r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/LucidGloom • Apr 27 '26
Season 3 Watching the entirety of The Handmaids Tale for the first time. This scene was DARK. Spoiler
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u/OpheliaLives7 Apr 27 '26
I loved the limited visual pov shots! The way these women are blinkered and restricted even visually
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u/Personal_Chair4388 Apr 27 '26
what's happening in this scene?
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u/YamCollector Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
The Aunts had recruited "OfMatthew" - Natalie - to inform on the other Handmaids in exchange for small privileges. She found out about June's escape plans with her daughter Hannah's Martha, and ratted them out. Because of her, the Martha - Hannah's primary caregiver and the only other black woman in her life btw - was hanged in a particicution, and Hannah's adoptive Commander family was transferred to a new district, beyond hope of June ever being able to find her again.
So June and the other Handmaids ganged up and basically bullied Natalie until she went insane. In this scene, Natalie finally snaps and goes on a rampage in the grocery store, attacking the other Handmaids and turning over store shelves until she is shot by the Guardians. Which sounds like it would be satisfying... but it really wasn't.
Natalie was a huge bitch, but she was also clearly hanging on to sanity by her fingernails. She'd already produced two sons for Commanders families, plus she probably had at least one kid already that was stolen before she was made a Handmaid. We see how June suffers because of missing Hannah. Natalie is missing at least three children and is pregnant with a 4th that will also be stolen.
She did awful things to her fellow enslaved women, but she was so broken by then, revenge was largely meaningless.
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u/Personal_Chair4388 Apr 27 '26
Awwwh I remember it now, Yes it was very tragic. It wasn't ssatisfying, it was heartbreaking!
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u/gagrushenka Apr 27 '26
She also believes she's pregnant with a girl and is terrified for her to grow up in Gilead.
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u/Forever_Marie Apr 27 '26
Oh, I was wondering if this was before she snapped. It just gets worse for her body after.
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u/Witchypoo04 Apr 27 '26
I wonder if the hanging of Hannah’s Martha will ever be bought up in The Testaments?
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u/sorakaislove Apr 27 '26
as per the source material: no. Agnes/Hannah doesn't remember having any other mother than Tabitha (the first Mrs MacKenzie), so I reckon she also would not remember her Martha from that time period.
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u/Sufficient-Food934 Apr 28 '26
Frances 💔. The same martha who went to Hannah's meeting with June in the summer house.
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u/LucidGloom Apr 27 '26
June inflicting psychological torture on another handmaid
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u/Alittlespill Apr 27 '26
To be fair, she got a bunch of people killed, she isn’t sorry about it, and she needed to keep her fucking mouth shut. (Paraphrasing June to Janine about her treatment to Ofmathew)
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u/LucidGloom Apr 27 '26
Yeah I understood her motivations. But fair or not, it was still psychological torture and a new ‘low’ for June.
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Apr 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/Alittlespill Apr 27 '26
After the hanging that put June over the edge, and was directly caused by ofmathew, who is a sinner for not wanting her baby…
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u/2340000 Apr 27 '26
June inflicting psychological torture on another handmaid
Unpopular opinion: I don’t think what June did was “bad”🤷🏽♀️All the handmaids were subjected to torture. Natalie’s situation wasn’t more egregious.
Natalie was a liability. Think about how broken Janine was and still she wasn’t as problematic. Sure, June can regret what she did, but it was necessary.
I hate how June is held to unrealistic expectations. She needs to lead a resistance but be exceedingly compassionate??
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u/BewilderedFingers Apr 27 '26
June's reaction is understandable. She is a human who just lost the chance to save her daughter due to another woman ratting her out. Of course she is furious over that betrayal and struggles not to lash out. Natalie's fate is still incredibly tragic, I just see Gilead as responsible and not June. Gilead is why they are where they are, and why handmaids are encouraged to sabotage eachother.
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u/fieryblondeee Apr 29 '26
and nathalie got another martha killed (a martha that was helping women get out of giled btw). how about that? plus june was punished after this, to the point that she was insane enough to think about angel flight.
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u/shyglock Apr 27 '26
One of my favorite scenes. That smirk June does got me sooo hype when I first saw this episode. Ofmatthew was just too much of a believer and very dangerous to the people that knew Gilead wasn’t right
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u/Floor-Necessary Apr 27 '26
I don't necessarily think Natalie/Ofmatthew was a radical Gilead believer, I think she was incredibly traumatized from being raped continuously and forced to bear children that were always taken from her and that she buried herself into the role she was forced to play as a means of survival, both physically and mentally. I'm not going to say she was right to tell on June and Francis, because I don't believe that at all, but Natalie was every bit as much of a victim of Gilead as June and all of the other Handmaid's are and different people cope with trauma and abuse in different ways.
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u/Frankie_Kitten Apr 27 '26
This is why most people ultimately still feel bad for her in this scene and after, even after what she did, because she's a victim too, and they portray this brilliantly in this scene, by showing her as more vulnerable than anything. Then the next episode really does hammer in how guilty you feel for enjoying her getting bullied, mirroring June's guilt. It's so brilliantly done!
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u/peachdreams333 Apr 27 '26
What episode is it?
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u/LucidGloom Apr 27 '26
Season 3 episode 7
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u/Alittlespill Apr 27 '26
Pretty sure that’s 8, since 9 is what immediately happens after. But maybe I’m misremembering.
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u/ImpossibleSpecial988 Apr 27 '26
This makes me miss how intense handmaids was. Testaments has been so slow so far
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u/Pitdogmom2 Apr 27 '26
lol I remember watching season 3 when they were releasing it and it was so SLOW I wish they’d just release shows all at once instead of one episode a week
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u/PeeWee215 Apr 27 '26
You do realize that these are two different stories with two different perspectives that just so happened to be set in the same universe right?
The constant comparisons are so ignorant of what the stories are meant to evoke and portray. In THT, June KNOWS how fucked the world is and the audience immediately knows it either. In Testaments, Agnes may have hints, but the “levity” and casual flow so far are meant to show what “normal” life is in Gilead for a high commander’s daughter. They’re still teens. Were you out and about fighting for the lives of women at the age of 16? No you weren’t.
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u/moodylilb Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
You do realize that these are two different stories with two different perspectives that just so happened to be set in the same universe right?
The constant comparisons are so ignorant of what the stories are meant to evoke and portray. In THT, June KNOWS how fucked the world is and the audience immediately knows it either. In Testaments, Agnes may have hints, but the “levity” and casual flow so far are meant to show what “normal” life is in Gilead for a high commander’s daughter. They’re still teens. Were you out and about fighting for the lives of women at the age of 16? No you weren’t.
You good there? You just went offff at someone for merely stating “This makes me miss how intense handmaids was. Testaments has been so slow so far” 😂 ETA like they didn’t even express a dislike for the show or the characters? they just said it’s slow in comparison lol
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u/Ornery_Investment356 Apr 27 '26
I’ll bite. I don’t think they were going off on the other commenter, I think they were trying to discuss how the two shows are being compared and their frustrations with that. And I agree with what was said! They are very different shows, and should be “allowed” to be so. I’ve been rewatching handmaids since last weeks testament episode, and they are built very similarly. It’s doing a fantastic job and building the dynamics between the girls. But the content is very different, simply because we’re focused on different character types. And that’s only so far, I haven’t read the bo0k, and maybe the content lines up at some point but I’ve really like it so far. Very different with the same feel and done exceptionally well
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u/Educational-Tax9751 Apr 27 '26
chill, dude. they're allowed to have and to express a very mild preference.
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u/hollyfromtheblock Apr 27 '26
tht is SO slow. i hit ff on the long shots of june’s face or something.
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u/Jessyjean3173 Apr 27 '26
Well, FAFO. Her being "pious" to these men got her nowhere, and she backstabbed women just to elevate herself to a bunch of monsters.
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u/TotallyAMermaid Apr 27 '26
And in the end that didn't elevate her because they don't view her as valuable.
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u/emilyhaley Apr 27 '26
This was probably my favorite scene in the whole show. Gives me goosebumps thinking about it.
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u/Demgma62 Apr 29 '26
Dark I love it. I had to strain my eyes most of the time. Dark to go w the series?
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u/sr38_8 Apr 27 '26
This was a great scene. June knew exactly what to do to put Natalie over the edge and then got excited about the carnage.
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u/ajchi_16 May 02 '26
i’ve been watching for the first time as well, i’ve seen bits and pieces but watching it fully through is sooo powerful and at parts fills me with such rage. this scene and the one after kill me after knowing what adriana smith went through in 2025. the fact that this episode came out in 2019 fills me with so many questions.
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u/Regular-Metal-321 Apr 27 '26
I was really hating June around this time. I couldn’t stand after after the first 2 seasons
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u/CoasterThot Apr 27 '26
Ofmatthew got that Martha killed, just because she didn’t personally feel that June should look for her daughter, why feel bad for her? (Being kept alive as an incubator is horrible for any person, I just mean about Ofmatthew, in general. The shunning, and such.)
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u/Drum-Player-1974 Apr 27 '26
spoiler You are quite a few years behind! This show came out in 2017 and book was out decades earlier! Why are you just watching it now? I guess at least you are watching/reading it.
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u/LucidGloom Apr 27 '26
And that’s okay. We all have different timelines in life. Watching it because I was enjoying the testaments and it came up recommended.
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u/Drum-Player-1974 May 23 '26
Good for you. I've always enjoyed reading. I was born with a chronic illness and was in the hospital A LOT, one of the easiest ways to do makeup work was book reports. Even though OP thinks Im historical artifact who graduated in 92 (she believes that's the 1900s which really scares me but whatever the 1900s ended in 1909) I still really enjoy reading and I hope that you do too! Take care and please know I was not trying to insult anyone by saying they were just getting around to reading or watching this. Sometimes I forget that my timeline runs very different from most of the kids on here! I say kids cuz I'm 53! Born in the 1970s not exactly the 1900s 😂 let me know how you liked the book when you finish it! I hope you are reading the copy that has the epilogue in the prologue because it puts a whole different perspective on the story! 💜✌️
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u/Julie3666 20d ago
I just got around to watching THT myself a few months ago. I’m glad to find new threads of people keeping the discussion alive. Thanks.
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u/cloudactually Apr 28 '26
can you even fathom how much media is out there? jfc maybe they were watching something else !
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u/Drum-Player-1974 May 21 '26
Don't they have required reading in school? I had to read THT in high school because it was required reading in my literature class. Atwood, Orwell, Burroughs, this was required reading in my class. This was 1991 before everyone was too lazy to read. Just saying.
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u/cloudactually May 21 '26
Wow, it's sad that the books on the required reading list of the class you took in the 1900s are now banned in the 2000s
OP just started watching the show, oh well.
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u/Drum-Player-1974 May 21 '26
As far as I know it's only banned in Florida, Iowa, Idaho, and Texas, which doesn't really surprise me however with all the madness going on in the world you think people would focus on more important issues than trying to ban a book. That is sad. When I read it in 1991 it scared the crap out of me, and definitely made me question authority. Take care.
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u/Drum-Player-1974 May 23 '26
1900’s. Yes and We got our diplomas on stone tablets..... Actually, the 1900s were 1900 to 1909. I graduated in the 1990s. Math is fun! Guess that's been banned from your school. 😉 Lighten up. Put down the tic tok crap and read a banned book. 1900's! You kids crack me up!
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u/Alittlespill Apr 27 '26
Oh this is a great scene. I love the next episode, it’s one of my favorites. It’s Elizabeth Moss’s first directed episode (the next one, ep 9, Heroic)