The Handmaid’s Tale ended its run this week with an episode titled “The Handmaid’s Story,” bringing June (Elisabeth Moss) full circle whereas additionally permitting Hulu to depart the door huge open for The Testaments, the upcoming series based mostly on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 sequel to her 1985 novel. Emotional punctuation took precedence over narrative closure, which felt like the perfect and solely selection.
After final week’s large revolutionary booms, together with the airplane bomb that worn out all of Boston’s most powerful leaders, Gilead has fallen—in Boston, at the least. The Handmaid’s Story has proven us glimpses of different components of this modified nation (notably season 4’s go to to Chicago), however it’s temping to overlook there’s extra to the battle than simply the characters we’ve got change into nicely acquainted with. “The Handmaid’s Story” makes it clear there’s nonetheless a protracted solution to go; the remainder of what was as soon as America requires liberation, and Luke (O-T Fagbenle), Moira (Samira Wiley), and Tuello (Sam Jaeger), amongst others, plan to maintain transferring full velocity forward.
Different characters face a special kind of unsure future. Serena (Yvonna Strahovski) is as soon as once more a girl with out a nation; she clearly can’t stay in Gilead, and Canada and the EU are non-options. She and Noah head to a UN refugee camp, lives nonetheless very a lot in limbo, although Serena has two essential issues giving her power: she’s a mom, and in the end she has June’s honest forgiveness.
Battered however unbroken, Janine (Madeline Brewer) lastly escapes from Gilead for good. Slightly extremely, she’s additionally reunited along with her daughter, because of the newly widowed (once more) Naomi (Ever Carradine), who apparently had some good in her in spite of everything. Naomi and Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) stay in Gilead; Lydia, at the least, will play a key function in The Testaments, which explains why we don’t see an excessive amount of of her within the finale.
And although we get a reasonably juicy second of fan service within the return of Emily (Alexis Bledel), a much-loved character who abruptly left the present after season 4—and we additionally see the arrival of June’s mom (Cherry Jones) and younger daughter, who’ve been in Alaska all through season six—”The Handmaid’s Story” places its focus squarely on June. She does a bit of mourning for Nick (Max Minghella), and whereas she and Luke don’t precisely break up, there’s a respectful understanding between them that they’re on completely different paths transferring ahead. However they do nonetheless share one large lacking piece: Hannah.
In The Handmaid’s Story‘s first season, we noticed Hannah ripped away from her dad and mom as they tried to flee Gilead’s child-hungry regime. As June endured rape and torture as a handmaid, her motivation to outlive was getting her daughter again—one thing that additionally propelled her to remain in Gilead, in addition to return there repeatedly, placing her personal security at nice danger. It’s been Hannah all alongside, so it’s not shocking when June makes it clear to everybody—together with her personal weary mom—that rescue remains to be her prime precedence, together with staying in battle mode till Gilead is totally, absolutely dismantled: “I’m not protected, and neither are you. And they’re by no means going to cease coming for us.”
However there’s some narrative roadblocking right here, since Hannah is a personality in The Testaments. Although we get a key replace (she’s moved along with her adoptive dad and mom from Colorado to Washington, DC, that means she’s geographically nearer at the least), that longed-for reunion is just not within the playing cards. As a substitute, The Handmaid’s Story finds a method for June to work by means of her grief and unfold her message of fierceness and hope.
Her mom and Luke each individually counsel that she ought to write down her experiences, resulting in the meta final scene that sees June return to the bombed-out stays of the Waterford mansion, again to the room the place she was confined as a handmaid, and begin to dictate her ideas.
In “The Handmaid’s Story,” The Handmaids Story the present transforms into The Handmaid’s Story the guide. It’s a poignant and efficient solution to convey closure to this a part of the story—because the battle, we’re left to think about, will proceed to rage on.
You’ll be able to watch all six seasons of The Handmaid’s Story on Hulu. There’s no premiere date set but for The Testaments.
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