How The Handmaid’s Tale Series Finale Ended After 6 Seasons—With One Big Burning Question

“Gilead tried to fight, but they had no leaders,” June says in a voiceover.

Later in the episode, Serena Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski), now stripped of her power and exiled to a refugee camp with her baby, has a moment of reckoning after helping June take down the Commanders in the previous episode. 

While saying goodbye, U.S. Government agent Mark Tuello (Sam Jaeger) promises the former Mrs. Waterford that he’ll “find her” no matter where she ends up, nodding to the longstanding flirtation between the two. Serena then tearfully apologizes to June, saying she’s “ashamed” for what she did in the past, prompting June to ultimately tell her, “I forgive you, Serena.”

Elsewhere, June reunites with Janine (Madeline Brewer), who was taken by the Eyes in the previous episode. In a rare act of mercy, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Mrs. Putnam (Ever Carradine) return a battered Janine to June in the woods and Mrs. Putnam allows Janine to be with her daughter, Angela—finally granting her peace after years of suffering.

Later, busloads of refugees appear in Boston from Alaska, and June reconnects with her daughter Holly/Nichole, who she shares with the late Nick, and her mother. 

In a surprise return, Alexis Bledel, who played Ofglen/Emily for four seasons, returns to appear in Boston’s post-Gilead world, running into June on the street and revealing what happened after she returned to Gilead to fight.

“I was a Martha, my Commander was a friend,” she tells June of her seven-month post, explaining that her wife Sylvia and son Oliver were the reason why she went back.

In the final moments of the show, June takes a moment to revisit her broken past, walking through the burnt remnants of the Waterford home where she was held captive as a handmaid for so many years. 

While the episode relies heavily on flashbacks of June and Hannah as a small child, in the final scene viewers see a vision of June’s hand grabbing Hannah’s, and the back of what appears to be a teenage Hannah’s head standing in a room similar to June’s former bedroom.

Despite June’s earlier vow to Luke (O-T Fagbenle), “I’m going to go get Hannah,” the actual reunion is never confirmed. Instead, viewers are left with June’s hopeful smile at imagining the reunion—leaving the moment open to interpretation.

While the reunion remains unsolved, the series comes full circle, even making a few nods to Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel by the same name. 

June, who is now voice recording her experiences to write a book about Gilead—encouraged by Luke and her mother who tells her earlier in the episode that June’s daughter Holly “should know her mother is a warrior”—sits on the same windowsill in the Waterford home where she sat in the very first episode and recites the same monologue from the series beginning. 

“A chair, a table, a lamp, there’s a window with white curtains,” she begins, “the glass is shatterproof but it isn’t running away they’re afraid of. A handmaid wouldn’t get far.” 

She delivers her final line with her trademark smirk, “My name is Offred,” before the show cuts to black.   

The stark contrast with this scene shows June wearing a green overcoat reminiscent of the Wives’ uniforms instead of the iconic red handmaid robe that she symbolically burned earlier in the episode in a street bonfire, signifying that not only did she survive Gilead; she now has all the power. 

Jaeger, who plays Mark Tuello, told People ahead of the finale, “We want to reward the fans this year, because we put them through hell and it’s just a really riveting season and a fitting finish.”

Speaking to Variety, executive producer Yahlin Chang said of the final season, “It’s a wish fulfillment season, it’s a season where we just want to be really rewarding and really satisfying.”

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