I don’t drink coffee, and even if I did at least in Canada I wouldn’t end up hanging on a wall with a pink triangle sewn on my clothes. 
That’s a good point about the US Navy defecting. Gilead may be a pariah state, but presumably it secured enough of the US nuclear arsenal that the rest of the world is only willing to resort to trade embargos instead of military intervention. But it’s plausible that enough nukes ended up under Canadian control (possibly courtesy of Anchorage) that neither Gilead or Canada is willing to risk any overt military action. I’m thinking something along the lines of the relationship between North & South Korea, except less friendly. In all it was a fun trip to Gilead’s early period, but I can’t wait to get make to the main story in the present day.
It’s kind of implied there may have been limited nuclear war already, which might be what is putting the kibosh on more nuclear war.
Is it? Do you mean in the tv version?
Atm, it’s been like The Road for me in that I have no idea how this world came to be - when Cormac McCarthy writes about it that’s fine, it’s a small universe, but here the canvas keeps broadening out …
I started watching Episode 8, Jezebels, but had to bail when they went up in the elevator of that hotel, or whatever it was. In fact, I’m bailing on the series. It’s just too grim, dark, and depressing for where I am and this world is right now. I have sympathy for the characters without being deeply engaged with them. It’s a relentlessly miserable situation, and every now and then an unspeakable horror leaps out at you. I can’t take it. Carry on.
Not Emily. In the book,
Moira was the one who ran away, was captured, and given the option to work in Jezebel’s or go to the colonies…
That’s exactly what happened to Moira in the show too. So tonight we learned that Waterford was on the committee that designed the Handmaid system (and he’s a target for purging). I was surprised that were “damaged” Jezebel’s too, but then again they do seem to be catering to a variety of fetishes (eg the fat dominatrix & a dog :eek:). The Jezebels doing the Handmaid/Wife role-play were pretty funny though. BTW was any one else surprised that Handmaids are allowed to shave their legs at all? :dubious: I know it’s a very odd & minor detail, but they wear long dress, dark stockings, & even their Commanders are only supposed to see them fully clothed.
I thought that was a telling detail. We’ll fuck these girls right in our wives laps, but hairy legs are a bridge too far.
E8: I found it tiresome and trite. Sorry.
Episode 9 started out a little slow, but it sure picked up fast. 
A whole lotta stuff happened that’s completely original to the show. Poor Ofwarren/Jeanine (although it wasn’t exactly surprising she’d do something like that). At least she’ll probably get the best medical care Gilead has to offer; now that her fertility has been proven no expense will be spared to ensure she can still serve as a Handmaid, regardless of how much brain damage she has! A woman’s work is never done. And go Moira! 
It looks she killed her client and his Guardian.
Honestly I was waiting for Mrs. Warren (no idea what her name is) to shove Jeanine off the bridge. I wonder if Jeanine will even have to leave the hospital to be a Handmaid now.
Go Moira!
I’m finding the Aunt Lydia character to be the most interesting in the series. She is very cruel and unsympathetic at first but as the series goes on, she does seem to empathize with the Handmaids and genuinely care for them. She does take offense when Serena Joy asks for the damaged Handmaids to be removed from the big party and does recognize that June can help Jeannine (I hate using their Off-names). Is she just going along to get a long- cruel when necessary but trying to make it through alive like everyone else? Or is she a true believer in the Handmaid “program” ? The actress is doing a great job of making me interested in what Aunt Lydia is thinking.
well! e10: Turns out she’s just an American girl …
Was it worth ploughing through to get to what you’d hope would be exactly this kind of finale … I’m really not sure.
I love seeing the actors in shows like this in their normal state; it’s so shocking. Here’s Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd).
I read the book so long ago the only details I remembered were the ceremonial sex between the wife’s legs, and sneaking off to the den of sin. It was helpful I think to have the basic point of the book in my mind, but how well this series has been done just blows me away!
Two things I’m wondering about, now that I’ve seen all the episodes thus far, is what the actual population of Gilead is — it would seem to have to be extremely small — and what on earth is the state of these “colonies.” I think someone mentioned “cleaning up nuclear waste in the colonies,” so presumably they are awash in radiation and completely lethal. But I can just as easily buy that they are safe places where people are plotting to overthrow these nuts and Make America Great Again!
Ahem.
It’s fun to think about. As with True Detectives, internally I think of these series more as I do novels rather than television. There is as much to wonder about what is not shown as what is. I’m glad to have something to ponder over while I’m mowing the grass. LOL
I loved this episode. “They should not have given us uniforms if they didn’t mean us to be an army.”
Marching in time to Nina Simone singing Feeling Good. Brilliant.
I actually had an aunt Lydia.
Yeah, Moira made it to Canada and met up with Luke. 
Offred being taken away in a van was how I was expecting this to end.
If the follow the book and it was Mayday who took her I really look forward to her arc w/ then next season.
Also was anyone kinda of surprised that Cmdr. Putnam lost his arm, when they cut to the operating room I was convinced he was being castrated. It’s like he’s likely to ever get assigned another Handmaid. At least he was allowed to speak at his trial unlike Emily and her lover. Notice how they talked about him violating his covenant with God, the nation, and his brother-commanders, but his wife was only mentioned in so much that she approached a tribunal member begging he receive “the harshest punishment, for the good of his immortal soul” :rolleyes: I’m that was her major concern.
Agreed, she’s a lot more complex than in the book (so’s Serena, talk about a motherfucking cunt). I think she really truly believes that every, all the torture and mutilations, are for the Handmaid’s “own good”. She was barely able to keep it together presiding over Janine’s Salvaging, and I bet that she argued against that punishment with her male superiors to whatever extent she was permitted (admittedly that’s probably something along the lines of getting on her hands & knees and begging the Commanders not let a proven fertile womb go to waste).
I didn’t see that coming and didn’t expect that from Offred/June. I actually thought she might cast the first stone to try to put Jeanine out of her misery (Jeanine of course is still going to die). They won’t let that kind of defiance go unpunished, but what can they do an entire district’s worth of Handmaids. All of whom are placed in prominent Households, and Offred might not be the only pregnant one.
I think intentional misses might have played better than outright defiance.
Cutting off Cmd. Putnam’s hand was quite a shock to me, but I like that they take things to their logical conclusion and say “This is what you asked for”.