SPOILER ALERT: The story below reveals major plot points from Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 finale.
Hulu’s The Handmaid’s TaleIt wrapped up its fifth season tonight. While a lot has happened for June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), it ends in a similar way to when it all began.
When viewers first meet June, she is torn apart from her husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle) and the life they shared with their daughter Hannah— a scene that’s imitated in the Season 5 finale. Luke is taken into custody as June and Nichole board a train to Hawaii for a unknown future.
His arrest is unfair considering Luke was saving his wife from a man attempting to kill her by running her over in his truck but here we are—the world is crumbling. It’s worth noting the hired hitman was sent by Gilead to dispose of the thorn in their side once and for all but failed. If June was a cat, she’d be down to three lives if my math is accurate.
A big part of her she’s still alive and kicking is thanks to those around her that risk life and limb to protect her. Nick Blaine (Max Minghella), rushed to June’s side when she was unconscious and in recovery. He even made a deal to protect her, even though it could have cost him his life. He loses his mind over the closeness to June dying, and he punches Commander Lawrence in the face (Bradley Whitford), because he supported the person who hit his beloved. Rose, his wife, is sick of being second fiddle and wants to end the relationship. *Shrugs*
As Nick’s life is falling apart, June plots her future with Luke but the whole time her husband knew he was going to have to give himself up to get her safely out of the country. June finds herself having to deal with Luke’s departure from the train, especially since he is in prison. As she walks towards the sound, Serena Joy Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski), with Noah in her arms, is what she sees. It doesn’t matter how much she wants Serena to go, their fates seem pretty intertwined. That’s going to be one long ride.
Bruce Miller, the series creator, spoke with Deadline to discuss Season 5’s events and what fans can look forward to as he looks at June’s end.
DEADLINE: June was enduring four seasons of Serena being so horrible to her, and it was quite satisfying to see June go through even a small part of that. How was it to bring that to life?
BRUCE MILER:It is nice, June has worked so hard, and she needs revenge moments to feel satisfied. Not necessarily because she has an emotional need for them, but she thinks she does so she sees them and she doesn’t feel good. In a lot of ways she’s been getting what she wanted just like the audience is getting what they wanted. More than anything you would love them to take Serena’s baby away and then when they do it’s awful because it’s an awful thing to do. Serena may have no heart and didn’t care, but June cared. It’s like, give me my wishes and see how I like it.
DEADLINE – This season we can see how intertwined the fates of these two characters, especially when we see them riding together in the train. Why did they find one another?
MILLER:It was a natural moment. It was when I first saw episode 7 and read the script where Serena is having a baby, that I realized the season was exactly how I wanted. It felt like they should have been together again at the end. The desire to escape Toronto became more urgent. All the events this season that have led to tensions between Americans & Canadians leading us to this final. I just wanted it to feel like I wasn’t pulling them together; there was an inevitability about it because they’re in the same situation. Their lives look and feel like each other’s even if morally they’re very different. Oh, and they’re not friends, they are familiar faces.
DEADLINE: Nick has officially thrown everything at June. What’s the future for them?
MILLER: I feel like this is the most romantic Nick/June season that there’s ever been. I love the fact that they spend the entire season saying they can’t be together. What I was hoping is to show that she’s tangled with these people, inextricably, all of them. And just as much as she couldn’t forget about Fred, she breaks up with Nick 70 times this season. He is her only love and she cannot let him go. “Make sure you tell him that we’re okay.”When she says it, “we’re okay”She means his entire family. So I think in that last episode when Nick sees her and doesn’t even wake her up is just the most romantic thing.
DEADLINE: What are some possible consequences?
MILLER: Well, I think he’s kind of pathologically dangerously romantic and that’s his problem. He genuinely loves June and that’s gonna cause all sorts of problems. Any genuine emotion that’s driving you that isn’t survival— which was his his and June’s only emotion most of the time— anything other than that distracts you. I think the problem is he feels like he needs to have this semblance of an emotional life so that people take him seriously and so he doesn’t get in trouble. I think he’s incapable of doing that because he’s either silent or he tells the truth. I know what we’re setting up for Nick, which is exactly what you think it is. He’s the guy who we think he is. And even if he tries not to be the guy he thinks he is, it’s either going to be very uncomfortable for him like he is with Rose, or it’s going to fail and he’s going to end up not being able to stop himself from punching Lawrence. I think the nice thing is he’s he follows his heart, and the scary thing is he follows his heart.
DEADLINE: Aunt Lydia has been guided by Ann Dowd into the next chapter in her life. Can you provide insight about her growth and her relationship with Janine, Maddie Brewer?
MILLER:Maddie Brewer (Ann Dowd) and Maddie Brewer (Maddie Brewer), amazing actresses who are so generous, kind, and loving with each other. I know it’s difficult to see on television but they are. I think Lydia is taking a season where she’s trying to reassess and find some steady ground to stand as things around her are changing, and not in ways that she likes. She has a lot of power because she she has a girl in every house and knows what’s going on—information is big power. She learns how to exert power and push people. That’s what the season is all about. She basically gets Warren executed and out of the way, this jerk who’s a danger to her girls. So I think that’s what happens and she’s constantly knocked down. There’s an incredibly important shot in the finale that you don’t really notice when Lydia gets knocked down when they’re taking Janine away. She stands right back up; that’s who she is. She will not be stopped. She’s either going to be stopped or she’s going to win her argument and win influence to protect her girls. There’s also that moment where Janine tells her, “Don’t worry about me.” It’s such an interesting moment of respect that Janine gives Lydia and also sympathy. I think that even though Lydia probably doesn’t notice either of those moments, that’s really saying how how far she’s come in the season. She gets up and she’s very determined. It’s a different more practical and practiced Lydia.
DEADLINE: In The Handmaid’s Tale novel, June doesn’t get a proper ending because it bleeds into The Testaments. What are your plans to end June’s story?
MILLER: Well, I’m working on The Testaments while I’m working on Season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s so lovely to have another book to go to. People who watch TV shows have to accept the fact that they are just like me. Handmaid‘s didn’Don’t follow the book. The TestamentsThis TV series is a sequel. So I’m not necessarily shooting for those things the way that they are in The TestamentsHowever, everyone is growing in these directions. Margaret [Atwood]We had many conversations about the character. [of June]. She watched some of the show prior to she started writing. The Testaments. I think that the characters have a lot of similarities, which is wonderful—and they are definitely falling into place for The Testaments. But for June, I don’t feel an allegiance to wrap her up the way she’s wrapped up in The Testaments novel. I simply want to follow the story and ensure it makes sense. But the thing that you should remember is that all the voiceover we’re hearing, this story is June story. It’s not called Gilead, it’s The Handmaid’s Tale. I certainly have been thinking of the show as a memoir of part of June’s life, not the part where she would consider herself a handmaid. They had lives at the end of the show, just as before. She’s gonna go on and and continue on in whatever way she continues on and we’re not going to see it. And because we got to see this part so intimately, I feel like you care about what happens to her next, but that’s not this tale.