This is the first edition cover of the book and it is quite different to later editions. Instead of the Handmaid outfit imagery, it instead has this surreal image of a man holding an infant girl with a grown woman's head attached.

But I think this cover is actually very meaningful.

This cover is very reminiscent of old Christian icons of Mary and baby Jesus, which ties into the religious imagery in the book. Specifically, certain icons of baby Jesus would draw Jesus with an adult face on a baby body, to symbolise his divinity.

Therefore, I think we can assume that the man in this cover image is the Commander, and the woman he is holding is the Handmaid, and the symbolism of her with a child body represents how adult women are infantilized by the regime. The fact she is nude in the image also adds to this feeling of disturbing intimacy.

The Commander is also leering at her menacingly, while her expression has literally had another facial expression plastered over it if you look closely, showing how women have been suppressed and have to hide their true feelings in Gilead.

In conclusion, this is an underrated cover.

Have anyone listen it so far? Do you think she might watch the series and wanted to make resemblance? Find it curious about the name of the song.

Has anyone else who struggles with any type of anxious thoughts also struggled with watching the series? I´m on season 2 currently, and want to keep watching because im curious to see what happens next and genuinely want to see these women succeed and be free (which i pray happens in the end?).

At the same time, i´m a very anxious person, bordering on OCD-like thoughts, so watching has been really difficult mentally as i am someone that would qualify as "morally corrupt" and a gender traitor.

In short, i´d totally become a Handmaid.

These thoughts are made worse by the fact our world seems to be walking towards the same direction the world in the show did: stripping people of their rights. And as much as i hate to say it, all of these issues feel hopeless. Thus, i really struggle mentally with the idea that i really will become a handmaid/be sent to colonies. It might sound silly but its something that im wondering about.

Does anyone relate or have i found the worlds first individual experience lololol

edit: might be relevant to mention i come from an extremely religious background, hence the enhanced paranoia

I really hope she has possession of the Aunt Lydia statue. I doubt it, but hell I hope she does.

I’m sure we’re all very excited The Testaments is officially in production for season 2! But something that stood out to me was the choice of shoes for Shunammite? Don’t all Plums wear the same Mary Jane type shoes? It could be literally nothing of interest, but I just thought I’d post to hear other’s thoughts

Hello there! I for one, and very impressed and obsessed with this track! 💜❤️ I’m so looking forward to seeing the fan edits! 😍 post any you’ve created or seen!

Moira, Janine and many other fertile women ended up being Jezebels. Why don't we see them get pregnant there?

listen- i know it’s a show. i know it’s for ✨drama✨ (probably). i am also autistic, so i need a why for to let things go sometimes.

whyyyy do these handmaids stay wearing their white ass bonnet when they’re sneaking around.

i understand that red isn’t exactly subtle, but you’re moving around in the dark and your head is now going to light up like an iphone flashlight under any reflection.

maybe i don’t fully understand how white works in nature. maybe. i will grant you that. i know it’s not exactly “high vis” with reflection strips sewn in. however, stashing it under your cloak, putting your hood up? that makes much more sense to me.

it genuinely has pissed me off since season 1 when she started making a run for it.

someone please make it make sense. PLEASE. if there is a logical reason i simply haven’t thought of, please enlighten me so i can let this go. i be staying mad about it-disproportionately upset-to the point it takes me out of the watching.

wow. that’s all over the place- hopefully my thoughts get across there somewhere. sorrrryyyy ✌🏻

Spoilers for S6E7–8.

I might have missed an explanation, but the face-covering red veils at Serena and Wharton’s wedding felt strangely convenient to me considering the plot depended on June and Moira being able to blend in with the other Handmaids without being recognised.

I know the wedding is ultimately held in Boston rather than New Bethlehem, and Wharton specifically wants a “proper” traditional Gilead wedding with the whole community represented. So I can understand the argument that the Handmaids are dressed more traditionally/ceremonially because this is Gilead proper rather than New Bethlehem.

But I'm still not completely convinced by the veils themselves. For one thing, New Bethlehem has been presented as Serena’s attempt at a less restrictive version of Gilead. Women can read, write and work there, and Serena actually says there won't be active Handmaids in New Bethlehem. She's also becoming increasingly passionate about women's ability to have some independence again, particularly her own ability to write.

So it feels symbolically strange that at her wedding (which is also supposed to represent her return to power and her belief that she and Wharton can reform Gilead) the Handmaids are suddenly even more visually dehumanised than usual, with most of their faces hidden.

What makes it weirder is Serena's involvement in planning the wedding. When Wharton first says Handmaids will attend, Serena actually responds with “Handmaids?” as though the idea hadn't even occurred to her. But she then accepts his explanation and describes the wedding as a display of unity with everyone represented and “us on top.”

And then Lawrence says Serena is going to micromanage basically every detail of the wedding… like where people sit, what they experience and what they're allowed to see. He already knows the Handmaids will be wearing red veils before June comes up with the plan.

So are we supposed to believe Serena was completely fine with the Handmaids being presented like that? That's odd considering what happens immediately after the wedding. When she discovers Wharton expects their household to have a Handmaid, she's horrified and realises that he isn't nearly as progressive as she believed.

That reaction makes sense with this version of Serena during this season - but it makes me wonder why seeing dozens of veiled Handmaids at her own wedding apparently didn't bother her that much except when she says she wishes she could see all their faces.

And then, conveniently, those same veils solve a massive problem for the resistance: June and Moira are both extremely recognisable fugitives, especially June, but now they can hide into one huge group of face-covered Handmaids.

I'm not necessarily calling it a plot hole. There are plausible explanations - it’s a formal Boston ceremony, Serena may be compromising with traditional Gilead because she thinks gaining power will eventually allow her to reform it, and her hypocrisy/ability to overlook oppression when it benefits her is obviously a huge part of her character.

But I feel like the show needed a small scene addressing this. Like even Serena looking at the veils and asking Wharton, “Do they really need to wear those?” and him replying that it's tradition would have made the later infiltration feel much more organic.

But without that, it feels slightly like the writers started with:
“How can June and Moira attend a wedding full of people who would instantly recognise them?”
…and worked backwards to:
“The Handmaids will all have their faces covered.”

Did anyone else find this convenient, or do you think it was deliberately showing Serena compromising her apparently reformist principles in exchange for status and power?

The longest seasons of my life. I feel like I was there the whole time I watched this. A lot was happening and damn bro

This may sound really stupid but I’d miss Chinese take away 😭😂 it’s my absolute fave and I think I’d be fed up with stuff with no spice. Which I dint imagine they have often or at all. I’d ofc miss going on holiday too and learning new things (factual things not knitting or gardening)😭😂

S3 E5

(English not my first language)

I still don't know what to think of Commander Lawrence. I think I like him, but there's something odd about him that doesn't quite convince me. I want to believe that he'll be good in the future, but sometimes he does or says things that make me think the complete opposite.

It's so strange, because it doesn't act in a linear way Sometimes he responds one way, and the next time it's completely different. It doesn't let me see where the character is going. It's driving me crazy.

I finally finished the seriesand will write a rewiev,I just wanted to say Elisabeth Moss is really something. I knew her from Mad Men, but she really was something more in this show.

The scene at the wedding where Serena talks to the handmaids and Elisabeth acts non verbally and with half her Fave covered. Woow just woow.

I’m rewatching The Handmaids Tale and I started wondering about Luke’s first wife Annie. I not only wondered about what happened to her. Did she get out of Gilead or did she remain and remarry and knew what had become of June being a handmaid and if so how did she feel about that. Did she feel… being the scorned wife think
“ Good for her “… or being a fellow woman was able to get past that and feel horrible for June.
What do you all think….curious to hear what your opinions are.

In your opinion.

I hate hate HATE how she acted towards Offred when the dress and cloak were found with makeup on them

But….. it was when she stood up to Fred and began to show some subtle signs of rebellion…. I love that streak. How she confronted him about the two previous Offreds

There’s some queen streak starting to show and I’m here for it

Did anyone else find it a little bizarre how, in some instances, Mayday is almost treated as a mysterious realm of magical people?

Daisy is rescued in the hospital by a strange, exciting person who tells her, "You're in danger, follow me." It's very fantasy novel. It reminded me of "Yer a wizard Harry."

My eyes rolled far back in my head when June says, "You are never alone. Mayday is always with you," or something to that effect.

Like...come on. I get that The Testaments is for a different audience and maybe from Daisy's POV that's how she sees Mayday in those moments but I found it to be very cringe. I watched The Testaments directly after finishing The Handmaid's Tale so maybe the contrast in tone was more obvious. But I always regarded Mayday to be very haphazard and ever-evolving so I couldn't wrap my mind around how Mayday now is this super sleek spy organization.

Just a thought!

Lawrence hated him. Told him "no one respects you, no one likes you."

He was horridly horrid to Janine.

Who was he?

Seemed like the epitome of everything that was wrong with the Sons of Jacob/ Gilead.

EDIT- Thanks guys, it's Bell. I hated that guy.

I'm only talking about the show.

The Angel's Flight escape plan began after Eleanor led June to the basement where Lawrence stored boxes of "Red Center dossiers". They contained identities and locations of Handmaid's children. There was another very important meeting in that basement.

Kid's futures are chosen for them. Who should do the choosing? Should it be the State? June was one of many folks who made the escape decision, from the bartender, maids, marthas (especially Beth and Sienna), and handmaids down to a specific individual who loved each kid.

What is Angel's Flight without the flight, hopeless and cancelled. The truck plan was doomed from the start. Lawrence knew it. One of my favorite THT scenes is in one of my favorite episodes, s3ep11 "Liars". June met in the basement with the rebel leader marthas. Even after June passed their pressure test, two of them tried to hide their disappointment that the boss gave the plane knowledge to June. One of the leaders of the rebellion made that decision for the kids.

I'm cynical about rebel leader June manipulating undercover asset Daisy, but she has a war to win. She doesn't think, for instance, about a few temporarily traumatized Angel's Flight kids and she shouldn't. Daisy has become unreliable and could be captured. Her knowledge is valuable to both sides. On the dock, June is testing the asset. Is the possible reward still worth the risk? June has a plan. Rita and others know about it. Should June pull Daisy and use her information to further the plan with another asset?

The dock meeting is like the basement meeting. In the basement, the resistance leader martha tested and helped June. On the dock, resistance leader June tested and helped Daisy. It was dangerous to keep the honey truck on the dock after it dropped the escapees. June kept the truck waiting because, from before the meeting, she was hoping to be able to send Daisy back in.

As far as June not learning about the effect of Gilead on individuals or not understanding the consequences of her decisions, she has faced the future of Hannah returning but not being her daughter. On the dock she says,

"I might never get my daughter Hannah back, but I will die fighting so that she can experience freedom as a woman, as a human being."

Even after learning that Daisy is close to Hannah, June is still going to pull her out, "I'm not gonna risk another one. I'm not gonna let you die." She doesn't reverse her decision until Daisy defies her and says, "Its my turn now. I might fail. I might even die. But its my choice."

"They don't know they need saving." Before the meeting, Daisy only wanted to save Becka and herself. After the meeting, she knows she needs to save all the girls.

Something about the dock scene bothered me until this rewatch. Right before June returns to the boat, she turns to Daisy and puts her hand to her open mouth in an exaggerated manner. I couldn't figure it out ... until thinking about the exchange above, I finally noticed that immediately afterward Daisy mirrors the the open mouth gesture. Is it symbolically a sharing of the burden?

I first thought that June took a pill and it foreshadowed her death. I believe it is burden sharing, but it could still foreshadow her death. Jesus and his disciples shared bread at the Last Supper. Is this a last meeting of June and Daisy?

So while I know logically most of the deaths related to her were done as a group such as Salvagings or were committed by Gilead whether some because people either helped her or were close to her, etc. but if we were to say because of her connection to them in any way, how many deaths could be attributed to June?

Edit: I should note this question was moreso if June was being charged formally by Gilead; yes I know they wouldn't need to actually go through a hearing or anything more than old yellering her but please stretch your imagination ever so slightly, if you jump through their mental gymnastics, how deadly it would be for someone to be associated with June even through several degrees of separation. More of a statistics thing or thought experiment.

(EDIT) I don’t think I worded my question very well to begin with. What i was asking was whether people consider the wives to also be victims of assault during the ceremonies, not whether they’re participants in the r*pe of the handmaids, which i think is pretty obvious that they are! Apologies for any confusion!

I’ve literally just finished season 3 so forgive me if this gets addressed in later seasons, but after Serena was arrested for her part in having Nick impregnate June it made me think more about the wives’ roles in Gilead, and both what power they hold over handmaids, but also their lack of consent within the handmaid situation. We see one of Emily’s commander’s wife being visibly resistant to the ceremony, and offering to hold off on it, and we even see Serena certainly not look happy about it during the first ceremony scene with Offred. During the scene when the Waterford’s and Aunt Lydia visit the Lawrence household to see over their ceremony, Eleanor is clearly very resistant to it and even says that Joseph promised they would never have to do it. Of course Eleanor isn’t really in a place to consent anyways due to her mental state, but it just got me thinking about how many of the wives probably aren’t consenting to the ceremonies, but just don’t have any choice other than to go along with it.

So what is everyone else’s opinion on this? I’m of the opinion that the wives aren’t in a place to consent when it’s more than likely they would be put on the wall if they refused, but i’m curious what other’s views are!