I found the Eden-Isaac story completely believable. Doesn't anyone here remember being 15? You fall in love at first sight at least once a month. You develop a rich fantasy life around each crush. You believe that it will last forever, even if it's been less than a month since someone else had broken your heart.
It's an old, old story. Reread Romeo and Juliet, for heaven's sake!
IME, kids brought up in religious homes are even more susceptible to Instant Endless Love than most. They are incredibly naive about sex (Eden thought once with Nick was all they needed for a baby). They are taught god has chosen someone for them--and this person must be The One! They trust completely and love wholeheartedly.
Isaac was a soldier, but he was raised the same way as Eden. A 20-year-old boy isn't much more mature than a 15-year-old girl. He hadn't yet hardened off the way older soldiers must. Yes, Isaac was cruel to Janine and June, but he was sweet and thoughtful to Eden.
Yes, they only kissed once. But it was Eden's first, and probably Isaac's. And what a kiss! For sexually-repressed teenagers, a kiss like that is more impactful than hours of love-making by two experienced 30-year-olds.
Gilead didn't really expect them to die for each other. The plan was to scare sense into them and the witnesses. But once they were on the platform, Gilead could not let them climb down again unrepentant. The horrific beauty of that underwater shot drove home the real takeaway:
All are punished.
5
I was surprised that Eden was executed. Isaac yes but not Eden. I don't think that the Gilead would have wasted a perfectly good womb. I thought they would have killed Isaac and turned Eden into a Handmaid.
3
Remember that Nick is an Eye. The whole "capture" at the lake house was probably a set up - he was not in too much of a hurry to bug out. I think he is helping Cmdr Pryce set Waterford up for a big fall (purge). That is my guess for the season-ender. Cmrd Lawrence is creepy and will probably be the new focus for next season. He represents yet another part of Gideon that we don't know anything about (Colonies).
1
My bet is that Lawrence is head of an underground organisation which tries to blow up Gilead. Thus, his new "handmaid" is a perfect conspirator. Maybe he wants her to self-sacrifice herself with a new bomb. Or help infiltration through other handmaids. Anyhow, interesting to see where this will go!
4
This season has been rushed.
I have found myself wanting more of everything: more of the "outside" world when June escaped, more suspense with the miscarriage, more time with Serena and June when Fred is in the hospital, more time in the colonies, more time in Canada, more of the aftermath of the bombing, more time with Eden....
The perverse pleasure of the show is in how it leaves the viewer to twist in the wind, but that can't happen when every plot line is wrapped up in half an hour.
This episode is a perfect case in point: June tells Eden to choose love at 20 minutes in, Eden has run off by the next scene, and she and Isaac have been caught by 40 minutes in. By 50 minutes in, Eden and Isaac are dead, and June and Nick have finished their awkward scene where he walks away from her.
Everything up to either the "miscarriage" in Episode 5 or the bombing in Episode 6 should have been one season; everything since then should have been another season.
1
The show is always awash in muted tones, but red is a warm color and we see a lot of red.
Was anyone actually attached to Eden? I don’t think Serena cared all that much about Eden. She just seemed to be getting on everyone’s nerves but Isaac’s. I think when we see Serena react it’s because she is facing a bit of self-awareness at the horror she has helped create. Is this the world she wants to raise a daughter in? Could that be “her” Nicole in 15 years? I was glad that Nick finally talked to Eden. I kept thinking he was being such a jerk about her. All he had to do was be just a little nice to her. She was only a child and the whole situation wasn’t her doing. Brainwashing and all, she was much more a victim than he was. In the end, she didn’t seem to be quite as stupid as we thought.
Now for Emily—as fun as this story arc looks, I just don’t get it. How was Eden put to death but Emily has survived some major crimes? Has Lawrence had his eye on her from the get-go? And why would Gilead want this couple to have a child? I guess it’s a reward for his service? Would he want a child? Doesn’t seem like he would. But good one on the Jane Eyre analogy, Judy!
Finally—they need to tie up this Nick being absconded at deserted house better. That just doesn’t fly.
10
This episode was just going through the motions. The storyline has got to move toward some resolutions.
1
"She doesn’t know that Nick’s econowife, who is still essentially a child herself, will take that advice so literally."
I think June knew with absolute certainty that Eden would take her advice literally.
6
I had replied earlier that I agree (so this may show up twice). Very clear to me that she was egging Eden on, though she may have thought they would go the secretive Nick-June route, not necessarily try to run. She may have refrained from that advice had she foreseen the ghoulish trial and execution. Just more for her to feel guilty about I guess.
Totally—it was clear what she meant with that sly look on her face.
2
Agreed. Offred/June had to have wanted Eden to turn her attentions elsewhere but did not anticipate Eden being as impulsive or as daring as she turned out to be.
Confused about how Eden and Isaac were in love so quickly? I thought they made out like maybe once? Also feel like she would have been punished in some classic creepy Gilead way (losing an important body part) rather than totally killed due to her reproductive potential.
I feel like with the season finale we are due for another big plot development, but what could it be? They have already exhausted the run-away narrative, as well as the "I'm pregnant" thing, obviously. I feel like it needs to go out with a bang, but they already tried to blow up that town hall (leaving Waterford creepily raspy ever-after). What comes next? How will they wrap up the horror show that has been season 2?
3
She was 15. Teenagers are still trying to figure out what love is and are often not completely rational it comes to love and relationships. Tie that in with Gilead's brainwashing that her whole purpose in live was to be a wife and mother, it isn't a good combination.
4
Yes, agree—Emily has all these major transgressions and still is being used as a handmaid but Eden is killed off this way? Doesn’t follow at all. It was just for the dramatic effect and cool pool death—horrible but cinematically arresting (and quite unbelievable—if they were going to kill them, they would have just gotten the wall).
1
I think Gilead was initially scaring Eden and Isaac and assumed they would "renounce their sins". Because they did not renounce they were killed. Had they repented they would have been saved. That was why Nick was pleading with Eden in the locker room. As for Emily she is a handmaid and they need her. Remember a lot of the handmaids died in the blast which is why they were all brought back from the colonies.
My favorite line in reference to where Eden was- "Maybe she went to the mall, I heard there's a sale at Old Navy."
With that said, it is extremely difficult (but can't help myself) watching each episode. Far too much resonates with the world Trump and his Men are creating. Indeed, let's hope for a revolution.
8
I too loved the mall / Old Navy comment. I think those fleeting references to the pre-Gilead times are as important as the major flashbacks. Ditto June's reaction to the bran muffins. They keep us reminded of just how recent the changes happened and how quickly catastrophic societal change can become the norm.
3
I am mystified why Eden, healthy, young, great potential for bearing children, is executed for being an adulteress instead of forced into the role of a handmaid as June was. And Emily, whose eggs are surely corrupted if not completed shriveled away from her time in the Colonies, is brought back to handmaid service after the bombing since they're so desperate for baby-makers. Absolutely love the show but this season there have been too many plot holes like this.
9
I am mystified why Eden, healthy, young, great potential for bearing children, is executed for being an adulteress instead of forced into the role of a handmaid as June was. And Emily, whose eggs are surely corrupted if not completed shriveled away from her time in the Colonies, is brought back to handmaid service after the bombing since they're so desperate for baby-makers. Absolutely love the show but this season there have been too many plot holes like this.
42
This is exactly what I thought. I love the show but some of these plot holes can be driven through with a semi-truck.
Eden may or may not be fertile. The handmaids have all proven their fertility by bearing children. But that is a good point about the colonies. One more reason that the return of Emily and Jeanine makes little sense, like a lot of this season.
so many metaphors for the american experience of slavery across generations: babies taken and sold -- "Our baby’s so beautiful — I wish I could hold her,” “We should just run away somewhere, start over — like a new family,”
12
I have often thought about the parallels to slavery as well. I recently read “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and it mirrors the handmaids tale in so many ways. Many of the wives in the show despise the ceremony, yet do not stop their husbands’ behavior. Instead they take their frustrations and cruelty out on the handmaids. In “Incidents” and “Twelve Years a Slave”, the slave masters’ wives are especially horrible to the women that are raped by their husbands. No solidarity or empathy to be found. Instead the women are beaten, sold off or sold away from their children. Instead they find ways to exercise what little power they have by subjugating the female slaves. The same as when Serena drops the crotchet pin for Offred to pick up.
4
I thought it weird that Nichole's name echoes her dad's.
The new commander may have some other secrets yet revealed. How/why did his one-eyed Martha talk back to him? Maybe he feels regret for Giliad? Maybe he is "rescuing" some of the girls? Or is that too much to hope for.
8
I think he will be experimenting on them in some way... not rescuing
I disagree that Eden's storyline was rushed. She was a true believer, obviously raised in a fundamentalist household. She is the epitome of what a good girl/woman of Gilead should be, yet even she is not safe.
5
I found this episode so haunting because the idea of stealing babies to gratify one's own maternal desires is so repulsive and so relevant at this moment. I read a case from a few years ago where a Missouri couple essentially stole a migrant woman's baby and the courts sanctioned and legitimized the stealing by denying the woman custody once she was released from prison. State sanctioned baby theft isn't just going on Gilead.
16
I agree that state-sanctioned baby stealing has a long - and recent - history. Just last week it was announced that a retired Spanish ob-gyn was being prosecuted for stealing babies from dissidents during the Franco era and giving them to pro-Franco parents. And a hallmark of Argentina's dirty war during the 70's was stealing babies from dissidents who were then "disappeared."
4
Did anyone notice the Basquiat hanging on the wall in Commander Lawrence’s home? Given that one sold last year for $110 million, I’m wondering if he plundered it from someone who was forced to flee Gilead with just the clothes on their back or was taken away to be poisoned to death in the colonies.
And wasn’t it interesting that Offred told Commander Waterford that (just like Anne Frank) she was hiding in the attic?I mean, she could have said she was hiding in the broom closet.
13
Oh yes - that was interesting! And I sincerely doubt that a Basquiat would be considered state-sanctioned art, at least not in Gilead. (Aunt Lydia's expression upon seeing it told us everything we need to know.) Also, Lawrence caught Emily looking at a book - a graphic novel that I thought might be Maus, the Art Spiegelman work that deals with the holocaust. One might think Com. Lawrence was some sort of closet open-thinker, but that doesn't mean he isn't evil. Hard to get a read on him at this point, in spite of his wife's rant-like revelation. Her POV may not be completely trustworthy. I genuinely like the anxious uncertainty that these seemingly contradictory signs signify. Excellent work on the part of the director and writers.
13
Minor point, but I never got why Isaac hung around. I thought he was temporary while Nick was in Canada
The Lawrence household has interesting possibilities. The one-eyed Martha freely cursing. I can't imagine mad Mrs. holding down Emily to be raped. Lawrence seems to be jaded. Going through the motions
Speaking of Marthas. Did we ever find out what the Waterford Martha did before Gilead?
And June might be feeling guilty telling Eden to find love. Was part of her deliberately prompting her to try to escape.
Overalls, Gilead seems to be coming apart at the seams. It's not a fully functional totalitarian state. Therein may lie the seeds of the show's resolution.
4
I don't think lawrence likes the system: not being able to read and enjoy tv and such. I think might help the rebellion and have a freer society.I hope there is a rebellion soon, the depressing theme is becoming monotonous.
3
Didn't anyone find it VERY CREEPY that Lawrence knew every answer to the "questions" he asked Emily? Cannot see him as a closet good guy.
My finale hopes and wishes are that June and Nick take Hannah and go. They can't be any worse off than they are now - seriously. If they stay - Nick will be killed sooner or later by the Commander (in some sort of deliberate set up) and June will never get that baby as long as Gilead power structure is in place. I don't think they have anything to lose - and Nick is clever enough to know how to make a run for it within Gilead. I don't think I can tolerate another season of Serena evil, Serena less evil, Gilead horrors and no movement in the plot....
8
I hope when the revelution comes, serena has a moment like the evil Nazi in inglorious bastards.They let her go free, but she has to get a mark letting everyone know what she stood for.
3
I agree that this season has felt like a lot of back and forth in the plot with surprisingly little actual advancement. It feels like conflicts are introduced and often "resolved" within the same episode or 2 (the best example being Commander Cushing's brief reign). Beside's June's pregnancy, I feel like the season has been missing a central narrative arc. Even within the pregnancy plot there's been a back and forth between her resignation that the child will grow up in the Waterford household (and preparing for that outcome) and her commitment to not letting that happen, but with no actual progress there. Season 1 was equally as dark, but it felt like there was more to root for, and more small victories. Here's hoping the finale picks up the pace a bit and sets a better storyline for next season.
4
Is there a reason you refer to June as Offred in your reviews? June's relationship with her name- her attempts to reclaim it after it has been stolen from her and what it costs her to do so- is such an important part of this story that it's kind of jolting to see her referenced to Offred here. I know in the book we never discover her real name but in the show universe we've known it since episode 1. I've seen other reviewers doing the same so I'm wondering if there's a reasoning behind it that I'm missing.
18
Julie, I wondered about that too but now I think it is the reviewers way of referencing which narrative world is being discussed--the world of Gilead, the world leading up to it and the place from which the voiceover speaks. If I'm not mistaken the name Offred is used when speaking of the protaganist in Gilead, June in flashback. It is easy to follow that difference while watching but less so when reading a written account.
Does that make sense?
8
“I think I have earned a whole cake.” That kind of sarcasm pretty much sums up this episode.
13
I am always relieved when there is a moment that allows me to laugh. "Bran. Great." was a worthy follow-up.
14
Thanks for bringing attention to the mystery of what happened to Nick at the end of episode 10. I hope it is indeed a mystery the show will resolve in next week's finale, and not simply a plot hole they haven't bothered to properly explain.
In general, I wish the show would let us in a little more on what's going on with Nick and on his relationship with June. Perhaps this owes to the focus on June and Serena this season, but the June-Nick dynamic feels stifled relative to last season, despite the emotional ante being upped significantly with June's pregnancy (and now with the arrival of their baby). We have seen that the two of them are capable of finding opportunities to meet in private and yet they seldom do. We know Nick loves June from his having professed it on more than one occasion, but we don't see a lot of emotion from him otherwise. I was expecting a big payoff this episode when they were reunited after Nick's dramatic disappearance and June giving birth alone, but the first moment of dialogue between them is June joking that perhaps Eden went to the mall for an Old Navy sale. Really June, you don't want to start with, like, "glad you didn't turn out to be dead after you got shot and kidnapped into a van"? Or Nick, maybe "sorry you had to give birth alone in that house"? They go on to fantasize together about raising Holly in Hawaii, which I guess is sweet, but even that feels very superficial given everything that has transpired that goes completely unmentioned.
12
I'd argue that they know that the risk is simply too great. They're each one trip away from execution.
4
I still don't understand what happened to Nick in the previous episode. Why was he taken by those guardians? Wasn't there are gunshot or two let off? I thought he was shot. No? And you're right, why didn't June say something, anything about it to Nick?
I always think their little moments together seem unrealistic—that they’ve never been caught. Surely if they kept it up, they would eventually be caught. As it is, it seems like one of those “worst kept secret” things—Rita, Eden, the Commander—they’re all suspicious. Before, when they were going at it, it was under Serena’s sanction, so it was slightly more believable. But Nick is a bit of a cipher. He keeps his emotions reigned in but he’s not above pettiness—as in his cold treatment of Eden, which was completely unnecessary.
The preview for Season 2, Episode 13 is up, and the season finale looks to be a must see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1CbRD0bgXg
By the way, does anyone know what Hannah's likely future would be in Gilead? I read somewhere that even though Hannah is being raised by a Commander's family, the child herself is destined to become a Handmaid because she was the product of an "adulterous" relationship between Luke and June.
June and Luke were married when she had Hannah so she is not the product of an adulterous relationship. That being said, I doubt a high-ranking commander would adopt her if handmaid service was in her future. Hannah's future is a good question though and a part of the Gilead blueprint the show has yet to explore.
2
Luke is divorced, June was the mistress he left his wife for. In gilead world, the child would be considered illegitimate
1
I disagree with you regarding Eden. We got just enough of her character to see that she was left alone, a girl of 15, an age when just being near enough to someone attractive enough of the same age frequently can spark feelings of passion and desire. Between Isaac and Eden, there couldn't have been too much story to explore beyond what was given.
23
I am not all sure that Waterford is genuinely grateful to Nick. He has tried to "promote" him away from his home before just to be rid of him. The exchange in this episode seems in the same vein. Giving Nick a wife he didn't want was a distraction disguised as a reward.
Once more we are shown how this perverse system places the blame on the oppressed for each other's miseries. Early in this season, June's carelessness during her first escape attempt precipitated tragedy on those who helped her, and Aunt Lydia exploited this guilt to subjugate her. Now June and Nick are both feeling horrible for the fate of Eden, a person even more vulnerable than themselves, because she encouraged her to be bold in her love (though Eden clearly misconstrued her words) and he could not bring himself to fake love for her.
Meanwhile, the true monsters clearly have not a wrinkle on their conscience - best exemplified by Waterford, who thinks that the balance of 10 minutes with Hannah and having Holly stolen from her is a debt of gratitude on June's part.
Serena's arc through the season shows her increasingly repenting what Gilead does to women, even if she was mainly concerned with herself. Eden's execution shows her that even a young docile girl living by Gilead's rules has zero hope of happiness. Now that she has a vulnerable baby girl to raise, she must be wondering what kind of future she can give her. For love of Nicole she may now do things she would never do for June.
30