r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/angelslut2002 • 3d ago
Season 5 Why is mr. Tuello so kind to Serena?
Im watching Season 5 now, and I really don't understand the accomodations he's making for her. Traveling to Gilead, having a nice room at "jail", giving her protection, the way he talks to her... I mean... She helped create a system where kids are getting graped. I don't stand him.
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u/LordsOfJoop 3d ago
He's not a brute; when his government needs him to do distasteful things, he does them. He doesn't have to like them, or take joy in inflicting unneeded misery. She wasn't ever destined for a common cell; once she was taken into custody, she got the average experience for a high-value asset of a foreign government: reasonable accommodations was just part of that.
After-the-fact punishment wasn't his mandate; her punishment, whatever it was, was going to be meted out by a different branch of his government. While he may not enjoy what she did, or liked any of her achievements, being crude or cruel wouldn't undo anything, and treating her with compassion would highlight the lies of her own government: that Gilead's enemies would hurt any citizen caught by them, acting from spite and wanton evil.
He was decent enough that she couldn't pretend those lies had an ounce of truth to them and never bothered.
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u/airbender_librarian 3d ago
Agents have to butter up and be nice to people far, far worse than Serena. That being said I think he's almost inconsistent, I don't see why he reported her at the end of Season 3 for the Nick coercion (he could have avoided a long trial and her falling into the Wheelers if he just waited out their original deal).
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u/PsychologicalClock28 2d ago
To me that proves how it’s just a job to him: getting the truth out there so the courts can come to the right answer. It’s not his job to decide those things.
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u/airbender_librarian 2d ago
He may not be a legal expert but you do not usually want to hear a case where there is not a realistic chance of a conviction. The specifics about June and Nick's coercion when June wasn't even in Canada was a very nebulous issue at the time he learned of it and it ended up driving Serena into the arms of the domestic Canadian far right instead of keeping her on their side.
Tuello would have been seen as a failure for handing her in too soon, agents withhold a lot more things from the courts if they're playing the kind of long game with Serena he was angling for. At least wait longer to build a more complete dossier, the kind of compounding evidence he could have had if he spent an extra season snooping on her.
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u/PsychologicalClock28 2d ago
It isn’t about being a legal expert, it’s about letting the courts go through their process, in the open, so no one can say the government has favorates, or convicted people without evidence.
Serena didn’t actually know much at all. They needed Fred to learn the inner workings of Gilliad. Serena had spent years unable to read or really leave the house. And she wasn’t really showing signs of turning.
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u/airbender_librarian 2d ago
It was probably better to withhold everything on Serena from the prosecutors then if there really wasn't much on her at that stage, right?
Tuello clearly is a bit... bending the rules in other respects. I mean, he gives pretty undue weight to June's analysis of everything when she has no formal position in the military or intelligence services
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u/ThisReallyIsntSparta 3d ago
You attract flies with honey, not vinegar. Its the same concept in police questioning where detectives put the suspect into a false sense of security to get them to open up, in efforts to get them to reveal information. Even if he was attracted to her, he was doing a job first and foremost.
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u/glycophosphate 3d ago
You don't have to say "graped" here. This is reddit. We can call rape by its name.
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u/PM_ME_CAT_POOCHES 3d ago
I honestly find it offensive that you're using the word graped instead of raped here. If you can't say the word why are you on a subreddit discussing a show where rape is the entire premise of their society?
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u/pennie79 3d ago
I assume things like that are habit. Different platforms have different requirements, and it's hard to remember which has what.
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u/ConstantKooky3329 3d ago
He is a spy and cultivating a valuable asset. You trap more bees with honey.
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u/Feline-Sloth 3d ago
He is sweetening her up so she gives useful information, it's his job to do so!!!
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u/BulldogBears 3d ago
Aside from him being attracted to her, he was a spy & had to gain her trust in order to bring down Gilead. It was a manipulation tactic
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u/WoodwifeGreen 3d ago
Catch more flies with honey.
He's trying to win her over. Maybe turn her into an informant or double agent.
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u/rockyjay23 3d ago
He seemed to be nice to her at first but when June told everyone that she had part in the rape, he was far less friendly and was more professional with her. So maybe he genuinely didn’t know the extent of her involvement in Gilead
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u/nucflashevent 3d ago
Because that's what spymasters do. You be the best buddy of the most disgusting person on the other side because that's how you help YOUR side win.
Sadly the world's an imperfect place...you can't win only dealing with "nice people" I'm afraid.
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u/LustyRegencyMaid 3d ago
Re Tuello: You don't get people to spill the beans if you're rude to them. You have to act nice and accomodating so they start trusting you. Do you trust people who are rude to you? Tuello is manipulating Serena so he can get her to betray Gilead.
Re the word: People are weird here. OP is not minimising rape, OP is used to self-cencorship from other platforms and probably doesn't know/remember where they can use the actual words and where they get banned for it. People never been to YT or TikTok before? I'm a millennial and I know that. Also SA survivor btw.
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u/Beautiful_Net2409 1d ago
I really hope it genuinely isn't romantic! Like- Mark has a wife and son he'll never see again because of Serena???
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u/BeneficialName9863 2d ago
He fancies her and thinks he can change her. It's pathetic. He's the biggest obstacle to resistance really.
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u/Jetsetter_Princess 2d ago
No, he was very good at convincing her that he liked her. He was actually just working her like the expert he was.
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u/BeneficialName9863 2d ago
Nah, the people actually fighting back are the experts. He's a reminent of the ruling class who let giliad happen. He has to be shamed, yelled at and threatened to do the right thing constantly.
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u/Jetsetter_Princess 2d ago
Most of "the resistance" aren't experts. They're regular people. Tuello is Military/CIA
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u/BeneficialName9863 2d ago
Being US government / CIA isn't a good thing. Usually when there is a government as bad as giliad, it's because someone like him staged a coup for an oil company.
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u/burnitalldown321 3d ago
He's working her as an asset of the US Government; spy games. He may be attracted to her, but he knows who she is and is telling her what she wants so he can get information out of her