NOLITE TE BASTARDES CARBORUNDORUM (The Handmaid's Tale) [NSFW, unspoilered triggers]

I am just counting down the days until the next episode, I'm obsessed

every tiny glimpse of the women sticking up for eachother/showing any sliver of solidarity is such a gratifying relief in between the horror

 

Spoiler: Spoilers for latest episode ('A Woman's Place'), and for some of the book stuff

So one of the members of the Mexican delegation tells June that her husband, Luke, is still alive. I'll admit it's been a long time since I read the book (I wrote my dissertation on it and do still own a copy, but it's been scribbled all over with my university notes and is still so full of post-its that finding anything in particular would be a massive effort), but this doesn't happen in the text, correct? Will this take something away from the ending? I thought she got out but wasn't ever reunited with her family.

I'm interested to see if they bring in the 'Daughters': the ones that 'belong' to the upper class that get pushed in to arranged marriages when they're old enough. I was entirely expecting to see Hannah amongst the children brought in at the trade delegation dinner, but if she's not there are we to assume that she's been shipped off somewhere else or has just been 'lost' in some way?

Also, as far as the Colonies go: are these nuclear wastelands? I know the environmental angle is being played up somewhat in the show, and I don't recall whether that loomed as large in the book. I think I was under the impression that there had been a nuclear exchange that hit one part of the country, and the repercussions from that are what lead to the whole Gilead situation (or at least bolstered an already in-motion plan).

Another also! The commander tells Serena Joy in a flashback that the council had 'agreed to the attacks'. So they're planning on orchestrating several terrorist incidents within their own country, I'm assuming as a way of staging a coup? How did the 'real' government not know? Or was this a nod to a type of false flag operation, with the intention to force the public in to agreement with their future plans under the guise of 'protecting the country'?

I think I may have to spring for a kindle copy of the book to re-read.

 

Spoiler: watching the latest episode, some thoughts

feel bad for Serena Joy. she clearly didn't always believe in what the country is now....and I don't think she's thrilled with how it turned out. I don't think she likes that women can't read, and I don't think she really believes that was a necessary sacrifice--I think she's lying, as June was, because otherwise horrible things will happen to both of them, never mind that the Commander used to love his wife, apparently. he clearly doesn't feel the same way about her now. I think maybe he respected her before....now he doesn't see her as a person at all. he used to listen to her, confide in her, find comfort from her--now he doesn't respect her at all, or really trust her.
gotta say I like Mrs. Castillo, but I feel a little sketch about her assistant. I hope Mrs. Castillo says they shouldn't do trade--sure, nothing concrete's been said, but I feel like it's pretty clear June and Serena Joy were lying? but I'm also worried her assistant would undermine her. I mean. he knew the words for the response at the end there, and he seems to have no issues with the whole society, and....I can't imagine it's impossible for them to have spoken with other men in other countries and gotten them on the side of the Commanders.
oh my god, they did stage terrorist attacks. three of them, I gather.
apparently Waterford used to have an active conscience! good to know.
oh yeah just kiss in the hallway that's a great plan!
aw boohoo the Commander's not happy that June isn't PLEASED AS PUNCH to have been forced into what's pretty much sexual slavery. and also that was super gross of him I do not like him.
aaand now we're making all the ones who were harmed by their own friggin' country have to be hidden away! because we can't show THEM off. bad publicity!
oh my god Waterford did respect his wife once. he wanted her to speak.
....I feel like his goals, initially at least, did not match those of everyone else he was working with.
......you can't tell me Mrs. Castillo won't notice the empty chairs at the Handmaids' tables.
oh god. bring out the kids. of course.
Mrs. Castillo's so amazed and happy....seems like they're having fertility issues too.
they want to trade for Handmaids....but surely if the Handmaids got there and told them what was really happening, the trades would stop? unless the Commanders plan to overthrow Mexico too. but that wouldn't make sense, they wouldn't be trading then, but....how could this possibly work?
.....oooh. Waterford's Feeling Something for his wife again. something like....respect, perhaps?
oooooooooooh they're gonna break the rulesssssssssssssssssssss
I think June's breakdown is pretty reasonable here.
god. June opened her entire story to this woman and. Mrs. Castillo won't do anything. I don't like her anymore. I get that infertility and all that is an issue, but look--y'all killed your fucking country, and trading human beings is not the answer. and if you haven't had any children born alive, why do you think using other people will change that?? idiots.
ooooooooooooh damn. hot damn. is the assistant serious. or is he lying. I want to trust him. I WANT TO BELIEVE.

 

Spoiler: spoilers for the book/latest ep

None of this happened in the book at all, correct! The book briefly had some Japanese tourists who came and gawked, as I recall. It felt like the handmaids mentioning the idea and then dismissing it was a nod to that. I have no idea where this will take the ending, but I'm excited to see.

 

Spoiler: ep 6

Is it just me or did he really go from pathetic evil to menacing evil in approximately episode 5? Because I feel like in episode 4 he was still in the "you have so much fucking power and yet all your vibes are 'moist' and 'pathetic' to me" class, and then episode 5 hit and I was full-on "augh no D:" mode most of the time he was on screen. And then he just gets worse in ep 6.

Also, I really like Mrs Castillo's costuming. In the dinner scene she has a yellow suit, which makes her an outlier (both because no Gilead class of women wears yellow and because she's a sole yellow spot in the middle of men in black suits). In the reception scene she has a black costume, which, yeah, she's not exactly one of the ruling men, but she's definitely aligned with them now. I can't think of a good parallel for her light clothes in the last scene, but the first two are really good.

Also, I wondered if the trade for Handmaids would be quite literal. Like, on the one hand, it seems like it should be, because Gilead is pretty desperate and Mexico probably wants something for their exports. On the other hand, is Gilead really the last place on Earth (or America) where there are fertile women? I guess it could be inferred from Mrs Castillo's comment, but it still sounds a bit sketchy. Maybe they'd just... export more know-how than actual physical Handmaids? Although, hm, there isn't that much to know, so that's kind of unlikely, I guess.

In addition to the "jfc augh D:" I don't think this is particularly sustainable business model. Like, if Gilead with their uncommon successful pregnancies is the good outlier, then the world is kind of fucked and also Gilead really can't afford to have less fertile women (not that they can afford much else, apparently). Someone (preferably not Gilead) please experiment with IVF and artificial wombs. Science the shit out of this. If there are some women who can have children and majority who can't (not mentioning the men), then the differences should be detectable.

 

@Silvereye

Spoiler: Ep 5 spoilers

As of the beginning of 5 theyd been playing scrabble for 34 games at one game a week if the commander wasnt out of town. Thats about 7 months, so id say any lingering guilt he mightve had for the previous handmaid is probably gone, and offred is just an increasingly unamusing toy to him at this point. He never saw her as an equal in the first place, it just hits harder now because he was previously a little more sympathetic because he triggered pity i think.

 

Spoiler: episode 6 talk

ohhhhhhhhh yeah he's gotten way creepier and gross and menacing in episode 5 and 6. skin crawl feeling now.

so here's the thing.
I think it's important to note exactly was Mrs. Castillo said: no babies have been born alive.
why specify alive unless there have been pregnancies, but all of them have resulted in miscarriages or stillbirths?
I don't think the issue is a lack of fertile women in her city. I think the issue is a lack of fertile women who have successful pregnancies.
that suggests one of two things to me.
1. the environment in her city is so, so bad that a pregnant woman literally cannot have a successful pregnancy there.
2. the environment in her city is bad enough to have had the effect over time of not just making people infertile, but making those who are still fertile incapable of having a living baby.

now if it's the last part, I can see how initially, trading Handmaids might work--you send them there to get pregnant, and once they're confirmed to be pregnant, you send them back to Gilead, and once the baby is of an age where it can eat solid food, it's returned to Mexico. this way, they get kids, but the fertile women capable of having living children are hopefully not there long enough to get fucked to the point of not being able to carry a baby to term and have it live.
if it's the first one, though....I can't see how the trade would work. they'd be fucked no matter what. but it also suggests that the environment is different in different places--after all, even prior to Gilead, people were having live babies in America. not many, and few survived, but they were having them. and Gilead's cleaned up their environment since then, it sounds like, so the babies have more of a chance to survive. so maybe other places have a better time of it than Mexico seems to be having. but if the environment's so bad in Xipica/Mexico that women can't successfully carry a baby to term no matter what, that suggests to me that their situation will only get worse unless they do something to clean it up somehow. can't reverse the damage, but you CAN try to prevent more--so maybe Gilead isn't trading Handmaids, at least initially. maybe they're trading the ways they've managed to clean up the environment there so well. not sinister, but it's plausible. and maybe after that, they could still trade Handmaids as an....extra source of fertility in Mexico.
honestly, even if it's the second reason, I still think Gilead might trade environment cleanup first--don't want to risk their Handmaids being unable to carry a baby to term, after all. and then, after that, they could trade Handmaids and children.
that's the other thing--what if they start trading children? I mean, it doesn't seem like Handmaids get a break as long as they're fertile, but I don't think one family needs seven kids. what if they start trading 'extra' children? I doubt they could do it now, but perhaps in the future, that would become a solution instead of trading Handmaids.
but honestly, bottom line point about the trade--I don't think they'd send Handmaids permanently. I think they'd send Handmaids, and once they were pregnant, either bring them back and give the child to Mexico, or take the Handmaid back once the child was born and weaned.

 

Spoiler

i wonder what mexico has that's worth the future of humanity, though? like the commander is pretty derisive when he talks about mexico

 

Spoiler: I think maybe

they're just trying to open trade with other countries. Mexico may not have much--but other countries might. maybe Mexico's the only one willing to sit with Gilead at a table right now. maybe Mexico's just got such a big fertility issue that they're the only ones desperate enough to be willing to open any kind of trade agreement with a place as secretive and weird and "religion is the state" as Gilead. but maybe once one place agrees to trade with them....the rest of the world might consider trade agreements a bit more as well.
on the other hand, Mexico might be able to grow produce and stuff they can't, or might have things that would grow in parts of America that Gilead hasn't captured yet. after all, they only got oranges because "the war was going well in Florida".
either way--he was derisive about them, but it's also mentioned a few times that they badly need this trade agreement. the Commander was nervous as hell waiting for them to arrive, remember? whatever the plan, this wasn't something he thought they could afford to lose on.

 

Spoiler: episode 7

this episode was definitely interesting, it had my attention, but I felt kind of cheated by the ended of it that I have to wait another week to get back to offred and the other handmaids

 

Spoiler: ep 7

this episode really screwed w my brain bc of how it kept jumping around in time? like... for some reason this ep was... weird and dissasosiationy and idk what happened other than the basic idea that luke is alive?

 

Spoiler: episode 7

....okay first off I feel kind of bad that Luke legit just lost his family.
....I.
I don't know quite what I'm feeling about the "we should've left when Moira did" part, but I'm feeling something.
because in the end...it didn't matter that Moira left before them. she got caught too. before June, even.
by the time they passed the law of women not being able to own property, they were already fucked.
....um.
if the plan was to put everyone else in the trunk and have Mr. Whitford drive, how did they end up with everyone in the car except him and Luke driving....?
I have a bad feeling.
oh no oh nooooooooooooooooooooo no no no--wait.
hold on.
he said it was fine.
where do things go wrong because they WILL go wrong. they must.
.....they're not safe if they're in America.
they're not out of the country yet. fuck. fuck. how will they get out??
.....oh no.
someone is going to find them there, aren't they. or Mr. Whitford secretly plans to betray them or something. this is where it goes wrong, isn't it.
okay, so the three people Luke just met, they must get out? or at the very least, Luke does....
I know the actor playing one of those girls. I like her, I liked her in her last role that I saw her in too. she's cute.
anyway.
....oh man, that one girl has a red tag. she was meant to be a Handmaid.
but if she got the tag, how'd she get away?
.....I'm not surprised she hasn't said a word though, I'd think she'd probably be traumatized or something.
oh man. so she was rescued, basically. jeez.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I gotta be real, if I was them, I wouldn't be going outside.
I DO NOT TRUST JOE.
Joe is dangerous.
YUP. yup. I was right. this is where it allllllllllllll goes wrong. Joe will report them, and that's when the guards come.
.....Luke has to know they aren't going to let him go. they can't. if he gets caught, they'll ask who patched him up and--there's too much of a risk.
um.
um.
it was light earlier.
if it is dark now, you have waited WAY too long to leave.
oh. wait. Joe is a friend! he is warning them!! man, they never would've known that their car was known or that Mr. Whitford was dead without him.... and he's the one who set up the guy that was going to get them into Canada....aw, Joe, I'm sorry for my snap judgment. you seem good.
.....so, I mean, I kind of have to wonder how they got that bus and how it wasn't marked as something to look out for and how they seem to have gotten past all the patrols, but like. I dunno. I'm just glad someone seems to have escaped.
....okay, honestly, Luke, at this point, if you know fighting back will get you murdered, at least take the way that MIGHT work. stay alive. stay alive, so that you have a chance of helping your wife and daughter.
.....I know this guy is putting his life on the line to get people out, but Jesus, he's a dick.
and not all of them even get away.
"you paid for five, not six" WELL YOU'RE NOT EVEN TAKING ALL SIX, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE, SO WHY DON'T YOU GIVE SOME SHIT BACK TO THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT, HUH?? ONLY FAIR, I MEAN, YOU DIDN'T REALLY GET EVERYONE YOU PAID FOR.
....so she's still not talking, it seems, not even after three years.
oh my god.
there are....so many people, so many pictures, so many....god.
so many missing person fliers.
god.
so....who is Ms. Tapping and what exactly is this? Luke's....trying to offer information, it seems, but....she has the letter. is she one of the people who takes information about people in Gilead who have people outside Gilead looking for them? does she help them to escape? what is this?
and June told him to save Hannah, it looks like....but will he listen? can he listen? can they even find Hannah, necessarily?
so overall, I think I liked this episode--the backstory was good. I appreciated it. but I kind of wish it had jumped around a bit less.
but....the missing person fliers.
I. I can't imagine.
all those people, and every single one of them, someone who is grieving for them, maybe more than one person. not knowing if they're alive. not knowing if they'll ever see them again. knowing that, in the face of what has happened, the chances are....so slim. there are so many people, too many people to be able to individually search for and find each one.
I don't know what that feels like, but....that scene just. hit me.
hard.

 

Spoiler: episode 8 thoughts

so when they go to the, uh
whatever place it is, I don't know what to call it, really, but the place Mr. Waterford takes June to.....
Mr. Waterford says that the women are all women who couldn't 'assimilate', but that they prefer it here. and I'm just thinking....I mean, I doubt most of them chose to be there. I'd be surprised if any of them chose to be there, to be honest--failure to 'assimilate' means they were forced into it, more likely than not, and I have to question how they're all comfortable with what's basically being forced into prostitution when some of them used to be lawyers or journalists or CEOs.
but at the same time.....I can almost understand how it might be a better choice from the perspective of some?
at least here, you don't have the same rules or restrictions as the other women--I mean, they're wearing such different clothing, they have different hairstyles. sure, they're objects to them, just props for sex, but at least they have....some modicum of freedom not granted to the other women of Gilead.
it's a terrible situation either way, Gilead is a rock and a hard place for women, but I can see the perspective where that place might be better than....a normal position.
but I'm not convinced ANY of them chose to be there or wanted to be there. I mean, there's an Aunt controlling everything still--Moira's told to 'get back out on the floor', that she 'knows the rules', so clearly they're forced into this, they HAVE to do this. the fact that they have dorms and some modicum of freedom can't make up for that, I don't think--and honestly, I feel like that freedom is cancelled out by the fact that they have to be playthings for any man who shows up.
and--yeah, I suspected drugs were involved here, and I was 100% right! I mean, I don't object to the girls spiking the guys' drinks and going through their phones, but god, 'Sleeping Beauty' fantasies and shit, fuckin' creepy, and I kind of felt like drugs HAD to be involved for all the women there to be so....I don't know, not freaking out, as far as I can see? like, they seem....relaxed, weirdly so, for women who I can't imagine being okay with that.
and the pregnancy tests, I have to wonder--what do they do if a woman gets pregnant, abort it?? seems like something Gilead would disapprove of, but then you can't really have a pregnant girl working in that place, I wouldn't think.
....also, what about STDs, are those not even a consideration?
also the scene with the last Handmaid's body hung, her suicide, that was....intense.
and why did Mrs. Waterford seem to think her suicide was Mr. Waterford's fault? very curious about that little comment.
purges....curious about that. also, dissension in the ranks, oh my.
and god the "you do understand me, don't you" I'm not sure if that's a comment he made in sincerity, or something he said to be cruel. if it's the first, no, dumbass, she's trying to stay alive. if it's the second....god, he really is becoming a more and more gross character to me.
....ngggh, non-negotiated kink stuff is clearly happening here and that makes me supremely uncomfortable. like, everything about this place is making me uncomfortable, but particularly that. ugh. ew. no.
....uh. did they throw, like, deformed girls in here to satisfy the guys with weird fetishes for that kind of thing? that's gross.
and their clothes are government issue, not picked by them. ugh. guess that makes sense. so there really ISN'T any modicum of freedom--they get different clothes and hair, but there's no choice in any of this still.
and it's literally only a job that works for a few years, well that makes a disgusting amount of sense.
Jezebels. ugh.
I'm....glad Moira's alive, I guess, but god, this situation is TERRIBLE and GROSS.
it's interesting to know how Nick got into all of this, though.
....Pryce clearly doesn't agree with Waterford about the 'Jezebels, because everyone has needs, so we turn a blind eye' thing. he's very focused on his 'cleaning up Gilead' mission. and..."better sense". I want to know what Waterford did.
"things were lonely" bullshit. if you still even loved your wife you wouldn't be cheating on her with the Handmaid.
and here comes the reality. feelings and freedom can't exist in Gilead. Nick's kind of right about this.
but he is sharing anyway!
oooo, and June is still upset. I mean, understandable, but also Nick was kind of right.
the music box sounds....out of tune. but it's nice of Mrs. Waterford to give it to June, I guess? it seems weird she's trying to connect suddenly.... but I like what June did at the very end of the episode.

 

Spoiler: a curious thought

if Pryce is in charge of the Eye operations, as he seems to be....then who's scrutinizing his behavior for fuck-ups and transgressions?

 

HI I JUST FINISHED THE FIRST EPISODE AND IT'S SO GOOD MOM HOLY FUCK

 

Spoiler: ep 9 and 10

The bridge scene was fucking brutal and somehow a new kind of awful in a series already brimming with awful. Poor Janine. D:

Also, holy shit, Serena's face in that scene in the finale where Waterford is telling her that they're having a baby. She has to know it's chillingly similar to what Putnam told Janine to get her to cooperate, because Serena was also on the bridge. I really wouldn't bet on Waterfords staying together for long after the finale, she seems pissed enough to go straight to Pryce with her evidence.

 

Here comes season two! Starts in april.

 

i loved atwood's trilogy, something and Crake was the first one i think. i've haven't thought the same way about pigs since.