Thought that season 3 so far didn't make much sense. Why would June ever "star" in the Waterfords' videos to get back Nichole? She must have understood by then that Serena was beyond hope - and what kind of leverage did they have on her (that hasn't been already done to her, save for sewing her mouth shut I suppose, which they figuratively did anyway, but actually doing it would be hard to hide in a video)? Why does she even escape any of the more permanent punishments?
June had no choice about the videos, and she kept hoping that if she cooperated with them, Serena might eventually give her more help with rescuing Hannah. Plus, as June straight out said, her doing the videos meant she had protection from the worst punishments (since Gilead wanted to perpetuate the fiction that the handmaids were all doing this voluntarily and everyone was blissfully happy, to see an obviously injured or mutilated handmaid would make that lie all too obvious).
I also couldn't empathize at all with Lydia's backstory... a very gentle rejection of her advances (and I didn't get the impression that that guy was overall against anything physical, just not that fast, or on that evening) sets her off and gets her to sort of turn her ideas about "child welfare" into reality?
Lots of people totally missed the point about that backstory. It's not his rejection that set her off, it's that she suddenly realized that she was turning into the sort of loose, sinful woman she considered the kid's mother to be, and by extension all single women who didn't attend church and ran around drinking and having sex outside of marriage. She felt she was becoming the sort of woman she despised, and
that's what set her off.
Lydia was horrified
at herself and everything she did after that was some bizarre way of atoning for the "sins" she believed she had committed. That atonement took its first step with making sure the single mother she considered to be unrepentantly sinful would lose custody and access to her child, as she considered the woman unfit to raise her kid.
Fast-forward several years, and you get the Lydia we saw in the series premiere (remember that Gilead had existed for some time by then; that "five years" line was bullshit; it's been more than five years). She was probably one of the first of the older women to be recruited into the Aunts, based on her attitudes toward "sinful" unmarried women and their unfitness to raise their own kids (but they could redeem themselves by bearing kids for the elite).
But the two most recent episodes made up quite a bit for my disappointment.
First of all, that ceremony/rape... semi-public and even more humiliating. Fred's power-trip, his wish to dominate June especially... urgh. And Serena just goes with it (albeit with a small contradiction). I think she still doesn't see those ceremonies as rape, or the handmaids as victims. They are a means to an end... and her wish for a child blinds her to everything else. Let's not forget she was a driving force behind Gilead's foundation and principles, just as much as Joseph... and she did instigate that horrible rape scene "to induce labour" last season... There's nothing redeemable about her.
Agreed. It's disgusting to see all the comments on YT that Serena has learned her lesson, she's a victim too, she deserves a happy ending in Hawaii with Tuello and Nicole, blah-blah-blah... I get the impression that all too many of these people don't really understand the series, and many have never read the novel.
Serena doesn't see the handmaids as
people. She sees them as walking incubators who do the shopping and are otherwise supposed to stay out of sight until Ceremony nights. That she occasionally speaks to Rita and June as though they're individual people and not merely the current interchangeable Martha or Handmaid is unusual.
I'm glad though, that this time we didn't get to see the actual rape - I have to admit I do see just a tiny bit of Josh and Zoe... and that would have been beyond the horrors that that scene evokes even without that association.
No idea who "Josh and Zoe" are. But yeah - by this time we've seen more than enough instances of the ceremony.
And last episode... I did cheer for June, especially after listening to her mantra again, finally defending herself, and the Marthas defending her.
The Marthas she talked to at the house are probably pretty pissed off, since this would be something they hadn't expected. But the Marthas stationed at Jezebel's would hopefully point out that in killing Winslow, June removed someone who would have really cracked down on Gilead and that would have severely hampered the Marthas' network.
The Waterfords... hm... first of all, I didn't quite get that Fred told Serena she could get pregnant herself now after the Americans sort of found a cure for infertility. But Serena's problem wasn't infertility through radiation (or whatever the reason), she was shot in the abdomen, that's when she learned she couldn't have children.
Fred didn't say that. Tuello told her that, during her first visit to Canada (the one where both of them had diplomatic immunity so they couldn't be arrested after the letters were posted online).
Yes, it was made quite clear that Fred was arrested by the Americans, Serena taken by the Canadians... but what's actually the endgame here? Did she make a deal to get Nichole? Serena has no claim on Nichole, she isn't the biological mother. And the Canadians don't have any legal claim on Nichole either. Especially if Gilead isn't recognized officially as a sovereign state, as Fred implied (in either this episode or the last one), any kind of "culturally binding" rape and giving up the children by the handmaids and sort of adoption by the wives within Gilead is nowhere legally binding for another sovereign state... ISIS comes to mind, just as a recent example. Until Fred said that, I thought that Gilead's standing in the world was far more secure, just details having to be fleshed out (such as the extradition of handmaids and/or children). The interaction with the Mexican and Swiss officials at least supported that.
We'll find out next episode just what sort of deal Serena made (I am guessing this, based on the promo).
The writers have shown themselves to be... inadequate, to put it politely, at including any political nuances involving Canada.
Hm... so, who's going to be the main antagonist to June's plans? Nick? The last we've seen of him wasn't really positive after all.
Is the series renewed for a 4th season yet? Because I could see it ending with the next 2 episodes... the only variable (even if June's main objective) is Hanna's whereabouts, but even that could be at least revealed via the Martha network. And honestly, I don't see June's story continuing for another season...
Every third comment on YT is "Where's Nick?" My response is, "Were you not paying attention, when he A. requested reassignment to the front; and B. he finally got it later?" Nick outright said he was going to the front, which happens to be in Chicago. Therefore, the answer to "Where's Nick?" is "Chicago."
Why his activities in Chicago haven't been shown is because the actor was working on another project - some movie he was involved in, so THT temporarily wrote him an off-screen storyline that we'll likely be caught up on after the actor returns. So I'm not in any panic over his absence. He's not dead.
Yes, there's going to be a fourth season. As for what June's storyline will be, she's probably still searching for Hannah (and they damn well better have an older kid to play her), and of course there has to be resolution as to exactly who Nicole's legal parents are. At the very least, Luke should have legal custody until June/Nick turns up to claim her. Serena has zero rights to her at all.
. If the situation were reversed, would the American government just give a bunch of Canadian refugees a patch of land for their very own state? I very much doubt it.
