Watched the S2E09 and then S2E10 one after the other, and it was a powerful and draining experience. First Serena being beaten previously, then humiliated in many little ways in Canada... After the 'Women's Work' episode, and the ones that followed, I almost extended my sorority to her but then...
Serena deserves to pay for everything she did in the worst way possible. All the things she suffered weren't but a slap on the wrist compared to the monstrosities she enables since the beginning. She turned away the chance to run away to Hawaii, and this showed she isn't just a victim, she IS a victim, but of something she created almost by herself. Gilead probably isn't the world she dreamed of, but it's the world she helped to build and she isn't willing to leave. Serena to me is a portrayal of the trap women who defend oppressive agendas put themselves in - they have deep mental scars, but as the complete human beings they are - even when they give this up to please their male pairs like she did - they are accountable for this and for their actions too.
I admire Margaret Atwood as a feminist author because she can build her female characters like this, complete human beings, at the same time she shows clearly they are deeply scarred by the oppressive world they live in. Both Alias Grace and THT shows captured this nuance beautifully. Btw, I personally think THT is the best thing we have in television right now.
About the torture porn, I felt my stomach turn on the rape scene. For a moment I considered stopping to watch the series altogether, but then I realized something: THIS is what WILL happen if we give up our freedom. It's important for us to see it - as it is important to see what the Holocaust was, for example - as a reminder. Later I saw the executive producer saying this same thing and I think this is what makes this show more than simple entertainment, and elevates it to art and a political manifesto.
If something like Gilead arises, it WON'T STOP. People will be tortured and killed on a daily basis, women will be raped like June, Emily, Janine and Moira, children will be taken away like Hannah. The resistance will end on the wall like Omar. I think the most brilliant part of this show is giving these people faces and showing us their pain in close up, so we never forget we CAN'T let this happen.
