Oh this is fascinating! I remember learning the pineapple = hospitality thing when I visited Colonial Williamsburg as a kid, but the slave trade link was omitted. Thanks for posting this.

I know a post-death Laura and let me tell you, she goes through my craft supplies like crazy.

Clyde's vengeance comes at his own, very measured pace.

"Then take me the fuck home" was killer.

Oh my god I simply loved this episode! I was so happy to get a deeper examination of Laura's character than we get in the book. Fantastic performances, especially Emily Browning and Betty Gilpin, and wonderful writing. I found myself simultaneously hating Laura for her shitty shitty actions, and loving her because I…

But if you don't believe in this show then when you die you'll just rot! (And if you do believe in the show you go to the great Golden Age Of TV In The Sky where everything's streaming 24/7 with original music in crystal clear HD. That's how it works, right? …Right?)

Not yet highlighted: Jared's sleeper of a line, "Everything up 'til that is just foreplay!"

I don't see anyone here throwing a tantrum except for you, friend, but thanks for playing.

You make a good point but OTOH there's so much racism and misogyny choking the world already, I don't know how enjoyable it'd be to watch a realistic portrayal of it on a primetime show every week. (I mean… "a realistic portrayal" vs. literally just watching pretty much any network show but let's leave that for now…)…

Gotta admit, when we got to Lozano sprinting across the screen in pristine Navy whites while accompanied by orchestral stings straight out of a slasher flick, I gave in and LOL'ed. (And then I cheered, because I have been waiting all season for this show to let Maggie Q off the leash already!)

I'm not sure how prosperous Gilead really is, though, appearances notwithstanding. The grocery store scene in the first episode indicated that oranges are a surprising (and expensive) luxury - it's not as though they're swimming in champagne and caviar. And Waterford said that they had to get the trade deal or their…

Yeah, now that you mention it I think this is key. There's a difference between book-Waterford wanting to kiss her (because monthly state-sanctioned rape is just so unromantic) and show-Waterford forcing her to kiss him to remind her once again - as if she could forget - that her body is not her own and she does not…

The bit that hit me the hardest this week was the utterly incomprehensible inadequacy of the ambassador's apology to Offred.

Snart appearance automatically bumps any episode up a full letter grade.

So many wonderful visuals in this episode, but I think my favorite was in the first scene, when the fire escape morphed slowly into a ziggurat and then a cliff leading to those beautiful desert dunes. Absolutely striking. (Tied with the ice crystals spreading across the copier's glass, now that I think back on it…)

Continuing the Italian cinema theme: the wedding guests jumping into the pool is a nod to "La Notte."

Haven't watched the last two yet, but so far "Thanksgiving" is top of the heap for me. (With stiff competition from "First Dates" and "New York I Love You.")

This reminds me of when I watched the first fifteen minutes of the Sense8 premiere with French dubbing last year. (No idea how this happened. Netflix was being whimsical, I guess?) "Well, this is a… bold choice… but okay…"

Boy, some of those performances were real turkeys, eh?

"Next time, my way."