In case you’ve been following io9’s protection of The Handmaid’s Tale season six, you may need caught our record of 5 issues viewers needed to remember about season 5. There was an extended hole between seasons, and fairly a number of high-stakes plot threads to maintain observe of.
One of many gadgets on that record was the departure of fan-favorite character, whose absence was defined away within the season 5 premiere. We questioned if maybe that individual would possibly return in season six, and, nicely…
Sure! Alexis Bledel’s Emily, fearless fighter and famous salted caramel ice cream fan, did certainly present up for some closure in “The Handmaid’s Story,” the collection finale episode. In season 5, we discovered she’d left her spouse and son—after a hard-fought escape to security—to return to Gilead and hold combating.
It was an abrupt finish for a personality who’d been so necessary as each a pal to June (Elisabeth Moss) in addition to to the plot of The Handmaid’s Story as an entire; it’s due to Emily that we discovered about Mayday. She’s the explanation why Bradley Whitford’s Commander Lawrence entered the story. Her experiences additionally illuminated the grim life for exiles within the Colonies, in addition to the genital mutilation pressured upon ladies who refused to obey Gilead’s draconian legal guidelines.
Although the character’s absence was because of Bledel selecting to go away the collection, it was tempting to think about Emily would quickly pop up once more. However she was MIA all through season 5 and all of season six till the very finish. In interviews with the Hollywood Reporter, Bledel in addition to Moss and show creator Bruce Miller mentioned how they deliberate her cameo.
“We have been each thrilled that it would work out,” Miller instructed THR. “I believe she was actually excited once we talked. The one factor that was exhausting was the logistics to get her up for the time we would have liked … It was great to see her and [Moss] get proper again into it in spite of everything that point.”
Moss added, “She needed to do it from the start. She didn’t want convincing in any respect. My first official scene on day one [on set] was with Alexis. So it meant rather a lot to get to work together with her once more.”
In a separate interview with THR, Bledel mentioned returning to The Handmaid’s Story was “an instantaneous sure” as a result of “it felt proper to carry closure to Emily’s journey and supply the viewers a way of completion … I hope viewers take away to maintain hope alive when issues appear not possible. Even when it looks like seeds you plant couldn’t probably develop, plant seeds of hope anyway. You by no means know; they may discover a approach.”
The Handmaid’s Story finale is now streaming on Hulu.
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