Tag: Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 7: No Man’s Land Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

In episode 7, June and Serena are on the run in No Man’s Land as Serena’s labor intensifies. Flashbacks show a birth both women attended in Gilead shortly after June was placed with the Waterfords.

June’s never ending, terrible, no good, very bad day continues.

Recap

Serena points the gun at the front of the car and tells June to drive. June does, but questions where Serena wants her to go and what Wheeler’s men did with Luke. Serena has another contraction and accidentally pulls the trigger, firing a shot through the windshield. She immediately starts apologizing, but June has had enough and stops the car.

She jogs away from the car as Serena tells her she’s not going to shoot her and tries to follow in the car. On her next contraction, she drives off the road and gets stuck in mud. June runs deeper into the forest, then stops and reconsiders.

This season’s motif of June, lost in the No Man’s Land Forest with a companion and in danger, continues. First she was with Moira, then Luke, now Serena. In the forest, June finds clearings, empty old buildings, inhabitants who live off the grid in odd buildings and other strange sights, such as the dead rapist, but whenever she enters it’s much more difficult than expected to get out. The only times she gets in and out safely are when Nick is involved. That might make him her protector or it might make him the Big Bad Wolf who’s in charge of the forest- or both.

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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 6: Together Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

Episode 6 picks up soon after the previous episode left off, with June and Luke in a prison van, on their way to an undisclosed location in No Man’s Land. Serena discovers that her morning doctor’s appointment will take place in the Wheeler’s attic, in a birthing suite they’ve furnished with the latest technology. Just to make sure she and the baby remain completely safe and in their clutches. Aunt Lydia finds out that Esther is three weeks pregnant, revealing Commander Putnam raped her when they were alone together at Fred’s wake. Outraged, Lydia takes the scandal to Commander Lawrence, who brings Nick in help handle the out of control Commander.

Recap

June (Elisabeth Moss) and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) are cuffed (should we say “ziptied” now?) for the long van ride to their captors’ detention center. Luke moans in distress and tries to break the zipties. June instructs him that it’s not worth wasting his energy this way, when there’s no chance of escape. When he asks if the kidnappers are from Gilead, she explains that it’s not likely, since the van has a disinfectant smell and Gilead shuns such strong chemicals.

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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 5: Fairytale Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

During episode 5 June and Luke go bowling in No Man’s Land, while Serena meets Commander Mr Wheeler and spars with Warren and Joseph. The message of the episode: Life is a fairytale, but one written by the Brothers Grimm, not by Walt Disney.

A few moments from the “Previously” stand out: Moira’s line delivery when she tells June that Hannah wont become a wife under any circumstances is so heartfelt; the tears in Luke’s eyes combined with the anger in his voice at the end of his meeting with Serena- she pushed all of his buttons after knowing him for less than an hour in total; the way Serena leans into Ezra as he escorts her out of the Information Center when they hear the gunshot- she’s looking for a man she can rely on; and Mrs Ryan Wheeler’s crazy eyes when she looks up at Serena as she caresses the baby in her womb- no way is she letting Serena keep that child.

Recap

The episode begins with one of June’s (Elisabeth Moss) iconic flashbacks to toddler Hannah (Jordana Blake) at the aquarium, a memory that both sustained and haunted June throughout her time in Gilead. The end of the flashback rewinds, then June wakes up to her phone buzzing. She was dreaming. The rewind was an expression of her fear that Hannah’s memories of her childhood with June and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) are disappearing and being replaced by memories of childhood in Gilead with the MacKenzies. By extension, she’s worried about the way Gilead is shaping Hannah as a person.

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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 Episode 1: Morning Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

It’s time to return to the world of Gilead for season 5 of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. When we left June (Elisabeth Moss) at the end of season 4, she and a group of former handmaids had just finished salvaging former Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) in the No Man’s Land between Canada and Gilead, after Mark Tuello (Sam Jaeger) and the US made a deal for a prisoner swap between the US and Gilead, then Nick Blaine (Max Minghella) and Joseph Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) handed off Fred to June after the swap. According to the terms of the deal, Fred was to be disposed of via Gilead’s justice system. According to Gilead’s justice system, the punishment for a rapist is death by salvaging, with the salvagings carried out by the handmaids of the district. Since the Eyes control the border, Nick had the authority to dispense the appropriate form of justice and to turn Fred over to the local handmaids to carry it out.

The terms of the deal with the US were met, 22 Marthas who were part of the resistance were saved and Fred got the ending he deserved according to the system he devised.

May the rest of the Commanders also find the same justice at their ends. Under His eye.

Season 5 picks up moments after season 4 ends. The enormity of what she’s done starts to hit June.

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The Handmaid’s Tale: Every Recap in Order

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

Links to every Metawitches post related to Margaret Atwood and Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, in order, so y’all can skip the tag. I’ll add future seasons (and the rest of S3) as they arrive.

Season 1

Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale: Watch the New Trailer– Series description and trailer analysis.

HULU’s The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1 Analysis and Commentary– Review and in depth analysis.

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The Testaments by Margaret Atwood: Spoilery Discussion

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Power of the Pen

My non spoilery review of The Testaments is HERE. This post will comment on the book in detail and assumes readers have already finished reading it.

This is going to be a series of observations and analysis, in no particular order, rather than a straight review. I’d love to hear what everyone else thinks and if you agree or disagree with me. There are minor spoilers for the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale.

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Book Review- The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

The Testaments Cover

“Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive. Already I am petrified.”

These are the opening words of The Testaments, written by one of the book’s three narrators, each of whom is already known to readers of the original book, The Handmaid’s Tale, and the acclaimed Hulu series based on the book. The words were written by the author of books, of course, Margaret Atwood, who once made a cameo appearance in the series as an Aunt.

In Gilead, Aunts are the caste of middle aged women who are in charge of other women, especially the handmaids. They are the only women who are allowed to be educated, including learning to read and write and having access to books.

In the novel, the author of these words reveals herself to be Aunt Lydia, spirited enforcer of the rules with a tendency to play favorites. The self awareness, dry wit and double entendre involved in the comment are indicative of the journey Aunt Lydia and Margaret Atwood are about to take us on. Lydia is honest with herself, if no one else, and has no illusions about what her place in history will be. But, unlike most of the women in Gilead, she chose her own destiny with her eyes wide open.

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HULU’s The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1 Analysis and Commentary

~ Metacrone

THTS1ArmyCrop

They Should Never Have Given Us Uniforms If They Didn’t Want Us to Be an Army.

After watching the 2017 Emmy Awards, Metamaiden and I finally got around to our long-planned rewatch of HULU’s The Handmaid’s Tale. We watched it when it aired weekly in the spring, along with everyone else, and loved it. I didn’t write weekly recaps because I know the book, having read it in the 80s, and I haven’t figured out how to write about ongoing series based on a book that I already know.

So, after binge rewatching the entire season, we present to you the compromise post: our typical season ending discussion.

 

Review

I’m not going to bother with much of a review. This series has won 8 Primetime Emmy Awards, and every one of the winners for Handmaid’s Tale deserved it. There could have been multiple winners in the various outstanding actress categories. The acting, cinematography, production design, and direction all deserve the many accolades they’ve received.

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Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale: Watch the New Trailer

~ Metacrone

Handmaid'sTale1.jpg

Hulu has released a new trailer for its upcoming series The Handmaid’s Tale. The trailer is set to air during Super Bowl LI on Sunday, February 5th. Hulu premieres the 10 episode series on April 26th.

In this trailer we get a glimpse of some the main characters: Elizabeth Mass as Offred, Joseph Fiennes as The Commander, Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy, Madeline Brewer as Ofwarren, and Samira Wiley as Moira. We hear The Commander and Offred having a conversation. He says they only wanted to make things better, but better doesn’t mean better for everyone. It reminds me of my favorite George Orwell quote, from Animal Farm: “All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.” In Gilead, they aren’t even pretending everyone is equal.

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