Handmaid’s Tale question about timeline of Gilead

Funny, OP -- I was just wondering that myself.

When they're trying to escape at the beginning, where are they escaping FROM? Where are they trying to go that they ended up being apprehended in Gilead? In theory, they should have been in Gilead and trying to escape to somewhere else, but they seemed like a nice normal little family, which couldn't have existed in Gilead.

I'm confused.

I think you’d have to read the book.

In that, the Waterfords are not June’s first placement. She’s flunked out of two others after not producing a child, and this family is her last chance. After three strikes handmaids are sent to the colonies (or Jezebel’s, which the general public doesn’t know about.)

Gilead is the entire U.S. in the book - the previous government was overthrown.

R2 That doesn’t really address the first question - unless there was a time jump. We see Luke and June watching the destruction of Congress - then, a while later, we presume - they are running from the Guardians. Obviously they must have been able to function in early Gilead, and probably thought that they could wait it out.

Like many television shows, there is a degree of inference necessary. At least in ‘The Serpent’, they very helpfully included a date and time.

I assume Gilead developed somewhat like Nazi Germany... in that, it’s not like the targeted segments of society were all contained on Day 2. There were increasing restrictions.

Oh lord - I guess I am going to have to rewatch Season 1 to help you with this.

Yes - there are time jumps. 1st Scene: Luke, June and child arrested as they are in the U.S./Gilead, 2 miles outside Canada. Second Scene: June alone in her room at the Waterford home. Third Scene: flashback to June’s arrival in the household, mentioning this is the second family she’s been placed with.

Later in the show (maybe as late as Season 2), there will be another flashback that shows June, her husband, and their child living in a cabin in the wilderness. They appear to be hiding out, but putting up a happy front for the kid. In the scene, they panic when they notice a stranger watching them. I think that this was when they decided it was time to leave their hideout and make a run for the Canadian border. This scene probably led up to the "chase" we see in the pilot episode.

In flashback to the Center at night, Moira says her girlfriend Odette was “rounded up in one of the dyke purges.” This implies the noose tightened in degrees after the insurgency put Gilead in power.

^^ Season 1, Episode 1

Thank you R5 and R6.

In walk with with her shopping partner Ofglen (Emily) after the Salvaging ceremony, June mentions that she, Luke, and their daughter were captured in Maine.

This says five years at sometime in season three I think. The interesting thing here is the impact on young children and what they’ve grown up with and believe to be their world.

This backs up R11 quite well and mentions when she was in the newspaper headquarters and people pieced events by dates on articles she collected.

thank you R12

thank you R11

I'd like to live in Gilead.

R15 You had your chance, Donald.

I don't know if this is relevant to what people want to know, but I remember in the book after the women's bank accounts are frozen and they lose their jobs, Offred remembers how she wants to leave but Luke is being all "man of the house" about it and saying he can look after her etc, and it's the moment a wall comes up between them, because she knows that while he's not for what's happening, it's also tapping into something in him that does please him in some small way. I'm not explaining it very well, but it's a great scene, showing how effectively people in power can create divisions between the population.

So because of this, they don't leave when they can, and by the time they are running away it's already too late.

apparently it’s been 7 years since June was captured by Guardians trying to escape. That’s crazy, how does someone ensure that hell for 7 years?

Mighty impressive episode, perhaps better then anything in the last two seasons.

I suspect June needs therapy.

[quote]apparently it’s been 7 years since June was captured by Guardians trying to escape. That’s crazy, how does someone ensure that hell for 7 years?

What throws me off is that her daughter Hannah doesn't look any older than 7 and she had to be around three when she and Luke made their run. At least I thought she was a toddler.

she looked around 5 to me when they were on the run