Yes, very satisfying but I too was thinking “Really, would/could they really pull that off?” Required a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief on my part too. Hoping next season has more focus on world building and military interaction with Gilead. I would like to know if Gilead has allies around the world, beyond the Canadian supporters shown at the end of this season. I would also like to learn more about what Nick has done in service of Gilead. Was interesting to see Fred trying to play Nick by repeatedly calling him “son”. Would have liked seeing Serena’s reaction to her plan being derailed.
I liked this season least of the four.
He was. But then I understood that once he was in Gilead, Nick and his goons snuck him back over the border where June and the posse was waiting.
They didn’t really say, but I took the Canadian supporters to be a fringe group. Possibly gaining strength in the nation within the story, but nothing more was said.
If you look back a couple of seasons, and from the very little the writers have provided, it seems that every country is officially against Gilead, but they give a small bit of a wink and a nod to them because they are the only country solving the fertilization/birth rate issue.
But I agree. I want to know more about that. Can Canada militarily beat Gilead? If not, then why didn’t Gilead put more pressure on them for arresting one of their commanders when they are not in a state of war?
They also touched on a question raised in this thread, what do they actually believe in Gilead? A veneer of Christianity over a heavy base of Old Testament? I think an interesting thing to explore in the future would be Gilead-ism spreading in autocratic countries as well as democracies, leading to a banding together of unlikely allies to try and stop it. I can see where someone like Putin could try to use it to his advantage and then when it threatens his own hold on power joining the fight against it.
I listened to a Handmaid’s podcast today and one of the commentators thought that Serena knew what was going to happen to Fred. I didn’t get any sense of that, did I miss something?
What I found interesting was that when Fred was handed over to Gilead, the line on the middle of the bridge was delineated by “Canada” on one side, and “U.S.” on the other. If it really was Gilead, wouldn’t the non-Canadian side say, “Gilead”?
As a Canadian, I’ll suggest that any Gilead supporters in Canada are a fringe group. We do have some folks who subscribe to wacko conspiracy theories, and are prepared to demonstrate that when the opportunity arises. Thankfully, they are few, and never attract much attention. But if we can have them, given today’s current affairs and issues, then I see no reason why they could not exist in a world where Gilead exists.
I must be dense, but I don’t understand the ending at all. She’s home after killing Fred, but her husband is horrified to see her, and she seems to be saying goodbye to both him and the baby. What did I miss?
Just my thoughts:
I took that to mean that once Gilead took over that portion of the United States, repainting the road wasn’t high on their priority list, so it remained as it was, but now it was the Canadian/Gilead border.
If my prior post is correct and Nick transported Fred back into Canada where June and the posse killed him and hung him on the barn wall, then the Canadian government will be none too happy about this. Even after the horrors of Gilead, capital punishment was not an option for him or Serena, I doubt they allow June et al. to get away with the killing, so she will be off on the run again, likely back to Gilead for more ass kicking.
I didn’t see Derek Sloan in this season, but it wouldn’t have surprised me.
I know this is not as interesting as the discussion of Gilead, but, I keep being pulled out of the show by the sheer amount of screen time is devoted to Elizabeth Moss’s face in close up centered on the screen. It’s got to be 25% or more of the show.
Well she obviously murdered Fred. And her husband was thinking they agreed that him going to Gilead would be the end of him. But that she wanted to personally kill him with her own hands probably horrified him.
I dunno why June said bye. Maybe she thought it was unforgivable or that even the Canadian government had it’s limits?
I just commented to my spouse that this show could be condensed to five episodes if they’d stop doing that.
This show is firing on all cylinders, and headed in a totally fresh direction, not that it needed it, but it was only natural that we would get to this point with the story. It’s going to be a roller coaster from here in out. The narrative is progressing, heartfelt and heart wrenching scenes that are both sentimentally and emotionally impactful. Quite amazing how they were able to film this all during covid as well.
It certainly set a high benchmark early on for looking amazing, with some quite breathtaking set design in the first few series, and I think that overall that high quality of design and style has been maintained [even setting aside my own personal bugbear that the Gileadidlian aversion to decent wattage bulbs makes every interior scene look muddy].
I’m less convinced that the story is as compelling now. At the end of Season 2 I could not wait to see what would happen next, but now its fairly meh. The plotting seems lazier - June has had too many narrow escapes, and seems to be becoming too critical to the success of every action with less and less happening outside her orbit.
I’ll keep watching but would hope they give the story more room to unfold outside of the June show.
Was that the season finale or is there more coming?
That was it. Under His Eye, waiting for the next season.
I think that No Man’s Land is on the Gilead side of the border, but it’s a no-go zone that’s off limits to ordinary people. Gilead isn’t going to allow it’s inhabitants anywhere near the real border. Eastern Bloc countries did similar stuff during the Cold War. Basically a North American version of the Korean DMZ.
Season five is here, for those who watch this show. The first two eps are available on Hulu. As is usually the case when Elizabeth Moss directs, we see a lot of her emoting face. You may remember that the last season ended with the former handmaids hunting down and killing Fred. It picks up immediately after that.
I have to navigate this thread carefully so as not to accidentally see a spoiler. I’m watchin the show now on Hulu and am only in the middle of Season 2.
I thought this Thread would be a good place to ask if and where there is a watch-along thread for seasons one and two. I did a search on Google, specific to the SDMB, and after a brief scan of the results (because: must avoid spoilers! 
) I only saw one Thread and that concerned season three and/or four. It might have been this very thread… I didn’t look to close-like at the Google results.
Does anyone know if such a Thread exists?