The Handmaid's Tale

The final paragraph does seem disagree:

Yes, I'd love to have a carpet cleaner like that! Winslow's rise and fall was very swift in terms of our knowledge of him, wasn't it? I thought initially we were meant to like him, with his jolly wife and his kids clambering all over him before bedtime stories, then he got worse and worse. The incinerator scene was horrible – what is it normally used for, I wonder? Why would a night club/brothel have one? The mind boggles ... perhaps disposing of bodies is not so rare – the Marthas were certainly very efficient.

Hard to tell if Serena set Fred up. She seemed to be enjoying it all, from the driving to the evening singing, walk in the woods (no snow for once!) and sex, which she initiated. And yet she had implied last week that they would have to go to Nichole if Nichole couldn't come to her, and my goodness she has plenty to resent him for. I think perhaps him telling her he didn't like other men looking at her was not a good move! She also said goodbye to Rita in a very significant way. We were not told the nature of the negotiation they thought they were going to have – perhaps it was always the intention that they would stay in Canada but not that Fred would be arrested? I hope we find out next week and they don't leave it dangling as they tend to do.

I did think it unlikely that Fred would simply follow Tuello all that way without smelling a rat, and that there didn't appear to be a border was also odd. There often aren't in very remote places, but you'd think all of Gilead's border would be heavily defended.

Last episode on Sunday! I usually watch twice to catch the bits I've missed, but haven't had time to this week. June seems to be coming in for quite a bit of stick in reviews and elsewhere for failing to act to save Eleanor, but I do wonder what she could have done, and why indeed she should be criticised for acting in a way that would be reprehensible in a normal society, but in such a corrupt regime, where she at least has a chance of saving some children, is understandable.

I thought it was good episode. Would June have gone too if she hadnt been shot? Not without Hannah I guess. I have to say I found it difficult to watch her letting Mrs Lawrence die the other week. She became so obsessed with her mission that, although it was a good thing, she didnt care who had to suffer what IMO. So will she be bothered about an y Marthas who die?

And Serena! That was a turn up that she is being charged with rape, or its facilitation. But wasn't June sleeping with Nick anyway? I didnt understand how that got Serena a rape charge.

I would quite like to see a return visit to The Colonies.

That was her reason for not leaving at the end of series 2. This time she was prepared to die by first acting as a decoy and then shooting the guard. She has been sailing close to the wind all series, and she can't help Hannah if she doesn't survive. There was a dreamy, elegiac quality to the final moments that would allow for series 4 to start with her not having survived. I doubt it though!

Fred told the prosecutors that Serena had forced Nick to rape June – a dangerous strategy since that's pretty well telling them that Nichole is not his daughter either, but probably the most effective way of hurting her as well as punishing her. I did wonder if he might tell them about Serena's role in bringing on June's labour by insisting on a Ceremony when it wasn't required under Gilead rules, but that would have implicated him too. He is a slippery customer but not a fool!

I'd like to see their prosecution next series, which I think might happen – the writers have talked about Nuremberg-style trials, though presumably not with capital punishment. And they'll have a cracking witness in Rita. How will that affect those still in Gilead, I wonder.

Margaret Attwood has gone from the Booker long list to the final shortlist. The judges have to sign a non-disclosure agreement so that they can read it before it's final release.

Tantalising, thank you. The book is being released for sale on 10 September, next Tuesday, the same day as the cinema relay. I imagine it will be on sale there.

I realise it's a bit late to say this, but it occurred to me to wonder why, if Nick was a Commander all along, he was forced into marrying Eden, which he was clearly not comfortable with. I never could see why he would be working as an Eye, which was much lowlier than a Commander, and he wasn't under cover as Serena and Fred apparently knew of his role in bringing about Gilead. All very odd.