Spoilers The Handmaid's Tale (TV series)

[The Nth Doctor]

Heh, after weeks of wondering when Bradley Whitford would show up, I ended up forgetting about his upcoming appearance because of the nature of June's storyline, so I was a little surprised when he finally did show up. And man, he's really going out of his way these days to take roles that are as far from Josh Lyman as possible.

The cruelty of Gilead continues to no know bounds, but I'm not surprised. Of course, they would follow the letter of the "law" of the Bible and drown Eden and Isaac for infidelity. Of course, they would make people watch, including her own family.

But on the flip side, who the fuck takes a baby to a public execution? The show is trying to make me feel sympathetic for Serena Joy again but it's not going happen. I don't give two shits how she feels, even if it means her guilt allows June to finally have contact with Holly (not Nichole!) and breast feed her again. I'm happy, of course, for June, but I should not and will not be thankful that Serena Joy decided to be kind again, for however it lasts until her mood swings again. Just as I don't give a fuck for Fred's "aren't you thankful?" comment to June.

One particular thing suddenly struck me in this episode: With all the difficulties the local Boston community has had with June, Emily, and Janine, and with them struggling to keep a hold on them through the process of postpartum life (in the case of June and Janine), you would think they would have figured out the "kinks" in the system by now and know that not all (or even many) Handmaids would be so gracious in giving up their babies and that those babies would be physically and psychologically stable after being separated from their mothers. This (along with the organization of such a successful and wide uprising) is one of the big things about Gilead society that I have difficulty accepting would work, especially after however long the society has been in existence.

Bradley Whitford's character looks intriguing. I suppose we're to assume that (partly?) due to his wife's breakdown he lost his faith, became disillusioned and cynical, and fled to a form of inner emigration. Certainly the most unorthodox - but nonetheles disturbing - household of a Gileadan commander we've seen so far.

That's a good look at it. I was having trouble getting a fix on his character, but that does make sense. I'm definitely intrigued in seeing where his character goes. I imagine with this late season introduction, but framed within the confines of Emily's storyline, Whitford will become a cast member next season.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Since this season is almost over I've gotta say that this year the cracks in the walls of Gilead have become more apparent. The bombing that killed a sizable portion of Gilead's leadership, the increasing rift between the Waterfords, Nick's and Eden's tragic storyline, Bradely Whitford's newly introduced character and his unstable wife.... overall it has become obvious that Gilead's society just doesn't seem to be that sustainable in the long run. Because people aren't supposed to live like that. Gilead's elite in particular is living a fiction, a lie. It probably becomes the most apparent in the moments when Fred Waterford just doesn't get why women are dissatisfied or traumatized in the country he helped to create. The one significant fact about Gilead is that things quickly got out of hand soon after its foundation.... and the show depicts that specific period.

 

[Timewalker]

I've just seen a promo for Episode 13.

Wow. Just. Wow.

 

[Shawnster]

I so wanted June to go off on Fred. "You don't get it, do you? Do you really think we want to live this way? Do you really think any of this can make me happy? You raped me! You took my children away from me! What don't you understand? What is your major malfunction?"

But, of course, that wasn't going to happen.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

I so wanted June to go off on Fred. "You don't get it, do you? Do you really think we want to live this way? Do you really think any of this can make me happy? You raped me! You took my children away from me! What don't you understand? What is your major malfunction?"

But, of course, that wasn't going to happen.

Looks like it might next week. If you can find it, check out the promo for the season finale.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Obviously a lot of things happened in the finale, but also a couple of unanswered questions have piled up... what's June planning now? She probably intends to find Hannah and rescue her. But how? Does she return to the Waterfords and takes up Fred's hideous offer to stay with him (but just for cover)? Does she plan to stay in hiding? Will she try to contact Commander Lawrence? Will he contact her? Or this is the last we saw of Lawrence, because he'll be soon be caught and executed?

Speaking of which, who's Lawrence anway? Perhaps even the founder and leader of "Mayday"? And how's Aunt Lydia, did she survive? Will there be any repercussions for Nick and Rita for helping June escape? I mean it was pretty obvious that they did, but on the other hand Fred Waterford is pretty dumb.

And how will the relationship between Fred and Serena continue to develop? In this episode I got a definite vibe that Serena could eventually be the one who kills her husband in the end. Things are certainly developing in that direction. So, far Serena saw a baby as sort of compenstion for everything she had lost. Now she hasn't even this. Plus, she lost a finger, and that's pretty much her husband's fault. About time to terminate this marriage with extreme prejudice.

In other news, we got out first glimpse at a canonical map of Gilead. Unfotunately with unintelligible writing:

My intepretation is that the dark red areas are under rebel, insurgent, or United States military control. It would certainly fit with the previously mentioned fighting in Florida and Chicago (although judging by that map the forces loyal to the U.S. government seemed to have been driven further to the north by Gilead since Season 1). The dark red areas also don't follow any previous U.S. sttate borders as the other lines do in that map. So they probably constitute the "frontlines". Question is what's the difference between the blue, yellow, and light red areas? Maybe different levels of pacification, with the blue areas under the firmest control of Gilead? The yellow areas apparently also contain regions of radioactive contamination, so that's probably where the Colonies are located (or maybe yellow is the Colonies). As for the light red areas... maybe regions which were only recently brought under the administration of Gilead's military and are possibly still subject to attacks by rebels or U.S. soldiers?

The map also seems to hint that Gilead's "districts" in most cases simply consist of several former U.S. states thrown together. For instance, there's a district containing New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and West Virginia. The light red areas are deviating from that rule a bit though. Georgia for instance seems to have been divided between two districts. All in all, the war seem to be going well for Gilead, but that's probably why the Anchorage government is such in a tenuous position with only Alaska and Hawaii under their full control and perhaps the parts of mainland states which are marked deep red in that map.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Here's another version of the canonical map that I've just found on the Internet. As the source the Season 2 finale is given here as well. I don't seem remember seeing it in that episode, but maybe it was somewhere hidden in the background of either Waterford's or Lawrence's office??

It pretty much confirms what I had suspected. The deep red areas (1. Florida, South Texas and the coastal areas of the states in between, 2. the West Coast, 3. the Canadian Border, 4. Vermont and New Hampshire) are under rebel control. The yellow area stands for the Colonies, which in itself is divided into three of Gilead's districts. There are 13 districts in total. It looks as if Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix were subject to nuclear attacks. Perhaps southern California and Arizona were the places of the greatest resistance against Gilead in the early days of its formation. I wonder though why southern Missouri and northern Arkansas is irradiated as well. There aren't really many major cities in that region, but perhaps it was a major combat region where Gilead tried to decide conventional military battles through use of nuclear weapons. Interestingly there also seems to be a frontline near Boston where the show is set.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I wonder though why southern Missouri and northern Arkansas is irradiated as well. There aren't really many major cities in that region, but perhaps it was a major combat region where Gilead tried to decide conventional military battles through use of nuclear weapons.

South-Central Missouri is home to Fort Leonard Wood, which houses the US Army Chemical Corps and the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear School, which trains all branches of the Defense Department in CBRN defense and response. If you want to take out your enemy's ability to respond to and recover from a nuclear, chemical, of biological attack, take out the people best equipped to do that. Further west is also Whiteman Air Force Base, which is home to the nuclear equipped B-2 Stealth Bomber fleet.

Northern Arkansas is home to the Pine Bluff Arsenal, which stores chemical and biological defense and test equipment, so same deal as above. Take it out, and you hamper their response to the attacks.

California and Arizona also have nuclear equipped military bases in the affected regions:
https://militarybases.com/arizona/
https://militarybases.com/california/

Thanks for posting the maps, btw.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

South-Central Missouri is home to Fort Leonard Wood, which houses the US Army Chemical Corps and the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear School, which trains all branches of the Defense Department in CRBN defense and response. If you want to take out your enemy's ability to respond to and recover from a nuclear, chemical, of biological attack, take out the people best equipped to do that. Further west is also Whiteman Air Force Base, which is home to the nuclear equipped B-2 Stealth Bomber fleet.

Northern Arkansas is home to the Pine Bluff Arsenal, which stores chemical and biological defense and test equipment, so same deal as above. Take it out, and you hamper their response to the attacks.

California and Arizona also have nuclear equipped military bases in the affected regions:
https://militarybases.com/arizona/
https://militarybases.com/california/

Thanks for posting the maps, btw.

Ah, thanks... that sounds like a reasonable explanation.

After a further study at these maps, I also come to the conclusion that while the rebels don't control that much land they do appear to hold a number of fairly important cities, including:

California: San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland
Florida: Jacksonville (frontline), Miami, Tampa
Louisiana: New Orleans
Oregon: Portland
Texas: Houston, San Antonio, Austin
Washington: Seattle

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I was able to ascertain the source for these much more detailed maps btw. They were part of the decoration during a public screening of the season finale of The Handmaid's Tale conducted by Hulu in Los Angeles this Monday. Since all the borders and colours on the map are identical to the one shown on Fred Waterford's desk in the episode itself we can probably consider it to be more or less canonical or official or whatever. They sure put a lot of work into it...

Here's probably the clearest shot of it so far:

 

[Shawnster]

What. Was. That?

Oh my!

Was that Lawrence's house on fire? Covering up the murder of Aunt Lydia with arson? Kill the wife and Martha, too?

There is no way June can go back to living at the Waterfords now. Not after all this. 3rd escape attempt. Theft of a child. Not to mention the gut wrenching emotions and anger from Fred and Serena. For June to return there would destroy suspension of disbelief, in my opinion.

Is Boston the capital of Gilead or just that district? Was Serena and the wives appearing before the rulers of all of Gilead or just a local authority? Fred went to Canada as a diplomatic envoy, so he is more than just a small time representative.

Wonderful maps, thanks!

 

[Timewalker]

If you count the total number of times June has tried to escape Gilead, I think it's 5.

1. In the first episode, when she and Luke try to cross the border.

2. When June and Moira try to escape; Moira gets away in her Aunt's disguise and June is caught and returned to the Red Centre. Her punishment is whipping on the soles of her feet. Moira is later caught and sent to Jezebels.

3. June's escape from the hospital and recapture at the airfield.

4. June's momentary attempt to escape in the car just before giving birth to Holly.

5. This latest one, even though she changed her mind at the last minute, is still an escape attempt.

And speaking of Holly, why would June tell Emily that the baby's name is Nicole? Just tell her the kid's name is Holly Nicole... that honors both her mother and Nick.

 

[Shawnster]

Would it be possible for Emily to find Luke and Moira?

I guess it's possible, but just how possible?

 

[Timewalker]

Would it be possible for Emily to find Luke and Moira?

I guess it's possible, but just how possible?

If she ends up at the same intake place as they did? It's not impossible, particularly if June's photo is posted anywhere, or if she sees it in an old issue of a newspaper or internet story (which I expect she should, at some point).

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

In addition to the number of times June has (temporarily) managed to escape, you could also count the number of times she showed open acts of disobedience and defiance without getting mutilated in the process like Janine, Emily, or now Serena were. As the main protagonist she has a pretty strong plot armor.

It remains to be seen whether Commander Lawrence's plot armor matches that of June. But maybe he's deliberately acting like Gilead's court jester or village idiot, so that the other commanders don't get suspicious of him. As Fred Waterford doesn't fail to stress, the rules can be bend for commanders (especially since that nitpicking hardass Pryce is dead), and perhaps Lawrence isn't suspected to be a "Mayday" member/sympathizer because he acts so damn peculiar und eccentric. If you were with Mayday wouldn't you be expected to try to blend in as much as possible?

The Season 2 finale also reiterated once more that the leaders of Gilead aren't really that smart and that the only thing that made them "successful" in any way is their ruthlessness and brutality. They're a bunch of thugs and bullies, plain it simple. Oh, the Wives want to be allowed to read again now? We possibly can't have our authority challenged in that manner. Let's cut off the ringleader's finger so that they know their place again. Fred Waterford's reaction when June called him out on Eden's death and later slapped him was another example for that. But you simply can't run a country like this - where especially the female half of the population gets constantly traumatized - in the long run.

But at least Serena has now completed her journey from villain to some sort of anti-hero. She was certainly the one with the most far-reaching character development this season IMO.

 

[Timewalker]

In addition to the number of times June has (temporarily) managed to escape, you could also count the number of times she showed open acts of disobedience and defiance without getting mutilated in the process like Janine, Emily, or now Serena were. As the main protagonist she has a pretty strong plot armor.

Very true. By this point, June's gone through all her fingers, toes, hands, feet, tongue, and eyes, and is starting on a couple of other handmaids-in-proxy (not that such a concept exists there). By this point June should be in Jezebels at least, if not the Colonies, and more likely dead.

It's a good thing she and Nick have so much dirt on Waterford an Serena, that there's no way these two would want Nick and June questioned. And Serena and June escaped the penalty for reading and writing earlier because Waterford couldn't admit that his authority had been temporarily usurped by his wife.

At this point I'm wondering what Serena did to Cushing... did she just demote him, or have him killed? I don't think he's been mentioned either way.

It remains to be seen whether Commander Lawrence's plot armor matches that of June. But maybe he's deliberately acting like Gilead's court jester or village idiot, so that the other commanders don't get suspicious of him. As Fred Waterford doesn't fail to stress, the rules can be bend for commanders (especially since that nitpicking hardass Pryce is dead), and perhaps Lawrence isn't suspected to be a "Mayday" member/sympathizer because he acts so damn peculiar und eccentric. If you were with Mayday wouldn't you be expected to try to blend in as much as possible?

Going by Aunt Lydia's reaction to the place, I don't think Lawrence would be looked on as the court jester and tolerated with a nod and a wink, unless the Gilead economy (such as it is) would collapse without him. He's just got too many questionable things going on.

My own idea for why his wife is so upset about the colonies is that maybe a past handmaid of theirs was exposed to radiation (from having lived too close to the nuked area), and although she might have passed a health check, she still gave birth to a defective baby... or as the novel calls them, a "shredder."

But that's just an idea, and probably not even close to what the writers had in mind.

But at least Serena has now completed her journey from villain to some sort of anti-hero. She was certainly the one with the most far-reaching character development this season IMO.

Has she expressed regret and remorse for participating in June's multiple rapes (particularly that last one)? What about their first handmaid(s)? (according to the novel there have been at least 2 before June)

No?

Then she gets zero sympathy from me.

 

[Shawnster]

I would not have trusted Serena to hold Holly Nicole that last time. I was like "now, RUN" Glad she didn't. June read the situation (or the script) better than I did. Nope, not gonna trust Serena with that baby. No way, no how.

Interesting comments from the AV Club. https://tv.avclub.com/the-a-v-club-reacts-to-an-infuriating-handmaid-s-tale-1827490625

Through June’s Anakin-like hood flip, and the second, painful season-ending song choice in a row (“American Girl,” we hardly knew ye), we are supposed to surmise that June is returning to Gilead to destroy it. Her baby is safe with Emily, her husband and best friend are in Canada, so she has to poison the system from the inside.

Which makes no sense at all. The June we know would never leave her baby. She would find her loved ones in Canada and figure out how to get her other daughter, Hannah, back. Really, the ending serves as a straight-up deus ex machina to get us to a season three. There’s just no other logical reason for her to be there. Next season I predict we’ll see June working with the Marthas and Nick to topple Gilead, hopefully at less of a snail’s pace than this season. It would be nice to get a few wins for once, give or take a suicide bombing.

...

I just don’t buy it. June would have escaped. She already had made that decision on board the small airplane in episode three. There, we saw as she grappled with the reality that leaving Gilead meant leaving Hannah behind. But she—like I, probably like a lot of viewers—likely believed that she’d have a better chance of saving Hannah from a place where she herself is safe. A “put on your own oxygen mask first before assisting others” kind of thing. She has no resources, no safe place in Gilead from which to plot a plan to extract Hannah. It’s just ridiculous.

I understand The Handmaid’s Tale becomes a very different type of show if June escapes Gilead. But wouldn’t it be nice to see the writers try? I can’t help but think of Room: Brie Larson’s character, and her son, do escape their imprisonment, and when the movie follows their life on the outside it is just as dramatic and heart-wrenching as when it showed their confinement. So why can’t season three be part Room, part elaborate heist movie, as June, Luke, and Moira figure out how to save Hannah? A 180 turn would be preferable to what the season-two finale just pulled. I’d rather the show turn into something different and remain true to the character than to see June’s motivations warped purely so Hulu can keep the gravy train going.

It should have been apparent she'd stay for sake of the story. June is the main character. Gilead is the setting. We must have the main character stay in the setting. But it's a strain. June would have been better off in Canada. June and Emily provide fresh commentary on Gilead life and can provide valuable intel on the current situation in Gilead as the see it.

And, as I said earlier, she simply cannot stay with the Waterford's. There is no way that would continue to make sense.

 

[Timewalker]

I would not have trusted Serena to hold Holly Nicole that last time. I was like "now, RUN" Glad she didn't. June read the situation (or the script) better than I did. Nope, not gonna trust Serena with that baby. No way, no how.

Yeah, it's beyond stupid to let one of your jailers who wants your kid more than anything, get an opportunity to take the kid away so you can't escape.

June would have been better off in Canada. June and Emily provide fresh commentary on Gilead life and can provide valuable intel on the current situation in Gilead as the see it.

What valuable intel could they possibly give? Canada already knows what the handmaids go through, and more details of the mutilations they and their friends endured would stir outrage, but it wouldn't be of strategic value. The only valuable knowledge Emily can tell them is about the Colonies (at least she'll finally get proper medical care).

There's nothing June could do from Canada to find Hannah. Good luck finding her from Gilead, since only Fred and Serena know where she is, and even if Serena told her, how would she get there and pull off an escape?

Of course the writers will make it happen somehow, but at this point it must be a remote thing to expect.

 

[UssGlenn]

Good luck finding her from Gilead, since only Fred and Serena know where she is, and even if Serena told her, how would she get there and pull off an escape?

She knows the family who has her. Can't remember is she got the name. At the very least she knows what they look like and where their summer house is. Cross referencing that to someone who knows who the commanders are should tell her where Hannah is. The actual rescue is another matter entirely.

 

[Timewalker]

She knows the family who has her. Can't remember is she got the name. At the very least she knows what they look like and where their summer house is. Cross referencing that to someone who knows who the commanders are should tell her where Hannah is. The actual rescue is another matter entirely.

And June can just get the address, look on a map, and follow the street signs?

Nope. It's not as easy to give directions to someone when there aren't any road signs and most major landmarks have either been blown up or repurposed/changed into something else. Remember, June wasn't allowed to look out the window when Serena took her to see Hannah in Season 1 (it's still ludicrous that they hadn't started using an older child to play her by that point).