The Handmaid’s Story 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 collection primarily based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 sequel to her 1985 novel. Emotional punctuation took precedence over narrative closure, which felt like the very best and solely selection.
After final week’s huge revolutionary booms, together with the airplane bomb that worn out all of Boston’s strongest leaders, Gilead has fallen—in Boston, at the very least. The Handmaid’s Story has proven us glimpses of different elements of this modified nation (notably season 4’s go to to Chicago), however it’s temping to neglect there’s extra to the struggle than simply the characters we’ve got turn out to be properly accustomed to. “The Handmaid’s Story” makes it clear there’s nonetheless a protracted approach 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 shifting full pace forward.
Different characters face a special type 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 vital 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. Quite extremely, she’s additionally reunited along with her daughter, due to the newly widowed (once more) Naomi (Ever Carradine), who apparently had some good in her in any case. Naomi and Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) stay in Gilead; Lydia, at the very least, will play a key position 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 slightly 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 shifting ahead. However they do nonetheless share one huge 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, which means she’s geographically nearer at the very least), that longed-for reunion shouldn’t be within the playing cards. As an alternative, 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 ebook. It’s a poignant and efficient approach to carry closure to this a part of the story—because the struggle, we’re left to think about, will proceed to rage on.
You possibly can 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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