One Burning Question: The Handmaid’s Tale (S4, E8): Are June & Aunt Lydia The Same? | Hulu 

not just you. ugh. i had to stop watching because it was driving me crazy.

I literally just wrote this in another comment. It’s super annoying and disrespectful to them

Yeah, last week I really noticed it too. The guests could not even finish their scentence most of the time before she went on to tell her own opinion (which was interesting but not really what I came for)

Yesssss! It's rude on the interviews part, she's supposed to ask the questions, not take the spotlight away from the guests.

Yeah she is really into it and is really excited which is fine but let them answer your questions. He has he interrupted a lot.

June has been through some horrific trauma. Aunt Lidia is psychotic ver big difference

I like your insight

June was working for the press so of course words are the way she will do to harm or heal from. I agree with you very much because June did more good things than Aunt Lydia did wrong. June actually is using her rage because of pain she has and trauma.

Right!! I found her comparison of the two a bit wrong... Those women are not the same.

Read The Testaments

Abuse is still abuse though. That’s said. June has been traumatized by abuse and Lydia chose her path

THANK YOU. I felt bad for Ever Carradine because she couldn't complete her thought.

I felt the same way! Like plz stop!

Yes its extreamly cronfronting thos season, l almost stopped watching it , even tho l love the show.

Agreed

oh Azmi, can you access the podcast, Eyes on Gilead. It is the best for decompressing after an episode. :)

Yes!

There's another RU-vid channel called pay or wait who does recaps that are great and soothing

After all she didn't mind stealing someone's husband 🤣😂

@@l.c.7955 you hit the jackpot with that comment..

Hey Luke is 50% of that.

Thank you for articulating what I have been trying to get across to friends😂 Nailed it.

I think trauma fueled her anger. I don't think she had it within her to begin with.

I know he’s English but sometimes he sounds Australian

I thought he was Australian?

@@marycordes4509 no he's a Brit

Yeah, think so too... They kinda did a similar thing in 4x7, where June was 'depicted' as a Wife in some situations. June's behavior bears resemblance to Serena's and Lydia's (her main female abusers) and it's on purpose IMO... The key here will be June's motives though, cause I think ultimately, she'll come out on top - being able to brake the circle of abuse, showing those 2 a woman they always wanted to become.

Yeah you can tell max really hated the question because he gets June’s rage probably more than any viewer! He was defending June the whole time

@@TheMotherofTacos I noticed that too!

@@TheMotherofTacos never noticed that, that is a great catch!!!!

I totally expected them to all start chanting.

I was also waiting for a full shaming! but I understand that this would have been too obvious. They played the overlap just right.

@@TheLisa-Al-Gaib I agree with you 100% if they all pointed woildbe been too much 😂

PLEASE READ THE TESTAMENTS BEFORE YOU ALL SPEAK...

Not having a happy life doesn't mean you have to die to resolve the story, people live unhappily all the time. 😆. I don't think June wants happiness and to lead a normal life thr way Moira does. She wants a life of PURPOSE.

@@sebastienhiddn5589 I read the testaments. It doesnt go into her life much other than the fact that she lived and works with mayday. Same with nick

I was responding to the person who wrote that the only way for June was to save Hannah while dying in the process...a very over dramatic cliché narrow view to me

@@sebastienlamotte8593 imo, her dying or it going the way of the testaments at the very end/if they make another series is a bit cliche. Two long lost sisters find each other and escape. Loved the book and im enjoying the series but still... that part is cliche

Have you read The Testaments? I think she suffers from "Stockholm Syndrome". But, initially she played along to save her own skin.

I think he means because when people hear the word "victim" they think of someone cowering in a corner. June used to be meek and more victim like in order to survive, but she's not doing that anymore. I think he's just saying she's not really a victim so much as a survivor

Ikr, I’m all for people calling themselves survivors but they were still victimised. It doesn’t need to be a ‘weak’ word.

True, but everyone is victim to Gilead besides the commanders. June has been a victim to terrible things but her charecter is so strong and powerful its hard to see her as a victim. Most people would crumble under such circumstances but she played Fred like a fiddle, gained control of Josef, bested aunt lydia physically and mentally, and raised a metaphoric army of hand maids. She is probably the most powerful victim I have ever seen in media

Thank you. The question is subjective and the guests are allowed to disagree. Shes condescending and comes across as a know it all and thinks she's the smartest person in the room and almost doesn't allow them to not agree and the continuous interrupting is ficking annoying.

And not to mention, she's literally upholding a misogynistic fascist state, June is trying to liberate women FROM it. They're on completely opposite sides of the spectrum.

@@ncorp2668 Exactly!

It’s not that aunt Lydia enjoys inflicting pain. It is that she sees the infliction of pain as a way to control. Those are two different things. I can see where you would make that mistake. Please think a little deeper on these matters.

@@mypetcrow9873 yes! This.

A lot of people here forgot real fast what June did to Lawrence's wife. June could have saved her but she let her die on purpose "for the kids", the same excuse Lydia uses for their abuses.

Exactly my thoughts. People's emphasis on forgiveness and media nowadays can grate for some people, but it's one way to get closure when you have none. I think that part of June's problem is that she has no closure. She wants to go, look at me and all I went through, which is understandable, but it's blocking her (or will eventually) from actually resolving the issue. I wouldn't be so concerned about her doing this right away if this was just confined to life outside of her personal life. But of course it can't be. If she keeps behaving this way, what about hannah? What about nicole? Will she even be able to raise them properly? What about Luke and the way that she violated him? How in any way is that okay? It's not like June can take a retreat somewhere until she feels better. Unless they make that? That would probably be a good idea. But my point means that she can't stop real life to deal with her trauma. She has to deal with her life alongside her trauma, which is why I'm concerned if this pattern continues. Full disclosure, I can't get through entire episodes of this show. It should be clear to anybody who's watched it why. But I have read the book and it's easy to make connections between the book and what is going on with what I have seen, so I participate in some discussion anyway.

You mean Max? :D

Bring on the darkness..

I thought that too and Luke

His while demeanor is different with that accent. I thought he was Mexican on the show.

You cannot be angry the way June is angry and not hurt others, it's impossible.

Lawrence’s wife was out anyway she couldn’t live with the fact with what her and her husband created

So June let her rest peacefully. She wanted to save her but the kids escape plan and the wife’s own desires stopped her

I totally agree! June will eventually heal, but she will definitely be a different June. One I do not think Luke or Moira will accept. They both keep wanting June to be who they "know" and love. That June is gone forever. Getting Hannah back may get June closer to who she was, but she will never be the same. And I do not think even getting Hannah back will help the dying relationships with Luke and Moira.

I am also waiting for aunt Lydia's turning point to be coherent with the content of the "Testaments". And I also got the feeling from that scene with Janine that she is going to slowly cross over to the other side this season. I have been trying to read this shift in her attitude every time she was more or less defensive and caring towards the handmaids, as if those moments were dim flashlights into her actual character, which is bound to develop later on, as it does in the book.

Uhm... the way I interpreted The Testaments is that Aunt Lydia had been playing a role all along to save her own skin. She used to be a judge - before Gilead. She is "acting" as an enforcer of Gilead rule and none of her transgressions are based on her own intrinsic rage. It might be that her violence is an outlet for her rage about the role she had been forced into. She always seems tearful when she has to conduct punishments or physically assault someone. It's the secret thoughts and actions of Aunt Lydia that we don't have access to at this stage and her thought processes are only really revealed in The Testaments.

@@alic9543 You could very well be right. The way I read it was at some point she kind of agreed with the ideals of Gilead and believed in her role. But then, she started to have a heart for the female children of Gilead, therefore intervening and suggesting the aunt-hood.

@@beckyg2292 I think she pretended to agree with the ideals in order to survive. That's what I got from the book. That her actions were in line with what Gilead expected from her. If she came across as too weak to fulfill her role, she would have ended up dead. As a judge in her previous life, she would not have ordered physical punishment to be administered to innocent people and I think that she is suffering from intense internal conflict. "Play along and stay alive" or "Be kinder and gentler and pay for it with your life". Her meanness is the facade and in the background she tries to help the girls (but cannot be seen to be sympathetic). At times she almost begs them to cooperate and tries to instill the ideals of the greater good into them, so she doesn't have to punish them. Oh, and her pattern is to use people against one another so she doesn't have to get her hands dirty. June did the same with the young wife: "Make me proud" - I thought that she was imitating Aunt Lydia in that scene. Lydia is a very complex character.

I THINK maybe she wants someone to pat her on the back and tell her her feelings are justified and her actions are okay. Because the current group of people are trying to change her mind to “heal” and “move on” and she doesn’t want too.. she wants those who hurt her to hurt, thinking it will make her feel better, even though it won’t.

@@mcnoneya I think June wants to do everything in her power to bring Gilead down as retribution for taking Hannah (and many other children) away from their mothers. She wants other women to own their rage and not go into victimhood and try and 'heal'. She wants to fight back & not roll over and play dead. She is in a safer space and can dedicate her full attention to it, but cannot do it alone. Gilead cannot be taken on with soft gloves - they need to come from a place of rage.

@@alic9543 You worded that theory better than I did, but yes this was what I was trying to convey, in developing mayday.

If you've read The Testaments, the big surprise is who Mayday really is.... very interesting twist that sent shivers down my spine.

@@mcnoneya I think that bringing Gilead down and getting Hannah back, would make her feel better. But she cannot do that on her own. She needs all the support she can get from people coming from the same circumstances. I think any movement for human rights would probably start as a consequence of gross injustice & the early movers would be the people most affected by it.

I think Lydia does really want to be in gilead but I think she has a soft spot for Janine so maybe in a few episodes she’ll be against gilead because of Janine

@@taylorcar9052 At worst, Lydia has Stockholm Syndrome. At best, she may be of the opinion that she is the girls' only hope. She has to get them to play along, for their own benefit, otherwise they will meet with a much worse fate.

I caught that too....thought I accidently clicked on a Thrones channel

@@taunyawoosley9076 I thought I had opened another tab

Oh yeah, they'll meet again.

The Testaments will tell you more about Lydia. She is far more intelligent than is apparent in the series thus far.

@@alic9543 yes I read The Testaments, so I do know her history in that sense. The series is getting there with her, but it isn't clear yet if they will stay true to the book.