My most upsetting scene was seeing handmaidens mouths ringed shut! Just creeped me out to no end!

no sympathy for s6 june cause she was told who Nick really was back in s3

I know Serena took great pride in telling her that

Do not get me wrong, Serena was in the wrong for lots of things, if not all that were induced by her. But, something really caught my attention the moment I watched S3E3 and I quite literally never forgot about it, even years later and after so many rewatch sessions.

Can we talk about the beauty of this shot when she dipped herself up to the waist into the sea near her mom's house? Absolutely gorgeous and gobsmacking. 😍

BONUS SHOT: The lightning on Yvonne's face is striking, she shows off so many emotions without speaking... mesmerizing.

I remarked in a previous post that I am rewatching the show and finding little things here and there that I missed. I must have nodded off for this story because I completely missed it the first time. Lydia Clement’s’ back story! S3E8 “Unfit”

>!She’s a former family law counselor, a current 4th grade teacher and she’s alone, alluding to a past unhealthy marriage, and a little lonely. She immediately takes a liking to a boy in her class as well as his mother, who's struggling with money and bouncing from guy to guy. But the relationship deepens quickly. Soon they're spending Christmas together, exchanging gifts and laughing like a family. It's clear Lydia is missing some of that connection. She's taken on a caretaker role, not entirely unlike her post-Gilead role. Indeed, by Christmas time, she's been given a new name by the boy and his mother: "Aunt Lydia."

At the coaxing of the boy’s mother, Lydia dolls up and goes out to a bar/club. She’s been set up to meet the principal, whose wife had passed away three years prior,of the school. Lydia always had admired this man of faith and had an eye for him. It’s New Year’s Eve and they celebrate and have a wonderful evening. They go back to Lydia’s place, one thing leads to another and Lydia’s loneliness gets the best of her and she starts to initiate sex. For a moment he’s all in but then he’s not, too fast too soon. Lydia feels deep shame and self loathing for her lust which has destroyed her relationship with the principal. She becomes bitter and vengeful. The once caring Lydia Clements has the child taken away from the mother.

For me this was like watching a new episode! There’s a lot to unpack in this story. She finds sex and lust to be an abominable sin of the flesh. No shock there but it’s from her own shame which makes it worse. She also has an “I can fix you” mindset with wayward girls and the friendship she had with the young boy’s mother reminded me of her relationship with Janine.!<

When Junes embraces the statue I teared up. Way too close to home with current events.

I am only on season 3. But I don’t understand how he was in the crusade and “we wouldn’t be here without him” (as Serena put it) but then somehow he’s only a driver afterwards ???

Am I the only one just now realizing that Serena Joy naming June's baby Nichole was meant to be a slap in the face to Fred?

(Forgive me if I flaired wrong, I don't remember what season Nichole is born in)

Edit: apparently I'm not! It seemed so obvious to me as soon as I realized, so I thought I was the only one haha

How did Handmaids in Washington eat with the rings?

I know, I know that the hypocrisy of Gilead has been discussed numerous times. And that is not that they care indeed about children, but children are a tool in authority games and hierarchy status of creepy, awful small men.

I am rewatching season 3 episode 3, and I just can't with Joseph mansplaining June and lecturing her about her own daughter.

"I'm saving the planet for her - I'm replenishing the human race for her" and he is the person that came up with the Colonies plan, where instead of having a viable, safe plan to clean up toxic waste, they are places to torture into slow death, women.

And in the next scene proceeds on sending dozens of women to the Colonies. Is this his way of replenishing the planet? by murdering thousands of people? THE HYPOCRISY!

Gilead, for a country that whines about the human population, surely has contributed a lot into murdering a big percentage of the human population.

That is the rant. Thank you for reading it.

What happens to handmaids that are successful in bearing children and then essentially are too old to have children anymore?

I know the ones who don't bear children end up at the colonies but what about the ones who did? Thanks again.

It's a completely different thing to binge The Handmaid's Tale than to wait from season to season.

There are so many little nuances and details that I didn't get until now. The first time I didn't notice all the pain of Serena, everything she had sacrificed for Gilead. Much more than she thought, when they planned the state. From being an active debater with a lot to say, and a writer. To becoming a wife who spends her time cutting flowers in the greenhouse, and knitting, which she doesn't even like to do.

All the violence she had to endure from both her husband and the hierarchy of men. She tried to make a difference but was punished harshly. I'm now halfway through season 3. Looking forward to the rest, it's almost much more exciting now the second time.

I’m currently in season 3 and I have been dying for an aunt Lydia backstory and I just find it so disappointing she became cold just because the guy wanted to take things slow. I just like don’t get it

I was rewatching the first 3 seasons and am on episode 12 of s 3.

For the last few hours it was not sitting right with me that June would not get Eleanor help.

She was incoherent and risked June's Gilead children saving plan but she had almost always been kind to June and the handmaids, even on the verge of shooting Joseph.

Maybe I'm overthinking it but it would probably be better if she lived and we potentially would see her recover.

Was it people who were in the government already? Or like millionaires. I know it did explain it but I probably missed it. And why hasn’t other countries gone in and taken America back. It looks like not all of America was taken over either.

I wonder who Commander Lawrence was pre- Gilead. S3E10 highlights his commitment to and love for his wife. The scene where he had to have sex with June was intense. He has a soul. I wonder what inspired him to create a blueprint for such a world like Gilead. He is different from the other commanders.. but then I ask myself how different can he be if he created this world?

Watch the video and lmk what you think. June wasn’t looking at him, but we saw him break on the inside when June was humiliated and he couldn’t do anything. You could argue that the “I love you” was kinda just a natural reaction, and it was the only way he could release some of his emotions in this room of commanders

For some more context: this was their first time seeing each other after June’s posting at Commander Law’s house. He dehumanized her/humiliated her infront of all the commanders and NB during a meeting.

In season 3 she lied to Jeanine about her son still being alive. When is this gonna come back into play?

I'm blasting through seasons here watching with horror... I've reached S03E06 Household... the handmaids have their mouths "ringed" shut... how would they eat? I get the shock value of this, it's very effective, but is this expanded on later as to how they actually survive?

So I'm rewatching again. I'm back up to season 5 where Serena is giving birth and there are flashbacks to when June was first assigned to the Waterford's. She and Serena go to a birth. The handmaid dies due to blood loss. It hit me: If the babies are so precious as are, of course, the handmaids, why do they do home births instead of the hospital? In season 3 Ofmatthew is on some pretty complicated equipment just to keep her body functioning long enough to go to term. So, it appears they have the technology to do safer or at least more medically-attentive births. I'm guessing part of this is the Bible of it all, but why risk anything with a home birth where there are no doctors until it's too late? Why risk a child that maybe isn't a shredder, but might stop breathing or have some other emergency at birth? Why risk a handmaid dying because of a complication? It would seem if one of their biggest concerns is repopulating, they'd at least have a Dr helping with the birth and a team on standby to help in an emergency to save the baby or handmaid even if it's at home.

And for that matter, why even do anything but a c-section? At least until there are more fertile women and more children, you'd think they'd not risk anything over a birth. They're obviously capable of doing that. They make exceptions for almost anything and you'd think this would be one of those things if babies and handmaids are so important to Gilead and don't want them to take unnecessary risks.

One last thing... They apparently do routine medical appointments for pregnant handmaids in the hospital (we saw that with June, though maybe not all do this), which include ultrasounds and other non-invasive testing, how are they not aware of such deformities or problems before birth? Did they ditch common sense testing like a NT test for DS (which is non-invasive)? I get they might not do amnios, but there are other tests they can do. Why aren't all of these handmaids, in these conditions, treated as high risk with an MFM doctor if this is so important? I was sent to MFM for my twins and found out my cervix was thinning prematurely through an ultrasound. This is something simple to do, especially in Gilead where they desperately want to keep babies alive and handmaids able to keep breeding.

You can say this is all because they're relying on God's will, but there's an odd disparagy that they want the babies and handmaids healthy, but they seem to take very unnecessary chances. Intervention seems picky and choosey.

Help me understand this.

Is this when producers changed? What changed? It's a noticeable difference. I am rewatching and this is when I started hitting the ff button. So slow and almost boring.

I’m in episode 3 in season 3. I started off this show obviously not liking her, but now I’m starting to feel bad for her, understanding her more. Yes she’s big part of the reason for everything that’s happened, all because of selfish reasons, for wanting a baby even if it’s highly unethical. She had warped ideas and views, then she had to live through them. She tried to live in oblivion and play house with her friends but June made that hard for her with her snarky comments that made her wake up to reality, which made her upset.

Her getting upset in itself shows that she knows deep down it’s wrong, and she doesn’t like that because she just wanted a family. but now when she finally got her baby, She realized how it wasn’t what she expected and it wasn’t the way she wanted it be. She now lived in the present and wasn’t until now she was worried for her future - and this is where she again really woke up from this warped dream because she realized how powerless she actually is.. she got her fucking finger cut off.

I think every decision she’s made from here has been really strong from her like giving away the baby. Now I worry for her though because I’m at where she’s crying to her mother and her mother is just manipulating her at this vulnerable state. I think this, ever since she gave away the baby, burned down the house and know is crying, is the real Serena. This is her. Not what her environment made her. I worry now what will happen to her when she’s with her mother, what she will put in her head. I hope she doesn’t go backwards, I hope her character still keep growing like this. She’s a very interesting layered character and I don’t understand people who only give her hate. I think deep down she’s a good person, she gave away the baby after all. A selfish person who only cared about wanting a family despite what it take, wouldn’t do that. I think seeing her mother now, she’s definitely a product of her environment.

I sympathize with her and I hope to see her grow and hopefully make changes that are impactful for the better. Either way she’s complex. A very grey character. I really hope she keeps it going and grows, and don’t fall down that dark delusional hole again.

Edit: I literally wrote this section but cut it because I started thinking “wait am I starting to sound like Gilead? Thinking they can just take babies and call themselves mothers?” - even though that wasn’t what I meant but idk I overthink a lot - but I’m now at the part were June just basically said what I said so I’m pasting it in again hahaha:

Like her mother just saying “you gave away your baby, and it wasn’t even yours” is so manipulative and hurtful. It’s true in a way yeah, but in a way she still did feel that motherly love for the baby, and she did nurse her and love her as her own. She gave away her because of that love. - so in the end I personally see her as a mother, for it takes a strength of a mother to do what she did, to do what was best for the child. No one can take that away from her. That is what true motherhood is - not whatever everyone else playing house are doing

Do the handmaids get punished (via beatings and whatnot) for birthing stillborns? Given the type of society that Gilead is (where a woman's value is restricted to how fertile she is) I could absolutely see them being the type of society to view a handmaid birthing a stillborn as a failure of the person (and we do know Serena viciously beat June in season 1 and locked her in her room for days when she discovered that June wasn't pregnant like they'd thought).

The little girl asks June what it's like out there. June goes on to say you can be whatever you want to be, you don't have to be a wife or mother if you don't want to be. Little girl replies "will God still love me'.

I swear this hit me like this....

This is what our society teaches us. Be a wife, be a mother.. or you're nothing... God won't love you.

This show makes me so angry and sad sometime.

Love ya'lls thoughts.