Content Warning: Torture
Black Sails 2.2
Ow. All I can say is ow. We have torture in this episode, just saying.
We also have goat f**king. Maybe. Possible. I mean, not on camera, but…somebody does get accused of ravishing a very-not-virgin goat.
Max and Anne are sleeping together, while on that topic. I assume Mrs. Barlow is the token straight woman in this show.
We have some piracy. It does not go well. Flint is trying to gain control of the galleon.
Silver just wants money so he can retire. He hates being a pirate.
Poor guy. We know he’s not going to escape being a pirate any episode soon, right?
The Handmaid’s Tale 2.1 “June”
Ow! We have torture in this episode, just saying.
June has flashbacks to the pre-Gilead period, where a social worker all but threatens to take Hannah away if she doesn’t give up her job.
But the torture is…real. ALL of the handmaids in the district are taken to a disused baseball stadium, threatened with execution, forced to hold stones for hours and then have their left hands burned.
Except Offred, who escapes all but the fake execution after Serena tells the aunts she’s pregnant.
Her torture is to be blamed for it all…and that’s the last straw.
June escapes, with the help of Mayday, or at least she escapes Serena Joy. (She’s also forced to undergo an invasive transvaginal ultrasound, echoes of certain anti-abortion regulations).
The episode ends with her ceremonially burning her handmaid robes, cutting her hair, and, bloodily, removing the red tag from her ear.
Lots of torture. Some of it self-inflicted.
Doctor Who 2.2 “Lux”
The pantheon are back, in this case in the form of a creepy, evil cartoon who traps people in celluloid.
How do you defeat the God of Light? Answer turns out to be by feeding him so much light he explodes…sort of.
We also break the fourth wall and hint that the date they can’t get to is…well…the end. It’s the date of, as it turns out, the penultimate episode of this season of Doctor Who. Not the season finale, but the last but one.
Russell T. Davies, what are you up to?
The episode that airs on May 24 is titled “Wish World.” The episode after it is “The Reality War.”
I think the world is going to end and then be fixed. Not the first time that has happened in Doctor Who!
Mrs Flood is definitely a time traveler of some kind, because she just showed up in 1952 looking the same age she looks in 2025…
The Handmaid’s Tale 2.2 “Unwomen”
How much do they value women in the Colonies? Less than they value horses – the horses get PPE. We hear about the Colonies in the book, but here we see them…unwanted women (unwomen) cleaning up toxic waste, by hand, with no protective gear.
We are also introduced to a new character who will likely be significant. A failed Handmaiden sent to the Colonies…and we know instantly she’s going to be rescuing Janine.
But before Janine shows up, an adulterous Wife does. Emily, our newcomer, murders her. Can’t really blame her.
We also get flashbacks to Emily’s pre-Gilead life and attempt to escape to Canada with her wife and son. Her Canadian wife gets out (surprisingly, they let her take the kid, even though he’s biologically Emily’s…I will bet if the child had been a girl, they wouldn’t have), but she’s stopped at the border to be red tagged.
Meanwhile, poor June’s safehouse is the headquarters of the Boston Globe, raided, shuttered, and apparently the scene of some kind of atrocity.
And she might be trapped there for weeks…
Presumably the next step is rescuing poor, fragile Janine, who reminds me more and more of Helen from Orphan Black.
She’s going to turn out to be stronger than they think. I hope.
Black Sails 2.3
Bad decisions. And more bad decisions.
We have bad piracy decisions, bad political decisions, bad romantic decisions…no bad business decisions yet, but I’m sure they’re coming.
Eleanor really needs to learn to keep it in her pants, just saying. Not that she’s the only one.
But let’s see.
Spanish man o’war versus fort. I wonder how well that is going to go for the ship, especially with a relatively inexperienced crew.
And Eleanor, oh, Eleanor. Focus, girl.
Scott’s right. You need to remember where your loyalties lie…not that he’s really that much one to talk.
I will say, this show has a dab hand with ambience.
The Handmaid’s Tale 2.3 “Baggage”
Moira, traumatized, is picking up women in shady bars and telling them her name is Ruby. Ow.
Meanwhile, Offred is attempting to make her escape…but things do not go well. She is transported to a safe house…an apartment owned by a Muslim family (they go to church, but while they are gone, she finds their Quran.
They don’t come back and she attempts to flee to the planned escape by smuggler plane herself…and is joined by Nick, who has decided he, too, wants out of Gilead.
Whether he gets followed or the Muslims talk, they’re caught.
One major change from the book here… “Econo” women wear jeans and work crappy jobs, in the books Econowives wore striped dresses.
I guess they didn’t want to show something quite that ugly on screen. And June calls them “econo people.”
So, what happens next? According to the episode descriptions, she’s unceremoniously returned to the loving care of Waterford and Serena Joy.
And Nick, being an Eye, spins it somehow. Or maybe he did cause it…intentionally…because he doesn’t want to lose June.
Black Sails 2.4
Even more bad romantic decisions…a threesome? With her? Really? I mean, she’s hot and a professional, but I get it.
But the real bad decision is Nassau turning on itself. Flint is so determined to get Vane out of the port that he’s willing to destroy it, leaving the port vulnerable for weeks.
The British are coming.
No, they actually are.
I yelled “Just go get the gold” at the screen several times. The gold is getting away and there are ways to avoid Vane.
But as nobody on this show thinks with anything other than their cock/cunt or their purse…nobody makes the smart decision.
Let’s just shoot each other instead.