Instead of taking care of the infant who needs her attention and breast milk (the importance of breast feeding has been stressed heavily in prior episodes), June grasps at the dream of rescuing her first daughter, Hannah, from Gilead. It is difficult to believe that June would let Holly go so easily. She could have at least stayed with Holly and reunited with Luke, assuming that the van makes it to Canada. June cannot have Nick and Luke and Hannah and Holly and freedom all at once. Are they all supposed to live happily ever after in polyamory? A messy fit with three out of five (how would Luke react to June showing up with another man’s baby?) was within her grasp, but June put Holly in the van instead. Nick, Serena, Rita and numerous Marthas all put themselves at risk so that June could save baby Nicole/Holly from growing up in Gilead. June throws their efforts away. Season 2 was full of themes related to a baby’s need to be near its biological mother. June’s decision to pass the baby to Emily feels like a betrayal. The child is being sent on a five-hour-plus van trip (check Google Maps for the drive time from Boston to the Canadian border) to a place where nobody has any biological or adoptive tie to it, on the impulsive trust that Emily will take responsibility for her. Emily, however traumatized, is unlikely to throw the baby out the window. But Emily has enough to deal with. Any of the players in June’s life would be justifiably infuriated with her, and likely to punish her in some way. Fred will be mad that his status symbol is gone. Serena Joy will be mad that she gave up “her” baby, who will now have nobody to look after her. Nick could be mad that June abandoned their child, and Rita should be mad that the Marthas went to so much effort on June’s behalf, only for her to turn around and stay. The show is focused on Gilead. We want the characters that we care about to escape, but letting too many escape too early in the series arc would leave the viewer with too few major character POVs based in Gilead, plus Elisabeth Moss signed a long-term contract. At this point, the suspense in The Handmaid’s Tale is no longer when or how Offred will escape Gilead. It’s what contrivances will be found to keep her there.<doc-sep>When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Sign up fornow for the biggest moments from morning TV WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale season 2 and potential spoilers for the finale The Handmaid's Tale season two finale is almost here after what has been an intense and gripping season. Titled The Word, episode 13 is set to be an explosive end to the season. Last week’s instalment saw June (played by Elisabeth Moss) separated from her baby, Holly but was ultimately reunited with he ray the end of the episode. The shocking events of the last season included Eden (Sydney Sweeney) and Isaac (Rohan Meade) publicly executed in a swimming pool for eloping. This devastating moment appears to have caused a change in Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) as she let June nurse Holly at the end. Fans have gone into overdrive speculating about what will happen in the finale, with many questioning if this shift in Serena Joy will somehow lead to June’s escape. HOW TO WATCH THE HANDMAID'S TALE SEASON 2 FINALE<doc-sep>The Handmaid's Tale season 2: Producer hints at MAJOR season finale twist amid shock death FREE now for the biggest moments from morning TV SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow for the biggest moments from morning TV When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. The Handmaid's Tale: First look at Russia's episode 12 WARNING: This article contains spoilers from the The Handmaid's Tale season 2 Eric Tuchman, the writer and producer of The Handmaid’s Tale, has teased the end of season two following the death of controversial character, Eden (played by Sydney Sweeney). In the most recent episode, teenage bride Eden and her lover Isaac (Rohan Mead) was executed after they refused to repent their love for one another. The besotted pair were drowned in a swimming pool as a horrified crowd, including Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) watched on. Eric described the cruel killings as “impactful” and “horribly beautiful” before elaborating on their punishment. Our audience will see things and confrontations they have been hoping for Eric Tuchman, writer and producer of The Handmaid’s Tale “First of all, it’s a character that seems to be really polarising for the audience… she seemed like such a pious and true believer, and as it turns out, it’s those very qualities that get Eden in trouble,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “She’s really one of the most honest people in this whole community. I find her death obviously really tragic, but it’s horribly beautiful in a way, too.” Suggesting Eden’s death may serve a purpose in the finale, he teased: “Eden’s execution really galvanises Offred (Elisabeth Moss).” He continued: “It triggers some very strong reactions and actions from her and, as a result, our other characters.” Eric promised viewers the finale would be “very surprising, powerful and emotional”. The Handmaid’s Tale season 2: Eric Tuchman is the writer and producer of the series What influenced The Handmaid's Tale? Tue, June 6, 2017 What influenced The Handmaid's Tale? From Environmental issues to and Serena Joy and Ronald Reagan. Play slideshow Hulu 1 of 13 The Handmaid's Tale The writer and producer added: “Our audience will see things and confrontations they have been hoping for.” Max Minghella, who plays Eden’s husband Nick, said filming the death scene was “devastating” and “horrible”. He told Harper’s Bazaar: “There’s something really devastating for Nick about his inability to persuade Eden to just play the game and get out of there alive. “Her piousness makes it impossible. I remember [her drowning] being a horrible scene to shoot. “It’s rare that the darkness of the show envelops the set—it’s normally quite a playful set, even when we’re shooting dark s**t — but that drowning scene was really devastating for all of us.” The Handmaid’s Tale season 2: Eden was executed along with her lover Isaac The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 episode 13, The Word airs soon<doc-sep>She Cannot Read His Word. Serena Joy wanted a baby. But babies grow up. June questions Serena’s ability to protect baby Holly/Nicole, bravely taking the book to Mrs. Waterford in the greenhouse and pointing out that Eden was trying to understand God. Unsurprisingly, Serena Joy blames Eden. June doesn’t back down. How, she asks, will Nicole understand the word of God when she is not allowed to read it? Eden’s Father Turned Her In. Eden must have been horribly lonely until she met Isaac, with no means of communicating with her parents or her sister, and a distant husband who avoided her company. It must have been heartbreaking for Eden when her own family turned her and Isaac into the authorities when they arrived at the Spencer farm. Purity and the state were more important to them than her survival. Fred is a judgmental jerk to Eden’s father, while Serena is gentle and sympathetic to Mr. Spencer. This is a 180 from early in Season 1, when Serena seemed like the harsher Waterford, and Fred came across as a conflicted guy with some guilt issues. [ The Slap Heard Round the Room. “What are you gonna do when they come for your daughter?”, June asks Fred as he walks to the parlor door. He closes the door and slaps her hard across the face. His violence is unsurprising. There’s nothing unusual about a woman being slapped in Gilead, but a man getting slapped by a woman is noteworthy. And that’s exactly what happens next. June is fearless. She slaps Commander Waterford across the face so hard that his hair flies loose from it waxy pomade. Fred responds by grabbing her face and misquoting a biblical verse: “The mouth of a woman is a deep pit / He that falls therein will suffer / You are the misery of all men.” A cursory Google search will reveal that the first line is a paraphrasing of Proverbs 22:14, and that Fred has left out crucial adjectives that vary between translations, and that the phrase “You are the misery of all men” is not a part of that verse from Proverbs. It isn't even in the Bible. Fred is making things up to suit his own purposes. His words serve as a reminder that women in Gilead face permanent, surgically enforced silence for talking back. What if Offred is in danger of having her tongue cut out like Ofglen II/Lillie Fuller? Elisabeth Moss can carry episodes on face acting alone, but please don’t force her to. June is way too good at repartee. Meet Daddy. June and Nick finally have a family tableau moment alone with Holly while Rita keeps guard. They almost look like a normal family if you overlook the bonnet, but every second feels perilous. June finally tells Nick that she loves him. June still loves Luke, too. Life in dystopia is messy. Emily Thawing. The next two scenes are all about two classes of women, first handmaids and then wives, sorting out their reactions to Gileadean Romeo and Juliet. June, Emily, Janine, and a silent rando handmaid encounter Isaac and Eden’s bodies hanging from the wall on their walk by the Charles River. They once seemed like the last ones likely to wind up there. Emily would have hated Eden if they had met, but that’s probably not important now. Emily has been anti-social since she got back from the colonies, but she’s finally reconnecting with June and bickering harmlessly with Janine. Emily admits that she’s happy that she got to come back and see June again, and that she keeps dreaming about her son, Oliver. A Life With Purpose. Meanwhile, in the respectable Putnam house, Serena and Naomi have a deeply coded conversation about their daughters’ prospects in Gilead—so deep coded that, stripped of context and emotion, it would seem that they were merely exchanging platitudes and small talk. Even having a coded, italicized conversation is taking a risk, as well as exercising their privilege as wives. It’s not shocking that they’d be worried about their daughters. The wives were all privileged before Gilead. Eden was a window into what they could fear for their daughters. I would love to hear what the wives had to say. Frankly, I can think of a bunch of seconds here and there that I would happy to cut in order to hear a couple minutes what they were saying to each other, in light of what happens later. Unceremony. Emily has nothing left to lose, so she takes it upon herself to play the avenging angel. Either she’s determined to not be raped again, or she wants to make sure that Bradley Whitford’s Commander Joseph Lawrence is punished for coming up with the colonies. However nice he is personally, he created death camps, and that makes him a war criminal. She arrives for the Ceremony with knife in hand. It’s a serrated knife, likely a steak knife, in the latest allusion to meat and cows. Emily is afraid. She’s very afraid. She also has a spine of steel. Several things are off in the room, as per usual in the eccentric House of Lawrence. There’s no sign of Mrs. Lawrence in the room, and the Small Faces' psychedelic, assertively cheerful “Itchycoo Park” plays in the background. Lawrence is annoyed that his Martha, Cora, isn’t around to fetch him orange juice, wonkily griping about the flawed economics of unpaid Martha labor: “See, this is the problem. How am I supposed to motivate employees if I can’t leverage salaries? Herzberg, huh!” The ceremony never happens. Lawrence brushes it off, telling Emily, “I’m not gonna do that with you.” He’s so brusque that he almost seems rude for doing her a mercy. Then again, no woman should ever have to feel grateful for not being raped. Not being raped should be a pretty basic expectation. Serena’s Amendment. The wives’s bid to stand for women’s literacy is made, not in the name of women’s rights, but for the sake of religious education. Still, Serena and the wives’ rebellion is thrilling to watch. “The Holy Scripture is a miracle.<doc-sep>
The Handmaid’s Tale: First look at season finale 'The Word' WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from The Handmaid’s Tale season two, episode 13. The Handmaid’s Tale came to a naturally dramatic end as the second season saw June (played by Elisabeth Moss) almost escape Gilead. Nick (Max Minghella) and Rita (Amanda Brugel) tried to help June but she ultimately decided to stay in for her daughter Hannah. However, in the third season, Nick could face repercussions for his actions. Viewers will remember Eden’s (Sydney Sweeney) horrendous punishment for trying to elope with her lover Isaac (Rohan Mead). The pair of them were murdered in a public execution as a result of daring to defy the Gilead system. So could the same tragic ending happen for Nick? However, it may be that Nick’s fate might not be quite so dire. Some fans think there could be a light at the end of the tunnel for Nick due to his status and have theorised on what’s next for him. Redditor user aGrlHasNoUsername posted: “I actually think Nick will be alright. He's an eye, so really, if comes down to his word vs. Fred's. The Handmaid's Tale season 3 spoilers: What will become of Nick? The Handmaid's Tale: season one recap Wed, April 25, 2018 Handmaid's Tale: season one recap. Play slideshow Hulu 1 of 18 Offred is a Handmaid, one of the few fertile women in the oppressive Republic of Gilead "I think he has a decent chance of getting out of this relatively unscathed, you know, other than losing his child and girlfriend. “I think Nick could actually have something to do with the aforementioned downgrading of the Waterfords.” A third instalment of the series has already been confirmed as it came after Hulu surpassed 20 million American Subscribers. The streaming site announced in a tweet: “We are thrilled to announce today that our Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Original Series The Handmaid's Tale will be returning for a third season!” However, it isn’t yet definitely known what will happen in the third run. The Handmaid's Tale season 3 spoilers: June decided to stay in Gilead for Hannah The Handmaid's Tale season 3 spoilers: Nick tried to help June get away