Both Serena and Offred are masters of negotiation skills - unless they're letting their guard down. Serena can't help herself when she shows Offred the ultrasound, and Offred when she can't help presuming that Serena has gone soft after that plus showing her the nursery and having her sleep in the sitting room. However, once Serena figures it out and tells the Commander that Offred is devious, it falls on his deaf ears, as he presumes showing her a picture of Hannah will get her back in his bed - and Offred pretends to want to do exactly that. What the Commander doesn't realize is that it's another way that Offred is using leverage - as disgusting as she finds the Commander - to barter her way to Hannah and other favors.
Agree with other commenters that the child bride story line is disgusting, and more so because that really does happen in some cultures. I also agree that Serena's infertility was caused by the gunshot.
7
Why would Serena's infertility NEED to be caused by a gunshot, when 95% of women in the world of the story are infertile? This is explained in the first episode! also it is made clear in flashbacks that Serena was already infertile BEFORE getting shot, and emphasized that Waterford is almost certainly infertile too.
2
Engrossed by Season 2? As an adoptee, I had an epiphany while absorbing episode 6. In a not so distant past, a woman who gave birth out of wedlock was shamed by society, religion and "family values" to relinquish her child. In Margret Atwood's dystopian world the handmaidens are deemed sinners and are forced to procreate so "barren" women could have children. Today the women of Ireland overturned a ban on abortion. Yes, I know the irony. My birth mother made a choice. She could have had an illegal abortion - but SHE chose not to. But other women were forced to give birth and relinquish. When they take away our choice, we too become handmaidens.
10
Only if you were raped by the very person who went on to adopt your child. If you had sexual intercourse consensually -- without contraception -- knowing that the odds of a young fertile woman getting pregnant are extremely high -- then you chose your own fate.
It is actually untrue that Atwood's novel posited the Handmaids were "sinners". They were not -- they were simply the last fertile women on earth. Without them getting pregnant and having children, the human race was in serious danger of extinction.
It is worth remembering that this is science fiction -- 35 years old! -- very out of date in terms of reproductive science! -- and written by a anti-American, hard-left Canadian academic as an anti-Reagan, anti-Christian rant.
1
Well, it seems obvious that Serena is the intellectual superior of her husband. She dictates, he transcribes. She is the driving force in her husband's elevation to Commander. (SHE should be Commander, but of course, not possible in Gilead)
Serena is frustrated. She is conflicted by her beliefs. Prior to Gilead, she was a strong, independent woman; smarter than her husband.
Now she is relegated to "serve" her husband, and wait for the birth of a baby that is not hers. (Heck, even SHE doesn't like Aunt Lydia.)
She is bumping up against Offred, who now holds all of the cards.
I hope Serena will recognize who she used to be: a strong, independent, smart woman. Maybe she can even empathize with Offred.
2
In the novel and first film (the 1990 version with the late Natasha Richardson and Faye Dunaway), Serena Joy is a 50-something woman, not in good health. There is nothing to suggest the current character in the series, who is young, extremely pretty, and in perfect health. It is purely an invention of the TV producers, and greatly slants the character and the dynamic of the novel (including the motivation for Waterford to develop a sexual relationship with Offred outside of the Handmaid relationship).
My best guess is that the series wants to eventually make Serena a convert to the "resistance" and turn her against her husband and Gilead.
2
Every scene with Nick in it is a slow walk to hell. I don't know if it's the actor, or the writing, but I have never bought into the June and Nick bit. There is not a scintilla of chemistry or believability. This sideshow of Nick and his child-bride are creepy and disturbing as they should be, the only saving grace of the whole thing is June getting to show sarcastic pity when Nick whines that it's not fair.
11
I don't agree at all. The chemistry between them has, to me, always been hot.
8
Nick is just a monochromatic character. He'd be great in a soap opera.
2
I disagree as well, I feel like Nick has a really good poker face but is able to portray how much he cares about June. And I can't help it, I feel like they have very good chemistry!
Also, why when June has to have sex with the commander is it awful but when Nick has to have sex with Eden is it mockable? YES, Nick is in a position of power and isn't being raped by a creeper, so I'm not saying it's the same! But his life is still at stake if he doesn't have sex with her, so there is still definitely a power dynamic involved. I'm just saying it's more nuanced.
5
I'm so confused about Commander Waterford - he is of course a monster, but then shows some genuine kindness and affection towards June/Offred...plus in an earlier episode he asks about being transferred to a diplomatic position in Canada...does he want to escape this world he has created.
Also - major kudos to the writers on that great standoff scene in the kitchen between Serena and Offred with Eden in the middle, I loved June's defiance/showing temporary higher status in the house by saying she couldn't pick up the needle because of a cramp "I wouldn't want to hurt the baby" - Elizabeth Moss and Yvonne Strahovski are such great actresses.
18
It would be comforting to imagine that "monsters" never show affection and kindness towards others. However, human behavior is often far less two dimensional. Nazi monsters frequently went home after days spent sadistically brutalizing people in concentration camps to lovingly kiss their wives, children, and dogs.
6
Was that Nick’s first wife who died in the colonies after getting married in the last episode?
10
This episode seriously disturbed me. I couldn't sleep after watching it. Seeing Waterford torture the alleged shooter and kill his girlfriend was gruesome - and a side of Waterford we'd yet to see. So he wasn't just an architect of Gilead, but a willing participant in the violence (let alone the ongoing subjugation). But hands down - the worst of all - was Nick having sex with his child bride. It just haunted me. How many girls suffer this fate every day around the world?
10
I was thinking this exact thing—that as horrifying as the Gilead scenario is, there are places in the world where women’s lives are actually worse!
7
His child bride was going to report him for being gay if he didn't have sex with her.
6
No mention that Saturday Night Live had the brunch scene first?!
12
who really cares? and plus, I think the episode with brunch was written a wee bit before the snl scene.
2
I don’t think it makes sense to ponder June’s and Serena’s positions being reversed. Serena is an ideologue and June is a “normal” person who wouldn’t do something like Serena is doing. They may have similarly strong personalities but their beliefs are very different.
The college speech scene was great—a bit of an on the nose parallel to today’s issues, but a great illustration of why students don’t want to hear extreme speakers. The slippery slope of curtailing freedom of speech has to have context. I was also struck by the realization that shouting “fascist” at a fascist is also freedom of speech.
Thank goodness for that explosion at the new center. I hope we see more concrete May Day action. The last few episodes, while great psychological drama, have been way too slow for me.
22
A couple of thoughts on this episode:
- While watching the opening of the Rachel and Leah Center scene at the end of the episode, specifically the bit with the Gilead patricians entering the facility accompanied by a single file line of faceless handmaidens marching alongside in billowing red uniforms and bobbing habits, I was reminded of Fellini's 8 1/2, specifically the lines of faceless nuns in bobbing habits marching through the the film's most surreal sequences. Need I mention, 8 1/2's male protagonist, Guido, a film director, collects women as though they were part of a harem. There is a hint of Jacob, Rachel and Leah here, as well.
- The college protest scenes were fascinating only because they remind us of similar responses to recent right wing speaking events held on campuses across the US. Leftists who protest and drown out right wing speakers are often derided as illiberal opponents of free speech, but of course, here, when the audience screams "fascist" at the Waterfords, well, turns out they were absolutely right. The Waterfords are dangerous fascists. Too bad the sniper missed.
- Agreed. Yvonne Strahovski is superb. She's played Serena to the hilt, though I suspect she and Moss have to crack up during takes at times. I suspect an appreciable dose of humor is required to get through some of their scenes.
24
While I agree that it’s interesting that it’s interesting and prescient that the students were shouting down the proto-Gilead speakers as “fascist,” I can’t stomach “too bad the sniper missed.”
Yes, in hindsight, the Waterfords were monsters, and if they’d died, there might have been much less pain and suffering (though they were hardly the sole originators of the takeover). But this isn’t The Dead Zone, and the sniper didn’t know that. As far as he knew, he was shooting at someone just for spewing hateful views - and that is not remotely acceptable.
Murder is not the way to combat horrible viewpoints in a free society. Force only becomes the correct option after the fascists have seized power, and debate is no longer a viable path.
2
It doesn’t seem as though anyone gets a break here, not the handmaids, the wives, the colonists, even the men are unhappy. Friendships are few and far between. I feel so lucky every time I come up for air that I don’t (for now) share this destiny.
13
Unstated was whether the gunshot wound to her abdomen is the reason for Serena's infertility.
And how did Waterford find the supposed assassins? The female was simply shot in the head. What gruesome fate awaits the male? One of the first faceless hangings?
16
Believe it wasnt because previous flash backs of serena were discussing their inability to conceive and those scenes appeared to have been pre-speech phase
6
I believe the woman was shot in front of him because she was his girlfriend or wife and they wanted him to suffer like waterford did when his wife was shot.
No doubt the guy was tortured/dispatched at some point.
I think they have worn out this stuff with Serena trying to be kind one minute and then reverting back to dr. hyde afterward. It seems to happen every episode.
8
I'm sure the gunshot wound is the reason for Serena's infertility. If it were not, the writers would have had Serena shot in another part of the body.
9