After six seasons of haunting and captivating viewers, Hulu’s dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale came to an end on Tuesday.
The highly anticipated finale answered some big questions, but not every stone was unturned.
Read on for a recap of The Handmaid’s Tale finale, why Elizabeth Moss thinks it was the perfect ending, and what fans can expect from the show’s follow-up series, The Testaments.
The plot of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ series finale
Leading up to the finale, fans witnessed the victims of Gilead’s oppressive ways finally get the revenge they had long deserved. According to E! Online, the penultimate episode saw Commander Joseph Lawrence (Bradly Whitford), Commander Nick Blaine (Max Minghella), June Osborne’s (Moss) boyfriend, and Commander Gabriel Wharton (Josh Charles) die in a bombed plane filled with Gilead leaders.
Without leadership, Massachusetts gets its freedom, and the rebellious Mayday group aims to liberate New York City next. According to Vanity Fair, Luke (O-T Fagbenle) joins Mayday as it continues to fight the regime, and he and June commit to the quest to free their daughter, Hannah.
“I think it wasn’t until the end of the season that I really realized the effect that becoming a mom had on the season as a whole,” Moss told Vanity Fair of welcoming her daughter in 2024 before the series finale. “I am not a writer on the show, so I don’t come up with the storylines. But I do think there’s an influence that happened because of this new chapter in my life.”
Did Serena lose her power?
After helping June take down the Commanders in the penultimate episode, Serena Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski) loses her power and is banished to a refugee camp with her baby. She and June have a tearful reconciliation, during which June forgives her for everything she did to her in the past.
Did Emily return in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ finale?
Emily (Alexis Bledel) also appears in the finale and reunites with June on the street in a post-Gilead Boston.
“I was a Martha; my Commander was a friend,” Emily tells June of what happened when she went back to Gilead to fight, adding that her wife, Sylvia, and son, Oliver, were the reason she returned.
Who did June reunite with, and how did the finale conclude?
June also reunites with Janine (Madeline Brewer), whom the Eyes took in the penultimate episode. She is returned to June in the woods by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Mrs. Putnam (Ever Carradine), who allow Janine to reunite with her daughter, Angela. June also reconnects with her younger daughter, Holly/Nichole, and her mother.
The finale concludes with June recording her voice to write a book about Gilead, a nod to the show’s source material, the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel of the same name. Mirroring the pilot, she sits on a windowsill in the Waterford home and recites the same monologue from the first episode.
“A chair, a table, a lamp, there’s a window with white curtains,” June’s voiceover starts. “The glass is shatterproof, but it isn’t running away they’re afraid of. A handmaid wouldn’t get far.”
Moss says the last line with her signature sly smile.
“My name is Offred,” she says, closing the show.
Moss says the ending is ‘honestly perfection’
Although fans hoped to see June reconnect with Hannah, who predominantly appears in the finale via flashbacks, Moss thinks the final episode is “honestly perfection.”
“It’s not the first show I’ve ended,” Moss, who’s starred in shows like The West Wing and Mad Men, told Vanity Fair. “And it is impossible to make everyone happy. Look: When I see a show, I tend to buy into whatever the creators of the show put forward as their ending. I’m the type of person who is like, If that’s the way that they think this show ends, then that’s the way that it ends. I loved the ending of The Sopranos, of Breaking Bad, of Seinfeld. The ending of Friday Night Lights is amazing.”
She emphasized the importance of seeing June in the same place and reciting the same monologue as she did at the show’s beginning.
“Margaret has this quote: ‘A word after a word after a word is power.’ And I think that that is where June ends. She’s like, I am going to tell my story, because my story and these words have power. And I love that. She sits down, and she’s going to tell her story to Hannah. It’s for her,” Moss said.
What’s next in the ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ universe?
Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale won’t be without the world of Gilead for too long. Hulu is working on a follow-up series, The Testaments, an adaptation of Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name. The show takes place more than 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale and follows Agnes/Hannah, June’s daughter, and a new generation of young women in the dystopian society of Gilead. Moss is an executive producer on the project.
