As a younger sibling who grew up watching my older brother play complicated games, I find it oddly comforting to put on a let's play. Especially since I don't have a lot of time these days to invest in gaming. But it's hard to find good ones where they play games I like and the commentary is not shouty and obnoxious.

Dunk and Egg!

Another fantastic episode! Moss, Wiley, Down, and Strahvoski continue to knock it out of the park with their performances.

FWIW, in the hospital scene you very briefly see some nonwhite Commanders/Wives in the family portraits. That basically confirms one of the questions I had about how they would be dealing with race and white supremacy in the Gilead hierarchy.

Actually I hope it's a red herring and it turns out to be Ofglen. It would fit with her being in the Resistance, her wife being Canadian, and maybe forming part of an underground railroad. Moira still has more book storyline to go through in Gilead.

Re: not being allowed to read, I think there was already a pretty big hint in Ep 1 when Offred was talking to Ofglen along the wall, and Ofglen was talking about her old job in the library and how Offred said it would sound amazing to read even the dry old research she used to handle.

Yea, I don't get it either. I wouldn't call the epilogue "providing closure" at all— Offred's fate is left uncertain, and the cold, academic way they describe Gilead was unsettling after reading an entire book based on one woman's experiences.

Celeb cameos feel like such a weird, unnecessary addition at this stage in the game. The Sigur Ros one at the wedding at least felt organic, and they're not immediately recognizable— but there's no way to make this look like something other than "popstar Ed Sheeran at a Ren fair."

Oh God, this is Hitler and the art school all over again isn't it? Someone get this overgrown liver spot into Juilliard before we get another Reich.

I kinda liked how ambiguous the original teaser was. Now that I know it looks like Cabin Fever meets Cloverfield Lane, I'm a teensy bit less excited to see it. Still, A24 and the Krisha director being in charge are both good signs I suppose

What did you see? I've always been curious about this sighting.

I think that's part of the point, that they have basically made the Gestapo look and sound pretty bureaucratic and mundane.

The race aspect still straddling a slightly ambiguous line for me, because on the one hand multiracial characters clearly exist in Gilead (as soldiers and handmaids, for instance), but on the other all the top dogs are clearly lily white. I'm fine with it being different form the book, but hopefully they continue to…

Her "quietly desperate" character on Mad Men made me quite optimistic actually. I actually really enjoyed her subplot with Pete, although I may be in the minority with that. Happily she's getting to show even more range here.

Cash to support the regime is the obvious guess. In return, the free nations look the other way to enable trade with Gilead to happen, so they are also somewhat complicit. More or less how the world works now, if you think about it…

I'm not going to shed tears for rich people anytime soon, but not getting what you paid for, fair-and-square, sucks no matter who you are.

The 1 Word, 10,000 Tone Language!!! Mandarin speakers hate him!!!!

That's covered in the 300-level course, "You Just Don't Understand Their Warlike Culture, Man, Also The Vikings Are Cool."

And to top it off (this goes out to the parents who think this is a waste of money): the instructor is not just some academic professor whose income comes from teaching and research, it's literally a guy who made a ton of money from his conlangs. And I think the demand will get higher as the interest in sci-fi and…

I think Fallon works best as a supporter on a team. He at least has some sense of playing a character and comedic timing. The world made a terrible mistake by putting him in a solo role (I mean, I get it— an inoffensive young white dude was basically a shoe-in for a Tonight Show lead).