah, but I was wrong.  It's been the same actress from the beginning!  Is anyone else surprised by this?  I am.

Jordana Blake.  IMDB

First show appearance in 2017, but filmed earlier, so she was 6 or 7 years old.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 5/31/2021 at 10:17 PM, Dobian said:

Great escape plan.  Instead of threatening to beat Lydia over the head with the cattle prod, how about you zap her in the face a few times so she can't cry for help?  Well June's impromptu escape plan only got four out of the other five handmaids killed.  Good work, June!

I am not sure if a cattle prod jammed in someone's eye would kill them or not, but it would surely incapacitate them. Plus Lydia with a missing eye would be interesting after what she has done to Janine.

[Scarlett45]

On 6/3/2021 at 8:23 AM, Umbelina said:

I guess this is the place to put this, because it's the last time we saw Hannah.

I thought they kept recasting the role of Hannah, but I was wrong.  It's been the same actress from the beginning!  Is anyone else surprised by this?  I am.

Jordana Blake.  IMDB

First show appearance in 2017, but filmed earlier, so she was 6 or 7 years old.

I recognized Jordana as the same actress who played Hannah. Her face is the same she just got taller. 
 

This is a good gig but I’m sure the child would like more lines!

[Anela]

Fuck you, Nick.  You don’t threaten to harm a woman’s daughter, if you love her.  

[laprin]

On 4/28/2021 at 9:44 PM, mamadrama said:

Yep, it's been specifically stated more than once. Econo people can have sex with each other, as can Guardians and their wives, but Commander's Wives are considered barren. Since sex is only for procreation in Gilead and wives supposedly aren't able to have kids then they're not allowed to have sex. There's an episode in S1 when Fred and Serena Joy almost have sex and he freaks. 

That's why they have places like Jezebel's. Commander's can only have sex once a month and that's during the "ritual." In between sessions they go fool around with the prostitutes. It's a very hypocritical society.

I’ve just started S4 so I am catching up on comments. We learn one of the lower commanders did impregnate his wife in S3. It was impressive enough that Waterford said he would surely be in line for a promotion. So not all wives are infertile. 

[Umbelina]

1 hour ago, laprin said:

I’ve just started S4 so I am catching up on comments. We learn one of the lower commanders did impregnate his wife in S3. It was impressive enough that Waterford said he would surely be in line for a promotion. So not all wives are infertile. 

No, they aren't.

Handmaids are only assigned to Commanders who DO have infertile wives as well.  If they have tried for a child for a long time, and failed, they are given a handmaid.  It's not a wedding gift, it's only AFTER their own wife cannot conceive.  

Also, the show aged down many of the wives of the original story, most of whom were well beyond child bearing years.

[Beatriceblake]

I found this episode of the show cheap, annoying and exploitative.

These "Gilead recaptures June" stories don't work for me at this point because Gilead just come off as being incompetent and inconsistent. I can just about buy they would torture June to get the location of the other handmaids (although in real life, I think they would have just killed her straightaway) but there's no way it makes sense to keep her alive beyond that for the chance of a baby.

Also I found it to be a cheap and exploitative choice to have June give up the location of the handmaids to save Hannah and then said handmaids and June immediately get an opportunity to escape. I didn't want to see some creepy breeding/torture colony but it just seemed like a way to let June off the hook as far as the others were concerned when she got them into that situation by going off to poison commanders and then getting caught because she had become separated from the group.

It could have been an interesting mini arc to see Gilead attempting to get them to turn on one another.

One of the few bits of the episode I did think was interesting was Moira's need to see June as being a force for good (albeit chaotic good) and Luke struggling to deal with the choices she has made in turning down repeated opportunities to escape.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Beatriceblake

[EllaWycliffe]

18 minutes ago, Beatriceblake said:

These "Gilead recaptures June" stories don't work for me at this point because Gilead just come off as being incompetent and inconsistent. I can just about buy they would torture June to get the location of the other handmaids (although in real life, I think they would have just killed her straightaway)

This. I can see the other handmaids going to the breeding farm but June has caused the death of too many people to make the increasingly unlikely chance that she'll have another baby worth the trouble. They sent Emily to the colonies for less,

[FrankP]

Just watched the Crossing episode. All along there have been 7 rogue handmaid's. 6 carried june out of the woods, 6 were captured hiding in the basement after June gave them up and then there were only 5 plus june in the van when they arrived at the train tracks. What happened to the other handmaid?

[Iimabean]

Why would Emily, Janine, etc have been sent to the toxic-sludge colonies if these breeding colonies existed?

Edited August 9, 2022 by Iimabean

[Redrum]

20 minutes ago, Iimabean said:

Why would Emily, Janine, etc have been sent to the toxic-sludge colonies if these breeding colonies existed?

I think the breeding colonies were a new thing.

It logically doesn't make sense that any viable breeder would be killed so the whole toxic sludge colony was super dumb. 

[Anela]

I have this playing now. So, Serena's "servants of god" like the young blonde woman who was holding a candle, and crying, don't want to be able to read and write anymore? 

Loved June coming up to Serena's car, and warning her to never touch her daughter again. 

[Dobian]

This episode finally solves the classic trolley problem.

There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person on the side track. You have two three (and only two three) options:

1.  Do nothing, in which case the trolley will kill the five people on the main track.

2. Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.

3. You're June Osborne.  You let the trolley hit the five people and then shoot the person tied to the other track.