History Series / TheHandmaidsTale

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: This appears to be a hallmark of Gilead's security forces. Multiple episodes appear to have established them as quite incompetent, considering they allowed a suicide bomber in Season 2. Not to mention that they allowed June to escape twice in Season 4, once from the van carrying June to a Magdalene Colony, and the second on a boat tryitng to return to Canada, with ''June in front of them the entire time''. See SwissCheeseSecurity for other instances of this incompetence.

* SwissCheeseSecurity: The security in Canada was very light considering the visitors were responsible for murdering and enslaving hundreds of thousands of relatives of people who were forced to flee up north. Plus Luke being allowed to nearly an arm’s length of the man who has enslaved and is systematically raping his wife. On the other hand, perhaps that’s what the Canadians wanted, eh?

* ChildByRape: All of the children the Handmaids give birth to, as they're slaves who have no say in the matter.

* AdaptationalDiversity: The novel ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'' has an all-white cast because the Gilead regime was explicitly white supremacist, and had all black people ReleasedToElsewhere; the [[Series/TheHandmaidsTale Hulu adaptation]] dispenses with this aspect in order to avoid MonochromeCasting. A number of significant roles (Moira, Luke and his and June's daughter Hannah, Nick, Rita) are played by actors of color; there are also actors of color among the smaller roles and extras, especially the Handmaids and Marthas. In addition, Ofglen (named Emily in the series) is shown to be a lesbian, which isn't mentioned in the book (although Moira being a lesbian is book canon). We also see some black Commanders and Guardians (though in the background mostly).

* BlackMarket: Unsurprisingly one is revealed to exist in Gilead. Not only are alcohol and various illegal drugs traded, but also ''cosmetics and pregnancy tests''. Nick provides drugs to a Martha working in the brothel, with her giving him dirt on the customers in return (they also have a casual sexual relationship).
* BodyHorror: Be female and read a book; that’s a finger amputation. Talk too much, and Gilead will pluck out the person’s eye. Infidelity is handled with getting a hand amputated at best (usually death). Too important to kill, but still causing trouble? Genital mutilation. Standing up for someone results in tongue removal or getting your mouth literally wired shut. Then there’s DC. [[spoiler: Every Martha and Handmaid’s mouth is wired shut.]]

* TheConspiracy: Fred was part of one that led to Gilead's creation. It's a group, while their exact size is unknown. He proposed they commit false flag attacks on the Congress, President and Supreme Court. This was agreed to, and they succeeded.

* {{Determinator}}: The brutal punishments meted out to 2nd class citizens has a habit of forcing various personality types to their logical extremes. This is one of them. When they hit this stage, they often become master manipulators, killers, or simply just don't give up hope. Everyone who makes it to Canada is essentially this. Those who remain in Gilead longer, despite opportunities to leave, like June, are going to keep trying out different approaches to their personal objects despite any risks.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: This happens a ton with the people who wanted Gilead. They all seemed to assume they would be the exception to the rules. It hardly ever turns out that way, and in the instances where its true, it doesn’t stay that way.

* DividedStatesOfAmerica: It seems Gilead only controls a portion of the former U.S., with a civil war being fought in other parts. We know Gilead includes New England and the Mid-Atlantic, given mentions of Maine, New York and D.C. being part of it, and the series taking place in Massachusetts. Yet Offred mentions that Anchorage is the capital of "what's left of the United States," and that there are "two stars on the flag," suggesting that Alaska and another state (possibly Hawaii?) are run by another government that is the U.S.'s true successor. If there is fighting in Florida and Chicago, that suggests that there are even more new governments clashing with Gilead. It's hard to piece together much, given the limited information the women of the series receive [[spoiler:besides Ofglen, due to her membership in the Resistance]], and the lack of trust that the regime instills in its citizens, making them reluctant to discuss politics. Rebels control most of the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DhtYga8UcAEC19W.jpg border areas of CONUS]] [[https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/36983039_2110327322588817_2582149598374002688_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=4f9b90c52509eb8036861dafe4063d07&oe=5BD95B6A as well as the West Coast, Vermont and Florida]].

** The idea that the Handmaids were first enslaved for "serious" crimes, then less and less serious, until they could be taken for any little thing, echoed the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_asylum Magdalene laundries]], where women who got pregnant out of wedlock were sheltered and used for labor. The practice perhaps began as punishment for prostitutes, but came to include pretty much any woman that was "improper". In some cases, their children were adopted to other families. One of the last Magdalene laundries was located in Waterford, Ireland.

** The detention center Lawrence shows June is little more than a packed warehouse of standing-room-only cage-cells inside a building resembling a meatpacking plant, borrowing imagery from the horror stories of ICE detention facilities in 2019.

** [[spoiler: Serena Joy attempts to drown herself in Season 3, but changes her mind and doesn't go through with it.]]

* EarAche: All Handmaids have tags painfully inserted into their ears as a means of identifying them if they try to escape. [[spoiler:In the Season 2 premiere, June bloodily cuts the tag from her ear with scissors as part of going on the run.]]
* TheEiffelTowerEffect: As with seemingly anything taking place in Boston these days there’s the obligatory scene at Fenway Park. However this scene is significantly more disturbing than watching the Red Sox — it's used in a mock hanging to punish defiant Handmaids.

* EqualOpportunityEvil: The novel's version of Gilead is a white supremacy, which sent all black people to "national homelands" in North Dakota and presumably removes other racial groups too. In the series it enslaves women of all races as Handmaids, and also shows black people among not only Commanders or Wives, but also some Guardians, the [[StateSec internal security forces]] of the regime. They're also fine with interracial marriage, since the problem which June and Luke face was over him being formerly married to another woman (as the regime doesn't legally recognize a divorce unless it was for a wife's adultery) and Omar (the black worker who helps June) is openly married to a white woman (while secretly being Muslims). However, it's also shown that at least one Commander and his wife have requested only white Handmaids, so it's not like racism has gone away entirely.

** Being sent to the Colonies, where people clean up toxic waste until their skin falls off from being poisoned and they finally die.

* {{Fetish}}: The Handmaids are this to some of the Commanders such as Fred and also customers at the brothel (they have prostitutes dressed as them there). Plus women kissing each other, and many forms of dress from the old days which we see them wear too. There’s also a brief moment where a man kisses a woman’s arm stump, implying he’s fetishizing her amputated limb.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Aunt Lydia was once just Miss Clements, a kind teacher very concerned with children's welfare. There's little hint how she became an Aunt, but presumably it's due to this concern being pushed toward extremes with the fertility crisis and adopting the Sons of Jacob's beliefs as a result. The start it seems was having a boy taken out of his mother's custody due to what Lydia saw as inadequate parenting.

** In the Season 4 episode “Milk”, flashbacks to Janine’s life before Gilead zig-zag this trope. When she was pregnant with her son Caleb, she planned to have an abortion, as she was an unmarried diner waitress, and the father was her on-again-off-again boyfriend who was implied to not be ready. However, when she went to a crisis pregnancy center, the person who met with her was a HolierThanThou woman who twisted the perspective to make abortion sound worse than it was. She told Janine about the process for vacuum aspiration, leaving out that Janine is too early for that, and adds that she can become infertile if the process fails. Janine decides to keep the baby and has Caleb. Years later, however, she falls pregnant again, and goes to a different place for an abortion this time. This time, the doctor is completely honest with her and prescribes her abortion pills for her early stages. She also tells Janine straightforwardly that crisis pregnancy centers actually manipulate women to keep unwanted pregnancies. Imagine how shocked and conflicted Janine must feel after this.

* GovernmentInExile: The US federal government has been forced to relocate from Washington DC after a coup into Anchorage, Alaska.

** In particular the second Ofglen says she's happy with her lot, because she was a drug-addicted prostitute before. Now at least she has somewhere to stay every night, plenty of food, and people she insists ''do'' care about her, though it's still open to interpretation if that's a rationalization and coping mechanism. [[spoiler:She still balks at stoning Janine.]] Later [[spoiler:this trope is averted when her tongue is removed and she suicide bombs a meeting of Commanders in a new Red Center.]]
** June's new partner in season three, Ofmatthew, is seemingly very pious and happy with her status, although hints that she may be less than so in the season where she reveals that she is now pregnant again with her Commander's child.

* TheHeretic: All members of the resistance groups are heretics according to the Republic of Gilead, and punished for this, not anything else. That's because officially, there isn't a resistance.

** [[spoiler:Aunt Lydia]] was quite clearly beaten during her "interviews" by the Eyes of God.

* LettingHerHairDown: All of the women keep their hair up regardless of status, with exceptions for occasions such as when the Handmaid is giving birth, in which case both the Handmaid and the wife keep their hair down.

** Eden thinks that her new husband [[spoiler: Nick]] is a "gender traitor" because he won't have sex with her, however this is actually because he has problems sleeping with a 15 year old, and is in love with June.
* MixedAncestry: Offred's husband Luke appears to be mixed race in this series (their daughter Hannah is too).

* NamedByTheAdaptation: The Commander's last name is never given in the novel. Here it's Waterford (as one theory in the book's epilogue had it). Offred's name from before is June (also implied in the book[[note]]Early on there's a scene where Offred recalls her handmaid training, and the women surreptitiously share their real names; June is the only name listed that isn't later assigned to another character[[/note]]). His wife is officially Serena Joy Waterford, rather than "Serena Joy" being her stage name from her days as a televangelist, and which in the book it's said Offred possibly made up anyway as a spiteful nickname. [[spoiler:Ofglen's real name turns out to be Emily Malek.]] June's last name turns out to be Osborne; her husband, Luke, has the surname Bankole, as does their daughter, whose first name is Hannah (it isn't revealed in the book). Nick's is revealed to be Blaine. Aunt Lydia's is given as Clements.

* NoWomansLand: The Republic of Gilead, where woman cannot own property, work, read or write, or do anything else freely, and effectively have no rights now. If fertile they're turned into a Handmaid - a breeding slave. Others are Wives, or Marthas (domestic servants), or even prostitutes at government-owned brothels like Jezebel's. The unlucky ones are sent to the Colonies for a slow death from radiation poisoning as they clean up toxic waste. Flashbacks show scenes of the process of women losing their rights, where Offred's [[spoiler:(then June)]] credit and debit cards stop working, and all the women are fired from their jobs under the eyes of armed guards.
* OppressiveStatesOfAmerica: Part of the US has been replaced with the Republic of Gilead, a brutal fundamentalist dictatorship. The series plays with the shock value of watching book burnings, the Eyes, church destruction, etc. take place on location in Boston and Cambridge, MA. Even before Gilead is created by a coup, the United States was heading in its direction, as evidenced by the gradual eroding of women's rights seen in flashbacks.

** [[spoiler:The Wife of Emily's new Commander does seem to be genuinely nice -- she offers to fake being sick, so that Emily doesn't have to be put through the Ceremony this month. However, as Emily points out, "You can't be sick every month."]]

** The doctor who is overseeing the brain-dead Natalie's pregnancy is surprisingly kind to June [[spoiler: after she's injured when attacking Serena Joy with a scalpel, due to her SanitySlippage from having spent months on end being made to kneel in prayer in Natalie's hospital room.]]
* PlotArmor: June does have to endure numerous mental and physical ordeals, but by Season 3, and despite all the ways she's defied Gilead, she's yet to suffer any physical mutilations that the regime has become known for dealing out. Compare Janine's eye being torn out for talking back to an Aunt, [[spoiler:Emily's]] genital mutilation for her affair with a Martha, Ofglen/Lillie's tongue cut out for speaking out against a stoning, [[spoiler:and Serena's Joy's finger cut off for reading.]] Neither does the regime simply decide 'enough is enough' and send June to the colonies as a repeat offender.

* RapeAsBackstory: Janine was gang-raped in a basement. Along with the fact that she had a son it's all we know of her past at first.

** Later, after suspicions grow of Commander Lawrence not performing the Ceremony, Fred, Aunt Lydia, Serena and Winslow come to his house with a physician at the time to verify it's been done. June and he are therefore forced to perform it as otherwise they'll be punished (possibly with death).

* RemarriedToTheMistress: June and Luke's backstory. Luke cheated on his wife with June and then left his wife and married June.
* LaResistance: There is an underground network fighting against the regime, called Mayday. Ofglen is a member [[spoiler:until she returns from her imprisonment and mutilation, after which she is deemed "too dangerous."]] Commander Lawrence also seems to be involved with it.

** June undergoes this more than once, although she does recover both times. In season 2, she has a breakdown after she's captured after nearly escaping and discovers that both her fellow Handmaids and the family who helped her are being severely punished; she begins to get better when she realizes her baby has managed to survive both a lot of bleeding and a (possible; it's ambiguous) suicide attempt. In season 3, she's made to remain in the hospital keeping vigil over a brain-dead Natalie/Ofmatthew, who is being kept on life support until her baby can be delivered, and it's clearly taking a massive toll on her mental health. [[spoiler: By the end of the episode she is doing better, and volunteers to stay at the hospital with Natalie until she dies.]]

** Eleanor Lawrence has been undergoing one due to her bipolar disorder and lack of access to medication. It gets worse after she's unable to get it through the black market [[spoiler: culminating in her snapping and holding her husband at gunpoint after they're forced to go through with the Ceremony, although June can talk her down.]]

* SexualExtortion: In "Milk" the rebel leader who June meets makes it clear he'll only let her and Janine stay if one of them pleasures him. June tries to give him a blowjob but can't go through with it. Janine later does instead, offscreen.

** The series also so far removes the criticism of radical feminists present in the original book. In the book, Offred's mother was a radical second-wave feminist who believed that all men were sexist and also that pornography should be banned. In the feminist community there was fierce debate about that point of view; however, nowadays it's more of a fringe belief. Additionally, since the series received a SettingUpdate to the 21st century, it wouldn't make sense temporally for Offred's mother to be a second-wave feminist (since the second wave started in the 60s, and at this point, Offred's mother could've been ''born'' in the early 60s[[note]]Her actress, Creator/CherryJones, was born in 1956[[/note]]). When she's finally introduced in season 2, she is a feminist (who takes Offred to feminist rallies as a child), but not an extremist like her book counterpart.

* {{Fetish}}: The Handmaids are this to some of the Commanders such as Fred and also customers at the brothel (they have prostitutes dressed as them there). Plus women kissing each other, and many forms of dress from the old days which we see them wear too.[[invoked]]

* TheEiffelTowerEffect: As with seemingly anything taking place in Boston these days there’s the obligatory scene at Fenway Park. However this scene is significantly more disturbing than watching the Red Sox-it's used in a mock hanging to punish defiant Handmaids.

* BrokenBird: Janine starts out as tough and smart-mouthed, but the mistreatment she goes through at the reeducation center wears her down until she snaps. Every Handmaid is like this, to some extent, but poor Janine gets it the worst.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Fred and the other officials who visit a brothel, despite being fundamentalist Christians who condemn this. He excuses it by saying "We're human."

* RapeAsBackstory: Janine was gang-raped in a basement. Along with the fact that she had a son (perhaps [[ChildByRape due to this]]) it's all we know of her past.

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: The fundamentalist regime certainly thinks so, blaming abortion (among other things) for the current demographic crisis. A former abortion doctor is also seen hanged from the Wall later by Offred and Ofglen.

The series premiered on Hulu in April 2017. The series quickly exploded in popularity, and a second season released in April 2018. Due to the original novel being covered in the first season, everything from the second season onward is AdaptationExpansion. A third season released in June 2019. A fourth season realeased in April 2021--production halted soon after its beginning in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and resumed in September 2020. It was confirmed in December 2020 that the series had also been given an early grant of a fifth season.

The series premiered on Hulu in April 2017. The series quickly exploded in popularity, and a second season released in April 2018. Due to the original novel being covered in the first season, everything from the second season onward is AdaptationExpansion. A third season released in June 2019. A fourth season is planned to release in 2021--production halted soon after its beginning in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and resumed in September 2020. It was confirmed in December 2020 that the series had also been given an early grant of a fifth season.

[[folder:Q-T]]

* MaritalRapeLicense: Gilead clearly does not deem it rape if a man is having sex with his Wife or a Handmaid.

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: [[spoiler:In Season 4 June is tortured by water boarding and having two friends of hers killed. She breaks after her daughter is threatened.]]

* LoveTriangle: Although Luke isn't aware of the fact at first, June has a relationship with Nick (first forced, but then willingly), and he fathers her second child. She expresses genuine feelings for both. Luke is pretty understanding in the circumstances, as they're separated by force and she's clearly desperate to have ''something''.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Moira uses a piece of the toilet tank in her room as a knife. [[spoiler:She stabs the man who's with her using it, and then takes off in his car.]]

** Fred and the other Commanders typically act civilly and courteously, despite running a theocratic dictatorship that rapes women and hangs homosexuals.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Sterile. That's a forbidden word. There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore. There's only fruitful women and women who are barren."'']]

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Sterile. That's a forbidden word. There is no such thing as a sterile man anymore. There's only women who are fruitful and women who are barren."'']]

TwentyMinutesInTheFuture, the world is suffering from a population crisis. All pregnancies have a one in five chance of surviving. In the midst of this crisis, the United States of America has been taken over by an extremist Christian regime and is now the nation of Gilead. All women are now second-class citizens. If anyone is caught breaking the laws by an Eye--such as a woman reading anything at all, or "gender treachery" i.e. homosexuality--swift punishment will follow, including but not limited to amputation, genital mutilation, or forced labor in the post-war wasteland of the "Colonies."

** The beginning of Season 3 implies that June is getting ready to start her own resistance cell of Mayday, personally hand-selecting women, who were going to be sent to the colonies, to instead be spared to become Marthas, based on their individual skills. There is also heavy implication that these Marthas are going to be either part of/connected to Lawrence's house staff. It turns out that, offscreen, these women were actually distributed to jobs throughout Boston, and June never tries to use them for help. One of them later appears and helps June, but this is nothing but pure luck, and none of the others come into play.

* AdaptationExpansion: The series fills in a lot of the details on events which were only mentioned by the book, such as what happened prior to the regime taking over. Season One ends where the book did, with Offred being taken away, so Season 2 and onwards is original to the series. The series also looks at the pre-Gilead backstories of Offred, Luke, Commander Waterford and even Nick.

* BodyHorror: Be female and read a book; that’s a finger amputation. Talk back too much, and Gilead will pluck out the person’s eye. Infidelity is handled with getting a hand amputated at best (usually death). Too important to kill, but still causing trouble? Genital mutilation. Standing up for someone results in tongue removal or getting your mouth literally wired shut. Then there’s DC. [[spoiler: Every Martha and Handmaid’s mouth is wired shut.]]

* {{Determinator}}: The brutal punishments meted out to 2nd class citizens has a habit of forcing various personality types to their logical extremes. This is one of them. When they hit this stage, they often become master manipulators, killers, or simply just dont give up hope. Everyone who makes it to Canada is essentially this. Those who remain in Gilead longer, despite opportunities to leave, like June, are going to keep trying out different approaches to their personal objects despite any risks.

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Serena practically defines this trope. She spends the entire series flip flopping between aligning to Gilead and its dissidents.

* HomophobicHateCrime: Systematic in Gilead. LGBT people are called "gender traitors" and can be executed, with the exception of those women who are fertile, in which case they become Handmaids. However, if lesbian Handmaids have affairs with other women, they may suffer clitoridectomy as punishment. Even prior to this, such crimes rose with the Sons of Jacob's upsergence, as a gay professor was murdered with the same label of "gender traitor" on a placard around his neck. While on the run June also comes across a ghost town with the same graffitied on homes and businesses of LGBT people near broken windows.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: The second Ofglen was a former prostitute who views (or rationalizes) her current station in life as an improvement from her previous life and chides Offred for straying from acceptable behavior by speaking with the former Ofglen/now-Ofsteven for self-preservationist reasons. That said, she ushers Offred away from the scene of Ofsteven's joyride for her safety and gives her some assuring words before they part for the day. She is also the first one who speaks out against stoning Janine to death, knowing she will probably be punished for it. [[spoiler: Having had her tongue cut out, she later warns her fellow Handmaids as best she can before she charges into a room full of Commanders at the opening of the new Red Center and sets off a bomb in a SuicideAttack.]]

** {{Deconstructed}}. Whenever the Wives are showing bits of kindness to their Handmaids, such as Serena Joy handing Offred a cookie, it's clearly just to stoke their own egos. Also, [[spoiler:Serena's excessive kindness to Offred later is due to the fact that Offred might be pregnant with a child she could claim as hers, and it's implied she took Offred out to parade her supposedly pregnant Handmaid around.]]

** Along with having Handmaids who are women of color, quite a few of the regime's military enforcers are shown to be black men. In the novel, the Gilead regime is officially white supremacist as well as misogynist. All black people (called the "Children of Ham") are [[ReleasedToElsewhere "resettled"]] in North Dakota.

** Serena commands Nick to have sex with June. Neither is in a position to refuse. However, after this they have a consensual affair.

* RealityEnsues: Nobody is spared from this. The female resistance within Gilead is constantly confronting false starts and set backs. Those who escape, find themselves going through an extensive refugee process in another country. The wives of Gilead find themselves missing the freedoms they helped remove. The male elites have systematically angered everyone outside their narrow demographic, effectively painting massive targets on their backs for all non-state sanctioned acts of violence.

** Offred delivers a '''big''' one to Serena after [[spoiler:Serena not only takes her to where her and Luke's daughter is being held and doesn't allow Offred to see her, but also threatens her life if anything happens to Offred's unborn child or if Offred steps out of line.]]

** June and her family tried to flee across the border into Canada, but got caught. [[spoiler:Luke managed to get across later though, as does Moira.]]

** Emily seems to have experienced something of one, following the trauma of undergoing a clitoridectomy; she is shown to be capable of spontaneous acts of violence against authority figures in Gilead (e.g. her "joyride," poisoning the Wife in the Colonies, kicking a Commander in the groin after his heart attack, and brutally beating Aunt Lydia).

** Eleanor Lawrence has been undergoing one due to her bipolar disorder and lack of access to medication. It gets worse after she's unable to get it through the black market [[spoiler: culminating in her snapping and holding her husband at gunpoint after they're forced to go through with the Ceremony, although June is able to talk her down.]]

** The concept of June recording secret messages onto a cassette tape disguised as a music mix tape was the main framing device of the novel, but wasn't utilized in the first or second season of the show. June finally uses a cassette recorder to send a message to Luke in the guise of a mix tape in the third season.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Serena forges Fred's name on a transfer order to allow a Martha (who was once one of the world's top neonatologists) in the hospital for treatment of baby Angela, after he refused. Fred [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished whips her with his belt after he finds out what she did]].
* SecretPolice: The Eyes of God, who even the Commanders are afraid of. A couple of them are seen grabbing a man straight off the street in broad daylight, then stuffing him into a van. Nick was one, undercover as Commander Waterford's driver and tasked to spy on him. At the same time, he's a {{double agent}} serving in the resistance..

* SexSlave: It turns out [[spoiler:Moira]] has become one of these after trying to escape from Gilead. She's stuck in a brothel along with a bunch of other women with the same situation. Her only other "choice" was the sure death of the Colonies. She tells June it's not so bad though, at least in comparison. The Handmaids themselves are not ''supposed'' to be this, but many like June and Janine get turned into them by their Commanders.

** The series appears to have done away with the blatant white supremacy in Gilead as described in the novel. Not only did they want babies, the goal was ''white'' babies, with black people being "removed to North Dakota" (quite possibly [[ReleasedToElsewhere getting killed there]]). In the novel, [[RaceLift Moira was white]], while African-American actress Samira Wiley plays her in the series. We see some photos of black Commanders and Wives in the clinic. No one thinks anything is odd when Moira impersonates an Aunt, either. There are some black men among the Guardians and common workers too. There are some Commanders and Wives who do explicitly want white babies (Aunt Lydia mentions a couple who explicitly requested not to have a Handmaid of color) but it's less institutionalized than in the novel.
** The series also so far removes the criticism of radical feminists present in the original book. In the book, Offred's mother was a radical second-wave feminist who believed that all men were sexist and also that pornography should be banned. In the feminist community there was fierce debate about that point of view; however, nowadays it's more of a fringe belief. Additionally, since the series received a SettingUpdate to the 21st century, it wouldn't make sense temporally for Offred's mother to be a second-wave feminist (since the second wave started in the 60s, and at this point Offred's mother could've been ''born'' in the early 60s[[note]]Her actress, Creator/CherryJones, was born in 1956.[[/note]]). When she's finally introduced in season 2, she is a feminist (who takes Offred to feminist rallies as a child), but not an extremist like her book counterpart.

** In the novel, Ofglen kills herself rather than be captured and interrogated about the Mayday resistance. Here she's arrested for homosexuality, but escapes a death sentence due to being fertile. [[spoiler:This is despite the fact that she seems to think she's been arrested for her political activities, citing what others in the resistance have told her about "how it goes," before seeing her lover also arrested and finding out the truth.]]

** Janine's baby is revealed to be "a shredder" (physically deformed) in the book, but is healthy in the series.

* StayInTheKitchen: The Republic of Gilead believes women should not work, nor own property. First they froze all of the women's credit cards and bank accounts, then had them fired. When Serena Joy tries to draw on her publicist past and give Fred advice on how to deal with an Aunt who escaped to Canada and has sold her story, he quickly shuts her down and refuses to let her read the news story.

* SwissCheeseSecurity: The security in Canada was very light considering the visitors were responsible for murdering and enslaving hundreds of thousands of relatives of people who were forced to flee up north. Plus Luke being allowed to nearly an arm’s length of the man who has enslaved and is systematically raping his wife. On the other hand perhaps that’s what the Canadians wanted, eh?

* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: June has to do this with Janine as she's climbed up on the edge of a bridge holding her baby and threatening to jump, after the child had been taken away. [[spoiler:June gets Janine to give her the baby, but after this she jumps anyway. She survives however.]]

* VasquezAlwaysDies: Of the group making a RunForTheBorder that rescues [[spoiler:Luke]] in the {{flashback}} in "The Other Side", there's a nun, a gay guy, a rescued would-be Handmaid, and a tough-as-nails female Army brat. [[spoiler:The Army brat is hit by machine gun fire when the Guardians catch up to them at the Canadian border.]]

* WeNeedADistraction: [[spoiler: When the Mayday resistance are rescuing children, the Guardians have been alerted to this and search for them. June and the others distract some on the road near where the children are by pummeling them with rocks, at the price of some being shot. Then later June leads another Guardian in the woods away from them, who shoots her in the back. She shoots him in turn after playing dead and then forcing him to give the rest an all clear on his radio.]]
* WhamShot: Season 3 episode 11 has some pretty significant ones. [[spoiler: June kills Winslow. The Waterfords are lured into Canada and arrested.]]

* TheRemnant: The US has been effectively reduced to control over two states (Alaska, given the government is now in Anchorage, with the other left unclear). Control over Chicago is still being fought over with Gilead, and there's mention of battles in Florida as well. Apparently there are only two stars left on the US flag to recognize this loss.

* DayOfTheJackboot: After committing [[FalseFlagOperation false flag attacks]] on the US Supreme Court and Capitol, martial law is declared. Before people know what is happening, it's been declared illegal to employ women, with them being escorted from their workplaces by armed black-clad men. When protests occur, they're simply gunned down by the same thugs, as [[TheFundamentalist the Sons of Jacob]] take over, creating a theocracy.

* TheEiffelTowerEffect: As with seemingly anything taking place in Boston these days there’s the obligatory scene at Fenway Park. However this scene is significantly more disturbing than watching the Red Sox...

* FaceDeathWithDignity: After being discovered trying to elope, [[spoiler:Eden and Isaac are sentenced to death by drowning for the sin of adultery (as Eden was then married to Nick, again by Gilead's force.) Eden is given one last chance to confess, but she instead bravely raises her chin and declares that God's love is forgiving. It's one of the only instances of facing death with dignity on the show, and committed by a teenage girl, no less.]]

* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: The fictional DCBS stands in for [[spoiler:the Canada Border Services Agency, the acronym and emblems can be seen in several scenes where Gilead refugees are welcomed to Canada]].

* HomophobicHateCrime: Systematic in Gilead. LGBT people are called "gender traitors" and can be executed, with the exception of those women who are fertile, in which case they become Handmaids. However, if lesbian Handmaids have affairs with other women, they may suffer clitoridectomy as punishment.

* EarAche: June cuts the tag from her ear with scissors as part of going on the run.
* TheEiffelTowerEffect: as with seemingly anything taking place in Boston these days there’s the obligatory scene at Fenway Park. However this scene is significantly more disturbing than watching the Red Sox.....
* ElectricTorture: The Aunts' shock batons are used for a purpose. Season 2 reveals they are also used by the overseers in [[spoiler:the Colonies]].

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Commanders and their wives seem to genuinely love and care for their children, despite the reprehensible methods by which they were born.
* EvilReactionary: As in the book, the Republic of Gilead takes this to an extreme. Their regime explicitly echoes that of the Puritans, from the 1600s.
* TheExile: Luke and other American emigres who fled to Canada. They had to flee persecution and cannot go home. A "Little America" has been set up in Toronto by the refugees.

* EyeScream: Following Matthew 5:29, Janine is punished by having one of her eyes removed (offscreen, thankfully).
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Eden and Isaac, but especially Eden.]]

** Just plain being a Handmaid is considered this, considering how many are DrivenToSuicide to escape their condition like Offred's predecessor, [[spoiler:Janine, Lillie and June herself tries it]]. One normal woman, Heather, says that she'd sooner die than become one which [[spoiler:becomes tragic when she becomes a Handmaid after her husband is discovered helping a fugitive June, being a crypto-Muslim and having a son, therefore fertile]]. Also consider that after they are no longer of use, they will be sent to the Colonies...

* AbortedArc: The series has a nasty tendency of introducing interesting plot threads only to either leave them hanging or simply killing them off too easily.

** Season 3 has High Commander Winslow introduced as potentially the BigBad for the series [[spoiler:but he is stabbed and beaten to death by June before the end of the 11th episode.]]

* AcceptableFeminineGoalsAndTraits: Gilead is big on enforcing these, with the wives spending a lot of time [[TextileWorkIsFeminine knitting]]. A lot of the [[StayInTheKitchen traditional housework]] is reserved for lower class women, and the wives have female domestic servants (known as Marthas in Gilead) to do it for them.
* ActuallyThatsMyAssistant: During the dinner with the Mexican representatives, Offred greets the ambassador's assistant: the ambassador is actually the woman behind him.
* AdaptationExpansion: The series fills in a lot of the details on events which were only mentioned by the book. Among them are what happened prior to the regime taking over, and Ofglen's fate after she's taken away. The series also looks at the pre-Gilead backstories of Offred, Luke, Commander Waterford and even Nick.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The Commander is older with gray hair and not at all attractive in the novel. Here he's played by Joseph Fiennes. The same goes for Serena Joy, who is not described as attractive, but worn out and having to use a cane. Yvonne Strahovski plays her here.

* AdaptationalHeroism: At least in comparison to the original book, courtesy of character expansion, when Serena Joy affords ''some, even if obsolete,'' genuine pity for Offred at times.

* AdaptedOut: Cora, the second Waterford Martha, is absent in this version.
** She returns in the second season as Commander Lawrence's Martha. In fact, her name might merely be a ShoutOut to the original novel.

* AffablyEvil: Fred and the other Commanders typically act civilly and courteously, despite running a theocratic dictatorship that rapes women and hangs homosexuals.
** Aunt Lydia is kind and motherly to the handmaids under her care, but if they take one step out of line...
* AffectionateNickname: Flashbacks show Luke calling June "Junebug" and their daughter "Hannah banana".

* AnArmAndALeg:
** Women reading is punishable by them losing a finger.
** [[spoiler:Warren Putnam undergoes the surgical removal of his hand as punishment for his sins.]]

* ArrangedMarriage: [[spoiler: Nick is given a 15-year-old wife as a "reward" for his good work. In reality this seems to be more of a power play by Commander Waterford, as well as a way for Serena Joy to crush Offred's spirits.]]

* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Gilead having risen out of a devastating war, being deep in a fertility crisis, a completely restructured society, having thousands if not millions of people dead or living in exile and facing international sanctions by the UN, seems to be doing just fine.
** However, it's implied this might all be for show, as Gilead very much loves their propoganda. The actual conditions of the working class are rarely shown, and the architect of Gilead's economy, Commander Lawrence, seems to be barely holding the whole thing together.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: The fundamentalist regime naturally is very fond of doing this (though as Offred recognizes, they do it [[QuoteMine quite selectively]]).
* BabyFactory: This is the purpose of the Handmaids, and is the only thing keeping them from being shipped to the Colonies for not abiding by Gilead's ways prior to the takeover.

* {{Blackmail}}: [[spoiler:Serena takes June to see Hannah, threatening harm to her if the baby's life is endangered.]]

* BlatantLies: Offred claims she consented to being a Handmaid and that she's happy when the Mexican ambassador asks, though later in private she reveals the real facts.

* BookBurning: Some workmen are seen burning books and paintings in the city after Offred and Moira escape.
* BotheringByTheBook: In the third season, June learns how to use Gilead's laws and mores toward her own ends.

* DarkerAndEdgier: If that's possible for source material that was already pretty dark to begin with. Janine gets an eye ripped out for sassing the Aunts at the reeducation center, [[spoiler:and Ofglen is also subjected to female genital mutilation after she's 'reprieved' from being executed for having sex with a woman.]]

* DeadGuyJunior:
** [[spoiler: June and Nick's daughter Holly]] is named after [[spoiler: her presumably deceased grandmother.]]
** [[spoiler: June later decides to call her by Serena's choice: Nichole, which is potentially a reference to (the still alive) Nick]].

* DividedStatesOfAmerica: It seems Gilead only controls a portion of the former U.S., with a civil war being fought in other parts. We know Gilead includes New England and the Mid-Atlantic, given mentions of Maine, New York and D.C. being part of it, and the series taking place in Massachusetts. Yet Offred mentions that Anchorage is the capital of "what's left of the United States," and that there are "two stars on the flag," suggesting that Alaska and another state (possibly Hawaii?) are run by another government that is the U.S.'s true successor. If there is fighting in Florida and Chicago, that suggests that there are even more new governments clashing with Gilead. It's hard to piece together much, given the limited information the women of the series receive [[spoiler:besides Ofglen, due to her membership in the Resistance]], and the lack of trust that the regime instills in its citizens, making them reluctant to discuss politics.
** Rebels control most of the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DhtYga8UcAEC19W.jpg border areas of CONUS]] [[https://scontent-ams3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/36983039_2110327322588817_2582149598374002688_o.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=4f9b90c52509eb8036861dafe4063d07&oe=5BD95B6A as well as the West Coast, Vermont and Florida]].
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** Everything in the book Atwood wrote, from the Puritan dress, to military rule, to enactment of religious law, to the violent subjugation of women, has happened, is happening, and likely will happen again. She built Gilead from factual events when she wrote it back in the 1980s. As seen below, history marches on and not a lot has changed.
History doesn't repeat, but [[HistoryRepeats it rhymes]]...

** [[spoiler:Janine. [[BungledSuicide It doesn't take.]]]]

* ReverseMole: Nick is an Eye of God (i.e. part of Gilead's intelligence service), but also with the resistance. Joseph Lawrence is a Commander, though he too gets revealed to be working with them. The first sign he's a good guy is his [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil refusal to rape Emily]] as part of the Ceremony. However, he still acts harshly to June (especially while his fellow Commanders are there), though it may be an example of GoodIsNotNice or so they won't get suspicious.

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* BlackComedy: Largely the only variety of comedy that exists in the show is characters make dark jokes about their current situations.

* FanDisservice: While there is plenty of nudity, the circumstances surrounding the scenes are distinctly un-sexy.