r/TheHandmaidsTale

I keep seeing posts about how June is manipulative, and should've done this or that differently.

Like, did we not watch the same show? This woman was a sex slave. Treated less then a dog and valued less too.

They all did so many horrible things to handmaids and people are upset that she's wasn't empathic enough?

I know that she 'took advantage' of people with either mental issues or just less strong headed. But like, did we all forget that they were all part of the horrible treatment she endured? No matter how 'kind' they might seem. They are still part of it.

She is pushy, and does anything to survive. But she helped her friends, kids in Gilead and anyone else she could. So no, I'm sorry, she never owed her oppressors anything, not kindness, not respect, not even a 'thank you'.

She did anything to survive and I feel like people forget what 'anything' means. That includes being pushy and manipulative. And honestly? In her shoes, I think many of us would do the same if we had enough backbone.

Does that mean I understand everything she did? Of course not. Many of her actions frustrated me to the highest point. But, in her shoes, I have no clue what I would have done or if I'd even have the strength to do half the things she did.

'Anything to survive' means exactly that.

And also, no rebellion is peaceful. She could have done way worse and didn't.

I loved seeing a successful act of rebellion for once, but I have questions.

1. Why rescue the children instead of the women?

Obviously, the young women are the ones who have it hardest in Gilead, and they are also the backbone of its entire household system. If a large number of Marthas and Handmaids were to suddenly disappear, it would cause absolute chaos in every household. The children would still be there, but with only the Wives left to take care of them. And despite Gilead's narrative about motherhood, many of these women don't seem particularly capable of being good mothers (just look at Mrs. Putnam).

No Handmaids means fewer children, which undermines one of Gilead's main arguments for its superiority: the only country with an increasing birth rate. Rescuing women instead of children could have disrupted the entire household system, as well as potentially triggering a rebellion among Gilead's wealthier citizens.

2. How did they manage to keep all those children quiet?

We've seen so many brilliant plans fail in the show because of the most stupid detail, and then this mess of an operation doesn't fail, it's unbeliaveble. The entire time, I was wondering how it was possible that not a single child was crying while they were walking through the woods in the dark. There seemed to be roughly one adult for every 15 children. How on earth did they manage to keep them all together and quiet without attracting attention?

3. What happens to the guy flying the plane?

Does he ever go back for his paintings? If he returned to Gilead after helping smuggle the children out, he'd probably be executed immediately, and I assume he knows that. But if he has no intention of returning, why was the promise of getting those paintings such a compelling motivation for him in the first place?

I'm watching the show for the first time and it's truly one of the best I've ever watched. I only have one critic: there's just TOO MANY SLOW MOTION SCENES!!! I'm in the 3rs season. Tell me guys, does it get better?

God, it's so irritating.

The series is interesting, among other things, but I don't understand what happened to New Bethlehem after Joseph's death. Was this mentioned anywhere? Because I feel like it wasn't.

I'm watching The Handmaid's Tale, and the first few episodes are already shocking enough in how women are treated. But what really enraged me was the episode where June and the Commander go to the sex club.

Of course, the hypocrisy was infuriating. Here you have men who have built an entire society around sexual purity, morality, and religious righteousness, yet they can go to a sex club and indulge in exactly the kind of sexual freedom that women are denied and even persecuted for. I think later on we see the Commander even bringing Moira to June and hinting a threesome when just a few episodes earlier we see some lady getting sent to the colonies because she is a lesbian.

What irked me even more was the realisation that Gilead's moral framework was designed from the beginning to benefit men at women's expense.

I think I had initially been looking at Gilead as a society that had taken its ideas about morality to an extreme. That episode made me see something much more sinister: morality itself is being used as a tool of control. Women's suffering is justified through religion and the supposed greater good. Meanwhile, the men enforcing these rules still find ways to satisfy their own desires. Women are expected to be pure, obedient, and self-sacrificing, while men get to define what purity means and decide when the rules apply to them.

What really gets me is that the system doesn't even have to hide its contradictions from the men who benefit from it. They know what they're doing. They know the difference between the morality they impose on women and the freedom they reserve for themselves. Even the whole idea of sneaking June out of the house and into the club. Something else that comes to mind, because they maybe let June in as she was going in as the Commander's wife, are the spouses of the people in power allowed to be in such spaces or is it just the men? I think they are allowed to which makes it even worse seeing women actively playing a hand in the suffering of other women. Why am I even surprised when they hold down the handmaids for their husbands to rape them.

I think part of the rage i felt was also towards myself for not fully recognising this earlier, because the sexual violence against the Handmaids was already there. I think the episode just made it impossible for me to keep viewing Gilead's ideology as merely an extreme version of morality. It exposed how thoroughly that ideology serves male power.

Rita mentions to Serena that she has a 19 year old son. How come she is a cook instead of a handmaid if she's fertile and had a child before who survived (until the war)?

There goes a lot of hatred for June /or the actor in this sub reddit.! I dunno why people expect her to behave in a particular way. I understand she is ruthless, erratic, has convoluted facial expressions and at times selfish. She is someone undergoing not just post traumatic stress disorder but Traumatic stress. !!her daughter is still in Gilead abused and probably in near future might be subjected to rape.!!! What do people expect from such a person?!! To have graceful face expressions and behave in the appropriate and correct manner.! She is not some military trained personal to have the best strategist moves.! She was kidnapped, raped, emotionally abused, her home, career, her earnings were stolen from her and all this is happening to her daughter too.!!! I get some people remain calm and composed even after going through so much but the series is portrayed from the point of this abused woman, so yes we get close shots of her face.,! She is reacting what happened to her in the way that she knows. May be if her daughter is saved and Gilead goes down and after several years when she has healed she might look back and agree to some of her ruthless decisions , but she is nowhere near that point in the series.!

I'm still in episode 4 and I already feel depressed, and when I'm not feeling that, I feel enraged! Without spoiling, is there any satisfaction if I keep watching? Or am I gonna keep being upset?

Don't get me wrong, it's amazingly well-written and executed, I love Elizabeth Moss, Samira Wiley, and Joseph Fiennes, but I'm the type that FEELS STRONGLY when I watch something, I get really invested emotionally, so what should I do?

Edit: ok so I should continue watching but it does get worse, thanks, I love being depressed lol! Off to episode 5, thanks guys!

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I'm watching the show for the first time properly (I started S1 years ago but found it so slow - trying again now and enjoying it a bit more).

I'm on Ep5 and Ofglen has just stolen a car and driven round in circles.

I don't really understand her motivation here - at first I thought she was trying to escape but then she just circles around and kills a guy.

Was she just desperate for a feeling of freedom? Or was she deliberately trying to get out of being a Handmaiden because of everything they did to her, even if that meant death/colonies?

They look so much alike. And they have the same turned-up, holier-than-thou expression, lol.

It's serendipitous that she named her daughter Angela. 😅

Off-topic, but Dwight (late seasons Dwight when he's more orderly) and Angela would have thrived in Gilead. 😭

My daughter has started watching this and described how she's confused on some parts. I've watched this myself but am I right in saying the first episode showed how June lived her life before being kidnapped? The one on Disney, the first episode starts with June, hubby and Hannah were being chased in the woods by another vehicle of men kidnapping her. Then the scene goes to June sitting as a handmade day dreaming/thinking back to the car chase. I feel as though this episode is wrong or missing parts out? I'm positive when I watched the first season years ago it explained why the women were being kidnapped. Also Janine gets her eye took out on the first episode, I'm positive this happened half way through the first season/series? Did i imagine this or is the episodes mucked up?

I’m watching the show for the first time and just finished Season 4. God, I love how things ended for Fred. It was gorgeous.

Also, I fucking love Nick. I really do. They should’ve run away to Hawaii together when they had the chance.

I’ve watched THT countless times 😅 and some scenes always make me feel quite uncomfortable, because of how cringey they are to me.

Angela’s birth: Naomi ‘having’ labour pains. Her fellow Wives trying to ‘comfort’ her. The harp. The Handmaids’ breathe breathe breathe chant. I just can’t 😆

Serena trying to breastfeed Nichole: seriously? What did she think was going to happen?

Everything featuring Alanis Wheeler: I could tell she was going to be evil AF from the beginning. Her forced smile. Her condescending tone. The actress did a fantastic job.

Edit
Fred masturbating after his failed ‘copulation’ attempt and Serena trying to turn him on: Ceremonies are extremely disturbing by themselves, but his pathetic attempt made that one even worse.

What scenes/stories would you add?

I'm watching the show for the first time, and I'm only a few episodes into Season 3. I just watched the scene where Emily tried to read a bedtime story to her son—and, of course, I cried—Emily’s facial expressions and those stifled tears—wow. 😭

Like many of you, I grew up with Gilmore Girls. Even after seeing Alexis Bledel in other shows, like Mad Men, or movies like Sin City, she always brought the same familiar signature to almost every role I saw her in.

I always felt like I was watching another version of Rory Gilmore. Lol.

But as Emily?

God almighty.

Who is this person?! 😭

She tears me the fuck up in almost every episode I've seen her in. Most of the tears I’ve shed since starting the show have been because of her. She's so fucking incredible.

Part of me wishes she’d been cast as June.

Alexis Bledel is the perfect example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover—or typecast someone based on their earlier work. We know studio executives typecast, but we everyday viewers do it, too. We say things like, “I could never imagine so-and-so in this role,” based on something they did in their early twenties. Robert Pattinson comes to mind. He’s been trying to run away from his Twilight shadow for years, and if you’ve seen him in his latest movies…phenomenal. The same goes for Alexis.

She gives me chills.

Dude, I'm not even a cryer. But every ep, I'm in tears. I just finished season 2, and of course I cried again. I'm just one big emotional wreck. 😭

Sorry, this message isn't substantial. I had to share and see if anyone relates.

Her choice to give her baby daughter to Emily and go back for Hannah was absolutely insane. The baby is still nursing. She might cry on the way to Canada, she might get hungry, so many possibilities.

Going away at that moment wouldn't mean abandoning Hannah, but rather gathering strength and resources to come back for her at a smarter moment. This pissed me off so much I'm unable to start season 3.

What if a commander was divorced before the takeover, would he suffer any consequences like a divorced woman? Or he would be immediately married to a "suitable" match so goes on par with Gilead rules?

I havent read the books so maybe its explained more there. But there are few women with the ability to even get pregnant. Wouldnt they be treated in a very special way? They are treasures in that world. God has "chosen" them to be able to continue life. I cant imagine theyd be treated as second class citizens. Feels like theyd get all the special treatment because without them the population dies. They have what everyone wants. I feel like they'd be more valued than turned to slaves.