Gilead is completely unsustainable from a population standpoint. If the only fertile women are being used as Handmaids, who are only available for the elite, and the Handmaids are both trafficked to other countries AND sent to the colonies to die if they become unruly, then the supply cannot possibly meet the demand, as there is no way to replenish the population and nobody wants to immigrate to Gilead.
Gilead realises this once the Handmaid population suddenly drops, and retrieves some former Handmaids from the colonies.
In the series, there is no longer a (obvious) white supremacy. While Gilead residents of all classes are racially diverse, it is still not a multicultural society, since all cultural differences (such as religion and attire) have been wiped out. It is likely that this has been done to protest extremists of both wings regarding race: both the ultra-conservative super-strict churches where the only diversity allowed is race; as well as ultra-liberals who think that as long as something is not racist, it is not evil and thus should be tolerated. Not the first time the Handmaid's Tale protests extremist views of both wings (such as regarding porn) — so it makes perfect sense.
They've started laying seeds of this element from the books in late Season 3. Commanders are mentioned not wanting to have Handmaids "of color" to the Aunts. Time will tell if they explore this further.
Also it can be alluded to Racial Profiling (religious and racial minorities are scrutinized in Gilead and walk around on eggshells to survive, like the Mayday member who was a Muslim man) and to how some heterosexual men explain their dislike of dating women with darker skin/larger bodies/of another race as "just a preference".
In Season 4, the contingent of rebel Americans who overtake the supply train all appear to be racial minorities.
I thought that it seemed a little bit of a bad thing that June was having a relationship with a married man, as we never hear from his wife in Season One or the book, and we never learn why he did it (was it a forced marriage? Did he want to spice things up? Was she cheating on him and he saw it as right?) and it seemed that Aunt Lydia made a good point even if she was Right for the Wrong Reasons. But then I realized why she probably had no problem doing it and didn't apologize to Annie. Her mother was a militant feminist, and she raised her with this strict philosophy in mind. One tenet was that as a woman, June was free to do as she pleased, so she had no problem having an affair.
We do, however, see that June is troubled by the situation — she is the first to bring up that Luke is married when they commence their affair, and later when Annie confronts her she does seem concerned that, when she and Luke started their affair, he and Annie weren't even separated. For that matter, militant feminism has a few solid lines in it about not screwing other women over. June had an affair with a married man because she wanted to. Not the most commendable behaviour, all right, but at the same time, it's a private misdemeanour, and definitely not something any government should ever involve itself with.
Later seasons make it clear that while the marriage existed when Luke and June began their relationship, it was because Luke's ex-wife refused to accept that Luke had left her and refused to proceed with the divorce because she was in denial. Gilead is aware of June's personal life to that depth, though, Commander Lawrence is aware that June gave her daughter an over-the-counter fever reducer rather than missing work to stay home with her.
June's mother is shown definitely pushing her daughter to do "the right thing" rather than "as she pleased". She's also not too enthusiastic about the latter's relationship with Luke ("waste of energy, better things to do") so it's hard to imagine that she'd approve of her daughter getting caught in any adultery-related drama.
If the ban on women reading was extended to include even The Bible, it would make sense for Gilead to do so in order to keep women ignorant of Scripture verses so they could defend themselves against the state-enforced religious misogyny against women, instead feeding them only what the state religion wants them to know about God's will for their lives. In the series, Aunt Lydia wasn't too pleased to know that Offred also knew Scripture and quoted it back to her without Quote Mining it like Lydia did.
This might go along with the idea, as if you read about the story of Sarah and Abraham, you'll learn that Abraham tried to get a child by fathering one on Hagar, her Handmaid. Only, Sarah wasn't happy about it, because Everybody Has Standards, and she got so mad at the woman that she ran her out of town. The only reason Hagar returned was because an angel ordered it, and the two never really got along after.
It was Sarah's idea, though.
The alliance between anti-pornography feminists and fundamentalists had also become outdated since the original novel was published. In the series, Commander Waterford mentions that all farming in Gilead had converted to organic farming. In the adaptation, maybe Gilead has an alliance between fundamentalists and environmentalists to thank for its existence.
They vaguely touch on this in Season 3. Gilead has "gone green" but not from any desire to save the environment, only to save themselves from the environment. They suspect that pollution might also be affecting the fertility rates and switched to renewables. It might not be too big a leap to think they did the same with farming — they didn't make an alliance with Greenpeace to seize power and end factory farming, just held a belief that GMOs might have affected fertility rates. Also doubles as an anti-intellectual, returning-to-the-good-old-days theme.
Stripping June of her name becomes all that much more insulting when you learn that she even chose to keep her last name when she got married. Watching her repeatedly tell the nurse that her name is Osborne, not Bankole, is especially unbearable when you know what's coming.
Research has proven that babies often need skin-to-skin contact with their parents or caregivers in order to survive. The Putnams never saw Charlotte as anything more than a status symbol, and certainly never gave her hugs or cuddles even when she was fully clothed, let alone skin to skin, so it's not that surprising when she starts to wane. By contrast, when Janine undresses and cradles her daughter close, Charlotte starts to improve.
This could be a reason why Dr. Hodgson told them to make Charlotte feel warm and safe. At first, it felt like she was saying to comfort her in her final moments, especially to the viewer, but it appears she was literally telling them to follow the kangaroo technique. Janine was the only one to understand this command, which is why Charlotte survived.
The Vietnamese translation deliberately used loanwords from Chinese to translate the terms (Handmaid, Unwomen, etc.). This gives the series an archaic feeling, symbolizing Gilead's intention to return to "traditional" values, with the added weight of historical restraints placed on women in a Confucian system in Vietnam and China's feudal pasts. At least one edition also reflected this in the book cover◊ by using a font closely associated with Chinese novels published in Vietnam, accompanied by the image of a woman whose face is hidden by a white cowl, revealing pale skin and red lips, the ideal of ancient aristocratic beauty.
One would assume that Gilead would reference the original inspirations for their Handmaids more often — Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah — but they seem to prefer the names of their mistresses: the Rachel and Leah Center, for instance. But then they also take away the names of the Handmaids themselves, so they probably wouldn't want to humanize these women's "role models" either.
This could go along with the idea they don't let women read the Bible so they don't realize their laws are just a Quote Mine blender. Yes, Bilhah and Zilpah being "handmaids" in our sense, may seem like they were trusted companions and confidants, but really they were enslaved women, and Hammurabi's Code dictated that if you couldn't get pregnant, you had your husband impregnate the enslaved woman and raise the child for your own. Hagar is likely never brought up because of the full story: Sarah was impatient that God wouldn't give her a child, so she had Abraham sleep with (i.e. rape) her handmaid, but grew jealous and ran the pregnant girl out of town, but she returned. After the baby was born, she ran the child and the mother into the desert to die, but Hagar only returned because an angel commanded it. And when Isaac was born, he and his teenaged brother, Ishmael, argued often. A Handmaid, if permitted to read, could bring this tale up as a reason for why the Handmaid system is flawed, which Gilead certainly wouldn't want.
In a flashback, we see that Moira was an egg donor and gestational carrier. The show seems to be trying both to be fair to consensual surrogacy and also fighting against any argument that would say that the Handmaid situation is anything like that. Moira had some strong emotions, but she isn't devastated like Janine or June, who are having their children stolen.
In season 2's "Holly", June several times sees a black wolf while trying to escape the mansion. The wolf never does more but watch her, perhaps leaving the question what the purpose of its appearance was. Considering the handmaids' clothes' bright red colour and protruding hoods, and the image of June alone in the woods (some shots of the episode even highlighting this), it is all possibly meant to serve some Little Red Riding Hood imagery.
There's a very subtle hint that Commander Lawrence is a good guy as shortly after he's introduced: he has a small argument with his Martha who keeps making a mess due to her missing eye, and the Martha casually talks back to him, showing that despite being a Martha, she isn't afraid of the Commander as she freely argues back to him with no consequences.
I viewed it as bad writing in Season 2 how Fred went from a somewhat complicated character in Season 1 to a one-dimensional monster and a plot device in Season 2. However, the Season 1 finale ended with his best friend being harshly punished for adultery, and only being saved from death because of the Double Standard of his position, compared to the woman he had an affair with. Fred himself has MANY hypocrisies that could probably lead to him losing more than just his left arm; Warren's amputation and the birth of his first child was a wake-up call that it was time to hide his sins. In Season 2 alone, his pregnant Handmaid started it off by refusing to stone said woman and escaped her position for 92 days, almost succeeding in getting out of Gilead. He became a man wearing the mask of a Commanderto avoid getting in trouble again.
Alternately, he just became bitter, jealous, and full of rage because he found out Nick was the father of June's baby. That seems to mark the trigger when he switches to full on villainy. He's jealous, upset, and dissatisfied, so he'll make the rest of the world suffer. He didn't have the power to control a woman and make her admire him or to please her in bed, but he has the power to control others and make them suffer, and he fully intends to use it! Sleep with my girl, will ya'? I'll show you! I'll show the whole world what a real man is. I'm a real man! His attitude changes because he's a Crazy Jealous Guy.
Soon after the above events, Fred survives a bombing and has to recuperate in the hospital. He comes home and finds out his wife wrote up orders and signed his name to them. This string of events highlights his vulnerability and challenges his self-image as a powerful, virile man. He then strives to re-assert his dominance over his wife and handmaid.
Serena Joy is characterized as a Blonde Republican Sex Kitten (it's used to describe her all over this site). She and the rest of her class — the women who worked to make this new world happen — wear blue, the color of the Republican party's ultimate enemy. Who wears the Republican party color red? The women they oppress. The parties were associated with those colors when the book was written. The takeaway? Just like with The Hunger Games, "this side of the fictional conflict represents this real life political party" doesn't work here.
Blue is the color most associated with the Virgin Mary, who the Wives are explicitly identified with—- that's why their servants are called Martha's. That seems a more likely association that anything to do with politics.
Fridge Horror
If what the doctor tells Offred is true, and it is actually the men who are sterile, it means that the entire Handmaid system is doomed to fail. If all "fertile" women have become Handmaids, and only a small portion of them can have children (because many of the Commanders are sterile), and the unruly ones are executed, they will eventually just run out of them.
Seemingly confirmed in Season 2 when Serena has her chat with the American Agent, and he talks about the progress the Government-in-Exile has been making with fertility treatments.
With Offred out of the way, whatever her fate, there's no reason to hold Hannah's safety over her head, and therefore no reason to keep Hannah alive or safe, except the lack of children.
Possibly lessened with the fact that we learn in Season 2 it was virtually illegal for Fred to arrange a clandestine meeting. It was more like Serena was trying to keep June in line the same way a parent promises they'll throw away all your toys or take away your iPad if you don't eat your dinner or clean your room, but at the end of the day, just say it to get you to behave.
Offred's doctor offers to try to impregnate her himself, so she won't get in trouble for repeated failures with the likely sterile Commander. That night the Commander suffers from The Loins Sleep Tonight, meaning if she'd accepted the deal and did get pregnant from it, she would have been immediately discovered to have had sex outside the arrangement and punished even worse, especially as she's already considered an "adulterer."
Not necessarily. If the ceremony's every month, she could be a month pregnant without anyone realising it. A baby coming at eight months instead of nine might cause some worry, but eight month preemies can be perfectly healthy. Besides, in this one instance, Serena would find a way to protect her due to wanting the baby so badly. If June was discovered to be carrying someone besides Fred's baby, the baby wouldn't be hurt, but there's a chance it wouldn't go to the Waterfords. Whether helping actively deceive Fred or just doing what she did with June carrying Nick's baby, i.e. telling him he's not the biodad and to suck it up, she'd do it.
They don't have one ceremony a month. The ovulation window of a cycle is generally not one day only. They have two to three a month. After the one where he can't get it up, there's immediately mention of another the next night. There's no way they wouldn't try to optimize ovulation as much as possible, and only have one a month.
You might be wondering why the Commander whips Serena, but not Offred for their "illegal" activities. The Fridge Horror here is that if Offred wasn't pregnant at the time, she would have been whipped and dismissed from the household, and probably her hand amputated. It really shows how desperate and megalomanically selfish the Waterfords appear that they would shirk their beliefs for their own child, but condemn actions to save the Putnam's baby girl.
As if having to live through the Gilead regime tearing your family apart in the country isn't bad enough, imagine if you were an immigrant from another country, became a US citizen, but still got caught in the coup and the consequences it brought while your family members, be it your parents, siblings, any relatives you could think of, in your country of origin watch what's occurring there in horror, have no idea what happened to you and frantically wonder if they'll ever see or hear from you again.
Alternatively, imagine if you were a US citizen who lives abroad and divorced their spouse but your children are living in the US with said ex-spouse who either remarried or is raising them as a single parent. If they were unfortunate enough to live in an area which Gilead already conquered then your children most likely got taken away while your ex-spouse was punished for their divorce by either execution, sent to the colonies, or getting turned into a Handmaid if they were a woman with viable ovaries. There is a good chance that you in the other country would never see your own kids again because Gilead sure as hell ain't letting them go anywhere and barred any possible communications that you used to have to them.
Even worse, imagine that three weeks before the coup, you were sent out of the US for official business, and all of a sudden you are cut off from all communications with your loved ones/friends, you have no idea what's happening, and when news does get out, you are left to imagine the worst has happened. Same goes vice-versa with your loved ones.
What would happen to closeted, assigned-female-at-birth, non-feminine transgender and nonbinary people? If they're outed, they risk facing punishment for "gender treachery". If they're closeted and fertile, dysphoria from being constantly misgendered would be the least of their problems. Sex-repulsed asexual Handmaids as well.
The evidence of Gilead's poisonous indoctrination already showing in the children and teens growing up in the regime.
Adam in "Baggage" playing with his firetruck with June. She asks what the bell does and he says it's to warn people to come and help. He has no concept of what actual firetrucks were pre-Gilead. It's a little thing, but it's actually a window into the possible propaganda Gilead might be teaching.
What are the little girls of Gilead being taught if women can't read or write in this regime? These children probably aren't even told stories, since the female teachers can't read either.
This is not quite true if they are being taught by Aunts (who are exempt from the no-reading/no-writing policy), though one could hardly imagine they are read anything that conflicts with Gilead's policies.
Later episodes mention Hannah attending a Domestic Arts school. Probably, the girls learn to be Wives or Marthas.
There is no chance for a child to discover their true identity. The girls are all in pink uniforms, boys in lederhosen. This is going to be a very conformist generation and conformity as a norm never bodes well.
Eden is so scarily naïve, and her mother has engrained into her that her only purpose is to care for the home, her husband, and to bear children. A fun reminder that she is only fifteen.
Further Fridge Horror on Eden's part: she really is the perfect Gileadean beauty, a real "lily of the field" in the same tradition of the English Rose or Yamato Nadeshiko: she's gentle, she's beautiful, she's intelligent but guileless, and she's so devoted to the Lord and the Bible that she literally has no fear of death because she is absolutely certain that Heaven is waiting at the bottom of that swimming pool. You can bet that nobody in Gilead ever taught her 1 Corinthians 13, either, she was reciting what she'd read. Gilead's culture yielded a lovely young lady, eager to be a loving wife and mother, as pure of faith as anyone could ask for... and they kill her.
Hannah in "The Last Ceremony" seems so frighteningly withdrawn for seeing her real mother for a long time. Her answers to June's questions are heartbreaking, admitting that her new parents hit her when she misbehaves.
Children born of the Handmaids will be curious of their birth stories probably. If June's baby grows up with the Waterfords, what the hell is that story gonna be like? "Oh, we both just violently raped the Handmaid to get you to come out early. Praise be."
I highly doubt they would ever tell the truth. They'd lie like everyone else does.
Actually, it's kind of worse. When Hannah sees June, she says that June is going to have a baby, and then says that June doesn't get to keep it. They're telling the kids something closer to the truth than we'd expect.
Fridge Tearjerker in a sense. As the daughter of Commander Mackenzie, Hannah is probably being groomed to be a Wife herself, and there is the possibility of her being sterile, which would mean that she needs a Handmaid. Further Tearjerker, as, if the Commanders told the Ambassador that Handmaids chose their roles, what are the odds that they aren't telling the children of Gilead the same? It'd be easier to brainwash these children, but it'd still be heartbreaking. Imagine being a young child and told that your loving mother purposefully chose to abandon you and give you to people who beat you, in order to make children they'll abandon down the line and give to these same people.
Everything with Nick and Eden. In present day America and other Western countries, it is possible for a fifteen-year-old teenager to genuinely consent to sex (although not, generally speaking, to consent to sex with someone Nick's age, given the power and experience disparity, which is why we have statutory rape laws). In this case, however, she's been brainwashed from a young age, would have grown up forbidden to read despite learning how, was never given a chance to healthily develop her sexuality in age-appropriate ways, and doesn't realise a fifteen-year-old girl being thrown into a marriage with an unknown adult man is not a good thing; even if she has feelings of something being wrong, she's been taught to discard those feelings. Adult Nick genuinely does not want to have sex with a teenager but is literally facing the threat of horrible punishment or death if it gets out that he isn't. On top of all this, Eden is trying to make an actual marriage out of the situation, and Nick is more-or-less treating her like someone he's being forced to babysit. At first, he sort of humored her, then, he lost his temper, and now, he's trying his best to ignore her. What happened with Isaac shows she's a confused, largely ignorant, though, not unintelligent, teenager who could do something that hurts many people, including possibly herself, soon, and it won't truly be her fault or Nick's, but still. Horrible situation.
Rather more disquieting - it hasn't been anything like fifteen years since Gilead was founded, going by the fact that Hannah seems only a few years older than she was when we (chronologically) last saw her. So, either Eden was indoctrinated before Gilead ever came into being, or they've broken her so thoroughly in less than five years that she sees nothing wrong with the way things are, despite having been at least ten when Gilead was founded.
Fridge Tearjerker, since Eden could've very well grown up among the Quiverfull movement or some similar Christian fundamentalist group that preaches that women are to be homemakers and Baby Factories. It's still heartbreaking.
Fred and Serena's speaking tour of American colleges seems to hint toward an answer for this question. Serena doesn't think she'll persuade anyone to their ideology, but Fred points out it's not about persuading, it's about introducing their ideas to mainstream conversation. The Alt-Right holds similar views when on speaking tours: Show up, say inflammatory things in pseudo-intellectual speak, and cause a riot so you look like the calm one. Gilead's tenets might have spread to mainstream America in a similar way. Even if most Americans didn't agree with them, the fact that their ideology is talked about ensures it will spread.
In "June" Aunt Lydia takes June to meet another Handmaid, Ofwyatt. She tried to drink drain cleaner, so they chained her to a bed in a gymnasium the Red Center until she's due to give birth, with only the Aunts to keep her company. A few episodes later in "Other Women", this fate befalls June after she's captured, with Aunt Lydia explaining that if she chooses to be "June" she'll be imprisoned until birth and then executed. Is this the fate that'll befall Ofwyatt? After she gives birth, will she be executed, too? Or will they give her Redemption and do who know's what? Considering this is Gilead and there's many crimes with Biblical precedent, what could befall her?
What exactly happened to celebrities who didn't have the means to leave the USA or chose not to? Did people like Taylor Swift get executed or turned into Handmaids because of her "slutty image?"
Judging from real-life authoritarian regimes such as Chile under Pinochet, they were probably publicly executed, perhaps after being forced to recant their old lives.
Alma's son is mentioned to be five years old in the present day. Since Gilead's regime is established as being five years old, this would mean that she has only recently given birth when her son was taken from her.
Your mileage may DEFINITELY vary on whether or not this is horror, but the former Gilead will see the mother of all backlashes. The former Commanders, including Fred Waterford, are likely to be executed. Serena and the Aunts will most likely be unable to go in public for the rest of their lives. If their brand of Christianity isn't outright outlawed, those churches are going to be watched very closely.
If Serena is pregnant by Fred, he could potentially be Nichole's father.
Taking into account Esther's age and her status as Wife rather than Econoperson, she is most likely the daughter of a commander. If she is a commander's biological child, then her parents were partially responsible for the creation of Gilead, and if she was stolen, it's possible that she is either an orphan or that she was separated from her biological parents, who may be in Canada wondering what happened to her.
June's Questionable Consent sex scene with Luke at the end of Season 4, Episode 7 is sadly Truth in Television in regards to survivors of sexual trauma. It's not an excuse for her actions, but June most likely has PTSD and Rape Trauma Syndrome (RTS). Rape survivors suffering RTS can exhibit hypersexuality as a means of gaining control over their bodies.
◊ by using a font closely associated with Chinese novels published in Vietnam, accompanied by the image of a woman whose face is hidden by a white cowl, revealing pale skin and red lips, the ideal of ancient aristocratic beauty.
