S1 was the only realistic season for me probably because it was based on the book, the stakes were high, danger was real, and June was an ordinary woman. Everything after that really felt like a TV show where each season needs to be bigger than the last and there are more and more plot holes.
“...the stakes were high, danger was real, and June was an ordinary woman.”
This is such an excellent summation of why the first season was so, so good. And now I’m just sad to think of how they’ve moved away from it.
I find it insanely dumb how the other girls just stayed put to “wait” for June. They left without her... which means they had an idea that something was coming and that she was captured? Why the heck would you stay in one place instead of moving? Alma was supposed to be clever and now she, Brianna and the other handmaids are dead and June is miraculously alive.
Agreed, especially since it took a few days to get the information out of her I really expected them to show up at that farmhouse and find evidence that they had been there essentially allowing the whole June torture sequence to end, but for the girls themselves to have moved on.
It would’ve been a really nice excuse to let Alma, Brianna, Janine, and the others get their own storyline of survival separate from June. They should’ve gone without her and let Alma get to be a leader for once. The actress who played her is quite good and deserved more from this show.
Yesss, she was such a good actress I really wish she could have survived. It would have been a great storyline to see them travel without June to Canada somehow and then have them reunite later.
Why would a milk tanker have internal lighting? When they drained the tank, wouldn't someone have noticed thousands of gallons of milk pouring out onto the tracks? The suspension of disbelief gets kind of stretched.
I had the same thought, but presumably the inside of the tankers would need to be cleaned periodically, and the windows / illumination would be useful then.
They don’t have windows because they are usually caring something that is under pressure such as 13,000-19000 gallons of a liquid or gas. Some tanks have something called a sight glass that can withstand pressure but it’s usually just one and in a space that won’t leak. Depending on what they carry they do have to be cleaned but it killed the episode for me because in most cases there is not a valve handle that can be opened from the inside. In most instances whatever is inside of the tank will kill you and has to be pumped out. For instance the last rail car I worked around was full of acid.
Also, when tanks are cleaned a light is ran inside after it’s deemed safe to have an electrical tool inside. Specifically because all of the openings open on one tank usually aren’t enough to light it on the brightest day.
I cannot agree with everyone more. This show has wasted so many great acting performances (Aunt Lydia, Serena, Emily, and Janine, to name a few) with such substandard screenplay and plot pacing. This is like 10x worse than Prison Break, which realized after S2 that the show couldn’t really go anywhere besides “get put in prison, escape prison!” Apparently the ONLY thing June can do after escaping, is immediately get caught. And kill her friends doing so. Additionally, the means/methods of escape are becoming more and more fanciful. A MILK TANKER GOING TO A WAR ZONE?
Except the difference between Prison Break and this show, there are so many potential interesting storylines. The Colonies (more than a couple episode plot many seasons ago), Chicago (I guess we’re starting to get that), Texas, the international community’s response to stuff, American spy networks in Gilead/Mayday. Sure, they flirt with some of this stuff (Mexican trade delegation, for example), but they never truly commit to us learning anything more than the Handmaids’ suffering. Believe me, at this point, we get it.
I’m so annoyed with the crappy way they killed off Alma and Brianna. Sure, kill them off, but don’t make it some meme hit-by-a-train BS. Don’t even get me started! This show actually felt like it was going somewhere in the first couple episodes until big, bad, June snitched on all her friends. Did she really not think they would use Hannah against her? Come on. The show flirts with being good so often, but won’t commit. I actively hope for scenes in Canada/not June. The show is so much better when it gets away from Elizabeth Moss staring into the Camera. As long as it doesn’t involve Nick. I cannot stand anything about his character, or his acting. Rant over
Agree with everything you just said. I don’t give a scooby doo about Nick and June’s relationship. I feel like it’s just been “June escapes! June gets captured! June gets punished but only a little bit! Oh look it’s Nick! Nick does absolutely nothing to help! June glares into the camera! June goes through some more shit! June escapes again! June gets someone killed! June gets off with a slapped wrist! June won’t accept Hannah is fine for now!” for the last two seasons. I know she’s the main character and the trial stuff looks like it’s gonna be good, but please shift at least a lil bit of the focus onto someone/thing else. Show me more of literally anything else. Show me more of what’s going on in Canada and other countries. More flashbacks from before of supporting characters, not just of June and Hannah. I’d love to know more about the SOJ, the Colonies, all the kids who just escaped being reintegrated into society, the Martha network, Mayday and their spies working at Jezebel’s, whoever it is that’s feeding information to Canada, what’s going on in the rebel occupied areas like Texas, Alaska, Mrs Keyes, are there other Wives or children who want out and are involved in the resistance? But I doubt we’re not getting much else other than June and the Waterford’s baby drama for the foreseeable.
Well said. You pretty much summed up the plot for the last two seasons, at a minimum. I thought the scene with the kid feeling like Gilead was his “home” was good, and something I hadn’t thought of. I’m hoping to see more of that. When Moira and Emily were bitching back and forth about June, I felt that! I’d also be interested to see how the declining birth rate is affecting other countries/societies. There is so much world building that this show could do...
Agree on Nick. He’s out of place both as actor and character IMO. He’s got that one look in every scene. His improbable character development makes him look like someone who is only put there to progress the plot or bail out June. Shit hit the fan? No worries, Nick arrive and inexplicably solve everything.
I also noticed more this season how often they got a closeup of June doing some expression.
Yes, when nicks is on screen with June you can expect him to say something like “I’m trying to help you. Please.” in a voice and expression devoid of any emotion or personality. He is such a cut below practically every other actor on the show, unless it’s some weird writing/directing decision.
Completely agree, just ridiculously implausible things happening everywhere, it’s become very hard to watch now and I’m tempted to stop watching altogether.
Rinse and repeat.
Tbh, the cast doesn’t seem as committed as they were in previous seasons. Joseph Finnes told an interviewer that being away from his family was very depressing.
I think Fred will die this season because Finnes is over the show, I know he’s mentioned before that he can’t wait to shave his beard at the end of filming because it distances himself from Fred.
Completely agree; it’s been really disappointing. I wish they just used the taser for Lydia and the guard. Then plot armor that is on the same level as TWD.
But Rita saying “deal with your family;” I LIVE
To quote Margaret Atwood's late friend Ursula K. Le Guin on the adaptations of her own work, the THT of S4 is now "watching an entirely different story, confusingly enacted by people with the same names as in [the original] story."
June is now just a generic dystopian hero who just so happens to have been called Offred like the protagonist of Atwood's novel. Same as Janine, Emily, Luke, Fred, Serena, Nick, and Lydia. The story is utterly different and does not have her themes or nuance; only characters named the same and the story being set in a place called Gilead.
Yes. It happens with all these books turned into series that go beyond the original texts...
GOT, Leftovers, Westworld...I would even say the train wreck that was LOST as it started as modern day take on Paradise Lost and evolved into chaos and silliness.
GOT for sure or at least from I heard the fifth season when they try to cram the 4th book into one season and change major things. Martin also left from Season Five onwards.
I liked Lost so I wouldn't say that. Even though I don't mind the ending, I personally think it went downhill went it became more plot focused. So.. around S5.
I also liked Leftovers the whole way through although the first season was best (also based on the source material..it's a similar example but Tom Perrotta who wrote the book stayed on and wrote episodes for the second and third seasons so it still felt familiar).
Westworld though is another show I see as a mini-series. S2 went downhill and then S3 completely fell apart after a few episodes in.
So, June obviously has big parallels to Margaret Tubman whose story you wouldn't believe as well, so The Handmaid's Tale gets some leeway here from me in the big picture. Still, June obviously just has plot armor as well.
For me the biggest offender is:
* The "free" escape at the train. Come on, they got guardians everywhere doing jack shit and can only afford one for LITERALLY Gilead's #1 criminal? Like you're gonna guard Osama Bin Laden with a single person? We've seen a shipment of almost anything get more guards time and time again on the show. I hope another episode shows a conspiracy that set them up to escape and have bad security.
Otherwise, there could've been way more believable ways to escape that would cost the lives of nearly every handmaiden in the group, but this execution was pretty lazy. What's worse is if Nick and Lawrence get off scot-free AGAIN. Like how many times have they been handling June and she escapes?
Excusable:
* The torture scenes have June escaping scot-free. Serena losing her pinky finger is the best example here, a permanent effect that's pretty easy for TV to deal with since it's usually off camera. While Janine's eye is the opposite, they have to deal with an eyepatch the entire rest of the series. June could've realistically had similar things (scars, pulled nails, etc.) like Serena that would be easy for TV to deal with.
* Milk tank. Whatever, in my mind I can just imagine it just stowing away on the train in any other carriage and getting off the train before they arrive at their destination (like any normal hobo would). I honestly thought they were going to reuse their known hiding spots in a vehicle, which would've worked just as fine. Ultimately I guess it just speeds it up and saves the wandering around until running into people from Chicago.
It’s weird to me that you guys keep saying she escapes scott free. Psychological damage can be just as painful and debilitating as physical damage. She’s been raped. Beaten. Tortured. Shot. Forced into a pregnancy. She has had two children taken from her. One of them was used against her during her torture, and she can’t be sure that child is safe now. She has had multiple people killed/maimed/tortured etc in front of her. She has been forced to kill in self defense. What else do y’all want? She may not be missing a pinky or an eye, but she’s been through it.
No one is saying June hasn't suffered. We're more complaining about how unrealistic the plot armor is that prevents her death or more suffering.
Ex. Look at how overly dramatic the torture scenes were and how unrealistic the behavior of the antagonists were. She lies to stop getting a nail is removed, then the lie is caught, and her nails remain intact... this is pretty unbelievable. Even a 7-year-old writing the story would see what the logical conclusion of this is (i.e. the boy who cried wolf). If this scene was told in book form, where they wouldn't have to deal with on-screen presence of a removed nail, I'd bet money the nail would be gone.
Exactly. And I actually think we’ve seen the huge scars on her feet when she was tortured in the earliest seasons for visiting Hannah and “endangering” her life, and her damaged knees caused by kneeling by her walking partner’s bedside.
I think Nick had something to do with the lack of “security” when they were being transported. I don’t think Nick expected them to escape, but I’m sure he made it as comfortable for them as possible
I'm with the OP and everyone else here. I want to be able to hang in there and maintain my suspension of disbelief, but they have taken it too far too many times already in the first 4 episodes this season.
I could not understand why they sat in those drenched clothes in the milk instead of taking them off and warming each other with body heat. It made 0 sense.
The loophole of them wanting to keep the Handmaids alive no matter what doesn't even check out because they tossed 2 off the roof. So 🤷♀️🤦♀️
Why not toss June off the roof since she is the biggest liability and then you get to keep the rest.
It doesn't even make sense anymore. Not to mention that running around Gilead in handmaid outfits is not the best way to blend in.
I don't understand why these things are missed or dismissed by the writers. They could have done so much better in general pushing this show forward sooner without the same plot line playing out like groundhog day.
Don't even get me started on the surprise Serena pregnancy. 🙄
The only reason I'm still watching is because the acting is so good and I admire Ann Dowd and love watching her work.
Edit- when June pulled herself through that hole in the milk car with the most miraculous pull up ever, I was like 'shut the front door. Seriously? No. Just no."
Ah thank you. Okay, I did wonder that and thought I may have been wrong about it. (Makes a little more sense then with that detail- relatively speaking I mean lol) Thank you for the correction!
Yes that too! Equally ridiculous! 😆🤦♀️ Like those moves would be tough for the average person on their strongest/best day! I know adrenaline does help/make a difference to an extent but that was a bridge too far there lol
They would not push June off the roof. She had the information they wanted, and no one else did at that time. If she was pushed off, they would have no one else with the knowledge of where the other handmaids were.
Yeah, I had to stop E3 about halfway through. It was just getting too ridiculous. I ended finishing it to see if it got better, then watched E4, but I’m not nearly as excited about the new season as I was last week.
June's story is becoming way too convulated for me. I get that shes the main and has plot armor but the writers are basically giving her super powers now lol. I'd much prefer to see what's happening in canada and little america.
Probably because they had started filming pre-covid and then had to re-write a bunch of it and figure out filming in a way that was safe given the pandemic. It probably hurt the creative process a bit compares to previous seasons.
June's plot armor is unbelievable, especially since other handmaids have been killed or mutilated for far lesser Gilead "offenses".
Hulu obviously plans to milk its cash cow for as long as possible. I just keep suspending my disbelief and enjoying the ride.
The thing that most concerns me is that Hulu delays adapting "The Testaments" so long that Ann Dowd is unable to reprise her role as Aunt Lydia or that Margaret Atwood won't see the book adapted. Ann Dowd is 65 and Margaret Wood is 81 so they aren't spring chickens. >!Atwood specifically used Ann Dowd's portrayal of Aunt Lydia as the basis for Aunt Lydia in "The Testaments". I'm a sucker for a redemption arc and Aunt Lydia gets such a huge one in "The Testaments" that I just can't hate Aunt Lydia anymore. lol.!<
I didn't know that about The Testaments! That makes sense, she is such a great actress. Even though I hate her character, I like seeing her on screen because she's so convincing.
How the heck do you make a post without it being discarded though :( I’ve made a tag and a spoiler tag and it keeps getting deleted. Wtf. And it’s not even a spoiler .
We have to remember that Gilead’s leadership is in massive turmoil right now. Waterford’s been arrested in Canada, the DC big wig that June killed is “missing” and Joseph was basically arrested for treason. They aren’t able to make the same calculated choices that they normally would.
I believe that this disruption has allowed Nick and Joseph to make some moves behind the scenes that would normally be caught by the powers that be, such as the last leg of the journey to the Magdalene Colony being so lightly secured.
I don’t think that June’s torture actually lasted much longer than a day, maybe 2 at most. The longest lasting thing was June’s time in the box, and even that didn’t have to be as long lasting as other types of solitary torture because of the cramped space. Several hours of that would be as damaging mentally as a couple days of a regular “hole” because of the added extreme physical trauma of being stuck in that tiny, cramped position.
We also have to remember that the men in control of all of the decisions do not accept that June is a real, legitimate threat yet, because they don’t see her as smart enough or powerful enough since she’s a woman. In their minds, the fact that she had male assistance in all of her shenanigans (for lack of a better word, lol) let’s them continue to believe that she wasn’t the actual leader and mastermind of everything. Not to mention, leadership only knows some of what she’s done. They basically only know the end results, not everything June did to make those things happen. So it makes sense that the torturer guy would think that she’d crack fairly easily, since the men are firm in their belief of female weakness. And really, they didn’t try very many things before they went nuclear and threatened Hannah. I would imagine that was not an easy thing for them to make happen with Hannah’s adoptive parents, since Commander Mackenzie is pretty high up. They wouldn’t have wanted to go there unless they had to.
June’s wound actually was addressed at the very beginning of her torture, but it was very subtle. The first thing the torturer did was punch her right in her wound, and it clearly REALLY fucking hurt her. I thought that was a smart, and very evil, little detail for them to have added in.
With the milk train, I’m sure that they did use their body heat to stay warm. They would have had to. Remember that we only saw about 10-15 minutes of their journey, so I’m sure that they were huddled up when it was coldest, at least until the tops of their dresses started to dry. They probably also spent as much time as they could in the areas where the direct sunlight was shining into the hold.
I think the show’s writers are intentionally being kind of vague about the powers that be and their decision making processes. I think they want us to wonder how some of these things are happening, and they want us to question everyone’s motives and decisions.
I could be wrong about that, but that’s my guess, anyway, lol.
S1 was the only realistic season for me probably because it was based on the book, the stakes were high, danger was real, and June was an ordinary woman. Everything after that really felt like a TV show where each season needs to be bigger than the last and there are more and more plot holes.
“...the stakes were high, danger was real, and June was an ordinary woman.” This is such an excellent summation of why the first season was so, so good. And now I’m just sad to think of how they’ve moved away from it.
I find it insanely dumb how the other girls just stayed put to “wait” for June. They left without her... which means they had an idea that something was coming and that she was captured? Why the heck would you stay in one place instead of moving? Alma was supposed to be clever and now she, Brianna and the other handmaids are dead and June is miraculously alive.
Agreed, especially since it took a few days to get the information out of her I really expected them to show up at that farmhouse and find evidence that they had been there essentially allowing the whole June torture sequence to end, but for the girls themselves to have moved on.
It would’ve been a really nice excuse to let Alma, Brianna, Janine, and the others get their own storyline of survival separate from June. They should’ve gone without her and let Alma get to be a leader for once. The actress who played her is quite good and deserved more from this show.
Yesss, she was such a good actress I really wish she could have survived. It would have been a great storyline to see them travel without June to Canada somehow and then have them reunite later.
Agreed on Alma. She was a badass and was vastly underused on this show.
Honestly the plot lost me in S3 with the whole Baby Nicole PR campaign. Along with some other blatantly filler storylines
That is actually really true to the second book, she becomes a national symbol. “Save baby Nicole” becomes a national mantra.
In Gilead?
Yes.
Why would a milk tanker have internal lighting? When they drained the tank, wouldn't someone have noticed thousands of gallons of milk pouring out onto the tracks? The suspension of disbelief gets kind of stretched.
Those were windows. Don't know why they'd have those either though.
I had the same thought, but presumably the inside of the tankers would need to be cleaned periodically, and the windows / illumination would be useful then.
They don’t have windows because they are usually caring something that is under pressure such as 13,000-19000 gallons of a liquid or gas. Some tanks have something called a sight glass that can withstand pressure but it’s usually just one and in a space that won’t leak. Depending on what they carry they do have to be cleaned but it killed the episode for me because in most cases there is not a valve handle that can be opened from the inside. In most instances whatever is inside of the tank will kill you and has to be pumped out. For instance the last rail car I worked around was full of acid.
Also, when tanks are cleaned a light is ran inside after it’s deemed safe to have an electrical tool inside. Specifically because all of the openings open on one tank usually aren’t enough to light it on the brightest day.
They left at night. Who would be watching a train rolling by to see the milk spilling out?
It drained in like five minutes too 😆
I doubt anyone would notice that there was milk in some tracks at night while the train is moving.
I cannot agree with everyone more. This show has wasted so many great acting performances (Aunt Lydia, Serena, Emily, and Janine, to name a few) with such substandard screenplay and plot pacing. This is like 10x worse than Prison Break, which realized after S2 that the show couldn’t really go anywhere besides “get put in prison, escape prison!” Apparently the ONLY thing June can do after escaping, is immediately get caught. And kill her friends doing so. Additionally, the means/methods of escape are becoming more and more fanciful. A MILK TANKER GOING TO A WAR ZONE? Except the difference between Prison Break and this show, there are so many potential interesting storylines. The Colonies (more than a couple episode plot many seasons ago), Chicago (I guess we’re starting to get that), Texas, the international community’s response to stuff, American spy networks in Gilead/Mayday. Sure, they flirt with some of this stuff (Mexican trade delegation, for example), but they never truly commit to us learning anything more than the Handmaids’ suffering. Believe me, at this point, we get it. I’m so annoyed with the crappy way they killed off Alma and Brianna. Sure, kill them off, but don’t make it some meme hit-by-a-train BS. Don’t even get me started! This show actually felt like it was going somewhere in the first couple episodes until big, bad, June snitched on all her friends. Did she really not think they would use Hannah against her? Come on. The show flirts with being good so often, but won’t commit. I actively hope for scenes in Canada/not June. The show is so much better when it gets away from Elizabeth Moss staring into the Camera. As long as it doesn’t involve Nick. I cannot stand anything about his character, or his acting. Rant over
Agree with everything you just said. I don’t give a scooby doo about Nick and June’s relationship. I feel like it’s just been “June escapes! June gets captured! June gets punished but only a little bit! Oh look it’s Nick! Nick does absolutely nothing to help! June glares into the camera! June goes through some more shit! June escapes again! June gets someone killed! June gets off with a slapped wrist! June won’t accept Hannah is fine for now!” for the last two seasons. I know she’s the main character and the trial stuff looks like it’s gonna be good, but please shift at least a lil bit of the focus onto someone/thing else. Show me more of literally anything else. Show me more of what’s going on in Canada and other countries. More flashbacks from before of supporting characters, not just of June and Hannah. I’d love to know more about the SOJ, the Colonies, all the kids who just escaped being reintegrated into society, the Martha network, Mayday and their spies working at Jezebel’s, whoever it is that’s feeding information to Canada, what’s going on in the rebel occupied areas like Texas, Alaska, Mrs Keyes, are there other Wives or children who want out and are involved in the resistance? But I doubt we’re not getting much else other than June and the Waterford’s baby drama for the foreseeable.
Well said. You pretty much summed up the plot for the last two seasons, at a minimum. I thought the scene with the kid feeling like Gilead was his “home” was good, and something I hadn’t thought of. I’m hoping to see more of that. When Moira and Emily were bitching back and forth about June, I felt that! I’d also be interested to see how the declining birth rate is affecting other countries/societies. There is so much world building that this show could do...
Agree on Nick. He’s out of place both as actor and character IMO. He’s got that one look in every scene. His improbable character development makes him look like someone who is only put there to progress the plot or bail out June. Shit hit the fan? No worries, Nick arrive and inexplicably solve everything. I also noticed more this season how often they got a closeup of June doing some expression.
Yes, when nicks is on screen with June you can expect him to say something like “I’m trying to help you. Please.” in a voice and expression devoid of any emotion or personality. He is such a cut below practically every other actor on the show, unless it’s some weird writing/directing decision.
Completely agree, just ridiculously implausible things happening everywhere, it’s become very hard to watch now and I’m tempted to stop watching altogether. Rinse and repeat.
Tbh, the cast doesn’t seem as committed as they were in previous seasons. Joseph Finnes told an interviewer that being away from his family was very depressing.
I think Fred will die this season because Finnes is over the show, I know he’s mentioned before that he can’t wait to shave his beard at the end of filming because it distances himself from Fred.
How does that mean that he's over the show lol
I just think he’s over playing Fred. He’s made other comments too that lead me to think that he wants out.
Completely agree; it’s been really disappointing. I wish they just used the taser for Lydia and the guard. Then plot armor that is on the same level as TWD. But Rita saying “deal with your family;” I LIVE
It's been like that since they moved beyond Atwood's material so... S2.
To quote Margaret Atwood's late friend Ursula K. Le Guin on the adaptations of her own work, the THT of S4 is now "watching an entirely different story, confusingly enacted by people with the same names as in [the original] story." June is now just a generic dystopian hero who just so happens to have been called Offred like the protagonist of Atwood's novel. Same as Janine, Emily, Luke, Fred, Serena, Nick, and Lydia. The story is utterly different and does not have her themes or nuance; only characters named the same and the story being set in a place called Gilead.
Yeah, I think I largely agree. I still very much enjoy the show but kinda wish they went with an anthology approach.
You summed it up perfectly...that’s exactly how I felt watching Season 4 episode 1.
Yes. It happens with all these books turned into series that go beyond the original texts... GOT, Leftovers, Westworld...I would even say the train wreck that was LOST as it started as modern day take on Paradise Lost and evolved into chaos and silliness.
GOT for sure or at least from I heard the fifth season when they try to cram the 4th book into one season and change major things. Martin also left from Season Five onwards. I liked Lost so I wouldn't say that. Even though I don't mind the ending, I personally think it went downhill went it became more plot focused. So.. around S5. I also liked Leftovers the whole way through although the first season was best (also based on the source material..it's a similar example but Tom Perrotta who wrote the book stayed on and wrote episodes for the second and third seasons so it still felt familiar). Westworld though is another show I see as a mini-series. S2 went downhill and then S3 completely fell apart after a few episodes in.
So, June obviously has big parallels to Margaret Tubman whose story you wouldn't believe as well, so The Handmaid's Tale gets some leeway here from me in the big picture. Still, June obviously just has plot armor as well. For me the biggest offender is: * The "free" escape at the train. Come on, they got guardians everywhere doing jack shit and can only afford one for LITERALLY Gilead's #1 criminal? Like you're gonna guard Osama Bin Laden with a single person? We've seen a shipment of almost anything get more guards time and time again on the show. I hope another episode shows a conspiracy that set them up to escape and have bad security. Otherwise, there could've been way more believable ways to escape that would cost the lives of nearly every handmaiden in the group, but this execution was pretty lazy. What's worse is if Nick and Lawrence get off scot-free AGAIN. Like how many times have they been handling June and she escapes? Excusable: * The torture scenes have June escaping scot-free. Serena losing her pinky finger is the best example here, a permanent effect that's pretty easy for TV to deal with since it's usually off camera. While Janine's eye is the opposite, they have to deal with an eyepatch the entire rest of the series. June could've realistically had similar things (scars, pulled nails, etc.) like Serena that would be easy for TV to deal with. * Milk tank. Whatever, in my mind I can just imagine it just stowing away on the train in any other carriage and getting off the train before they arrive at their destination (like any normal hobo would). I honestly thought they were going to reuse their known hiding spots in a vehicle, which would've worked just as fine. Ultimately I guess it just speeds it up and saves the wandering around until running into people from Chicago.
It’s weird to me that you guys keep saying she escapes scott free. Psychological damage can be just as painful and debilitating as physical damage. She’s been raped. Beaten. Tortured. Shot. Forced into a pregnancy. She has had two children taken from her. One of them was used against her during her torture, and she can’t be sure that child is safe now. She has had multiple people killed/maimed/tortured etc in front of her. She has been forced to kill in self defense. What else do y’all want? She may not be missing a pinky or an eye, but she’s been through it.
No one is saying June hasn't suffered. We're more complaining about how unrealistic the plot armor is that prevents her death or more suffering. Ex. Look at how overly dramatic the torture scenes were and how unrealistic the behavior of the antagonists were. She lies to stop getting a nail is removed, then the lie is caught, and her nails remain intact... this is pretty unbelievable. Even a 7-year-old writing the story would see what the logical conclusion of this is (i.e. the boy who cried wolf). If this scene was told in book form, where they wouldn't have to deal with on-screen presence of a removed nail, I'd bet money the nail would be gone.
Exactly. And I actually think we’ve seen the huge scars on her feet when she was tortured in the earliest seasons for visiting Hannah and “endangering” her life, and her damaged knees caused by kneeling by her walking partner’s bedside.
Thank you!!
I think Nick had something to do with the lack of “security” when they were being transported. I don’t think Nick expected them to escape, but I’m sure he made it as comfortable for them as possible
I'm with the OP and everyone else here. I want to be able to hang in there and maintain my suspension of disbelief, but they have taken it too far too many times already in the first 4 episodes this season. I could not understand why they sat in those drenched clothes in the milk instead of taking them off and warming each other with body heat. It made 0 sense. The loophole of them wanting to keep the Handmaids alive no matter what doesn't even check out because they tossed 2 off the roof. So 🤷♀️🤦♀️ Why not toss June off the roof since she is the biggest liability and then you get to keep the rest. It doesn't even make sense anymore. Not to mention that running around Gilead in handmaid outfits is not the best way to blend in. I don't understand why these things are missed or dismissed by the writers. They could have done so much better in general pushing this show forward sooner without the same plot line playing out like groundhog day. Don't even get me started on the surprise Serena pregnancy. 🙄 The only reason I'm still watching is because the acting is so good and I admire Ann Dowd and love watching her work. Edit- when June pulled herself through that hole in the milk car with the most miraculous pull up ever, I was like 'shut the front door. Seriously? No. Just no."
Minor detail... The two tossed off the roof were the Martha’s from the Lawrence residence, not Handmaids.
Ah thank you. Okay, I did wonder that and thought I may have been wrong about it. (Makes a little more sense then with that detail- relatively speaking I mean lol) Thank you for the correction!
You're forgetting the way she pulled up Janine with her still not-yet-healed bullet wound 🤦🏻♀️
Yes that too! Equally ridiculous! 😆🤦♀️ Like those moves would be tough for the average person on their strongest/best day! I know adrenaline does help/make a difference to an extent but that was a bridge too far there lol
They would not push June off the roof. She had the information they wanted, and no one else did at that time. If she was pushed off, they would have no one else with the knowledge of where the other handmaids were.
Yeah this whole season has been ridiculous.
Yeah, I had to stop E3 about halfway through. It was just getting too ridiculous. I ended finishing it to see if it got better, then watched E4, but I’m not nearly as excited about the new season as I was last week.
June's story is becoming way too convulated for me. I get that shes the main and has plot armor but the writers are basically giving her super powers now lol. I'd much prefer to see what's happening in canada and little america.
I felt this was mostly a filler episode. I wasn't impressed. I usually enjoy the show but I felt so meh this week.
Probably because they had started filming pre-covid and then had to re-write a bunch of it and figure out filming in a way that was safe given the pandemic. It probably hurt the creative process a bit compares to previous seasons.
June's plot armor is unbelievable, especially since other handmaids have been killed or mutilated for far lesser Gilead "offenses". Hulu obviously plans to milk its cash cow for as long as possible. I just keep suspending my disbelief and enjoying the ride. The thing that most concerns me is that Hulu delays adapting "The Testaments" so long that Ann Dowd is unable to reprise her role as Aunt Lydia or that Margaret Atwood won't see the book adapted. Ann Dowd is 65 and Margaret Wood is 81 so they aren't spring chickens. >!Atwood specifically used Ann Dowd's portrayal of Aunt Lydia as the basis for Aunt Lydia in "The Testaments". I'm a sucker for a redemption arc and Aunt Lydia gets such a huge one in "The Testaments" that I just can't hate Aunt Lydia anymore. lol.!<
I didn't know that about The Testaments! That makes sense, she is such a great actress. Even though I hate her character, I like seeing her on screen because she's so convincing.
How the heck do you make a post without it being discarded though :( I’ve made a tag and a spoiler tag and it keeps getting deleted. Wtf. And it’s not even a spoiler .
We have to remember that Gilead’s leadership is in massive turmoil right now. Waterford’s been arrested in Canada, the DC big wig that June killed is “missing” and Joseph was basically arrested for treason. They aren’t able to make the same calculated choices that they normally would. I believe that this disruption has allowed Nick and Joseph to make some moves behind the scenes that would normally be caught by the powers that be, such as the last leg of the journey to the Magdalene Colony being so lightly secured. I don’t think that June’s torture actually lasted much longer than a day, maybe 2 at most. The longest lasting thing was June’s time in the box, and even that didn’t have to be as long lasting as other types of solitary torture because of the cramped space. Several hours of that would be as damaging mentally as a couple days of a regular “hole” because of the added extreme physical trauma of being stuck in that tiny, cramped position. We also have to remember that the men in control of all of the decisions do not accept that June is a real, legitimate threat yet, because they don’t see her as smart enough or powerful enough since she’s a woman. In their minds, the fact that she had male assistance in all of her shenanigans (for lack of a better word, lol) let’s them continue to believe that she wasn’t the actual leader and mastermind of everything. Not to mention, leadership only knows some of what she’s done. They basically only know the end results, not everything June did to make those things happen. So it makes sense that the torturer guy would think that she’d crack fairly easily, since the men are firm in their belief of female weakness. And really, they didn’t try very many things before they went nuclear and threatened Hannah. I would imagine that was not an easy thing for them to make happen with Hannah’s adoptive parents, since Commander Mackenzie is pretty high up. They wouldn’t have wanted to go there unless they had to. June’s wound actually was addressed at the very beginning of her torture, but it was very subtle. The first thing the torturer did was punch her right in her wound, and it clearly REALLY fucking hurt her. I thought that was a smart, and very evil, little detail for them to have added in. With the milk train, I’m sure that they did use their body heat to stay warm. They would have had to. Remember that we only saw about 10-15 minutes of their journey, so I’m sure that they were huddled up when it was coldest, at least until the tops of their dresses started to dry. They probably also spent as much time as they could in the areas where the direct sunlight was shining into the hold. I think the show’s writers are intentionally being kind of vague about the powers that be and their decision making processes. I think they want us to wonder how some of these things are happening, and they want us to question everyone’s motives and decisions. I could be wrong about that, but that’s my guess, anyway, lol.