So this is the first episode I had trouble with because all the others have, more or less, stayed true to the book and this one felt like a more radical departure.

Yeah, I don't know if I'm sad or glad that Offred's mom didn't make the cut on the show. I disagree with Atwood's views on radical feminism — essentially, the alliance between Christian conservatives and anti-porn, gender-segregation rad!fems is what allowed Gilead to happen (during the birth scene, Offred thinks,…

Atwood's views on feminism are a bit more nuanced than that. She's​ definitely not a fan of radical feminism (see Offred's mother in the book), but she has acknowledged that she is a feminist.

I dunno. A monthly reminder of your failure as a woman in a society that only values women for their ability to propagate the species has got to be pretty durn humiliating.

"Like Ward. I'm just like Ward!" Yep, I was right.

It's not ambiguous in the novel. The guys who come to arrest Offred are Nick's subordinates. He leads her away with them from the Waterford house. What's kind of ambiguous is whether he's a loyal Eye or a double agent with MayDay, but given that Offred recorded what becomes The Handmaid's Tale after she left the…

That's not in the book, btw. In the book, she suggests slash orders that Offred sleep with Nick to get knocked up, and even takes Offred to the steps leading up to Nick's apartment, but it's not in the middle of the day (WTF, that's asking to get caught and SJ knows better), and she certainly doesn't stick around to…

Luke and June/Offred's hotel encounters are part of the novel, and I always wondered why Atwood would go to the trouble of establishing that this couple began their relationship before Luke ended his first marriage. I mean, I get that June needed a flaw for the regime to exploit to explain why she became a handmaid in…

I saw it as the show's commentary on the last election cycle; how the Deplorables struck a chord with poor, "disenfranchised" Whites (even though the Deplorables have no interest in raising those people up, are chipping away at the benefits that keep them afloat, and people like the Koch brothers are directly…

Also also, I'm guilt tripping over my morbid curiosity, when the social media response from women in the queer community is overwhelmingly, "Holy shit! I'm gay and that scene made me burst into tears."

Yeah, I know what I wrote is a bit winded, but you missed reading the part where I mentioned the reveal that she can still bare children and the preview for ep 5 where she shows up in a red dress and wimple.

I know she's not going to Jezebel's.

Agent 3D Print Me The Hell Outta Here.

I'm convinced now that Evil!Hydra!Fitz is a deliberate attempt to fuck with Jemma's head. Notice how she has been super judgy toward Ward (albeit, rightfully), while insisting that Leo is a good man despite his actions in the framework. The show is essentially saying, "Environment, circumstance, and choice inform a…

ALSO!

The Waterfords are June's second posting, which lasts months, and Moira's escape attempt is from back when they were still at the Red Center, so I doubt it.

Plus, there's a season one preview up on Hulu that has a shot of Moira dressed in a black bustier, silk negligee, and red lipstick. And that comes after a shot of…

Rumor has it that the showrunners plan to stick to Serena Joy's origin story from the book: she was a Tammy Faye Bakker-esque televangelist, with a dash of Phyllis Schlafley. But people have pointed out that they have a great opportunity, given Yvonne Stahovski's age and looks, to turn Serena Joy into a Fox News…

In the epilogue of the book, it's revealed that the Gileadean regime lasts a depressingly long 100 years.

Todd Van der Werf over on Vox, formerly of AV Club, said the same thing about the ending. What kind of indoctrination does AV Club subject you to, that your reviews come out the same?

The kids worked on a pot farm one episode. It would have been a nice callback to have Gene say, "Ugh, this place smells like Cooper and Beverly's living room!"

The Winthorpe Manor episode felt a bit like The Equestranauts: a loving parody of a rabid fandom that is mostly respectful, but super biting toward a specific subset of said fandom. As a card carrying Downtonian, I can attest that there are a number of fans who fail to grasp that the show is actually a commentary on…