8 Questions We Really Want Answered in The Handmaid’s Tale’s Second Season – Gizmodo

Even though there were some significant changes and additions, the first season of The Handmaids Tale followed the basic structure of Margaret Atwoods classic novel, all the way through the end of Offreds journey. That means next season will, for better or worse, show us a new chance to explore Gileadand the world it inhabits. So heres what wed like season two to tell us about it.

The Handmaids Tale has already been renewed for season two, and plans are in motion for Hulus second visit to Gilead. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Bruce Miller said hes working with The Handmaids Tale author Margaret Atwood to come up with stories and plotlines that fit with her overall vision. However, this isnt going to be easy; the shows already taken some pretty stark departures from the booklike Luke being alive (and getting his own episode), or Offred finding out shes pregnant at the end of the season.

Its going to be interesting to see how these two visions combine (or collide) as the show officially moves past the non-symposium ending of the book and into uncharted territory. There are a few things from the book that havent been addressed yet that wed love to see covered on the show, as well as some new elements that would expand our understand of Gilead and its place in the world.

Gileads rise is a result of fear, panic, and opportunism over the infertility crisis. So far, weve learned it impacts the United States and Mexico, but havent heard if its an international crisis or something limited to continental North America. This raises the question of what prompted the crisis in the first place, and how bad the problem really is.

In the book, the infertility crisis is reportedly caused by overuse of birth control and the rise in sexually transmitted diseases. The symposium epilogue states this too, although Gilead couldve easily exaggerated the role to condemn womens sexual liberation. Theres also the environmental issue, which is likewise touched upon in episode six, A Womans Place. This could mean pollution, climate change, or even a nuclear war. The point is no ones really said why infertility is happening and how many people it affects.

Itd be great to get a look at people who were in the midst of the crisis, to get a better semblance of what happened when. For example, a flashback to show what the government was (or was not) doing to address rising infertility before Gilead rose to take over the United States.

The Colonies are basically the Krampus of Gilead, an ever-looming threat that targets misbehaving citizens in the religious country. If you get sent there, youre basically doomed to dieat least, thats what were led to believe. In the show, the Colonies are parts of North America that have been contaminated by pollution and radioactive waste. Gilead sends criminals, failed handmaids, and other Unpeople there to live out their lives as slaves, cleaning up toxic waste until they die.

However, there are so many unanswered questions about the Colonies that need to be addressed: How big are the Colonies, and does Gilead control all of them? Are they as bad as people fear, or has Gilead created or exaggerated a myth to keep people in line? And, my biggest question... is that where Mayday is hiding out? Itd be the perfect cover, so long as they could protect themselves from pollution.

Out of all the problems I have with the show, and there are a few, the biggest one is the way it handles the timeline. There are several episodes that show how Gilead spread itself across the United States, gaining followers and preparing to take over the government, but theres still no explanation of how the war happened and how the hell US citizens couldve remained so ignorant of the group that took over their country.

I feel like the best way to address that would be to have a flashback for Rita, the servant in the Waterfords home. In episode nine, The Bridge, we learned that Ritas son died in the war, though we still dont know what side he was on. This is the gateway to learning more about the conflict. Focusing a storyline on Ritas past would enable us to see how everything escalated and how the Sons of Jacob were able to prevail against a force as big as the US military.

Gileads most-prized possession is children, which is why they created the handmaid program in the first place. And yet, we dont exactly know what the Republic is doing with them. In the show, weve seen the group of Gileadean children being paraded in front of the Mexican ambassador, as well as some girls at school. But we know little about how Gileadean children are being educated, how theyre handling being separated from their parents, and what purpose the Republic wants them to serve in the future.

Since Hannahs location has been revealed, fixing the spotlight on her for a bit would give us a better insight in how children are being treated in Gilead (hopefully with an older actress, to better match the timeline). Are boys being conscripted into the Sons of Jacob? Are girls trained as future handmaids, even if their fertility cant be tested? Plus, which kids remember their parents, and what do they think of them now? Since the children are the future, itd be smart to show what exactly that future entails.

Gilead might isolate itself from the rest of the world, but you can damn well bet the rest of the world isnt isolating itself from Gilead. As we learned in the season finale, Night, several countries are working with Canada to house refugees from the Republic. It doesnt look like Gilead has a lot of friends. In the show, their only known trading partner is Mexicoand in the book, the country hosts Japanese tourists.

Now that Moira has joined Luke in Canada (and Miller said the show will partially take place there), it makes sense to expand the scope and give us an idea of what the world thinks of Gilead. Perhaps have Moira serve as a witness at the United Nations, to tell international leaders how women in Gilead are being kept as sexual slaves. This would also give us a better glance at how widespread the infertility crisis is. And if its a localized problem in North America, whether other nations are bothering to do anything about it.

I previously argued that Aunt Lydia is The Handmaids Tales best example of a true believerand by the end of the season, I think thats a stone-cold fact. Shes completely devoted to Gileads mission, and sees it as the right path for her and the rest of the country. While her dedication to her handmaids, like when she cried as Janine was about to be stoned to death, suggested she may be conflicted about Gileads path... that couldnt be more wrong. Her love for her handmaids wasnt in spite of what Gilead is doing... its because of what Gilead is doing.

I would love nothing more than to see Aunt Lydias backstory next season. When did she join the Gileadean cause, and how exactly did that come about? I cant believe she was forced into that life, given her dedication to the cause. A Womans Place did an excellent job of showing female complacency in Gileads patriarchal societya history lesson about the Aunts, centered around Lydias journey, would enhance that.

The symposium epilogue at the end of The Handmaids Tale indicates that there was a lot of internal strife in Gilead up until its fall. Commanders in different periods of Gileads rule behaved differently based on how stringent the rules were for them. There doesnt seem to have been an outright civil war, but there were internal conflicts that sowed discontent.

This is something were seeing echoed in the character of Andrew Pryce, an Eye whos determined to clean up Gilead of its corruption. It seems like hes going to play a bigger role next season, as the upstanding moral compass of Gilead who refuses to bend or break for the other commanders. Given Pryces role in the Sons of Jacob, and his clearly obvious issues with Gileadean leadership, it seems possible that discontent could turn into something bigger.

Id personally love to see a sort-of civil war brew inside Gilead between rising factions, echoing how Protestantism splintered into thousands of denominations in the centuries following the Reformation.

Offreds mother is a key figure in the book, demonstrating the ideological clash between second-wave and third-wave feminism (though its been argued were in or nearing the fourth wave nowadays). In the book, Offred learns from Moira that her mother was sent to the Colonies, implying that she died from forced servitude in the toxic environment. However, theres been no mention of Offreds mother on the show so far, leaving the door wide open for her arrival and impact on the story.

Personally, Id love to see Offreds mother as a key figure in Mayday, who had Offred rescued after learning her location (since she helped Mayday recover a package in The Bridge). This risks venturing into How convenient! territory, but it would also give the show a chance to demonstrate the inner complexities within feminism as a movement... contrasting with Gileads own turmoil through conflicting religious ideologies.

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8 Questions We Really Want Answered in The Handmaid's Tale's Second Season - Gizmodo