Rita and Cora are gossiping and one says that she heard the handmaids were given a choice between this and the colonies.

Later Offred says she made a choice to do this that she didn't have many choices, but she had had some. She says this in the process of justifying that she doesn't consider the ceremony rape,…

That weirdly doesn't diminish my sympathy for her. I can hate what she did and still feel tremendously sorry for her.

I can't even imagine what it would feel like to be forbidden to read and have my husband flaunting his laotop and work folders and newspaper subscriptions in my face, despite me probably being smarter than him, certainly savvier.

That is of my all-time favorite novels and I have been thinking about it a great deal watching this show.

Per the book, they want to recreate the "bear on my knees" verse from the Bible if at all possible. But there is an ambulance outside if needed.

I think the doctor is an example of how this extreme patriarchy just makes everything fraught and horrible. I do think that on some level his offer could maybe save her life by perhaps successfully impregnating her and keeping her out of the Colonies. On the other he definitely was offering to have sexual intercourse…

Yes.

There are also some (very, very young) teen daughters who get married off at the prayvaganza and it is stated that they will be expected to try having their own children first. Their new husbands don't have the status for handmaids yet, anyway.

The Commander genuinely thinks he and his buddies have made a world where women can be happier and safer than they were before and he wants proof of that. That's why breaking the rules in little ways with Offred and playing Scrabble helps him justify both his complicity in her sex slavery and his hypocrisy. It's also…

I cried at that part.

I loved Serena Joy automatically going into crisis management mode and being instantly shut down by the Commander. She does not enjoy lying in this bed she's made. God how awful to have him there with his laptop and his stacks of folders, just carelessly flaunting his ability to read in front of them.

I totally agree with your take. It not only explains Lionel's interactions with Connor helping him gain clarity, but also why Troy does something as dumb as campaigning to Asian students by making dumplings. But I definitely think it would be valid for a viewer to look at this from the opposite viewpoint. There's…

You should probably spoiler tag that.

Well seeing as it was written by a Canadian, I think she is well within her rights to imagine her own country as slightly dystopian in conjunction with the massively dystopian overhaul she gave the U.S. Are you just a troll determined to ask inane questions, or what?

Quakers are not remotely similar. I went to Quaker school, so I know for sure.

Well it could be argued that the show, through Lionel, was telling Connor to accept that he's "just into guys" and stop making the bisexual threesome play with Becca. I don't know that I'd necessarily agree with that argument, but it definitely can be made.

I mean I'm not religious at all, but it's pretty obvious that there are monumental differences between sects of all religions.

But the show also provides absolutely no character-based information for why she would want to cheat on her longterm partner and semi-fiancee with a male undergraduate student who also happens to be the son of her boss other than that it creates trouble for him. Bisexuals exist, obviously. But this was more of a plot…

Great, now I'm thinking about Troy's Man Ass again.

You know there is definitely a Bush cousin somewhere named Thane.