There's a stupidity that you see in Gilead that is found in totalitarian governments everywhere- the blind focus on achieving a state of purity. For example, June is questioned about Emily's homosexuality, but the regime is so focused on that behavior that they stupidly never bother to question either woman about the…

I don't know how any any sane person could risk June coming back. After what we've seen, I wouldn't put it past Serena Joy to perform a car key or box cutter caesarean to get her baby (don't look it up if you don't want nightmares). She's already risked the wall once.

They are powerful in a small sphere, which is the home and family. In every oppressed society, it helps people buy in if they believe that they are getting something in exchange for their oppression. For the Wives, it would be lifetime marriage. There's Jezebels, but that isn't like an affair with a Handmaid that…

True. Especially if one is a spy in that position (if he was). It leads to having to make a lot of hard decisions, for example with the Emily situation.

Good point- I missed that

I wanted June's words to have the same effect as poison gas.

I like it that he's more ambiguous than in the book. Another point of dark humor in the show- in the midst of religious totalitarian Hell, Nick and June have boyfriend-girlfriend fights.

I have been wondering if Nick somehow turns him in, after he engineers June's escape.

Both versions of the Commander had zero concern for June herself. I think we can agree on that. Although I think TV Fred might have had some stirrings of conscience for the death of the previous Handmaid, where the book Fred seemed to have none.

I did pick upon that. I like it that Nick is tough to figure out . At first, he seems like a guy who is seeing a society way more brutal than what he signed up for- it's not just how June's predecessor commits suicide, it's more subtle things like the look on his face as he's throwing Serena Joys possessions in the…

I didn't think it was misery porn either. Misery porn, like the regular kind,becomes tiresome after you've been exposed to it for a while. I'm thinking of some of the torture scenes in Game of Thrones, or maybe The Passion of The Christ. I had to forward through some of The Handmaids Tale Scenes because they were just…

I think Aunt Lydia was also speechless from their defiance. There is likely some punishment in store for her too from that Council of commanders for not having more control of those girls.

I think you hit it. The difference between Salvaging I and Salvaging II is that the girls knew Janine. They knew that she was mentally disturbed ( Hell, to live in Gilead was to be mentally disturbed by definition) and didn't try to harm her child out of malice.

I think you've expressed it better than I could. I'm thinking of other societies post catastrophe, like post WWII Germany, where people entered into informal polygamous arrangements, Israel immediately post WWII (kibbutzim) or post Black Death Europe, that had to put a new society together after losing a third of its…

Crazy as a spithouse rat, but still has a sense of humor.

Up until this episode, we're never sure whether she wants that baby because she loves children, or because it's a social status symbol. Given the way she threatens Hannah, she can't really love babies that much.

I had some of those same questions- my thought was that the guard just lost it at the sight of a woman (slut) in open rebellion. The aunts punishments are less openly brutal, but more sadistic.
Also, Janine may not have been traded off because women who act out so openly in front of other women, crazy or not, must be…

In the book, Waterford was less complicated.
Fred has a lot of motives. He's bored. He wants to feel like a good guy. His marriage has gone stale. He wants to feel powerful. Maybe he wants to take a passive aggressive swipe at Serena Joy because he knows she's smarter and stronger, and her confinement just isn't…

Maybe the right hand if he does it again. Gilead is merciful. Praise be!
Actually, you answered it for me. It is still biblical, and related to that verse. Because he violated his marriage vows, they cut off the hand that wore his wedding ring.

I think it's something biblical- "If your right hand offends you, cut it off". He used his hand in a figurative and literal way, to "take" Janine.