The Handmaid's Tale: Motherland
October 26, 2022 12:19 PM - Season 5, Episode 8 - Subscribe
June receives a tempting offer from a surprise visitor. Serena hits rock bottom and searches for allies.
Ominous sound of jets at the end there. In Atwood's The Testaments Hannah and June aren't featured characters.
June runs down the street past what looked like a second-hand clothings store. Is this the last season of The Handmaid's Tale before the spinoff series?
posted by emelenjr at 7:23 AM on October 27, 2022
June runs down the street past what looked like a second-hand clothings store. Is this the last season of The Handmaid's Tale before the spinoff series?
posted by emelenjr at 7:23 AM on October 27, 2022
So my half-serious theory that Commander Lawrence is an alternate universe Josh Lyman seemed to be validated this time. ;)
posted by luckynerd at 8:44 AM on October 27, 2022
posted by luckynerd at 8:44 AM on October 27, 2022
Irony deficiency. The gall. I don't think Serena is redeemable. Even with these experiences and feeling the pain of losing her child. I am very curious to see how she deals with the Wheelers. Can she convince someone to marry her and take her back to Gilead or New Bethlehem? Will she set the Wheeler wife up somehow. I'm hoping she pushed her down the stairs. Then she can cry it out.
I am enjoying this season. June's pain and desperation for Hannah is palpable and had me in tears. Luke's helplessness and inefficiency compared to June's strength keeps showing up in different ways. The sad part is that he is really trying. I'm rooting for them but not very hopeful.
Seeing them all happy at the end of the episode and knowing there are only 2 episodes left in the season... Something will go wrong in the worst way. They was the video zoomed in on Hannah and how they showed her at the end. I know Tuello had to give June something but he should have had more restraint. I want to be wrong. I would love fo them to be reunited. It would be interesting to see them work through not being in Gilead and rebuilding a relationship.
posted by mokeydraws at 12:04 PM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am enjoying this season. June's pain and desperation for Hannah is palpable and had me in tears. Luke's helplessness and inefficiency compared to June's strength keeps showing up in different ways. The sad part is that he is really trying. I'm rooting for them but not very hopeful.
Seeing them all happy at the end of the episode and knowing there are only 2 episodes left in the season... Something will go wrong in the worst way. They was the video zoomed in on Hannah and how they showed her at the end. I know Tuello had to give June something but he should have had more restraint. I want to be wrong. I would love fo them to be reunited. It would be interesting to see them work through not being in Gilead and rebuilding a relationship.
posted by mokeydraws at 12:04 PM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I suspect that Hannah will not remember or will reject June and Luke, assuming they're even able to get her back at all (i really suspect the raid will fail). Hannah has known Gilead all her life and probably knows nothing of the brutality and control.
posted by kokaku at 6:23 AM on October 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 6:23 AM on October 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I agree on all points. Have we even seen children? They could be treated very well. Plus they don't know or remember any other way.
The whole purpose of Gilead, according to Lawrence, was to fix the low birth rate. The show doesn't actually focus on anything related to children. The bonkers Wheeler lady is obsessed with Serena, Serena's belly, but is completely disinterested in the actual baby. Doesn't think he should be held or comforted. I know it's never really about the babies or children but it is still sickening.
posted by mokeydraws at 8:58 AM on October 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
The whole purpose of Gilead, according to Lawrence, was to fix the low birth rate. The show doesn't actually focus on anything related to children. The bonkers Wheeler lady is obsessed with Serena, Serena's belly, but is completely disinterested in the actual baby. Doesn't think he should be held or comforted. I know it's never really about the babies or children but it is still sickening.
posted by mokeydraws at 8:58 AM on October 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think Esther counts as a child, especially as we first met her, also one who'd never really known anything but Gilead. Eden (Nick's first child bride, all the way back in season 1) was a child raised by true believers. Both of them seemed to have been raised in strict but not actually abusive conditions. We did see the issue with Janine's baby with the Putnam's where lack of affection caused a real issue. It looks as though children have all their physical needs taken care of but affection is "coddling" and children's emotional needs are not necessarily met. If they are, it may be by Marthas.
posted by Karmakaze at 11:03 AM on October 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Karmakaze at 11:03 AM on October 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Is this the last season of The Handmaid's Tale before the spinoff series?
There will be a final sixth season.
posted by roolya_boolya at 12:00 PM on October 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
There will be a final sixth season.
posted by roolya_boolya at 12:00 PM on October 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
After the thematic high of the previous episode this one felt a little clumsy to me. Too much setting up new plots. Sorry to hear there'll be a sixth season; I was hoping they'd wrap this up in a few more episodes. But this season has been good writing and interesting new story.
Particularly surprised to hear Lawrence's speeches about his goals and failures for Gilead, they seem to be retconning him into the guy in charge of the revolution and now. Perhaps he's bigger in his own mind. And he's a weird sort of True Believer, cynical about religion but absolutely committed to his own white savior complex. Probably a good liberal in his youth.
How do the Wheelers have such power in Canada? I think I get it. Serena is absolutely trapped; she's refused Canadian status so she is a Gilead subject, but she can't go back to the actual land of Gilead. So she has to make do with Gilead resources in Canada. Which apparently is the Wheelers, they must exist in a liminal area where they do nasty Gilead things in Canada when it's necessary or useful for the Canadian government. So now there's this woman no one knows what to do with, and her baby, and they need to stay on Canadian soil and yet be under Gilead. Not a lot of candidates for that so the baby ends up with the Wheelers. I framed Canada as "a fair, free, just country" in my comment on the last episode but that's only sort of true, and not in any way that is too difficult for Canada. They aren't going to kidnap Noah from Gilead, they're going to place him with the Wheelers.
Those New Bethlehem exterior shots are extraordinary. Reddit thinks it was filmed at Crystal Beach Tennis and Yacht Club in Canada near Niagara Falls.
posted by Nelson at 6:56 AM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Particularly surprised to hear Lawrence's speeches about his goals and failures for Gilead, they seem to be retconning him into the guy in charge of the revolution and now. Perhaps he's bigger in his own mind. And he's a weird sort of True Believer, cynical about religion but absolutely committed to his own white savior complex. Probably a good liberal in his youth.
How do the Wheelers have such power in Canada? I think I get it. Serena is absolutely trapped; she's refused Canadian status so she is a Gilead subject, but she can't go back to the actual land of Gilead. So she has to make do with Gilead resources in Canada. Which apparently is the Wheelers, they must exist in a liminal area where they do nasty Gilead things in Canada when it's necessary or useful for the Canadian government. So now there's this woman no one knows what to do with, and her baby, and they need to stay on Canadian soil and yet be under Gilead. Not a lot of candidates for that so the baby ends up with the Wheelers. I framed Canada as "a fair, free, just country" in my comment on the last episode but that's only sort of true, and not in any way that is too difficult for Canada. They aren't going to kidnap Noah from Gilead, they're going to place him with the Wheelers.
Those New Bethlehem exterior shots are extraordinary. Reddit thinks it was filmed at Crystal Beach Tennis and Yacht Club in Canada near Niagara Falls.
posted by Nelson at 6:56 AM on November 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Ok prediction for next season: Hannah comes to Canada, but wants to go back to Gilead. The whole next season is going to be teenage drama lol
posted by LizBoBiz at 3:21 AM on November 3, 2022
posted by LizBoBiz at 3:21 AM on November 3, 2022
I love the parallel this show sets up between June-the-former-Handmaid's sympathy and grace towards Serena-the-former-Wife when she's having her baby snatched, and my own (nonwhite-immigrant-in-America) sympathy and grace towards June-the-racially-privileged-American when she's experiencing anti-immigrant hate.
posted by MiraK at 7:07 AM on November 28, 2022
posted by MiraK at 7:07 AM on November 28, 2022
I don't understand Waterford's claim that he "saved humanity". From what we've seen of Canada, they seem to have continued breeding quite happily without Gilead, and I assume everywhere else outside America has too. Even if we take his claim at face value regarding the US itself, the remaining 95.5% of the world's population didn't need him in the least, did it?
June runs down the street past what looked like a second-hand clothings store. Is this the last season of The Handmaid's Tale before the spinoff series?
Something else I don't understand. Why is the second-hand clothing store significant?
posted by Paul Slade at 2:31 PM on December 11, 2022
June runs down the street past what looked like a second-hand clothings store. Is this the last season of The Handmaid's Tale before the spinoff series?
Something else I don't understand. Why is the second-hand clothing store significant?
posted by Paul Slade at 2:31 PM on December 11, 2022
Why is the second-hand clothing store significant?
Not positive but a second hand clothes store features significantly in Atwood's book The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. That book has not been source material for the TV show but maybe this was a nod?
posted by Nelson at 2:38 PM on December 11, 2022
Not positive but a second hand clothes store features significantly in Atwood's book The Testaments, the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. That book has not been source material for the TV show but maybe this was a nod?
posted by Nelson at 2:38 PM on December 11, 2022
From what we've seen of Canada, they seem to have continued breeding quite happily without Gilead, and I assume everywhere else outside America has too.
The entire premise of the show is that there is a world-wide fertility problem, which is being used as an excuse to control people. I think Gilead actually did increase their birthrate, more than the rest of the world. Season 1 has an ambassador come from Mexico, where they havent had a live birth in 6 years. I think the birthrate is literally the only thing that Gilead has to show the rest of the world.
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:46 AM on December 13, 2022
The entire premise of the show is that there is a world-wide fertility problem, which is being used as an excuse to control people. I think Gilead actually did increase their birthrate, more than the rest of the world. Season 1 has an ambassador come from Mexico, where they havent had a live birth in 6 years. I think the birthrate is literally the only thing that Gilead has to show the rest of the world.
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:46 AM on December 13, 2022
The entire premise of the show is that there is a world-wide fertility problem
Oh. OK - I must have known that at one point but I'd clearly forgotten it. I'm having that problem a lot with this season, actually: the ground rules set out in the early seasons have mostly slipped from my mind. Is anyone else finding this or is it just me?
posted by Paul Slade at 4:27 AM on December 13, 2022
Oh. OK - I must have known that at one point but I'd clearly forgotten it. I'm having that problem a lot with this season, actually: the ground rules set out in the early seasons have mostly slipped from my mind. Is anyone else finding this or is it just me?
posted by Paul Slade at 4:27 AM on December 13, 2022
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posted by kokaku at 3:38 PM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]