The Handmaid’s Tale is about to reach its sixth and final season and it’s promising rebellion, more dystopian visions and plenty of red capes.
The timely adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 book has been running since 2017 but will soon be over, and fans are hoping this will spell the downfall of the Gilead regime and its leaders.
“For years we’ve been afraid of them, now it’s time for them to be afraid of us,” the protagonist June (Elisabeth Moss) declares in the trailer, hinting at a big show down for the finale.
Season six showrunner Yahlin Chang teased a “full-scale rebellion” in an interview with TV Insider. “This is the season where our characters and the people of Gilead – and specifically the women of Gilead – have had enough.”
“The season does conclude – in some very satisfying ways – many of the storylines, but not every single one” she added.
There are an awful lot of loose ends to be tied up after season five’s cliffhanger, and it seems not all of them will be sorted, but here are our top five questions we want answered by the end of the season.
Will June and Serena forgive each other?
The last image of season five is of June (Elisabeth Moss) and her baby Nichole bumping into Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) while they try to escape from Toronto. They’re off to Hawaii. Or potentially Alaska. Honestly, I don’t think they’d mind either way when the alternative is Gilead. The women study each other for a while and finally Serena asks if June has a nappy. The camera pans out.
Needless to say, it’s a tense moment – last time they saw each other June refused to help Serena and said she should return to Gilead and plot her revenge from there. Let’s also not forget that in season four, June murdered Serena’s husband Fred (Joseph Fiennes) and sent her his ring finger plus ring in the post.
Strahovski told Happy Sad Confused podcast that there’s no June without Serena and vice versa, so will we finally see the two make up and plot Gilead’s downfall? Before Serena became a Commander’s wife, she campaigned for women’s rights, so it stands to reason that she and June might finally see eye to eye. Praise be.
Or, as is equally likely, will we see the two battle to the bitter end, using each other’s children to inflict maximum damage?
Will Nick and June get together?
June and Nick’s (Max Minghella’s) romance has been blossoming behind the scenes ever since their tryst at the Waterfords (or at least, as far as romance can blossom under totalitarian rule). He is also Nichole’s father, don’t forget.
Nick was instrumental in helping June escape from Gilead, as well as attempting to reunite her with Hannah (Jordana Blake). In fact, at the end of season five, Nick punches his superior, blaming him for ordering an attack on June. As a result, he is arrested and his wife threatens to leave him.
June and her husband, Luke (O-T Fagbenle), were separated on the train out of Toronto, and she’s spent much of the show trying to get back to him. However, the trailer shows us that Nick and June’s paths will cross again. “Sometimes I think you’re the only good thing in my life,” he tells her in one intimate scene. So, will June reciprocate his feelings? Or will she keep on fighting for Luke and their daughter, Hannah?
Will Hannah finally be reunited with her parents?
Hannah has been stuck in Gilead for all five seasons so far, despite June and Luke’s continuous efforts to rescue her. There have been painfully close moments where June has nearly saved her but is always thwarted in the end.
June and Luke could have escaped Gilead and Canada a long time ago, except for their desperation to get Hannah back. Hannah is now at “wife school” where she will be married off, so the pressure is on. Will the last season of The Handmaid’s Tale finally bring us the reunion we all want? Please?
What will happen to Janine and can Aunt Lydia save her?
Handmaid Janine (Madeline Brewer) has had a rocky road to season six. She lost an eye early on for disobedience, and she’s also paid a visit to the Colonies, where “unwomen” (aka ones hwo fail in their duty to become childbearers) dig on toxic wasteland. Nice.
However, she’s had an unlikely protector in Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), who seems to have formed an attachment to her throughout the seasons. Lydia was determined to create a haven for Janine in season five by stationing her with Commander Lawrence and new wife Naomi. But Janine lost her temper and was arrested by the Eyes.
In the trailer, Janine and Lydia are shown having a tense conversation, and Janine tells her “there is no way out.” Will Janine bow down to Lydia’s attempts to convert her to a Gilead-supporter, or will she convince Lydia to rise up as well?
Will Gilead finally be taken down?
And now, the biggest question of them all – will the ruthless Gilead regime finally be overthrown? Will women finally be able to wear some multi-coloured clothing?
June is set on destroying the regime, and it seems that bringing Hannah home has become synonymous with bringing the whole of Gilead to its knees.
The scenes of rebellious handmaids with flick-knives in the trailer look positive, but there is a spanner in the works, in the form of a new sequel being made, called The Testaments. The Testaments will adapt Margaret Atwood’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, which is a sequel to her original book, The Handmaid’s Tale.
In an interview with Elle, Moss said: “I don’t think we feel an obligation to tie up the entire story of Gilead, especially not because we’ve got the sequel coming up in The Testaments. So we do have the opportunity to continue the story.”
So, quite how much of Gilead survives the season remains to be seen. Blessed be the fruit.
The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 will premiere in the UK on 3 May on Prime Video
