Elisabeth Moss has been staring into my soul for almost a decade.Credit: Hulu
Praise be, The Handmaid’s Tale is back for its sixth and final season. It’s been three years since we last got eyes inside Gilead and eight years since this horror-filled and, at times, unnervingly prescient show first singed Elisabeth Moss’ smirking face into my retinas.
I’ve dipped in and out of the series in that time – at points driven away by stagnant plotting and the show’s delight in torture. But, like June eternally limping back into Gilead, I always seem to return. Now, I feel a duty to see this trauma-bond through. Here are seven big questions the opening episodes pose for the rest of the season.
Warning: This story contains spoilers for the first three episodes of the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Can Serena really atone for her sins?
Serena’s Canadian vacay has come to an end, and she’s not quite as enlightened as she initially made out. Our favourite bad feminist only makes it a couple of hours on the train from Toronto before declaring a carriage full of refugees “whores” whose children were “saved” because they were “unfit” to care for them. Ah, well. She tried.
After June saves Serena from meeting the same fate as her husband (being gleefully ripped limb from limb like a warm cheese pull-apart), she finds herself in a peaceful faith-based community, rekindling her initial hopes for Gilead. Then, when Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) shows up, she unblinkingly announces that God has a plan for her to heal a broken world, and she’s now en route to New Bethlehem.
Desperate for redemption but still clinging to her convictions, Serena is shaping up to be the most interesting character this season – and Yvonne Strahovski has perfected the polite savagery in her performance. Will Serena reform Gilead from the inside? Almost certainly not. But I can’t wait for her final reckoning with June.
Good luck, babe!Credit: AP
Exactly how evil is Josh Charles’ new commander?
Oddly enough, with Fred (see above) and Commander Putnam gone, there’s a dearth of “Big Bads” in Gilead. Our remaining main men are June’s doe-eyed boyfriend Nick (Max Minghella), who regularly hops across the border chasing smooches, and Commander Lawrence, who’s instituting progressive reform and rolling around town quoting The Book of Mormon. Who are we fighting again?
Enter Gabriel Wharton (Josh Charles, The Good Wife). This smooth-talking high commander has flown in from DC to spend time with his daughter Rose, flex on Lawrence and generally make Nick’s life harder. His main role so far involves pacing around their house in angry dad mode saying, “Where is my son-in-law?” and impatiently tapping his watch. But the pair’s private conversations (“What happens between a man and wife is between them and God”) hint he’s not so different to those “hardliners” he outwardly distances himself from. Watch this space.
Will Gardner from The Good Wife is back! Now with more fascism. Credit: DISNEY
Is Nick going to be OK?
Lover boy’s resolve is fading. With a new baby on the way and a seemingly nice wife begging him to stop cheating on her, he’s not sure June is worth the risk. “Ask yourself what kind of example you’re setting for your son: will this help him or hurt him?” Wharton says, seconds before Nick turfs his Canadian spy SIM.
It’s understandable he’s wavering. June chose a life with Luke (O-T Fagbenle) over him, but she still expects him to rescue her loved ones and commit treason every second day. My guy is killing Gilead patrols to protect his situationship. Can he keep that up? Is he destined for the wall? Or is he going to settle down into life as a commander in Gilead? As June’s mum Holly (Cherry Jones!) succinctly put it, “My daughter f---ed a Nazi”.
How long until New Bethlehem collapses?
Women can read and write here! Families are reunited! Foreign diplomats have been mesmerised by the sight of babies with no enslaved women killing the vibe or corpses adorning the streets! So, Lawrence asks, should we expand the New Bethlehem community?
“We’ll keep the conversation going,” Wharton replies. It’s the same response I give when my toddlers demand more strawberries after scoffing down a whole bowl. This place is doomed.
Will Aunt Lydia turn for the resistance?
Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) has realised that – shock horror – Gilead might not have the handmaids’ best interests at heart. “I was told you’d be rewarded for your service,” she tells Janine (Madeline Brewer), who is stuck at Jezebel’s with other former handmaids. When she pleads the case for her “special girl” to Lawrence, he says Janine was doomed the minute Lydia got her hands on her.
Could this diehard enforcer – now a little less staunch with a quivering jaw and “newly diagnosed condition” – soften to the rebellion of Mayday?
“Who will protect this girl whose eye I scooped out?”Credit: AP
Will June and Luke ever get Hannah out?
It’s the driving force that sends June into Gilead over and over again, but in this final season, a family reunion seems further away than ever. Despite thrumming with bloodlust for Gilead commanders, Luke couldn’t even handle a quick trip to No Man’s Land. And, as June tells Holly, her daughter didn’t even recognise her when they last met.
The last glimpse we had of the pre-teen saw her in training to become a wife. I’m not expecting a happy ending.
What needle drop will we get in the final episode?
At least the ending will have great music. This show’s dedication to impactful – and at times wildly on-the-nose – needle drops is unmatched. And the opening episodes delivered two more strong entrants: Sigur Ros’ Ara Batur swells as June is reunited with her mother, and Radiohead’s Burn the Witch blares as Serena returns to Gilead (not a great omen).
If things go in June’s favour, maybe Beyoncé’s Run The World gets a spin on the final credits?
The first three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale season six are now streaming on SBS On Demand. The remaining episodes screen each Tuesday until the finale on May 27.
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