She had no idea what the deer were and concepts of relationships outside death. I think mentally a child is pretty fair. I think "several years" is reaching and isn't quite supported by what's on the screen.

Because it took the time to establish that for the first quarter? Third? Of the series that Ashi is a child soldier so divorced from human emotion and concepts of relationships and that her lack of humanity was literally burned into her body for the past twenty years

I feel that kind of devalues the relationships and connections he's made otherwise - why is it the romantic relationship that's the most important, other than helping people in distress?

Uh, I'd be careful with the latest episode of Harlots…

I'm reading her as Ivanka Trump and the commander as Jared Kushner. It's….kind of morbidly satisfying.

I need this show to go on, and I need more people to watch it, because I gotta talk to someone about it! I won't even mind the boob puns!

Well, yeah, but in media it usually isn't so full and a clear a sound.

I vote for split timelines. Jack goes back to the past, Ashi stays in the future to keep fighting the good fight.

there's also June being a derivative of Juno, goddess of marriage and spheres of influence including childbirth/fertility, motherhood, etc. Which would also be a a very Atwood classical touch

No, it's from early in the book in the Rachel and Leah Center, where they recite their true names in the dark at night. It ends with June, and all the other names have been accounted for with other characters. This led to speculation Offred, by order of elimination, was June

My mother, who enjoys historic fiction tv, tried to watch Reign.

This is kinda nitpicky, but I'm not really ready to call offred June either. I know it's a popular and kinda valid fan theory, but…yeah.

So, aside from horrific depictions of FGM, how do we feel about the deviation - currently, I will add - from the source? We are in heavy departing from the book adaptation material now.

Implication is that the Martha was her lover.

If it makes you feel better, I initially thought they removed her tongue too…but then she screamed.

There haven't been any mixed race commanders shown, but we've seen several guards and foot soldiers of color.

Not to be the killjoy, but as gripping as it is, I'm already second guessing some of the details, however small, being left out. Touches like the Phantom lactating, Offred's mother that just feel so uniquely feminine and related to that experience.

She's pregnant, and the French girl noticed - she asked her to keep it on the down low.

"Your own Sir George" never had such disparate double meaning.

After an initial rewatch, and the following episodes…I'm…Yeah. wait and see.