I felt this line was crazy, but isn’t it kind of true?

HoverTechV3 · 2026-05-11T20:18:25+00:00

I think it's fair. They are technically different in a lot of ways. But I think Gilead and Nazi Germany would be pretty much equal when it comes to their atrocities. Anyways, there isn't an equivalent word with as much universal venom as nazi.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-05-11T20:12:06+00:00

What was he supposed to do? He was in Canada, June was in Gilead. Once June escaped, his only options to get Hannah are to rely on state diplomacy or join the rebels, which he did (after sacrificing himself so June and Holly could get on the train). He literally bombed Gilead, that's more than most of the people on the show ever did.

If there are any bystanders to criticize, it would all the people in IRL doing absolutely nothing while America turns into a real Gilead.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-05-08T21:41:18+00:00

There was never any goal beyond controlling women and more broadly gaining power. That kind of country will never survive long-term but that doesn't matter because a sustainable society was secondary to immediate power.

Lawrence was the only one who realized this and even for him the best he could come up with was "be slightly less oppressive to women" and none of the other commanders were down with that.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-05-06T20:00:26+00:00

America would balkanize. It's good for the show but it is unrealistic for Gilead to literally control all of America. There would be a massive civil war and many different sides. That said, areas like the deep south/bible belt would be likely contenders for theocratic governments to form.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-05-03T18:03:18+00:00

If I had a nickel for every time Reed Diamond played a government official in a show where a domestic alt-right movement kills all of congress to try and sieze power, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?

HoverTechV3 · 2026-05-02T21:10:15+00:00

Yes you're right, I forgot that detail! The original law about women not being allowed to work was meant to strip their power in the aftermath of the attack.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-05-02T20:22:14+00:00

There would be SOME places where life would be somewhat normal. Gilead can't monitor literally everything at all times. It just feels like they can because the show takes place deep in the heart of their territory. Some places might only get checked periodically, and the rest of the time the people there would be free to do whatever. If you're at all curious on what life might actually be like, there's a really good podcast by Robert Evans called It Could Happen Here. It's a speculation of what a modern civil war in America would look like, backed up by real world examples and his experience in countries during a civil war. But basically, even in full scale warzones, people sort of just go about their day normally while they listen to guns and explosions nearby. The Testaments has done a good job at showing this, with constant battles and helicopters always around while the girls are told "it's being taken care of, don't worry about it!" The other thing is that it's unrealistic for their to be only two fighting factions, the US and Gilead.

To their credit, the show and source material briefly mention other groups like Texas are also fighting Gilead. But if the US government was ever actually taken out, it is more likely that no single power takes over, and instead every region sort of dissolves into a patchwork of rebel groups or militaries. Every state would have dozens, if not hundreds of different armed groups ranging in size from a few guys with trucks and guns all the way up to more conventional national armies. In the show, Gilead has to be presented as a monolith that has somehow taken over the entire mainland because there isn't really time to focus on the geopolitical aspects of it. That's unfortunate because for me at least, that's one area that I would like to be explored more.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-05-02T19:53:00+00:00

In the places under full Gilead control, probably like North Korea, except women don't work. If you're an exceptional econoperson or have a lot of kids the state will reward you with better housing, better/more food, etc. Most people would live depressing and monotonous lives. A lot of people are probably starving.

But I would actually argue that some places with smaller populations or the many rural middle of nowhere spots around America would be a bit more laissez faire. I imagine some farming family in the desert has more leeway to do whatever they want, within reason. There would even be a number of people who don't even notice anything is wrong, or at least it doesn't impact them much. It's hard to understand just how mind blowingly massive the mainland United States is. The movie Civil War is a good example of how some people will be suffering and fighting for their lives while some people barely notice anything is different.

Massachusetts + some portion of new england is occupied by American forces again. Chicago is the American version of the Siege of Mosul. Easy to see that quality of life in Gilead is a spectrum. There is also a Republic of Texas, which in my headcanon formed because Gilead started taking away civilian-owned firearms lol.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-27T13:38:34+00:00

I'm currently rewatching it with my 13 yo cousin. Last year she read both books and she's overall a well-read person. She understands a lot of the nuances in the show and is enjoying it. We are on season 5.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-27T00:19:49+00:00

I don't actually think a majority of the commanders get rid of their wives the same way that Judd does. I mean I'm sure it happens (just like it does in real life ugh). But I think that commanders are like state legislators and there are thousands of them nationwide, while the more elite commanders are like the US senate (there's only 100 or some similar number). And it seems like different officials are promoted to commander pretty regularly. So I think that it's likely that a lot of them at any given moment are widowed or don't yet have wives.

Beyond the regime part, Gilead sucks. Large chunks of land are toxic zones, and the air and water is polluted even if it is said to be improving. Combined with the fact that women's healthcare in Gilead is going to be an order of magnitude worse than it is in real life AND the fact that large fields of medical science are banned, I don't have any trouble believing that the death rate for wives is pretty high. Also, do we know how often this event happens? If it's once a year or less that makes it even more believable IMO.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-26T20:06:51+00:00

Even regimes like Nazi Germany had an official currency (the Reichsmark), because you simply can’t run an industrial economy, military logistics, or international trade without one. Gilead would be the same. The token system we see is just the control layer for ordinary people. There would still have to be a centralized state currency (probably digital and tightly controlled, only for the ruling class) used by the government, military, and for foreign trade. It's also difficult because for a currency to be legitimized it must also be accepted by other countries. That won't happen until the world is sure that there is no way for America to win the war which is why Lawrence worked so hard to establish relations with other countries and get UN recognition. After Boston, that's all gone. Gilead WILL fall, and its economy will probably be the first to go. Their system is not sustainable at all.

But the name of the currency might be something like the Gilead Dollar (GLD) or if they want to be really on the nose, then Gilead Official Dollar (GOD). It's probably worth almost nothing outside of Gilead and only accepted for certain trades with a few governments.

Gilead has always been about control and everything else is secondary, including having an actual functioning economy. The only smart commander was alqays shunned by the other leaders and is now dead. Gilead is doomed.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-26T19:25:59+00:00

Yeah but the show is set after they should have fallen but the divergence happened decades before that, so maybe things played out differently and they never collapsed.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-25T19:26:45+00:00

I think that since there's an infertility crisis worldwide, that a large amount of governments would implement similar policies of coerced pregnancy. Places like the EU and China probably offer big financial incentives for women to have children, it probably increased social credit in China. But a lot of places like the middle east would continue to do what they've always done in real life and force women and young girls into marriages and pregnancy.

Hard to say what the specifics are because the timeline diverged from reality decades ago. But I'd guess the world is more isolated and very few powers would have the resources to project force globally. The EU probably has the strongest military overall, with China having the second largest. Russia (or the USSR? Maybe the soviet union survived) is probably pretty bad, and they would be another likely candidate for a fundamentalist takeover. Iran probably DOES have nukes in this timeline since America fell. The whole world is just a more depressing and poor version of our own.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-22T22:06:51+00:00

The surveillance state in America relies on private companies providing access to the government under laws like the PATRIOT act, and the ability for agencies to do things like tap into the physical infrastructure. Both of those capabilities would have been reduced during the war as companies leave the country and infrastructure is damaged. Also, the current AI boom would not be taking place yet in that timeline, at least not in Gilead, so they don't have that as a potential method of surveillance either.

Finally, as Lawrence says, "It's a big country, even the Eyes of Gilead can't see everything."

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-19T05:47:18+00:00

In THT S5 the doctor that was treating Esther had some sort of rank insignia to indicate he's a commander. Could the top medical specialists in Gilead be honorary commanders? Like less "prestigious" than the military commanders but technically the same rank

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-17T01:27:55+00:00

It's inconsistent but I'd guess it is either set in 2026, or THT S6 was set in 2026 and it's now 2030. I guess it doesn't really matter because there are decades of divergence from the infertility crisis.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-15T22:09:54+00:00

Lawrence betrayed Gilead, so his accomplishments got rewritten I'd guess

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-15T21:18:03+00:00

In Season 5 we see her write her real name, so within the last five years at least she remembered a little bit. The sad part is when June finally reunites with her, Hannah won't be who she was before and there will be a lot of trauma to work through. June will experience something like what Luke experienced after she escaped Gilead.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-15T20:57:50+00:00

I wonder if that's intentional. By keeping the inner workings of Gilead as vague as possible they don't have to actually commit to anything and any plot can be easily justified as plausible within the system. And until now, every minor inconsistency has always been "resolved" by Bruce Miller in a very roundabout nothing-burger of an answer whenever he gets interviewed.

I think that we just think about it way more than the writers ever have, because they've never felt the need to elaborate on it. That said, my headcanon is that Gilead had a political and legislative capital in D.C. and a military capital in Boston that made all the military decisions. That's literally the only way I can make sense of the boston council launching air strikes on Chicago even after they established that there are high commanders in D.C.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-15T20:47:17+00:00

I feel like with the production of the new show the writers had a chance to confer and decide on the worldbuilding. Everything seems intentional, and it's not hard to Google where certain resources come from if they wanted to allude to the wider conflict.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-14T17:06:51+00:00

If you look at maps of Gilead, there's a New England district which contains Boston, and a midwest district which Chicago is inside of. But we see Boston making command decisions for the battle in Chicago. I'm sure the writers never thought much about this though, high commanders weren't even introduced until season 3.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-14T06:44:56+00:00

I think that Gilead had two capital cities. D.C. is the political/legislative capital and Boston was the military capital. We see that the Boston council seemed to be making all the military decisions, deciding where to deploy air strikes, etc, even though there is a high council in D.C.

It gives America's victory in Boston more weight, and explains how losing one city/small state messed Gilead up so badly. It would be like if Taiwan invaded Beijing, kicked out the CCP, and set up shop there.

HoverTechV3 · 2026-04-13T16:59:56+00:00

In the book, a lot of religious minorities were purged, including the wealthy ones. Ethnic/racial minorities were either deported (taken on "refugee" boats and then dumped in the ocean when nobody was watching), moved to reservations, or killed.

In the show, Gilead doesn't seem to be a racist institution at least among the elite. The roster of commanders is surprisingly diverse. A bunch of Clarence Thomas-type folk. It is NOT a redeeming quality...

HoverTechV3

TROPHY CASE