Tag: 2018
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Under the Eye: “The Word”
Say the word and you’ll be free Say the word and be like me Say the word I’m thinking of Have you heard the word is love? It’s so fine, it’s sunshine It’s the word, love In the beginning I misunderstood But now I’ve got it, the word is good Martha Rita didn’t have a…
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Under the Eye: “Postpartum”
“Out for a drive. To go into labor. Then deliver in an empty house. I can’t bear to think what might’ve happened if those neighbors hadn’t found you.” Aunt Lydia, explaining Offred’s disappearance. This is Gilead Rumor Control (Fake News Department). No, Offred was not abducted. Offred did not flee. Offred did not try to…
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Under the Eye: “Holly”
Previously on As Gilead Turns … when we last left June, she was trapped in an enormous, vacant house after a tearful reunion with her daughter, Hannah, and Nick was arrested and taken into custody. Will Luke admit that Nick loves June? Like sands in the hourglass … these are the Handmaids of our Lives…
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Under the Eye: “The Last Ceremony”
Previously on As Gilead Turns … If you want rape, this is the episode that has lots of rape! We’ve drifted away from the Ceremony, but now we’re back in full force. We start with Emily, who gets into “crash position” with an old Commander and his wife. He thrusts in slow-motion. He looks like…
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Under the Eye: “Smart Power”
O Canada! Our home and native land! True patriot love in all thy sons command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise, The True North strong and free! From far and wide, O Canada, We stand on guard for thee. I open the review with that little ditty because Fred and Serena (with Nick) are…
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Under the Eye: “Women’s Work”
“Man works from sun to sun, but woman’s work is never done” I never found it to be in the story’s favor that Offred was chosen to be the Unreliable Narrator. It gives a writer license to ignore his or her own rules in establishing narrative. Margaret Atwood wanted The Handmaid’s Tale to be a…
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Under the Eye: “After”
Unintended consequences. Let’s let that one sink through just a little until it creates a bruise. Unintended consequences. 31 handmaids died in Ofglen the Second’s attack. 26 Commanders died as well, but 31 handmaids died. I admit I don’t fully grasp the physics of explosions, but Ofglen the Second did manage to bury herself deep…
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Under the Eye: “First Blood”
Nearly a season-and-a-half has gone by in this Handmaid’s Tale and we’ve ignored or neglected another handmaid’s tale. This is the story of Ofglen the Second, conscripted to replace Ofglen the First (or Emily) who got caught with her hand in a cookie jar and had her clitoris removed for the good of Gilead. Then…
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Under the Eye: “Seeds”
Maybe June’s lost what’s left of her mind, I don’t know, but it’s the middle of the night, she wakes up, grabs the pile of clandestine letters she received in the package from Mayday and starts burning them in the sink. When Nick confronts her, she tells him she’s not supposed to leave her room…
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Under the Eye: “Other Women”
If I could point to one “saving grace” in The Handmaid’s Tale, it would have to be that the protagonists, the “good guys” are flawed. Even to degrees of selfish hypocrisy, all or most of these “good guys” are not that good. They’re not of the Mary Sue variety; elevated to impossible heights of perfection…
Misadventures in Blissville 