For a show that often feels like it is predicting the future, it makes sense that someone knew exactly what would happen to The Handmaid’s Tale before any of us did. Not me, of course. I would never claim that kind of insight, even if I deserved it. But back in 2017, when the first season came out, New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum, who had just won a Pulitzer Prize, wrote about the show through the lens of history. She saw where it was headed. Her review of the first season talked about how frighteningly timely the show was. It arrived just a few months into Trump’s first term, and many other critics were saying the same thing.
Nussbaum then looked back at the American setting that greeted Margaret Atwood’s famous book. She wrote that only a decade earlier, a woman could not get a credit card without a man to co-sign. Yet by 1985, when the book was written, the media was saying feminism was over and done with, no longer needed now that women wore sneakers to jobs at law firms. The timely connections and conflicts Nussbaum described are a lot like the qualities she admired in Atwood’s book. In the book, Offred is an observer. She watches. She writes down her experiences to keep her sanity in a place designed to take it away. Any hope Offred has for what comes next is not for her to live through.
But in the TV show, as Nussbaum noted, Offred is not just Offred; she is June. She is not just surviving; she is fighting back. She is not a witness; she is a hero. Instead of being a quiet part of history, June and The Handmaid’s Tale are actively trying to change history. This change in tone might not seem as big as some of showrunner Bruce Miller’s story changes, but time has shown it had the biggest impact. Atwood’s book lets readers see June’s struggles in almost any time when women feel oppressed. This sadly includes every time in American history. June’s view and the near-future setting make the book timeless.
The Handmaid's Tale's Difficult Path When Reflecting Our Ever Changing World
How The Show's Focus on Timeliness Led to Its Own Unique Challenges
Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale is not timeless. It is, like its main character, firmly set in this specific moment and time. This has been for better, or lately, for worse. At first, the show felt like an unwelcome but undeniable look at reality. Viewers would rather not see their lives in their dystopian TV dramas, but having a powerful, easily watched example of what it was like to be alive in 2017 felt like a call to action. It truly was a rallying cry. But movements change, protests get new names, and signs are rewritten. Wearing a handmaid’s blood-red robes would not mean the same thing for the Hands Off March as it did for the Women’s March. The original meaning did not even last past the first year of Women’s Marches.
The show being timely was always an accident. A scripted TV show takes months, sometimes years, to plan and make. It cannot possibly keep up with current events, let alone guess them. Making June an inspiring figure put The Handmaid’s Tale on a predictable path, as Nussbaum feared. First, she would survive Gilead. Then, she would get out of Gilead. Then, she would beat Gilead. When Gilead represents American misogyny, that is a huge task when trying to reflect the real world.
In a way, the series was doomed if it leaned into being timely and doomed if it did not. Once the first season took off the way it did, in viewership, in culture, in awards, there was no stopping it. By then, to borrow a phrase from another smart science-fiction series, resistance was pointless. Now, the end is close. After the first season’s huge debut, The Handmaid’s Tale has been slowly losing steam. Critics liked it less by the third season. The Emmys, known for sticking with shows long past their best, stopped honoring it in Season 5. The final season premiered recently. In the secretive world of TV popularity, the only sounds have come from critics, the cast, and those still following closely. This is not the strong, talked-about exit given to Elisabeth Moss’s other award-winning show, Mad Men.
The Handmaid's Tale's Penultimate Episode Delivers Shocking Violence and Emotional Confrontations
Mayday's Bold Attack and Nick's Devastating Betrayal Change Everything
The final season of The Handmaid’s Tale has been promising that Mayday would fight back against Gilead. That rebellion finally became real in the episode before the finale. After putting sedatives in Serena and Gabriel’s wedding cake, the handmaids with blades began killing their commanders. As satisfying as it was to see June (Elisabeth Moss) stab a switchblade into one of scumbag Bell’s (Timothy Simons) eyeballs, I was still left wondering what Mayday would do next. Where were Luke’s (O-T Fagbenle) bombs we had heard so much about? And what about the remaining U.S. military? When was Agent Tuello’s (Sam Jaeger) help coming?
Luckily, the season’s ninth, and second to last, episode, called "Execution," quickly answered those questions. It also told us how many commanders died the same way Bell did. The episode picked up right where the last one left off. June, Moira (Samira Wiley), Janine (Madeline Brewer), and fake Aunt Phoebe (D’Arcy Carden) were leading the handmaids from the Red Center. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) had just freed them. They soon met Mayday trucks. Then guardian vehicles started chasing them. Thankfully, small explosions went off. This allowed them to get into the escape vehicle and lose the chase.
Inside the truck, we learned the handmaids were being driven across the border to safety. But first, June and Moira were being dropped off to finish what they started. Janine also insisted on staying behind. She wanted to find her daughter. Serena was also trying to get away. She had just stormed out of her new husband’s house. She and baby Noah were looking for a safe place to hide. While sneaking under the cover of night, she saw a handmaid brutally stabbing a commander’s wife on the front lawn of their nice Gilead home.
Serena found refuge at Lawrence’s (Bradley Whitford) house. Naomi (Ever Carradine) had just woken up from her cake-induced sleep from the sound of bombs exploding. But she was more shocked to hear Serena had left her husband on their wedding night. At the Blaine residence, Nick (Max Minghella) was also passed out after eating his spiked dessert. Rose woke him up. She was worried their baby might arrive early.
Meanwhile, Mayday’s rescue vehicles were stopped by a guardian roadblock. The women were quickly rounded up. The gunmen called June’s name. They demanded she come forward. She did when the guardians threatened to kill a handmaid. This led to her immediate capture and separation from the other women. The next morning back at Lawrence’s, we learned 37 commanders had been killed by their handmaids the night before. Serena began to defend the women’s actions. But Naomi quickly dismissed her "liberal nonsense." She had also invited Wharton over. She hoped to fix things between the fighting newlyweds.
The High Commander asked for his wife’s forgiveness. He suggested they try to have a baby without a handmaid. He almost had her. Then he revealed he was moving her out of Boston to a safer area. She refused to leave. Wharton, on the other hand, was leaving for D.C. But first, he needed to deal with the "wicked women" led by "heretic" June Osborne. Serena was shocked to hear her frenemy was not only back in Gilead, but was behind the rebellion’s recent attack. Still, she seemed upset when Wharton told her he was about to unleash "God’s justice" on June.
He next arrived at the jail. June was locked in a fancy cell. Wharton let her go. He offered her a seat. June sarcastically said she was sorry for ruining his wedding. He was not amused. He began talking in a very self-important way about his purpose, God’s plan, and Gilead’s holy path. She told him the regime and its rulers cared only about power, not faith. Before he left, she asked him to be the man Serena believed he could be. Back at Lawrence’s, the commander was seeing off Naomi and Angela. This was Janine’s daughter Charlotte. Based on the strict, specific instructions he gave his wife about caring for the little girl, he had clearly grown to like her a lot.
With Naomi and Angela off to a safehouse, Serena went to Lawrence. She was worried about June’s safety. Their relationship is complicated, but Serena did not want to see June executed. As she and the commander began praying for June, we saw June being taken to a big gallows set up in the city. Before the lower ranks of Gilead society, Wharton presented June. He began preaching about "punishing the wicked." Several nooses surrounded June. One was already being used by Aunt Phoebe. The other captured handmaids, as well as Moira and Janine, were taken from nearby trucks. They were also readied for execution.
Wharton then brought out Aunt Lydia. He blamed her for turning the handmaids into murderers. He gave her a chance to make up for it. She began calling out the "wicked, godless men" of Gilead. She, too, quickly got a noose put on her. June then got her rope, but was also given a chance to speak. As she also spoke against Gilead’s evil people, the noose tightened around her neck.
As a crane started to lift her off the ground, she managed a final, "Don't let the bastards get you down!" Just as her words reached the back, we saw Luke and Rita (Amanda Brugel) moving through the crowd. They blended in with the people. They made it to the front. Ellen (Athena Karkanis) and other Mayday soldiers were with them. As June was raised higher into the air, Luke and Ellen threw grenades into the two trucks that had brought the handmaids.
Naturally, everything went crazy. Mayday charged forward. Rebel snipers on nearby rooftops started firing. Wharton was quickly taken away. As the guardians were overwhelmed, June was lowered to safety. The other prisoners were freed. In the chaos, we saw quick glimpses of Luke, Rita, and Phoebe fighting with blades and guns. The rescue was powerfully ended by four American fighter jets firing missiles into Boston. This caused explosions that shook a chandelier over Serena’s head in Lawrence’s living room. The house shook again. This time Tuello, with armed soldiers, barged through the front door. He was looking for Lawrence, who had disappeared, but he settled for taking Serena and Noah to safety.
After those heart-pounding scenes, we took a moment to check on Nick and Rose. They were in the hospital. Their baby was going to be fine. Still, it seemed the sedatives in the wedding cake might have caused Rose’s problems. She wanted her husband to end the rebellion and June. Nick nodded. He did not respond as she insisted he prove his loyalty to Gilead, God, and his family. After the rescue at the gallows, June met with Tuello at a temporary Mayday/U.S. headquarters. She also reconnected with Phoebe. We learned Phoebe was a former CIA agent. They had gained a small hold in the fight against Gilead. But many of the more extreme commanders still needed to be dealt with. If they could gather their forces, they might bomb Boston. They would cut their losses and start their strict rule again somewhere else.
They agreed the hard-to-find evil-doers would be out for blood. The still-missing Lawrence was their best chance to find them. But they had a backup plan. Serena was across the street in protective custody. June went into a church. Serena was being guarded by two armed soldiers. She was relieved to see June was still alive, even though June had ruined her wedding. Serena claimed she did not know where Wharton and the other commanders were. But June could tell she was holding something back. Serena did not want to put her husband in danger. So June happily reminded her that Gabriel was a tyrant not fit to raise Noah. With tears in her eyes, Serena revealed where the commanders’ flight to D.C. was leaving from.
Just as June returned to Tuello with the information, Lawrence was escorted in by soldiers who had been waiting for him at his home. Using the flight details Serena gave, the three decided to plant a bomb on the commanders’ plane. Tuello wanted Lawrence to do it. But the high commander said he was not cut out for such spy activities. Still, he reluctantly agreed to deliver the goods when June said she would go along as his getaway driver.
Armed with a briefcase full of explosives, the pair arrived at the private plane before its 7 PM takeoff. Unfortunately, Gilead’s important people were eager to fight back against the rebellion. They arrived much earlier than expected. Lawrence had planned to hide the bomb before the commanders arrived and then make a quick escape. Now, he faced a difficult choice. June watched from cover as Lawrence spoke to Wharton and the other men. Most of them made fun of the "liberal" Lawrence. But Wharton was happy he had decided to join them and be part of their united front in D.C. After the others stepped onto the plane, Lawrence paused a moment. Then he decided to seal his fate by boarding with the bomb. Before he did, he put a hand over his heart and gave June one last, sad look.
As June gave a sad smile back, another vehicle pulled up to the plane. It was Nick. He had decided to listen to his wife’s advice and do his part to stop the rebellion. A sick look came over June’s face when she saw her former love boarding the aircraft. Inside the plane, the commanders joked and laughed. They did not know what was in Lawrence’s briefcase. After Wharton proudly praised his son-in-law and coming grandson as the future of Gilead, Nick eyed the seat next to Lawrence. Lawrence moved his case. He welcomed Nick to the empty spot. Nick glanced at him and teased, "Guess you decided to join the winners." Lawrence replied, "You know how it is, you do what you need to survive."
While Lawrence got comfortable, looking nervous but at peace with his choice to sacrifice himself, Nick leaned over with a question. "She alright?" he asked, clearly still thinking about June. "Can’t keep a good woman down," Lawrence responded. Nick then said that June had told him many times to give up his Gilead life. The high commander, knowing they were both about to die, said with a half-smile, "You should have listened to her." As the plane’s engine began to roar, we returned to June. With the camera behind her, she and the audience watched the doomed plane travel down the runway. Then we saw her up close. Her mouth was slightly open. Her eyes were wet with fresh tears. We heard a faint explosion in the distance. Then we saw its reflection light up June’s face. The clouds over the runway glowed a soft orange. Then flaming debris rained down below. With her close friend and Nicole’s father gone, June stared in disbelief into the night sky.
What Does This Mean For The Handmaid's Tale's Final Episode?
The Series Finale Approaches After So Many Twists and Turns for June and Her Allies
This final season of The Handmaid’s Tale consists of 10 episodes. Following its weekly release schedule, the very last episode will air on May 27, 2025. Things have reached a boiling point in Season 6. The handmaids’ war against Gilead finally began with attacks on the commanders during Serena Joy’s wedding. The final episode will bring the story to an end. It will show what finally happens to June and the other Handmaids who took part in the rebellion.
Elisabeth Moss, who has played June Osborne for six seasons, spoke about the final season to Variety. Madeline Brewer, who plays Janine Lindo, also talked to Variety about it. With the rebellion fully active in Gilead, we are waiting to see how the finale wraps up the Handmaids’ story. It will also set up the new series, The Testaments, which is also based on Atwood’s book of the same name.
This show is complicated, messy, and hard to watch at times. But it makes you think. It makes you feel. And after all these years, I am ready to see how June's story finally ends, even if it is not the ending I might expect or hope for.