S03.E09: Heroic

[kittykat]

I know it's been practically a month since this episode aired because I needed to take a month off from the show for three reasons

1. Throwing remote at TV

2. Wanting to throw TV out window.

3. Wanting to write a letter to Bruce Miller demanding he buy me a new TV.

So I'm back and...*gulp* I liked this episode.

I agree with the too many close-ups but I'd rather see an hour of Crazy Face than Smirk Face.  

June's breakdown has been coming all season and Natalie's inevitable death plus the parading of the Gilead Girls did it.  The fact that the baby survived was the hope she needed.

Does anyone think "she's still alive," wasn't referring to Natalie but her mother? Maybe Yates knows something she doesn't.  Also, nice appearance by Gil Bellows I haven't seen him in anything for a while.

I liked that it was Janine that told June what she so needed to hear regarding her selfish acts.  It wasn't an epic takedown bit just matter of fact, very Janine.  I do agree about her Stockholm Syndrome with Aunt Lydia although I also get the impression Lydia sees Janine as a new Noelle.

Anyhoo, that happened now I'm gonna watch some real shit go down (I'm partially spoiled but it also got me to jump back in)

Edited August 9, 2019 by kittykat

[maddie965]

On 7/17/2019 at 9:56 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Within the first five minutes of the episode, I was cracking up because I was already imagining how much you guys were going to hate an episode that was 90% June voiceovers and June closeups.

I liked the moment when the doctor said he knew June's mom and that she was scary.

I watched this in my computer with my hand over her face the whole time. 

[kieyra]

1 minute ago, maddie965 said:

I watched this in my computer with my hand over her face the whole time. 

Hah. A different take on the watching with your hand over your *own* face thing.

[BrooklynRat]

On 7/17/2019 at 12:47 AM, chocolatine said:

There were so many glaring inconsistencies. Apparently, there's a hospital that's equipped to keep a brain-dead pregnant woman and her baby alive, monitor both their vital stats, deliver the baby via c-section, and administer CPR successfully on a micro-preemie. Presumably, there are also NICU facilities to care for said micro-preemie until he's developed enough to be sent home. And yet, in the last episode, they didn't bother to do standard diagnostics to screen for simple issues like the umbilical cord being wrapped around the baby's neck and delivering *that* baby via c-section. Makes no sense, especially since "babies are the only thing that matters".

Also, Gilead had supposedly shut down all the tech companies, and yet one of the doctors had a new-ish iPad. Hard to believe Gilead would allow a product created by a company that was run first by a Buddhist (Steve Jobs) and then a gender traitor (Tim Cook).

Just more symptoms of the total shit writing that is this entire season.  Because the writers want to indulge their revenge fantasy where women could be more powerful than portrayed in Season 1 Gilead (even though they probably couldn't, given the rules and restrictions presented to us), they just include all kinds of illogical, shitty inconsistencies to suit their purposes.  As someone else posted earlier, surprised they don't just have June toting a machine gun at this point.

[BrooklynRat]

On 7/18/2019 at 7:18 AM, AnswersWanted said:

I haven't yet touched on this much, but in all seriousness, the idea June could get just her own daughter out of Gilead was almost too impossible to believe, and frankly it would have taken nothing short of a miracle to pull off.

Yet now, out of nowhere, the show has June declare she wants to be able to liberate however many other children out of Gilead because...the fuck? 

How?

This is Gilead, not an overcrowded Chuckie Cheese's that's run out of pizza.

This is not a feat one can accomplish just because they will it to happen as hard as they can.

It's totally illogical that Gilead could or would somehow let a large number of stolen babies or handmaid born babies out of Gilead, especially if it wasn't done as part of some outside military rescue operation involving half the known world and a ton of threats of nuclear warfare.

Hasn't this season strived to show us, in rather clear detail, that Gilead is not the weak, dwindling nation we first assumed?

So what the hell can possibly change so drastically and exponentially in the last few episodes that means they would have to concede to anyone's demands, especially a lowly handmaid like June?

Gilead has made serious inroads with Canada to potentially return the refugees currently sheltered there back to them, but somehow this solid "power structure"is going to be crippled enough for a bunch of kiddos to make their way to freedom? How are these people actually writing this shit, seriously?

If anything, such a plan would end with a lot of dead babies and any adults helping them, what would Gilead have to lose anyway at that point if the kids are escaping, they would definitely rather keep them out of the hands of their enemies on the outside.

Regimes like Gilead kill those they cannot control, children would be no exception. Those kids are potential witnesses and evidence of all the shit going down in Gilead, they're huge liabilities. 

Not to mention the logistics of how June could even plan this out are incredibly flawed in every way possible.

There's no way Lawrence has nearly enough power or control to pull something of that magnitude off, so just what surprise ace and ally does June have in her pocket to play at this point?

And if they want to bring Nick back into this and imply that he can somehow help her pull this off, again that's just pure and total bullshit.

Unless he's secretly the crown prince of Gilead or the fucking anti-christ he can't possibly have the necessary sway to force such an exodus.

We barely saw June dip her toes into the pool of resistance this season, she has nothing going for her on that front and she has no connections whatsoever to any forces powerful and capable enough to even get her half the way there. 

This is when the show clearly proves it could care less about actually telling a reasonably good story.

They have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to make it the slightest bit believable that the June we've been watching all season is ready for the "big leagues". 

This chick couldn't manage to talk to a woman in a grocery store without getting her killed, come the fuck on.

She's had no contact with anyone outside except Luke and the Swiss and they can't just come riding to her rescue, and within Gilead she has incredibly limited resources, and everyone who blinks wrong is being hanged or worse so it's doubtful she could rally the troops for such a suicide mission. 

Last night I laughed at the utter stupidity of it all, but after thinking back on it, it's actually annoying for me to realize this is all this show is willing to give me for "entertainment" and they call it a day. 

To suspend so much disbelief so much of the time is just not feasible, and I am tired of feeling tired and constantly acknowledging that it's the most thankless, pointless chore to watch a fictional TV show that seems determined to insult my intellect every chance it gets. 

They may as well rename the show to "Coincidence Place" because that's really where all the action happens.

This show is powered by sheer coincidence, dumbfounding improbability, and the most amazing lucky streak known to mankind, aka June's lifespan. 

Bless you!  I bask in all your contempt & bitterness and share 100% in your objection to this shit writing and the ruination of a horribly perfect universe we were introduced to in Seasons 1 and 2.  It requires a complete suspension of all belief and common sense to view the June in this episode as capable of any successful rebellion on rallying.

[scowl]

Watching these episodes on Blu-ray have been nice because I've been fast forwarding over the endless dollies into June's face or Moss attempting to emote with some expression. I got through this one in less than a half hour.

Here's one contradiction that I don't think anyone mentioned. Aunt Lydia scolded Janine for covering her infected eye with her hair. Vanity is a sin, she told her! Then at the end of the episode, Aunt Lydia brought her a patch to cover her eye. I expected Aunt Lydia to start screaming at her as soon as she put it on.

[LetsStartTalking]

I'm late to the party - I've been binge watching Season 3 this past weekend, and caught up to this episode so far (will finish the season in the next day or so).  Not sure why I waited almost two years to watch Season 3 (I binge watched 1 and 2 right after they aired), but here I am...

Overall, I've enjoyed Season 3 - I think it's one of the best of the three. However, I didn't like this episode - I felt like it was 'filler', as it really didn't move the story-lines all that much. The show's strength is the dynamics between the different characters, and when you remove the characters for the most part and just focus on June (and her inner thoughts) for most of the episode, it tends to draaaaaaaaaag. Her breakdown was coming on for a while, and needed to be addressed. But without the others around her, it really didn't have the wallop it could have.

[circumvent]

I stopped watching tis show in the very early episodes of Season 3 and just decide to watch again. Picked an episode more of less in the middle and oh boy, it is bad.

The only way to watch this is if you can forget the premise of the book. It is all gruesome violence and deaths all around. Gone is the nuance, the psychological torture of the handmaids. Now we have a bunch of mouthy young women who pretty much do all the once forbidden things. They pick fights and the guardians just look on. 

Aunt Lydia became a two-dimensional character. The cliché: rejected woman, super religious, who even before Gilead becomes this bitter person. Gee!

June has become a sociopath. Janine is the sensible one.

The wives and commanders are simply ornaments in this "June, the Super Boss" saga. Since the show is so far detached from the book, and since the handmaids are now empowered - at least at times - they should just let June die or something, and enact their own rebellion. 

The one thing that I think is being done well is Emily's trauma. That feels real, and it does resemble the idea of the book. The acting is also very good.

 

 

 

[DanaMB]

Five minutes in and I already want June to shut the fuck up. Not sure how long I’ll make it.