Even though The Handmaid’s Tale has grand plans for its second season, a mundane activity that may be a joke sounds like something we want to see.
The Handmaid’s Tale has made some meaningful symbolism out of things we as an audience find normal. In season 1, that was June and the Commander playing Scrabble. In season 2, it might be chowing down on a Canadian classic, at least according to Samira Wiley, talking to Variety.
Wiley specifically mentioned “eating poutine” as something Moira might be doing, although Variety carefully notes that she “smiled” before she answered the question. In other words, we might not get a long, lingering scene of fries, cheese curds, and gravy, but can we actually rule it out? Is she going to plot seriously with Luke over delicious food?
The funny thing is we can’t actually rule it out, and that seems to be the idea as well. Variety also quoted Elisabeth Moss as saying that we may as well “ up trying to guess what happens.” Until season 2 airs in its entirety, I am not going to definitively say that this won’t actually take place.
But there’s more than just planning going on in season 2, much as Moss has tried to keep things mysterious. The show’s creator re-emphasized “motherhood” as a major theme. That lines up with a tease from earlier this summer from Moss about the dynamics of June and Serena Joy playing a part in the season. However, it wouldn’t make sense to limit that idea to just that relationship, especially as Miller specifically said the following:
"“It’s about the way we mother the people in our lives.”"
That signals a greater idea of people taking care of each other where they can and, in the case of the handmaids, when they can, like sparing Janine a death by stoning in the first season finale of The Handmaid’s Tale.
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And hey, isn’t eating something delicious or trying something new after a period of deprivation a way of taking care of yourself? See, we just justified The Handmaid’s Tale letting Moira munch on some poutine.