Revolutions
Yes, there’s a bit of a theme this week.
The Handmaid’s Tale 1.5 “Faithful”
This episode is about sex. And who has it better. The new Ofglen was a street hooker; she likes being a handmaid.
There’s an interweaving of Offred fucking Nick at Serena’s behest, with Serena in the room, and June sleeping with Luke for the first time.
It’s all about sex and choice. Ofglen never had the choice. June did.
Oh, and old Ofglen does a dramatic act of vehicular terrorism. (Why didn’t she take off her wings? I can’t imagine driving with those on).
You can’t blame her for going completely off the rails.
But now Offred is also going off the rails. She seduces Nick (by whom she may already be pregnant)…
Black Sails 1.8
So, our speculation got wild, including there being no Urca de Lima and the entire thing being a pirate trap.
The Urca wasn’t where they thought she was, which caused all kinds of conflict between the two ships, and then a Spanish man o’war showed up.
And then they find the Urca after all. Not quite where they thought she was. Because weather.
Meanwhile, back in Nassau. In a pirate town, who do you not piss off? The madam. So, how about firing her after she threatens to blackmail you and replacing her with Eleanor’s ex.
And taking over the fort, so Eleanor has no choice but to work with Vane.
Who proves we are all right about him with some very creepy lines about 13-year-old Eleanor. Eww.
This is the end of the first season, by the way.
Black Sails 2.1
Flint is…well…I’ll be nice and say reckless.
I actually quite like shows that are primarily predicated on bad decision after bad decision. Like taking on a man o’war.
Like pissing off Eleanor Guthrie after breaking a key part of the piratical code. You don’t slaughter crews. You just don’t. It gets around and nobody will surrender to you and you’ll lose men.
And telling her you did it? Hoo boy. She’s probably going to be trying to get Vane to sink that guy’s ship when he tries to leave.
Of course, he’s probably a more significant plot point than that. And he was talking about a prize…Nassau itself?
He thinks that Eleanor is a weak and feeble woman. She’s a long way from that.
Not smart. Not smart at all.
Doctor Who 2.1 The Robot Revolution
First of all, Ncuti Gatwa looks fabulous in a kilt.
Second of all, Russell Davies thinks it’s funny to mock star certificates. He’s right. Star certificates are dumb. But somehow, Belinda Chandra ends up as the founding queen of her star…and it is, of course, the fault of her really annoying ex.
Her really annoying ex.
Don’t worry, he gets his comeuppance.
But now something really bad has happened to Earth, and the Doctor can’t take her home. The Doctor not being able to take somebody home was a grand tradition in the original series, but hasn’t happened yet since the restart.
Until now.
Varada Sethu is a fine actor and it’s nice to have a Companion who is in her thirties, not her teens.
And what is Mrs Flood up to? I still think she’s a certain Time Lord, and not the one you’re thinking…
The Handmaid’s Tale 1.6 “A Woman’s Place”
In the book, Serena Joy was a TV personality. In this she’s an author. Was that intentional irony?
Also in the book the only things we see of the world outside Gilead are mentions of Canada and some Japanese tourists who try to photograph Offred and Ofglen.
The show has shifted premise some. The Mexican Ambassador (a woman! Why would they send a woman?) visits, and spends time with the Waterfords.
Offred lies and tells her she’s happy. There’s a huge state dinner where the handmaids…and their children…are paraded.
“There’s only one thing Gilead has that anyone wants.”
And the ambassador is willing to trade for that one thing.
We also see a lot of flashbacks to Serena’s willing acquiescence to Gilead. In fact, in many ways she’s its unacknowledged architect.
The wealthy women throwing out all of their clothes to replace them with blue dresses contrasts with the unusually fancy, but still blue, dress Serena wears at the dinner.
The entire planet, in this version, is impacted with infertility…and other places have it even worse.
Fertility is a national resource…
The Handmaid’s Tale 1.7 “The Other Side”
Most of this episode takes place outside Gilead. Having found out last week that Luke is still alive, we switch to his POV.
An injured Luke is found and rescued by a bunch of Canadians, including a nun. He lives as a refugee, waiting with hundreds of other men for news of wives, sisters, daughters, and an Aunt Linda. (That amused me).
We also get details about fertile women simply being…rounded up…and not seen again even before they start putting them all in red dresses.
They have all the guns.
But they don’t have all the smarts…
The Handmaid’s Tale 1.8 “Jezebels”
There is absolutely no regime that has no place for the world’s oldest profession. Even in Gilead, there are brothels.
Of course, the women in the house have no choice about being there…like far too many prostitutes.
Waterford sneaks June into Jezebels for a sordid night out (Serena is apparently visiting somebody). Where she finds Moira.
I don’t think they made the playboy bunny outfit nearly ridiculous enough. It was supposed to be even more awful.
Moira is broken. She has given up. She thinks she’s in the best place and that nobody escapes. I hope we can get her out later.
We also get some POV of Nick…a troubled past, a really screwed up family to which he is far too loyal, and his recruitment by the cabal that founded Gilead.
And he gets a reminder to stop fucking Offred. Ahem.
The Handmaid’s Tale 1.9 “The Bridge”
Offred seduces the commander to get back to Jezebel’s to retrieve a package for the resistance, with Moira’s initially reluctant help.
Janine steals her baby back (can you blame her) and then tries to jump off a bridge with the kid. In the book, Angela didn’t survive. In the show…Serena has the brilliant idea of getting Offred to talk Janine down.
Nobody else could. It even almost works…Janine gives June the baby, but still jumps. And as it’s not that high a bridge, she manages to survive.
That’s a bad thing in this situation. Not to mention the fact that Angela’s father is blamed for Janine’s suicide attempt and taken away by the eyes, leaving his poor wife raising a baby alone.
They’re a national resource, after all.
The Handmaid’s Tale 1.10 “Night”
Well, this is both the same and different. In the book, it’s unclear exactly why Offred is arrested.
In the show, they try to get the handmaids to stone Janine for child endangerment. Not a one of them can do it. Not a one of them can kill a mentally ill woman who’s fragility they all know.
Ofglen is the first to step forward and say no, and is pistol whipped by the guards. But when a pregnant Offred steps forward, Aunt Lydia moves to protect “her girls.”
Even she has a line, it seems. A line that has now been crossed.
And the first season ends with June disappearing into the black van. The book ended that way, although the framing narrative indicates that June, or at least her journal, does escape.
The show decides to continue…