So apparently the voice on the radio was Oprah! 
I know it’s just a voice cameo, but I like to think Oprah was playing a version of herself that escaped to Canada.
Oh for Pete’s sake - she’s going back to Gilead.
Loved the episode even though the birthing scene was a tad over the top. Especially loved “Little Red Riding Hood and the Big, Bad Wolf”. And seriously, the garage door was obviously locked and you had the keys, June! They were right in your hands…
When she was quietly getting the gun, I was thinking “what are you doing?? shutupshutupshutup!!” Then, when I realized what she was doing: “Shoot them, shooooot theeeeem!”.
But no, I want to see them on the wall. Or on the bottom of that pool. I did like seeing them going at each other when there were no witnesses “bitch!” “rapist!”.
Now how the hell is she ever going to get out?
All I was thinking was, “did Bruce Springsteen have to persuade them to use his song, or did he pay them?”
I think she was too far away. Shotguns spread.
Silly me; thought that was the finale but there are apparently two more eps left. I hope this goes in some direction other than her ending up back at the Waterfords’, Serena’s wrath, creaky stepped midnight meetings, blah blah blah. I mean, I’ve really enjoyed this series but it is in danger of becoming redundant. I could do with about 20 more minutes of Fred and Serena verbally duking it out 
The pacing of this show has slowed down to a crawl. Do you know why? I do.
It’s because the writers don’t any longer know what to do or what direction to take the characters and plots in, so they are essentially stalling. They’re filling the episodes with…that stuff you fill things with, I think there’s a word for it. Oh yeah - “filler.”
The show’s essentially become unrecognizable from the first season, which was taut and gripping and kept the audience in suspense not only from episode to episode, but from scene to scene.
GF and I binged the first season in, like, one day. That’s how much of a sense of “gotta see what happens next” the first season was able to maintain.
The fact that this whole second season has garnered only a meagre 125 posts on this board, says it all. If this season had been successful at delivering drama, tension, and intriguing plots and characters, there would be 10 pages of discussion.
I had hoped June wouldn’t end up back at the Waterfords’ but now I actually think they’re doing some interesting things with the situation. I’m glad we didn’t have to watch the whole thing play out and just skipped straight to the aftermath.
There have been times when I agreed with ** Lamoral’s ** theory that the writer’s don’t know where this story is going but now I’m not so sure. It seems like seeds are being laid for the women’s revolt. Offred and Serena are once again allied, at least for the moment; Aunt Lydia is getting a bit more sympathetic; Commander Fred seems ripe for Offred to use him for . . .*something *. We don’t know exactly what’s up with Bradley Whitford’s character but obviously something big is going to happen there.
I thought the execution scene was quite effective (don’t they put people on The Wall anymore?), especially the use of the school swimming pool as the venue. Clearly Eden’s death hit the women very hard and may serve to unite them in fighting back ( I hope).
Eden’s execution sure was creative to say the least. I was surprised she was actually put to death instead of being made a Handmaid; I guess that’s only an option for women who’ve proven their fertility by having a child. Emily’s new posting opens up some interesting plotlines. Apparently things like the penalty for reading are being reduced, if only out of sheer practicality. As an aside today’s the last day of my vacation in Washington, DC. I really shudder to think about what the Sons of Jacob would do with all the monuments and museum contents. The best case scenario is most of it gets put in storage until it can be sold abroad for hard currency, but we’ve already seen books and paintings be casually burnt in the streets.
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They gave her a chance to repent, which presumably would have resulted in a lighter punishment (i don’t know if this was actually specified in the show), given the fact that everyone including her family was trying to get / expecting her to do it. The fact that she didn’t effectively forced their hand.
Well that was intense. I didn’t expect that of Serena Joy, but I think it finally shattered her illusions about Gilead. Even the Wife of a high-ranking Commander is just a woman in the end. If she’s dead I’ll miss Aunt Lydia; she deserved what happened to her, but her character (especially her life before & during the rise of Gilead) needs to be explored more. And while I understand her why she did it (stay for Hannah) I hate that June didn’t get in the truck at the end. :mad: It was a stupid decision and beyond a slap in the face to everyone helping her escape (all of whom are risking their lives for her sake). Also what was up with telling Emily to call Holly Nicole? 
What was that?
When Waterford slapped June and then she slapped him back my stomach involuntarily clenched. It’s stupid that she stayed. What can she do? She’s a fugitive. I hate that she said to call her Nichole - Serena didn’t deserve to have that homage just for doing one right thing. I have no sympathy for her. She held down a pregnant woman so her husband could rape her.
Loved that Emily got to have her revenge on Aunt Lydia. I noticed her wearing those big boots on her way to the ceremony and thought “someone’s gonna get stomped!”.
So, at this point, Nick’s holding Waterford at gunpoint. Now what? He can’t be allowed to go free - he’ll kill Rita. I guess the women will start some sort of a revolt now. They were instrumental in their own oppression so the change should start with them.
The show has had it’s ups and downs but, ultimately, I loved it. I haven’t watched a tv show and made it to episode 2 since Stranger Things.
See y’all next season!
Possibly a way of affirming who was the child’s real father is what I thought.
She didn’t get in the truck because there is a season three coming. I thought the final episode was somewhat contrived: “I know, let’s suddenly spring an Underground Martha Network on everyone after two seasons of no hint of such a thing!”
That crossed my mind also but then I wondered why she wouldn’t have just named her that in the first place. Of course, she named her after her mother so now I’m not sure what to think. Perhaps so Serena Joy has a way to look her up some time in the future.
I had several “well, I did not see that coming” moments, the biggest one being when June didn’t get in the truck. Just because the series isn’t over doesn’t mean she has to be back in Gilead. They could go back and forth between the goings on there and the escapees.
I will be really surprised (and disappointed) if Aunt Lydia is gone. The character and the actress have provided some of the best moments of the series.
They did a good job of not revealing what Bradley Whitford’s character is all about. I guess I kind of knew he was sympathetic but he played it with just the right amount crackpot / anger that I got sucked right in.
Did Fred hear June tell him to go fuck himself? We see her say it but it almost seemed like it was under her breath and he didn’t seem to react to it (the slap was before that line, I think?)
I liked the scathing look Rita gave Fred but I think we can do without any more of Elisabeth Moss’s “I’m a badass and you’ve just crossed a line” demonic glare. Coupled with the red hood it really gets dangerously close to being SNL skit material.
If I’m still allowed to read by next year, man!! 
Meeeee too. I saw the actress on Colbert (I think she said it was her first talk show appearance?) and was struck by how not scary she looked and sounded IRL. I mean, duh, actors are acting. But in Handmaid’s Tale she’s just a woman playing a woman, not necessarily highly made up or anything, so you kinda think she had nowhere to hide in that character and would be more like Lydia in real life. Nope - pleasant and wonderful as could be!
I also think that for how horrible Lydia seemed at times, she also sometimes seemed like an ally to the handmaids. I would hope that her loss would not result in the peril of others.
That last shot…I was like “and that’s how Offred became Emperor Palpatine.” 
Fred is such a fucking piece of shit isn’t he? If nothing else the writers are doing a great job letting us feel like characters aren’t completely heartless one minute and then turning around and doing something worse than the worst thing they’d done before.
Like, Fred is shown respecting Serena as a speaker when they’re in the early days of Gilead. Then she speaks up about something in the present time and he’s like “off with her finger!” The same juxtaposition goes for Serena and Lydia too.
I sort of like it because it makes the viewing more intense - you’re lulled into feeling good about a character then what they do bad stuff it becomes more shocking. But I’m also sort of getting tired of it. No one is predictable and that gives the writers a lot of leeway to just have characters do anything they want at any time.
I think all of the actors on this show are doing a good job with the “put your chin down and eyes up” evil glare thing. Especially Moss and Fiennes.
There are a lot of things on this show that are contrived. I will however grant that the finale seemingly leaves the door open to a lot of good possibilities for the next season. I hope the show’s writers go through that door, rather than going through the door that leads to the “bad writers’ lounge.” I’d also like to see the cinematographers go through the door that leads to a room where there are charts on how to properly use lighting. (I know people are tired of hearing me complain about the poor lighting on the show. But I’m tired of the poor lighting.)
The stark bright lighting of the first season generated more suspense and tension than the perpetual shroud of darkness that hung over the second season. The first season’s lighting was like Black Mirror - that’s how it should be done. The second season saw them delve into this “Chiaroscuro” thing that IMO didn’t really work well. When I watch something, I like to actually see what’s going on. Darkness can be used selectively for certain scenes, but shouldn’t be used for entire episodes.
Serena’s heel-face turn is really too abrupt. I don’t consider her to be a sympathetic character in any way. She’s a traitor to women, she was complicit in building this fucked up world that they live in, I’m not going to suddenly become sympathetic to her just because she now suddenly wants women to be allowed to read - Serena is a villain. If you’re going to take a villain and make her sympathetic, it has to be a little more nuanced than what we just saw.
One thing I hope to see on the next season (no, I’ve not given up on this show or anything, despite my quibbles with it), is more of the outside world and less of Gilead. The show has some interesting opportunities to show the audience just what the rest of the world thinks of the bullshit going on in what used to be America. More flashbacks would also be useful. The show has been rather stingy with its use of flashbacks so far, but they could really add more depth and immersion and ‘world-building’ by deploying them more frequently in each episode.
Simple. When Emily gets to Canada, she’ll be telling June’s story, saying she rescued June’s baby, who’s name is Nichole Waterford, and boy won’t that be a fun news conference!
Good point, I hadn’t thought of that.
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