Birdy

[thefandomsinhalor]

Serena Joy: *after creating the messed up foundations of Gilead just because she wanted a child, betraying everyone in her way, now learns that she’s pregnant*

Me: NOT TO BE PETTY but, if after all the shit you’ve done, you end up in jail for the rest of your life and never see that child again, it’s EXACTLY WHAT YOU DESERVE! BLESSED BE THE FRUIT AJAGSJSJD

[birdyisanightingale]

Me at the end of 4x03 (The Crossing):

[birdyisanightingale]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

We get June's thoughts periodically throughout each episode, but what was Nick thinking? This is going to be a series where I take key Nick/June moments from the series and imagine what they would sound like with Nick as the Narrator.

Please go show some love to my very first bit of writing on Ao3!

Blessed be the fruit loops, Bitches x

[chaoticmemelover]

The Handmaid's Tale

June Osborn is the woman I respect with my whole heart.

Serena Joy doesn't deserve any FUCKING joy.

Fred should be condemned in the worst way possible; like don't even get me started on how he claims to be the good guy, like is he for real?? Like... how do you view yourself as a saviour when you hurt and tarnish a soul so much that they are forced to give up their life

Nick is in a grey zone for me, I am not too fond of him neither do I especially hate him; the fact that he was a part of Sons Of Jacob and led the whole shitshow leaves a bitter taste in my mouth (Nothing justifies the kind of violence Gilead unleashes).

Rita is the friend we all need.

Moira is a Queen.

Emily is just, FUCKING FANTASTIC AND I LOVE HER RADICAL WAYS.

Luke deserves better than this endless wait.

[birdyisanightingale]

All I want is for Janine to get out this season - she is the purest soul that deserves so much fucking better than what she’s been dealt!

[birdyisanightingale]

THT S4 Predictions: Brazil Trailer

Back by popular demand, I’m going to be doing a comprehensive set of predictions based on the Brazilian S4 trailer which has additional footage to the main one. If you want to watch it, here’s the link: https://www.handmaidsbrasil.com/2020/12/exclusivo-assista-ao-novo-teaser-legendado-da-quarta-temporada-de-tht.html

SPOILER ALERT!! Please be aware that if you keep reading there will be major S3 spoilers and potentially some S4 ones too!!

First up, we appear to have some sort of scene where June has been captured by eyes (or someone posing as the eyes - I’ll come back to this) . I think this must be at least an episode or so in because she seems to be walking fine and she doesn’t have any obvious injuries (she was basically dead at the end of S3). Another good sign is that she appears to be alone, so if she has indeed been taken by the eyes, they haven’t managed to capture all of the ‘magnificent seven’ (this is the new term being given to the fugitive handmaids from the end of the S3 Finale). 

However, considering the remote location, it looks likely that this scene may be an attempted execution of June. I know what you’re thinking, this is Gilead - if they want to kill you they won’t bother making it private, they’ll make an example out of you and leave you hanging on a wall until you rot. But think about it - at this point, killing June will not be an example, the resistance in all its different forms has gotten too big for that. If they kill June now, they will only be creating a martyr, and the only way to avoid that is to kill her secretly and get rid of all the evidence so no one knows if she’s dead or missing or maybe even escaped to Canada without telling anyone - a great way to crack a resistance is to take away the element of trust! Anyway that’s why they’d make her execution a quiet affair.

But here’s why I think it was only made to look like the yes have taken her. Judging from the location and costumes (although admittedly costume variety is particularly limited in this show), while this is later in the trailer, it looks like a continuation of the same scene. It looks almost like Nick knew that June was in a situation where either he intervened or she was captured (or worse) for real. He obviously still has to make it look somewhat legit because he’s a commander now and he needs to keep good standing to be able to help June and Mayday (not to mention, staying off the wall). 

I think this element of Nick being an asset to Mayday will be explored quite a lot this season, and beyond. Nick’s character development is particularly interesting because we’ve almost had a different Nick every season, but the writers are still finding new ways to surprise us with new dimensions to his character. In S1 we had ‘Nick the Eye’ who was battling this sense of duty and obligation that he had never bothered to question whether he agreed with his orders or not, with finally finding a reason to question those orders - June. Then in S2 when he’d finally gotten to a point where he’d chosen June over duty, we saw ‘Nick the husband’. We know from his flashbacks that he had a religious background before Gilead so he’s had ‘the sanctity of marriage’ instilled in him from a young age. So he’s somehow trying to reconcile his new role as a husband with his love for another woman who’s carrying his baby. And then we get the (admittedly infrequent) S3 ‘Nick the Soldier’ who we know absolutely nothing about, and how dominate that side of him is. Not dominant enough and Nick won’t have enough influence to be useful to Mayday, too dominant and he could potentially betray Mayday... we’ll have to wait and see...

“You can’t save her; some women don’t want to be saved.” Oof, literal chills. I’m really looking forward to this character dynamic. Both are commanders, both helped to create Gilead and regret it, and both have a connection to June. I know this is scene is talking about Nick wanting to save June and probably get her to Canada, but I can’t help thinking that the writers specifically wrote this line to have an underlying tone about Eleanor as her death will still be very fresh for Lawrence. 

This isn’t a prediction so much as a musing but I really hope there gets to be some sort of interaction between June and Lawrence about the circumstances of her suicide. Every time I watch the funeral scene where June and Lawrence just look at each other, I get more and more sure that Lawrence knows that something else happened that she’s not saying - he’s a smart man, after all.

Maybe this scene is a continuation of the ‘secluded forest/potential eyes’ scene. He could have asked her to stop “playing handmaid commander” (I believe this was a direct quote from S2, tell me if I’m wrong) and go with him to Canada and she refuses, hence why he goes to see Lawrence. That would fit the potential timeline as Lawrence would have to have been released from the interrogation scenes we saw in the main trailer, and we’ve established that the forest seven must be at least a few episodes in.

Speaking of rebel handmaid shenanigans, this looks fun! June is heard saying “Where we’re going isn’t safe.” and Mrs. Keyes (Mckenna Grace) replies “It’s not safe anywhere!”. I mean, straight off the bat, it looks like we’re going to get one hell of a performance from Mckenna Grace who seems insanely talented for 14! We’ve had it teased to us by different producers and show runners that Mrs. Keyes will be the confident teenage wife of a commander, who helps to facilitate the resistance. And, I mean being a child bride is horrifying so I can understand why she’s willing to help!

As where they’re actually going, I’m thinking that it’s got to be another ‘attack’ by Mayday. What that will look like is hard to say - another Lillie Fuller style bomb seems unlikely since the bomb-maker was moved and it doesn’t really seem like June’s style anyway (she’d rather go for the targeted kill without Handmaid/Martha casualties), and all remaining kids in Gilead will be under heavy security after the S3 Finale. My money would be on a plan to get out Handmaids/Marthas - in the originally trailer we hear June saying “These women deserve to be helped” which supports that theory. I think her efforts will particularly focus on handmaids since a lot of the kids they got out were kids of handmaids before Gilead so she’ll want them to be reunited where it’s safe to do so.

Right - my guess is that this scene must be following whatever Mayday attempted (successful or not...). Remember in S2 when June was looking at all the Marthas who had been hanged and she said that they had been hanged for being heretics and not for being part of resistance because officially there was no resistance because there was nothing to resist? I think what we’re seeing is June has been caught and she’s being given one of the hanging bags with the symbols on to say why they were hung, pre-execution (which I assume June will somehow survive - my guess would be Nick gets her out before the execution). June’s bag has a cross because she’ll be hung for being a heretic, because officially there is no resistance - although this seems like a bit of a stretch of a story even for Gilead considering what Mayday just pulled off. It’ll be interesting to see the story that Gilead do use to explain what happened.

Another thing I just want to quickly touch on is the costume - mustard yellow with a red strip. It’s a bit out there but I’m putting my money on ‘death row uniform’ - here’s why: the colours of the uniforms all have biblical connotations e.g. the wives where blue because it symbolises the purity of the Virgin Mary, handmaids wear read to symbolise Mary Magdalene who is a redeemed sinner etc. In Revelation (final book of the bible that talks of the end of the world and second coming etc.) the four horsemen (bringers of the end of the world) are described as being yellow as sulphur and red as fire. So the colours yellow and red would symbolise ‘the end’ i.e. a salvaging/execution. This is purely speculation so make sure to comment your thoughts!

Now the opinion you’re probably all here for - Hannah. In the shots shown in the trailer, she can be seen in some sort of glass prison with a doll, and she draws an eye in the dust. There’s been a lot of speculation about the context of this scene with the overriding theory being that this scene is a dream. In some ways this makes sense: June is in the yellow costume but she doesn’t have the same injuries shown in the other footage where she’s wearing this costume (although this could just be that this scene is slightly before that scene), the idea of a glass prison doesn’t really make sense in relation to what all the other cells look like that we’ve seen, the eye that Hannah draws is just way too precise for a drawing done with dust let alone a drawing done by a child, the idea of Hannah drawing an eye is also a strange drawing for a child whereas June would dream that because of the connotations to Gilead spies and ‘under his eye’. Not to mention it makes sense that June would be dreaming about Hannah being trapped as she’s been spending time with Mrs. Keyes who is a child bride close to Hannah’s age.

In all honesty, I don’t really know what I believe. I think that placing Hannah in a glass prison and allowing June to see her and be centimetres away but not be able to get to her is a very Gilead style power trip. Gilead officials know that the only reason that she’s still in Gilead is because of Hannah so it makes sense for them to hold her in a place that is blatantly obvious to June so she can be used as leverage in stopping an on-coming attack. Gilead pretend to be all about protecting children but we all know they’re not above cutting off a limb or two - as long as she still has a working uterus. So if this isn’t a dream and Hannah is being used as leverage, this puts a spanner in the works on my death row theory because you only keep leverage on someone if you need them for something and they won’t kill her if they still need her for something. There’s a number of things that could be - stopping an on-coming attack, intel on Mayday and the Martha network, maybe they’re blackmailing her to tell Luke to stand down on trying to get Fred and Serena convicted?

Anyway.... that was A LOT. Please reply to this post with any ideas you have or to prove me wrong - this is all we have till S4 drops!

Blessed be the fruit loops, bitches x

[birdyisanightingale]

THT S4 Prediction/Spoiler...

Pap pics from the filming of S4

What does this mean?! Evidence this isn’t a flashback: June has a face injury consistent with the one she had at the end of S3, Luke isn’t wearing his glasses (now that they’re broken, he only wears them to read), June is wearing mismatched clothing and inappropriate footwear for Canada weather (consistent with someone stashing them in a go-bag for her). So they’re all together, it’s not a flashback, they’re dressed ridiculously warmly... this must mean that June somehow escapes to Canada?! Hannah doesn’t appear to be there which suggests that it’s probably a short visit as we know June won’t leave Gilead permanently without her. She could just be somewhere else in Canada but I find it hard to believe that Luke would ever leave her alone again if he finally did get her back.

So she’s in Canada, but the ‘how she got there’ is also interesting. It seems that she got there by some kind of containment ship, which means that Mayday must be gaining traction from further afield than just the Martha Network. In a previous escape attempt we saw her being helped by various non-pious Gilead ‘support workers’; but to have used something as big as a ship which has to be manned by multiple people unlike a small cargo plane means that they’re finding more allies. The fact that Luke and Moira also met her at the ship instead of her having to find them means that they must have some way of getting information over the border now, unlike the three week delay we saw in season one with the Mexican ambassador.

Exciting times! Please comment your thoughts. Blessed be the fruit loops, bitches x

[birdyisanightingale]

THT S4 Theories...

Right, we’re diving in baby... This is going to be an analysis of all the new clips from the teaser trailer.

So first off, we have guardians in what appears to be quite a grand building (circular window), which sort of reminds me of the church they had the mass dedication thing in. Having a security clamp-down is no surprise given what Mayday just pulled off, but having them in the church may suggest a large group of people that are being ‘guarded’. My thoughts are that it’s some sort of mass prayer to return the children that’s also being used as a ‘lets-see-who-looks-guilty-and-rough-them-up-for-intel’ type thing.

Next up we have this group of images from what appears to be the same scene (lighting, costume, injury makeup is consistent). This looks like it’s set directly after the girls find June in the forest, or maybe a few days later considering June is able to walk. Another reason to believe it’s slightly later is that they’ve lost a handmaid; in the final scene of S3, June can be seen carried away by six handmaids (three on either side) but in this scene there are only six of them including June. The usual faces can be seen (Janine, Alma, Brianna) so I’m not worried about a major character death prior to this scene, but it does suggest they may have run into some trouble before getting to this farm.

Which leads me onto my next point: I think this farm is going to serve as their base of operations for continuing Mayday (potentially owned by Mrs.Keyes - Mckenna Grace - and her husband?). They’re clearly in some sort of barn in this scene dressed as Marthas - no doubt this is probably a cover to keep them in hiding (nothing says conspicuous like blood red!). Quick side note: there is seven of them again in this scene so hopefully that means that someone just had to run an errand or something (or, more interestingly, one of them could be acting as a spy now that they appear to have given up being handmaids altogether). There is also an argument between June and Alma in this scene where Alma suggests that they should just leave, which is fair enough considering they have a rare chance of escaping a totalitarian regime of rapists, but June insists that “these women deserve to be helped” - the word women suggests she’s moved her sights from saving children to Handmaids and Marthas now or maybe even the women at Jezebels! That would make a particularly interesting escape as Gilead couldn’t make it a national high-profile search because technically ‘a place like that would never exist in Gilead’...

The ‘squad’ also appears to have picked up a guardian? I have two theories on this: 1) This is the Guardian who was meant to be at Hannah’s school the day June went with Eleanor and he has been working with Mayday and the Martha network for a while. 2) The distinct lack of Nick in S3 was because he was off on the front lines finding soldiers of his own, a new breed of double-agent eyes, to join Mayday. We know not all Guardians/Eyes are pious because of the gay refugee guardian that was processed by Moira, so it’s only logical that there are way more out there. It might be Nick’s way of ‘atoning’ for being a part of the crusade.

Man oh man, this scene gave me chills. First of all, the injuries suggest Lydia has potentially been roughed up by some guardians - most likely in the aftermath of the escaped children. We can’t really see much of the background besides these lights which could suggest a lot of things; she could be in an interrogation setting, she could be in a salvaging (although unlikely as she would be a huge asset in the search for Mayday), she could be in the colonies (again unlikely), or she could have be being held hostage by Mayday and she’s talking to one of the other Handmaids about June. I quite like the last option because she’s using biblical language just like she did at the red centre to try to manipulate them, particularly Janine. Which leads me to my geekier thoughts on this scene: she calls June “beyond redemption” - the bible says that no one is beyond redemption as Jesus embodied salvation. So this is the moment where we can finally plainly see that Lydia isn’t doing this because she truly believes in the religious foundation of Gilead (even though that’s what she may tell herself), she’s doing it because she’s a blind follower of Gilead. Gilead isn’t a religious state, it’s a totalitarian oppressive regime and they are not the same thing.

This appears to be some sort of interrogation/arrest of Lawrence (the evidence is he’s being escorted by two guardians). Again, we can’t really tell much from the background, it’s definitely not something we recognise. My best guess we be that it’s either an eye ‘black-site’ or a room from the old red centre (it looks run down like a public school). It’s also probably likely that this is happening after the Mayday children escape - it would make sense that he would be questioned pretty quickly as June was his handmaid. The language he uses in this scene seems very pivotal - like he’s been pondering it for a while which is consistent with how clever he is - but it suggests that he’s talking to someone of importance, someone who he deems to have the intellect to understand what he’s saying. My guess would be maybe Nick or one of the other commanders; leadership is a bit slim-pickings fro them at the minute with Fred incarcerated, Winslow ‘missing’ and Lawrence as a suspect which may make Gilead’s response to Mayday quite sloppy (no doubt something Lawrence is implying in his ‘next few weeks’ comment).

I’ll be honest, I have absolutely no idea what to think of this (It was barely half a second worth of footage, in my defence!). There is some guy walking behind at about the same pace she is walking which suggests they are both walking towards the same thing. Considering Moira’s been working with refugees, I would assume it’s something to do with that. Maybe a Gilead wife has arrived as a ‘refugee’ and that’s going to be a side-plot? Or maybe she’s in the detention centre where they’re holding Fred and Serena and she’s about to rip into Serena? Who knows.

Anyway, that was LONG but those are my thoughts - please comment and leave your ideas! Blessed be the fruit loops, bitches x

[5by5brittana]

Netflix —> Hulu

[birdyisanightingale]

SPOILER:

Hopefully since they both die in OITNB, and we already know that Moira lives on THT that means Janine might get to live too...

[ofjoseph]

I’m sorry, Aunt Lydia.

[birdyisanightingale]

THIS. GIRL. Fight me in this, Janine is the best character in this series. She sees all these women who she calls her best friends, the women that were her birthing partners, being asked to STONE HER TO DEATH and she just says “Not too hard, okay?” with a little smile. Also, she continues to be nice to the woman who commanded her death even after everything she did and continues to do to her. Gilead took everything from her: her eye, her son, her daughter, even her right to be blameless as a gangrape victim, and she’s still the woman who jokes about being a space pirate and obsesses over ice cream and fetches tea for someone who electrocutes her regularly. Janine is the purest soul, she isn’t crazy. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[colleenwing]

[birdyisanightingale]

Reminder that the cheek squeeze was not scripted and Elisabeth and Madeline are just that cute!!

[mitocondriafarenheit-deactivate]

She ran away from Gilead

To her father’s arms

[birdyisanightingale]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN WE GET A REBECCA/ALL THE ESCAPED KIDS EPISODE!! I want to see them deal with having ‘freedom to’ and CPTSD and dealing with media attention that they are actually f*cking allowed to read and I want to see the tears on Rebecca’s dad’s face when he realises she can’t read!! Anyways, thanks for coming to my ted talk :)

[birdyisanightingale]

Unpopular opinion: If (super strong if) June and Nick manage to get to Canada - I kinda hope that Nick will stand aside and just let June be a mother to her children with Luke. Like she’s had that taken away from her for so long, and I’m not saying that he can’t be a part of Holly’s life, I’m just saying I hope he gives her the ‘freedom to’ she deserves.

[birdyisanightingale]

“Tequila... I miss you most of all...”

[birdyisanightingale]

My life is complete. Julie Andrews is the new gossip girl. The true diamond debutante. “What happened in the garden? We’ll soon find out!” XOXO Gossip Girl

[ofjoseph]

It’s crazy but it’s true, I only want to be with you.

[birdyisanightingale]

Some spoilers ahead:

She has such an honest reaction to what’s happened to her, don’t you think? All the other girls are trying to pretend to be tougher than they are just to survive, but Janine just shows it how she’s feeling. People think she’s crazy because shes not like the others but she’s probably the most sane of all of them, in my opinion. Gilead took everything from her: they killed her son, they blamed her for being gang-raped, they gauged her eye out for swearing! But at the end of it all she still is the purest soul who still fetches tea for a women who mutilated her, who suggests a wedding in what is essentially a concentration camp, who laughs about being a space pirate after she was beaten up for no reason... she’s just the absolute biggest badass in the show!

[artfilmfan]

THIS

[birdyisanightingale]

I really hope we get to see more of Rebecca in S4 - like I want to see her deal with CPTSD, I want to see her deal with choices that she never knew she didn’t have, I want to see her deal with media attention that she can actually read; I want to see her ‘after’.