#rose wharton

[smoulderingocean]

"If I even think about you, Rose smells it on me."

I hadn't noticed that line on my first watch, but upon a repeat viewing, it really stands out to me. For as long as we've known Nick, he's relied upon the inner sanctum of his thoughts to escape and survive. More than once he has told June he thinks about her and Nicole all the time. He's admitted to fantasizing all the time about what they can be. We see him imagining a beach day with June and their daughter and when June tells him over the phone to try and be happy, he thinks of them kissing.

But now he's in a situation where he is unable to do that when he needs or wants to. The implication is that Rose either berates him whenever she notices he's thinking about June, gives him a look or the cold shoulder, or tells her father, all of which makes his life a lot more difficult and even dangerous. As such he has no choice but to change the way he lives and that has reduced his freedom to think and fantasize to a very narrow set of situations- he can think in the shower, in situations where he may be alone in his office, or hope and pray for June and their daughter to come to him in his dreams. No longer can he escape when he needs to. He must now plan for it and cling to the small moments when he can. It must be such a hellish and devastating experience for him.

[placingglaciers]

Ugh, this whole Rose/baby situation is driving me nuts! This could go several ways, so this is just me having fun, as my theories never come true lol. (Note: Though I 100% know Nick loves June and baby Holly, I believe Nick does care about Rose and their child. I don't think he's the type of man who would abandon his family, considering he has been abandoned by his mother and had a "difficult" father.) Warning, this gets dark. :(

Both Rose and the baby die. This is the avenue we're all going towards, it seems. This is the easiest way to free Nick from his Gilead obligations and have him fully commit to the resistance. After all, with no family tying him down, could this allow him to not be a Commander anymore? This will also allow him to love June freely and be the family he always wanted. If we're talking "redemption," this could work. I just wish Rose meant something more to the plot. However, this solution runs the risk of being the most boring because *gasp* who would have thought?? lol

Only Rose dies. This could be a little interesting. Though I don't think Wharton will take it well. Would he somehow blame Nick for it? Would he punish/force Nick to marry again, thus prompting Nick to defect? Another Gilead-issued wife? I think he's tired of it! While this does allow Nick to be with June, there is still the baby. Could June care about another woman's child? I think it would only be fair since I believe Nick cares about Hannah. But smuggling out another baby might prove to be difficult...

Rose lives, but the baby dies of "natural" complications. I feel like Gilead strives for as natural a birth as possible, but what happens if that is the very method that kills the baby? What if they're not willing to do a C-section? What if they wait until it gets "bad enough," and then it's too late? Can you imagine Rose, but especially Nick, begging for them to do something that they are perfectly capable of doing? I feel like this would be the chance to reference what is actually happening in real life, bringing the show's relevance to today's society. This could be an avenue where Rose would die in the process, but if this show dared to be a little more interesting, maybe this would be the moment when everything changes for Rose. Her baby died an unnecessary death at the hands of Gilead. Sadly, again, I don't think they care enough about Rose to give her a "redemption arc." Maybe they'll somehow make Rose double down on Gilead, and Nick just checks out to be with June, haha.

Rose lives, but the baby dies on purpose. A surprise twist would be the baby actually being a girl and not a boy. A bunch of Commanders (dare I say a generation?) just died thanks to the Handmaids. I know it would be greatly out of character for Gilead to kill a baby, so I'm aware how weak this theory is, but I do believe Wharton is evil enough to maybe just do it. The future of Gilead needs to be preserved by strong, leading men, right? No doubt this would make Nick leave Gilead, and maybe Rose too. This could also bring cultural relevancy to female infanticide, an issue that is still prevalent today.

Rose lives, the baby dies, and Wharton suggests a substitute. So the baby could die from birth complications (natural or not), leaving a Gilead couple childless. Uh oh! Nick and Rose could try again. But why wait? Based on the talk with Nick in 6x06, we can believe that High Commander Wharton has the power to know and find out just about anything. What if he learns baby Holly's existence/location and threatens to bring her to Gilead? If it is just a threat, we know for certain Nick will do everything in his power to not let that happen. This could smoothly lead into The Testaments, having Nick and June go underground and give Holly to foster parents. I'd love to see this the most. Especially if it'll give us a June/Nick/Holly scene that would absolutely tear my heart apart. :(

Both Rose and the baby live. If this does happen, then I guess we'll be in for seeing one miserable Nick Blaine lol. As I said in the beginning, I'm sure Nick cares about both of them, but this is clearly not the life he wants. This will only make Nick's "redemption" more complicated, and maybe even nonexistent. And we could basically forget about a happy ending with June and Holly altogether. That is, if Rose puts her allegiance in Gilead. If, somehow, Nick could convince her that Gilead is not the place to raise their child, then maybe he can get them out? But this might take a lot of work, especially with Wharton breathing down his neck. Maybe Nick kills him? And Rose probably wouldn't care because he probably abused her. :( (Also, is it just a coincidence that both Rose and Nick have the same parent issues??)

Any of these theories could work, probably if the finale ended up being like, four hours long lol. However, considering the time crunch, I doubt any of this would happen, at least not well. But it was still fun to imagine! (And by fun, I mean absolutely heartbreaking. :( )

[its-carstairs]

Also, the way they treated Rose's character was terrible. That woman didn't have any dialogue in the entire season except for those lines in 609. They introduced a disabled character just as a plot device. No depth, no development, no nothing. We don't know anything about her and we didn't even got to see what happened to her now that her husband and father are dead. Poor, lazy, bad writing.

[nickjunesource]

Am I the only one who doesn't understand Rose's presence/role in the final season? She's barely in it, Wharton briefly mentions her but we never see them interact, she doesn't have scenes with Nick either, like... why is she here and pregnant if they are not showing her?

Hey!

Yeah, we gotta admit, we're pretty perplexed that the season is half over and Rose has been barely present. She and Nick haven't interacted at all aside from Rose glaring at him and Nick avoiding her. We hear that the pregnancy has been hard on her, but aside from her voice sounding a bit frail in 6x03, we don't see any of that. We know things are difficult between them, but aside from Rose's clear anger in 6x01, we hear about it from Nick rather than seeing it. We're truly struggling to find a point to Rose as a character beyond being an obscure obstacle to Osblaine and a source of pain for Nick. We know more about Commander Wharton than we do Rose which is strange considering he's the new character and not her. And yes! We find it so strange to not see father and daughter interacting despite it being a really important relationship and one that is key for Nick's story this season.

It's possible that there have been cut scenes involving her, but we won't know until the scripts are released and summarized. We truly hope that this is not the case as we find Rose an interesting and compelling character and would like to see more of her and get into her head more as she's still a cipher at this point. And of course we also hate any and all cut Nick scenes. He suffers from this more than any other character barring June and it hurts the show.

It's also possible that the writers had more planned for Rose but had to adjust her story due to the actor, Carey Cox, being pregnant for the entire duration of filming (congrats to her and her husband, Joseph, on their healthy son who was born on the 31st of March!). Carey has a condition called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which makes pregnancies high risk. She may have needed accommodations and reduced filming in order to remain safe and healthy. If so, we do understand that! But even with that, Rose could be mentioned more, especially by Nick. We don't really know what's going on in his head other than he's clearly unhappy about all of this. We don't know anything about her at all aside from her not wanting to leave Gilead because it's her home.

And yeah, whatever the reason, it's truly unfortunate that Rose isn't getting the time she needs to develop as a character, both on and off screen. Fingers crossed the back half of the story does her better, because we have a feeling she, the baby, and Commander Wharton are going to be important for Nick's story down the line. And of course Rose herself deserves more too. It's not nice to see a disabled woman character reduced to a mere obstacle in a love square/triangle/whatever.

[darkangelofmists]

I finally watched the last two episodes of The Handmaid's Tale and I have to say that I am rather disappointed by them. The focus was still on the triangle and they left the revolution for the last two episodes that were anticlimactic.

I am not going to talk about Nick's death again but I will talk about Rose and how the disabled characters were treated on the show.

We know that the oppression and the discrimination in Gilead were not only on women but on people with different sexualities, color and disabilities.

So to have Rose one of the few people with disabilities that weren't killed in Gilead only used as an obstacle for Nick and June and not as an actual character with substance and a storyline of her own was really disappointing. Worse this character was treated by her own husband, who was the only reason for her existence on the show, as a problem. He was constantly cheating on her, running after his ex girlfriend, and he didn't even care about their child together. Nick was ready to abandon them when June learned about his betrayal. Then the writers have Rose almost lose her child and then ask her husband to kill his ex girlfriend who she knows he still loves. And then Nick chooses Gilead and dies on that plane basically making Rose responsible for Nick's decision to join the Commaders and choose Gilead, even though we never actually saw on screen that he actually cared about Rose and their child quite the opposite. And when Nick dies Rose and the baby dissappear like they never existed in the first place. We never learn what happened to them because they never mattered to the writers and the show.

What message does that send to the audience? That disabled people are a problem? Unworthy of love and undesired? That they should be abused?

Even Janine who was on the show from the start and after her eye was taken became also a disabled character has always been the victim. Abused, raped and brutalized for the whole duration of the show.

The ableist content in the show is disgusting.

[vampiricalxdata]

is it too much of a reach to think serena and rose will ally together against wharton? like i know nick has said she wouldn’t leave her home, but she could be convinced by serena?

idk. I’d hate for rose to die, but I also don’t see a world where nick is okay leaving his kid in gilead even if the mom isn’t june

[zackprincebooks]

Writing Share Tag!

Thank you @the-golden-comet for the tag! I'm working on Godhunt today, and hopefully I'll have chapters 5&6 out this week.

In chapter 5, Mother does not approve of Lucy's choice of accessories:

As they enter the Thorn residence, they are immediately lost in the crush of people, and they link arms to stay together. Lucy has never seen this many people inside one house before and it feels as though everyone is specifically looking at her. They know she doesn’t belong; it’s only by the grace of Rose and Victoria, and Mother’s relationship with Mister Thorn that she’s here.  Speaking of Mother… “Lucinde!”  Mother swans over on Mister Thorn’s arm, her opposite hand clutching the skirt of her dress. Out of everything she could say about Lucy’s attire, her eyes zero in on the flower crown perched atop her head. “I thought I told you to get rid of that crown weeks ago. It’s positively heathen!” “Yes, Mother. Sorry, Mother.” Mister Thorn is utterly oblivious to their exchange and smiles at the three of them, lifting his glass of sherry in a toast. “Ladies, you all look lovely. Miss Lucinde, I understand Adrian was looking for you. He was quite cross with me, but Charlotte was adamant that I seat him at the head table with us. I hope you won’t be too disappointed.”  “No sir, not at all.” The relief that Lucy feels is unimaginable. She’ll have a little time to decompress during dinner and hopefully lose Adrian in the crowd when it’s time for dancing.

Tagging:

@wyked-ao3 @fortunatetragedy @rivenantiqnerd @crashedrocket12750 @jev-urisk

@villain-lover7899 @lizurich @katenewmanwrites @burntblanc @lorifragolina

@nczaversnick @glasshouses-and-stones @thatuselesshuman @mushroommanchanterelle

@phoenixofthegreenwood @ilovevewritingfanfic @t0ul0ser

Interact with this post if you wish to be added to the tag list!

[smoulderingocean]

Like many others, I've been puzzling over how they're going to resolve the Rose and baby story. I'm not certain how it'll end, but one thought I have relates to something Nick said when he asked June to flee to Paris. When she brings up Rose and Baby, Nick very explicitly states "I'm no good to them." Which is a sad, interesting thing to say because while not fitting into the Gilead life and really struggling and choosing the resistance isn't great to Rose or baby, I don't think that Nick is bad for them. He may have been insecure and in a manic state where he wasn't thinking and he doesn't love Rose and is struggling to love and bond with this baby he doesn't want, but aside from the general sense of "I'm not good enough for anything" and "My existence puts them in danger", the words are odd. I wonder if his mother left for a similar reason, believing that Nick and his brother would be better off without them.

Which has me wondering if Nick is going to end up being good for them. Maybe he'll fight like hell for them in a situation where Gilead doesn't care and save their lives (or Rose's life, which we know Nick would value more), or maybe he'll fight in their names and memories, making a difference because of them.

In any case, I think Nick is going to prove somehow, someway, that he is good for them and that he is indeed a good man and a good father, and not just for June and Holly.