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Pleasing Shape posted:I don't understand why June was given the notes from other handmaids asking for help. If the resistance is trying to get the notes out of Gilead, isn't the house of a high ranking commander the last place you'd want to hide them in? How is June supposed to smuggle them out anyway? Did I miss something? The show has both subtly and explicitly noted that Gilead is an extremely closed society and there is a lot of debate and rumor about how terrible things are inside it. The leaders of Gilead are anxious to convince the rest of the world that they are totally legitimate and cool guys, while the resistance is trying to expose that those guys are actually a bunch of cult-crazy fascists with a penchant for human rights abuses. The fact that Gilead is having trouble establishing trade partners, Canada has set up refugee centers within its borders and is paying for the well-being of refugees, and the interest of the Mexican diplomats into how the population truly lives are all indications of the international skepticism towards this new government. This show has been pretty good about weaving the individual stories of the characters within larger narratives. So given that, I think it's pretty safe to assume these notes were not meant for June. We know Mayday tries to keep its cells and contacts isolated, so it is not surprising she hasn't received instructions on what to do next. My assumption is that if she weren't taken away she'd have eventually received instructions from another source on where to drop the package, and it would ultimately make its way out of the country to provide ammo against Gilead's claims that everything is hunky-dory. Rita retrieving the package leaves us hanging about whether it will be destroyed or Rita will find a way to join the resistance too. An aside: during Luke's episode emphasis was placed on getting the ex-Handmaid out in particular. I think this is not just because of the danger she's in, but also because she provides valuable evidence as a first-person witness to the re-education camps and the brutal treatment of Handmaids.
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Jun 19, 2017 05:16
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I think "Feeling Good" was a pretty heavy-handed choice, but in general I don't see an issue with mixing contemporary music. This is a contemporary setting, after all.
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Jun 19, 2017 05:18
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I got the impression that at this point in the story there were still a lot of questions from the rest of the world about what was really going on in Gilead. Imagine the real-world reaction to a new government established via a mix of subverting the existing government and armed rebellion--most countries (including the USA) would be pretty drat skeptical. Not only because of possible human rights violations, but concerns about both regional and economic stability. We know that rumors about the brutality of Gilead's system is making its way outside. Canada wouldn't be setting up those massive refugee centers if they thought everything was hunky-dory, and that's why the Mexican ambassador was so interested in the quality of life for the Handmaids and others. It would be a lot easier to make the argument to trade Handmaids if they were happy and not stripped of their rights and facing constant physical and sexual abuse. The desire for international approval and the trade partners that would result from it is one of the reasons Gilead is so closed off and why Waterford & Co were so invested in putting on the Happy Happy Dog-and-Pony Show for the Mexican delegation. Which is also why the resistance put its priority on smuggling out Handmaidens (as we saw in Luke's episode) and why the secret package was a bunch of letters from Handmaidens detailing their abuse and desire for freedom. It's not a pick-me-up for June. It's a political tool that's almost certainly supposed to get smuggled out of the country and used as part of the argument they're making that Gilead is too abusive and unstable to become an accepted member of the international community. June is just one stop along the railroad. I also thought that it was dumb for June to open the package and contrived that she got away with not bundling up the letters immediately, but that's a pretty small detail in an otherwise excellent series.
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Jun 22, 2017 21:33
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Seriously. It would not be realistic for them to depict Canada treating English-speaking refugees from the Gilead like poo poo. If swaths and swaths of private Canadian citizens started a political movement centered on opening up their homes to primarily Muslim, Arabic-speaking refugees from Syria, they sure as hell are going to be welcoming to refugees of a country that was their closest economic, geographic, and personal ally and is also mostly English-speaking people inculcated in a culture with similar Judeo-Christian and European ties. If they wanted to show struggling refugees left to survive on their own then they'd have to show them escaping by sea. Or maybe to Mexico, though it's debatable whether Mexico would treat refugees from the former USA the same way they treat refugees from Central and South America.
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Jun 23, 2017 20:22
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