The Handmaid's Tale is an American dystopian drama television series created by Bruce Miller, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. The plot features a dystopian future following a Second American Civil War wherein a theonomic, totalitarian society subjects fertile women, called "Handmaids", to child-bearing slavery. The series features an ensemble cast, led by Elisabeth Moss, and also stars Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, O-T Fagbenle, Max Minghella, Samira Wiley, Amanda Brugel, and Bradley Whitford.
The series premiered on April 26, 2017, on Hulu. The second season premiered on April 25, 2018. The third season premiered on June 5, 2019. The fourth season premiered on April 27, 2021. In December 2020, ahead of the fourth season premiere, Hulu renewed the series for a fifth season, which premiered on September 14, 2022. In September 2022, ahead of the fifth season premiere, the series was renewed for a sixth and final season.
As of November 9, 2022, 56 episodes of The Handmaid's Tale have been released, concluding the fifth season.
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 10 | April 26, 2017 (2017-04-26) | June 14, 2017 (2017-06-14) | |
| 2 | 13 | April 25, 2018 (2018-04-25) | July 11, 2018 (2018-07-11) | |
| 3 | 13 | June 5, 2019 (2019-06-05) | August 14, 2019 (2019-08-14) | |
| 4 | 10 | April 27, 2021 (2021-04-27) | June 16, 2021 (2021-06-16) | |
| 5 | 10 | September 14, 2022 (2022-09-14) | November 9, 2022 (2022-11-09) | |
Episodes
Season 1 (2017)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Teleplay by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Offred" | Reed Morano | Bruce Miller | April 26, 2017 (2017-04-26) | |
| A family is pursued by a group of armed men. The woman is caught and separated from her young daughter and husband as shots are fired in the distance. Some time later, the woman is now known as Offred, the handmaid to Commander Fred Waterford. While walking, she and another handmaid, Ofglen, pass by a wall on which men have been hanged for crimes such as being gay, working in an abortion clinic, and being a Catholic priest. In a flashback, women are indoctrinated into their new role by Aunt Lydia, and Offred sees her best friend Moira among them. Another woman, Janine, is rude to Aunt Lydia and is shocked with a cattle prod; later, her right eye is removed as punishment. In the present, Commander Waterford tries to impregnate Offred during "the Ceremony". The next day, the handmaids are encouraged to beat a man to death for allegedly raping a pregnant handmaid and killing her baby. Offred is the first to participate in the brutal execution and appears to happily do so without any moral conflicts or regret. On the way home, Ofglen warns Offred there is an Eye in the Waterford house. Offred affirms to herself that her name is June and she intends to survive to find her daughter. | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Birth Day" | Reed Morano | Bruce Miller | April 26, 2017 (2017-04-26) | |
| June and Ofglen go food shopping, and they reveal more personal information about themselves to each other. While they are walking, they see St. Paul Catholic Church, their local church, being destroyed by the new régime. Ofglen tells June that the régime also bulldozed St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan to try to "erase" the fact that it ever existed. When June asks how Ofglen knows this information, Ofglen reveals that she is part of a resistance movement against the government, but June declines to join, not fully trusting Ofglen. Commander Waterford's driver, Nick, tells June that the Commander wants to see her alone later that night, which is forbidden, and warns her that Ofglen is dangerous. June and the other handmaids witness the birth of Janine/Ofwarren's child, named Angela by the Putnams but Charlotte by Janine. In flashbacks, June remembers the birth of her daughter, Hannah. At that time healthy births were already rare, and a deranged woman tried to kidnap baby Hannah from the hospital and was arrested. In the present, June warily goes to the Commander's office that night as instructed, but he simply wants to play Scrabble, to her relief. The next day, a different woman introduces herself as Ofglen. | ||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Late" | Reed Morano | Bruce Miller | April 26, 2017 (2017-04-26) | |
| In flashbacks, the rise of Gilead is detailed through June's eyes: June and her female colleagues were fired and the government froze women's bank accounts and ruled they could no longer own property. In the present, Serena takes June to see Janine and the baby, and June fears Janine is delusional. Back home, June is interrogated by an Eye and Aunt Lydia about her knowledge of Ofglen. Aunt Lydia physically beats and shocks June with a cattle prod for being disrespectful and quoting from the Beatitudes in the Bible (rather than accepting the modified scriptures used by Gilead) but before Aunt Lydia can hit June again, Serena intervenes, believing June is pregnant. When June later tells Serena that she is not, Serena angrily locks her in her room. In a flashback, June and Moira attend a protest against the new laws which is interrupted by automatic gunfire and explosives. In the present, Ofglen and the Martha she is in a relationship with are charged with "gender treachery". The fertile Ofglen is reassigned but the Martha is hanged. Later, Ofglen (referred to by her "old" name, Emily) awakes in a hospital recovery room to find, to her grief and anger, that she has undergone female genital mutilation surgery, as explained by Aunt Lydia. | ||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum" | Mike Barker | Leila Gerstein | May 3, 2017 (2017-05-03) | |
| Banished to her room, June retreats to her closet where she finds a Latin phrase, Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum, scratched discreetly into the wall. When Rita, the Martha assigned as the Commander's housekeeper, finds June lying on the floor, June tells her that she fainted so Serena sends her to the hospital for a check-up. During the examination the physician remarks that the Commander is most likely sterile and offers to attempt to impregnate June, but she declines. In flashbacks, Aunt Lydia teaches the handmaids about The Ceremony, in which a commander endeavors to fertilize a handmaid. Later, June and Moira assault Aunt Elizabeth, and Moira takes her outfit. June and Moira plan to escape to Boston, which has safe houses. Moira catches the train but June is detained by a soldier and returned to the Red Centre where her feet are beaten as punishment for attempting to escape. In the present, Commander Waterford has an unsuccessful Ceremony night, but later that night, they play Scrabble again. She asks him about the Latin phrase, and he tells her it means, Don't let the bastards grind you down. She learns that the previous Offred killed herself because life was unbearable. At the end, June is released from confinement to her room. | ||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Faithful" | Mike Barker | Dorothy Fortenberry | May 10, 2017 (2017-05-10) | |
| Serena suggests to June that she have sex with Nick in case Commander Waterford is sterile. Later that day, Serena leads June up to Nick's room and waits by the door while June and Nick have detached sex. Flashbacks detail June and Luke's first meeting and courtship. During a Ceremony night, the Commander touches June's thigh, which she later tells him never to do again. She also confronts him about Emily. He admits that while they thought they were building a better world, they knew that "better never means better for everyone." June also confronts Nick, who reveals that he is indeed an Eye. At an open-air market, June questions Emily about the resistance group (which is called Mayday). Emily jumps behind the steering wheel of a Mercedes and drives erratically around the plaza. She hits and kills a guard, and is caught and put into a black van. June returns to Nick's coach house alone, and they have passionate sex. | ||||||
| 6 | 6 | "A Woman's Place" | Floria Sigismondi | Wendy Straker Hauser | May 17, 2017 (2017-05-17) | |
| When Mexican trade delegates visit the Waterford's home to evaluate the effects of the Gilead cultural movement, June is asked about her experience; she lies, saying that she is happy. The handmaids are taken to a function to demonstrate Gilead's success, illustrated by a parade of Commanders' children to whom the handmaids have given birth. The next day, June privately tells Mexico's ambassador the truth about Gilead and asks for her help, but the ambassador is unable to do anything. However, June is told by the ambassador's assistant that Luke is alive and a message can be sent to him. A flashback details Serena and Fred's life at the beginnings of the Gilead movement, when Serena was a conservative cultural activist with passion and intelligence equal to her husband's. It is revealed that she wrote a book about her beliefs, titled A Woman's Place. The Waterfords are shown to have been involved with the movement since the beginning, and Fred later finds out that the movement will attack the U.S. government. After the takeover, Serena is completely shut out and accepts her new role in the totalitarian society she helped create. A copy of her book is seen being thrown out with the trash. | ||||||
| 7 | 7 | "The Other Side" | Floria Sigismondi | Lynn Renee Maxcy | May 24, 2017 (2017-05-24) | |
| This episode chronicles Luke's story after he was separated from June and Hannah (from episode Offred). Luke is shot and injured but escapes when the ambulance crashes. He passes out from his wounds and is rescued by a resistance group traveling to Canada with many survivors, including Erin, a mute escaped handmaid and Zoe, the daughter of a US Army soldier. Initially reluctant, Luke joins them after Zoe shows him that Gileadan authorities hanged people from the rafters of their church for resisting. As they board a boat, Gileadan guards kill several members of the group, but Luke and Erin manage to survive. A further flashback shows Luke, June, and Hannah before they were separated. June and Luke are helped by Mr. Whitford, a man who knew June's mother. He leaves them at a secluded cabin in the woods while he arranges documentation for them to escape to Canada. However, he is caught and hanged, and a local hunter attempts to help them instead. Three years later, in the present, Luke and Erin live safely in "Little America", based in Toronto. While in the main administrative office, Luke receives the letter from June which reads, "I love you so much. Save Hannah." Upon understanding that June is probably alive, Luke gets emotional. | ||||||
| 8 | 8 | "Jezebels" | Kate Dennis | Kira Snyder | May 31, 2017 (2017-05-31) | |
| Commander Waterford gives June makeup and a dress and takes her out for the night. Nick drives them to Boston to an underground brothel, where sex workers (known as "Jezebels") work. June spots Moira and they briefly reunite. Nick trades drugs and pregnancy tests for alcohol with Beth, one of the brothel's Marthas. June goes to see Moira again, and she explains to June how Quakers tried to help her escape but were caught. Moira had the choice of being sent either to the Colonies or one of the brothels. Moira tells June to forget about escaping but June tells Moira that Luke got out. Flashbacks detail how Nick, struggling with unemployment and a troubled family, got involved with the Sons of Jacob and subsequently the Gilead movement, and how he became an Eye after reporting a Commander for breaking protocol with his handmaids. The suicide of the previous Offred is shown. In the present, after Nick drives Waterford and June home, he ends his relationship with June, which upsets and angers her. The episode closes with June etching the words "You are not alone" into the closet wall. | ||||||
| 9 | 9 | "The Bridge" | Kate Dennis | Eric Tuchman | June 7, 2017 (2017-06-07) | |
| Janine's daughter is handed over to Commander Putnam and his wife, then Janine is transferred to another couple and renamed Ofdaniel. During the first Ceremony night with her new Commander, Janine forcefully stops the proceedings. At the market, Alma tells June that she is involved with Mayday, and requests that June retrieve a package from the bar at Jezebel's. June convinces Waterford to take her to Jezebel's again that night. Waterford presents June with Moira and June privately asks Moira to retrieve the package, but she refuses. The next day June is taken to a bridge where Janine is standing on the edge with baby Charlotte, while many, including the Putnams, stand fearfully by. Janine shouts that Commander Putnam promised to leave his wife for her. June convinces Janine to give her Charlotte, but Janine then jumps into the icy water. Later, while Janine lies comatose in the hospital, Commander Putnam is led away by guards. Mrs. Putnam causes Serena to doubt her husband's loyalty. At the market, June is given a package by the butcher, sent by Moira from Jezebel's. At the brothel, Moira kills a client and takes his clothes, then drives off in his car. | ||||||
| 10 | 10 | "Night" | Kari Skogland | Bruce Miller | June 14, 2017 (2017-06-14) | |
| A flashback shows June's capture and indoctrination by Aunt Lydia at the Red Center. In the present, after discovering Commander Fred's trips to Jezebels, Serena forces June to take a pregnancy test, which ends up being positive. Serena angrily accuses Fred, telling him the child is not his. After learning the news, Nick and June have a tender moment. Serena takes June to see Hannah, but leaves her in the car. Serena warns June that Hannah will be safe as long as June's unborn child is. Following his show trial, Commander Putnam's left arm is amputated below the elbow. The package from Jezebel's contains letters from women who lost family members and have been enslaved in the Gilead takeover. Later, an emotional Aunt Lydia gathers the handmaids and instructs them to stone Janine. The handmaids hesitate and eventually June and the others refuse, dropping their stones. Following this, a black van comes for June, something the Waterfords were unaware of. Nick urges her to trust him and go with them. As June leaves, she whispers to Rita where to find the hidden letters. Meanwhile, Moira reaches Canada, is granted asylum and is reunited with Luke. | ||||||
Season 2 (2018)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Teleplay by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 | "June" | Mike Barker | Bruce Miller | April 25, 2018 (2018-04-25) | |
| After refusing to stone Janine, June and the other handmaids are taken to Fenway Park, where they are made to believe they will be hanged in a mock execution. At the Red Center, Aunt Lydia finds out about June's pregnancy and when June rejects a meal Lydia gives her, she is shown another pregnant handmaid chained in a prison room due to her attempted suicide. June agrees to eat and the other handmaids are punished through burning with a gas flame. June is taken to a doctor for a pregnancy check-up, where she is visited by the Waterfords. Afterward, she finds a key in one of her boots, which she uses to escape to a truck parked underneath the hospital. The truck drops her off at a safe house in Back Bay, where she meets Nick, while Fred authorizes a search party. Nick tells June to change out of her clothes and to cut her hair. June cuts the tag off her ear and burns it with her handmaid robes. In flashbacks throughout the episode, Hannah is admitted to the hospital for having a fever while in school, and June is questioned by one of the hospital workers about giving Hannah medication to bypass the school's fever policy. The authorities suggest she is a bad mother for working and wanting her child in school. Later at home, June and Luke witness the Capitol Building and White House being attacked on television. | ||||||
| 12 | 2 | "Unwomen" | Mike Barker | Bruce Miller | April 25, 2018 (2018-04-25) | |
| June has been transported to the abandoned headquarters of The Boston Globe to hide out. Meanwhile, Emily has been taken to the Colonies, where "unwomen" dig on toxic wasteland. Emily befriends a commander's wife and finds that she committed a "sin of the flesh" that landed her in the Colonies. Emily murders her with poisoned tablets as she blames her for "holding a woman down while her husband rapes her". Janine arrives at the Colonies and Nick visits June. In a flashback, after the attacks on DC, Emily is told by her boss, Dan, that she will not be teaching the following semester at the university, giving her a lower profile to avoid attracting criticism for her sexual orientation. Dan is later seen hanged with the word "faggot" painted underneath him. When Emily, along with her wife Sylvia and son Oliver, attempt to emigrate to Canada, she is unable to leave the country because same-sex marriage is no longer recognized, and it becomes known that she is Oliver's biological mother. In the present, June makes a news-clipping memorial for The Boston Globe employees who were executed at the newspaper's former headquarters, and prays to God to send an angel to watch over them. | ||||||
| 13 | 3 | "Baggage" | Kari Skogland | Dorothy Fortenberry | May 2, 2018 (2018-05-02) | |
| June learns about the emergence of the Sons of Jacob in newspaper archives and is moved to another place where she meets Omar, who tells her he is taking her to a safe house. When he learns the safe house has been compromised, he tries to leave without her. June makes him take her with him to his apartment, where she meets his wife Heather and their son Adam. When the family goes to church, June finds a hidden Qur'an. When Omar and his family do not return, June dons Heather's Econowife outfit and leaves. After a train ride, June arrives at the airstrip that Omar had told her about; unfortunately the airplane is intercepted, the pilot is executed, and June and another fugitive are apprehended by the Guardians. Meanwhile in Canada, Moira, now living with Luke and Erin, gives a tour to a new co-worker, but he has a mental breakdown, traumatized by his acts as a Guardian. In a flashback, June is taken to a Take Back the Night rally by her mother, Holly. Holly was later disappointed at June's career and plan to marry, having hoped June would become an activist. Moira and June learned at the Red Center that Holly was sent to the Colonies. | ||||||
| 14 | 4 | "Other Women" | Kari Skogland | Yahlin Chang | May 9, 2018 (2018-05-09) | |
| A defiant June has been recaptured and chained to a bed. Aunt Lydia explains to her that she must choose between imprisonment, followed by execution after childbirth, or return as a handmaid; June chooses the latter option to survive. The Waterfords treat June's disappearance as a kidnapping, but privately Serena is furious and grabs June by the throat. Rita returns the letters she found and tells June that she will no longer be involved. A baby shower is held for Serena, incorporating prayer and a binding of June to Serena. June learns from Alma that Ofglen No. 2's tongue was removed for speaking up for Janine, and that Mayday is silent and is done helping handmaids. Aunt Lydia takes June out to show her Omar hanging on the wall, telling June that Omar's wife Heather is now a handmaid, their son Adam was given away, and this was June's fault. June feels responsible for other people's suffering and collapses under the knowledge of Omar's family's fate. Aunt Lydia encourages her to distinguish between Offred's identity and June's, saying June is to blame, not Offred. In a flashback, June is harassed by Luke's first wife Annie, who tells her that she and Luke made wedding vows before God, and June should back off, but Luke rejects Annie's plea. Years later, Annie sees Luke and June in a cafe with Hannah, and Annie glares at June before leaving. | ||||||
| 15 | 5 | "Seeds" | Mike Barker | Kira Snyder | May 16, 2018 (2018-05-16) | |
| Emotionally beaten and subservient once again, June burns some letters she had been keeping for Mayday. She notices vaginal bleeding but does not inform anyone. Nick notices June's apparent depression and informs Serena. Serena, alarmed at Nick's interest in June, apprises Fred, who arranges for Nick to be married at a Prayvaganza festival where loyal Guardians receive a wife. Nick's new, young bride, a 15-year-old girl named Eden, moves into his room. He avoids sleeping with her. Nick later finds June bloody and unconscious and she is hospitalized. June awakens in the hospital and promises her unborn baby that they both will escape Gilead. In the Colonies, the unbalanced Janine assures Emily that God is protecting them through their struggles in Gilead, and helps to arrange a small wedding for a dying worker, officiated by another unwoman who is a rabbi. Emily, who has begun to lose her teeth through radiation poisoning, argues with Janine for attempting to bring brightness to a place that otherwise seems so bleak. When the newlywed unwoman dies, the rabbi officiates at the burial as the deceased is lowered into her grave in a cemetery adorned with crosses. | ||||||
| 16 | 6 | "First Blood" | Mike Barker | Eric Tuchman | May 23, 2018 (2018-05-23) | |
| Advised by a doctor that a harmonious household would benefit the child, Serena shows care for June, giving her the sitting room as a bedroom and inviting her friends for brunch. When Serena shows June the nursery for the baby, June asks to see Hannah. In retaliation, Serena moves June back to her previous room. Eden reveals to June that she fears Nick may be a "gender traitor" due to his reluctance for intimacy, so June warns him. Nick has sex with Eden, but only after he tells June that he loves her. Fred visits June and gives her a photograph of Hannah. At the opening of the Rachel and Leah Center, Nick asks Commander Pryce to reassign him and ensure June's protection. Suddenly, Ofglen No. 2 approaches the front of the hall and detonates a bomb. Flashbacks show the beginning of the Gilead movement with Serena being attacked while promoting her book A Woman's Place. After being booed, Fred forces Serena to finish her speech, which is met by jeers and clapping, escalating when a protester shoots Serena in the abdomen. Fred executes a student involved in his wife's shooting. | ||||||
| 17 | 7 | "After" | Kari Skogland | Lynn Renee Maxcy | May 30, 2018 (2018-05-30) | |
| In the aftermath of the suicide bombing at the Rachel and Leah Center, 31 handmaids, 26 commanders (including Commander Pryce), and many civilians were killed, plus dozens more wounded. Despite being near the front of the building, Fred survives with serious injuries. Serena takes on some of his duties, forging his signature. Commander Cushing then takes Commander Pryce's role, increases checkpoints, and orders numerous people executed in the streets. He questions June and asks who aided her in trying to flee the country. June responds that she was kidnapped. Serena is alarmed at her household being targeted and the loss of temporary power she held, so she forges orders to have Commander Cushing arrested. Because many handmaids were killed, some women from the Colonies are made to serve as handmaids again, including Janine and Emily. Both reunite with June in the grocery store, where Janine happily tells June that it was God's plan that she be rescued. June tells Emily her true name and several of the handmaids whisper their names to one another. Serena enlists June's help in performing Fred's work for him while he is hospitalized. At the refugee center in Canada, Moira looks through records to try to find out what happened to her fiancée, Odette. Moira is revealed to have been a surrogate birth mother for a couple and Odette was their obstetrician. In the present, Moira eventually finds photographs showing Odette was killed. | ||||||
| 18 | 8 | "Women's Work" | Kari Skogland | Nina Fiore & John Herrera | June 6, 2018 (2018-06-06) | |
| Serena gives June a music box and flower for June's help in completing Fred's work while he continues to recover in the hospital. Serena tells June that the Putnams' child is ill and not gaining weight. June advocates for Janine to be able to see the baby, and Serena agrees to ask about it. Naomi Putnam dislikes the idea, but she is overruled by her husband. Serena petitions Fred to allow the child to be seen by a Martha who, prior to the Sons of Jacob coup, was a top neonatologist. Fred denies the request, so Serena forges Fred's signature on an order that temporarily transfers the Martha to the hospital. Lydia tells June that she will hold her responsible if anything goes wrong with Janine's visit to the hospital. The neonatologist can find no physical explanation for the child's deterioration and recommends no further treatment other than supportive care. When Fred discovers that Serena forged his signature on an order to temporarily transfer the Martha, he beats Serena with his belt. After Eden rearranges Nick's garret and uncovers the bundle of handmaids' letters, he demands that Eden never touch his belongings. At the end, Janine holds baby Angela/Charlotte, singing "I Only Want to Be with You" and the baby's health improves. | ||||||
| 19 | 9 | "Smart Power" | Jeremy Podeswa | Dorothy Fortenberry | June 13, 2018 (2018-06-13) | |
| The Waterfords and Nick travel to Canada on a diplomatic mission. While they are away, a young Guardian named Isaac is left in charge of the household. Serena is approached by Mark Tuello, who works for a remnant of the U.S. government in Hawaii and offers to help her defect from Gilead if she will publicly denounce the regime, but Serena declines. At the Waterford residence, June tells Rita that when Hannah was baptized, she and Luke chose godparents for her, and that she wants Rita to be the godmother of her expected child as soon as it is born. Rita states that she will try her best, although the government of Gilead has prohibited baptisms and severely restricts Marthas. June makes a similar request to Aunt Lydia, prompting Lydia to reveal she was previously the godmother to her sister's baby, who died in infancy. In Canada, Nick finds Luke and tells him June is pregnant by Fred and gives him the bundle of letters. Luke, Moira, and Erin make the letters public, which prompts the Canadians to cancel the summit. After returning to Gilead, Nick gives June news of Luke and Moira, adding that the letters were instrumental in curtailing the talks. June reveals that Moira is Hannah's godmother. | ||||||
| 20 | 10 | "The Last Ceremony" | Jeremy Podeswa | Yahlin Chang | June 20, 2018 (2018-06-20) | |
| The commander to whom Emily is newly assigned as handmaid collapses and dies from a sudden heart attack during the Ceremony. June suffers contractions while shopping, forcing her to go home and to endure a "birthing ceremony" as everyone awaits the birth of the child. However, it turns out to be a false labor. June pleads to Fred to be positioned closer to her daughter Hannah after the eventual birth. After Fred denies this request, June implies that the child she is carrying is not his and that he will never have a child of his own. Fred rapes June with Serena holding her down, under the guise of inducing labor. Meanwhile, Eden finds herself attracted to Isaac and meets with him at night. They kiss, but she stops once she sees Nick. She begs Nick's forgiveness, which he gives with a detachment that infuriates her. She accuses Nick of liking June. Fred arranges for Nick to take June to a remote house for a visit with Hannah, now renamed Agnes. There is thick snow on the ground and the sound of wolves. Hannah is initially shy and detached, but then she embraces June, and mother and daughter have a brief reunion. After they are separated, Guardians take Nick captive, and June is left behind, having hidden in the house. | ||||||
| 21 | 11 | "Holly" | Daina Reid | Bruce Miller & Kira Snyder | June 27, 2018 (2018-06-27) | |
| After Nick is taken away from the house, June sees a car in the garage and searches the house for the keys. She returns to the house and begin to pack some supplies. Flashbacks throughout the episode show her first pregnancy and Hannah's birth and childhood. Fred and Serena arrive at the house in a panic looking for June, and end up arguing, with Serena telling Fred she gave up everything for him and the cause, and only ever wanted a child in return. June finds a gun and from an upper floor and prepares to shoot them but does not do so. The Waterfords are unable to find June and decide to leave, feeling both angry and concerned. After she is certain they are gone, June, having contractions, gets back into the car but cannot get it out of the garage, which is frozen shut. June is exhausted and in pain, lies down in front of the fire, and finally goes into labour and passes out. When she awakens, she is covered in blood, but the baby still has not come. She crawls outside and discharges the gun to attract attention, then ends up delivering the baby by herself. She whispers that the baby's name is Holly, after June's mother. Light comes in through the windows, indicating that a car has arrived at the house. | ||||||
| 22 | 12 | "Postpartum" | Daina Reid | Eric Tuchman | July 4, 2018 (2018-07-04) | |
| June is separated from her baby but expected to provide milk. When she is unable to pump enough milk, Aunt Lydia allows her to see the baby in order to induce lactation. As June's lactation increases during the meeting, Lydia convinces Fred to allow June back in the house for the baby's health. Nick, who is back in the Waterford household and presented as having been key to the rescue of June and the baby, suggests that he, June, and the baby should flee to Canada, and Fred attempts to renew elements of his relationship with June. Meanwhile, Emily is reassigned to the Lawrence household as a handmaid after being rejected by four other couples. His unstable wife, Eleanor, reveals to Emily that Lawrence was the creator of the Colonies. Lawrence reveals that he knows much about Emily's past. Eden and Isaac elope but are caught. Eden and Nick admit their faults and ask each other's forgiveness. Eden and Isaac are brought to a public diving board above a swimming pool to be executed for infidelity; each of them is attached to chains and weights. Both refuse to repent, and instead Eden begins to recite a biblical paean to love. They are both pushed off and drown. Made distraught by the events, Serena allows June to nurse the baby herself. | ||||||
| 23 | 13 | "The Word" | Mike Barker | Bruce Miller | July 11, 2018 (2018-07-11) | |
| It is revealed that it was Eden's father who turned Eden and Isaac in. While searching through Eden's belongings, June discovers a Bible that Eden read from and annotated, despite it being illegal for women to read in Gilead. June argues about Nichole's future in Gilead, stating that Nichole will not be able to know God unless she is able to read His word. At a leaders' meeting, Serena proposes that girls be taught to read only from the Bible, and reads from the Bible to make her point. She is punished by having a finger removed. Meanwhile, Emily is dismissed by Lawrence, who does not undergo the ceremony. Emily is visited by Lydia and as Lydia leaves, Emily stabs her. Fred suggests to June that he could arrange for her to remain his handmaid, offering meetings with Hannah; June rejects the proposal. As a fire consumes a neighboring house, Rita tells June that she and Holly have a chance to get out. Nick prevents Fred from arranging their capture. Serena catches June, but has a change of heart as she imagines the restricted future that awaits her daughter. She allows June to take Nichole, assisted by the Marthas. June is reunited with Emily, who is dropped off at the escape truck by Lawrence. Instead of escaping with them, June hands her baby to Emily, telling her to call her Nichole. June turns back to Gilead, determined to continue looking for her other daughter Hannah. | ||||||
Season 3 (2019)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 1 | "Night" | Mike Barker | Bruce Miller | June 5, 2019 (2019-06-05) | |
| After a treacherous journey, Emily escapes Gilead with June's baby Nichole into Canada, where they are granted asylum and Nichole is taken into the care of Luke and Moira. Back in Gilead, June asks Commander Lawrence (who had facilitated Emily and Nichole's escape to Canada) to take her to Hannah before being recaptured by the Guardians and returned to the Waterfords, but not before Hannah's placement mother, Mrs. MacKenzie, warns June that any future visits could result in her execution in front of Hannah. In order to protect himself and Serena from her involvement in Nichole's "kidnapping", Fred publicly pins the blame on Emily, but privately, Serena defiantly tells him that she was the one who sent Nichole away and tries to kill herself by burning down the house but is rescued by June. After being punished at the Red Center, June is reassigned to Commander Lawrence. | ||||||
| 25 | 2 | "Mary and Martha" | Mike Barker | Kira Snyder | June 5, 2019 (2019-06-05) | |
| June, who is now Ofjoseph, meets her new shopping partner, Ofmatthew, a handmaid who is smugly pious. At the Lawrence household, June joins an underground resistance cell consisting of the Marthas Beth and Cora. They are hiding a fugitive Martha named Alison, a former chemistry teacher who joined the Mayday resistance in order to make bombs to destroy the Gilead ruling government. It is also revealed that she made the bomb that blew up the new Rachel and Leah center. June and Beth help Alison escape, however, the escape attempt fails, and she later returns to the Lawrence household with another wounded Martha, who was shot by Guardians. Commander Lawrence reluctantly harbors the fugitive from the Guardians. Lawrence's wife, Eleanor, helps June and the Marthas hide the wounded woman. The Martha succumbs to her injury and June digs a grave for her in the backyard and says a prayer for her. Lawrence dismisses Cora for lying and Eleanor plants flowers over the grave. In Canada, Emily is staying with Luke, Moira, and Erin, and after some hesitation, is convinced by Moira to re-establish contact with her wife Sylvia. | ||||||
| 26 | 3 | "Useful" | Amma Asante | Yahlin Chang | June 5, 2019 (2019-06-05) | |
| A new Martha, Sienna, replaces Cora's position in the Lawrence household. June resolves to search for "allies with power" in order to survive Gilead. The commanders meet at Lawrence's house to discuss the fighting in Chicago including an incoming shipment of female captives. June encounters Nick, who has been promoted to commander, and the two share a tender moment. Lawrence conscripts June to select five Chicago women to serve as Marthas; the remainders will be shipped to the Colonies, which is ultimately a death sentence. While initially unwilling to be complicit in Lawrence's crimes, June eventually chooses five Marthas who would make good recruits for her resistance cell: an engineer, an IT technician, a journalist, a lawyer, and a thief. Meanwhile, a despondent Serena goes to stay with her mother Pamela, who chastises her for losing her child and for not realizing that without Fred, Serena has no place in Gileadean society. | ||||||
| 27 | 4 | "God Bless the Child" | Amma Asante | Eric Tuchman | June 12, 2019 (2019-06-12) | |
| June and some of her fellow handmaids attend a reception at the Putnam household. There, June convinces Fred to give Serena a "voice behind the scenes" in Gilead. Flashbacks throughout the episode show June and Luke's baptism of Hannah by a Christian priest before the hostile takeover by the Sons of Jacob, who now dedicate children, rather than baptize infants. In the present, June learns that Ofmatthew has given birth to three babies. Janine, serving as Ofhoward, pleads with the Putnams to invite her back into the house so that she can produce a sibling for baby Angela. Aunt Lydia furiously beats her in full view of the commanders and the wives until June throws herself between Janine and Aunt Lydia. In shock, Aunt Lydia then apologizes for what happened and privately breaks down in tears. Serena tells June that Hannah is at a school in Brookline, Massachusetts. June and the Waterfords later receive video footage of Nichole with Luke in Canada, during a demonstration condemning Gilead's hostile assault on Chicago. June is forced to confirm her husband's identity. In Canada, Emily awkwardly reunites with her wife Sylvia and their son Oliver, and Luke and Moira ask a Christian minister to baptize Nichole, which they do in a church. | ||||||
| 28 | 5 | "Unknown Caller" | Colin Watkinson | Marissa Jo Cerar | June 19, 2019 (2019-06-19) | |
| In exchange for a favor from Serena, June agrees to phone Luke to arrange a meeting between the Waterfords and Nichole. Mark Tuello (whom Serena met the last time the Waterfords were in Canada) is in charge of arranging the meeting. Luke agrees to the meeting on the condition that only Serena attend the meeting and not Fred. During their tense meeting at Toronto Pearson International Airport, Serena reassures Luke that June is safe and that both she and June gave up Nichole to give Nichole a better life in Canada. Serena passes Luke a locket for Nichole, as well as a cassette tape she smuggled out of Gilead, containing a recorded message from June, revealing the name she gave to Nichole (Holly) and the baby's biological father (Nick). After unsuccessfully trying to convince Serena to defect for a second time, Mark hides a satellite phone in Serena's purse when she returns to Gilead, so she can contact him if necessary. Serena goes back on her pledge to set baby Nichole free, and wants to bring her back to Gilead. Later, June is picked up by Guardians and forced to participate in a televised broadcast in which the Waterfords state that they are a family mourning the kidnapping of Nichole and urge the Canadian government to return their daughter to Gilead. | ||||||
| 29 | 6 | "Household" | Dearbhla Walsh | Dorothy Fortenberry | June 26, 2019 (2019-06-26) | |
| The Waterfords, June, Rita and Aunt Lydia travel to Washington, D.C. to stay with the family of High Commander George Winslow and his wife Olivia. The Winslows live in a mansion with six children by different Handmaids. There, they meet with a delegation of Swiss diplomats who seek to negotiate between Gilead and Canada and prepare to take part in internationally broadcast mass prayers being held at the former Washington Monument that has now been turned into a giant cross, asking for the return of baby Nichole from Canada. June and Aunt Lydia are appalled at how in Washington, the leadership caste has forced all handmaids to always be muzzled to cover up metal ring piercings used to permanently keep their mouths closed. Commander Winslow suggests to Fred that he may have a position for him in D.C. June reunites with Nick, who as a commander now prepares military forces for the Chicago frontline against the rebels. June makes a deal with the Swiss to convince Nick to provide information on Gilead's power structure, however they reject talking to Nick upon learning information on war crimes he committed in the early days of the Gilead takeover. June and Serena confront each other over Serena's change of heart regarding baby Nichole, and Serena reveals that Nick was a soldier in the crusade and so was directly involved in the attacks on the White House and the Capitol. Afterwards, the Waterfords force June to lead thousands of handmaids massed along what used to be the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in a televised prayer for Nichole's return. | ||||||
| 30 | 7 | "Under His Eye" | Mike Barker | Nina Fiore & John Herrera | July 3, 2019 (2019-07-03) | |
| While visiting the supermarket, June arranges with Frances (the Mackenzies' Martha) to visit Hannah at her school in Brookline. In Canada, Emily and Sylvia meet with one of the Swiss diplomats, who questions Emily about crimes she has been accused of committing in Gilead. Emily acknowledges them but does not regret the actions she took to survive there. Emily and Moira join a group of protesters who confront the Canadian Immigration Minister over his negotiations with Gilead, and they are arrested. Olivia Winslow recommends to Serena that her family move to Washington, D.C., showing her that she could move into the former house of a Baptist family that was executed following the Sons of Jacob takeover. Fred and Serena renew their love for each other while negotiations take place to secure Nichole's return and an extradition treaty with Canada. June convinces housebound Eleanor to accompany her on a visit to Brookline, but the two are not permitted entry into the school. The strain proves to be too much for Eleanor, who becomes hysterical and returns home exhausted. Afterward, June participates in an execution where Frances and several others are hanged for "endangering a sacred child". June realizes that Ofmatthew was spying on her and reported Frances to Aunt Lydia. June furiously attacks Ofmatthew, but is restrained by her fellow handmaids. | ||||||
| 31 | 8 | "Unfit" | Mike Barker | Kira Snyder | July 10, 2019 (2019-07-10) | |
| After the execution, Ofmatthew is ostracized by the other handmaids. In a ritual in which handmaids are admonished to "testify" for their sins, June is singled out for being responsible for the death of Frances, which will negatively affect Hannah. June exposes Ofmatthew's doubts about wanting to carry another child to term. In the night, Handmaid Ofandy gives birth to a stillborn girl. Ofmatthew snaps when she is with June at a grocery store and after ferociously beating Janine, grabs a gun from a Guardian and prepares to shoot Aunt Lydia (who addresses Ofmatthew by her real name, Natalie), before another Guardian shoots her and she is taken away, unconscious. When June asks Lawrence about the whereabouts of Hannah and her family, he informs her that he does not know where they have relocated. Flashbacks show Aunt Lydia's past: she was a lonely, judgemental Christian teacher who loved children and befriended a poor barmaid overwhelmed by the responsibility of motherhood. After Lydia is rejected by her school's principal during their first date, she perversely avenges herself on the young woman because she had urged Lydia to be more assertive with men. Seeing that the mother is dating several men, does not attend church and that her child sometimes wears dirty clothes, Lydia reports her to child protective services and her son is placed in a foster home, to the disgust of the principal. | ||||||
| 32 | 9 | "Heroic" | Daina Reid | Lynn Renee Maxcy | July 17, 2019 (2019-07-17) | |
| Natalie is rendered brain dead after the shooting and is placed on life support until her baby is born. As punishment for her role in engineering Natalie's humiliation and shooting, June is kept in the hospital room, praying on her knees, all day for weeks, under Aunt Lydia's orders. After over a month, June struggles with her mental state as well as her culpability in Natalie's death. June makes two mercy killing attempts on Natalie, but is stopped by Janine, who tells her that Natalie is one of them, and that June has become selfish. June attacks Serena when she visits the hospital and suffers cuts to her hand, but Serena does not report the attack. A sympathetic doctor stitches June's wounds, complimenting her for her bravery and June finds out he knew her mother. As Natalie's condition deteriorates, the doctors are forced to deliver her premature son by Caesarean section. In the hospital, June encounters a young girl who has reached menarche and wants to bear children. After the baby has been delivered, June is allowed to leave, but gets permission from Aunt Lydia to remain with Natalie in her final moments. June apologizes to the brain-dead Natalie for losing her way and tells her that her son is a fighter and vows to rescue as many children from Gilead as she can. Meanwhile, Aunt Lydia shows her strange favoritism for Janine when she gifts her with an eye-patch to conceal her disfigured socket. | ||||||
| 33 | 10 | "Witness" | Daina Reid | Jacey Heldrich | July 24, 2019 (2019-07-24) | |
| High Commander Winslow visits Boston, where he reveals plans to import the muzzling of handmaids currently implemented in Washington D.C. to other districts starting with Boston. Fred wants to oust Lawrence from power so he arranges for Winslow, Serena, and Aunt Lydia to oversee Lawrence's next "ceremony" with June, as he thinks Lawrence will fail this test of his mastery over his household. June, Eleanor and Lawrence are allowed to enter the bedroom together, while the others wait downstairs. Eleanor becomes loudly hysterical and must be restrained. June convinces Lawrence and Eleanor to go through with the ceremony, citing the fact that Fred would kill not just Lawrence and his wife but also their entire household, as such purges are carried out in Gilead. After the doctor checks June to confirm that the ceremony was successful, June informs Lawrence of her plans to smuggle children out of Gilead and offers to have Lawrence take credit for the rescue so that he and Eleanor can defect to Canada without fear of reprisals for Lawrence's role in the government of Gilead. Serena confronts Fred over allowing Winslow influence in the district, having realized that Winslow has no intention of helping the Waterfords regain Nichole. | ||||||
| 34 | 11 | "Liars" | Deniz Gamze Ergüven | Yahlin Chang | July 31, 2019 (2019-07-31) | |
| With her mental state deteriorating, Eleanor points a gun at Lawrence and June intervenes to save him and calm his wife. In return she asks him to help her smuggle children out of Gilead. Beth arranges for a group of Marthas to meet with June and agree to help her with her plan; they mention a man, named Billy, who works at Jezebels, who helps them. Lawrence tries to escape the country with Eleanor but is unable to cross checkpoints, so he returns home. June travels with Lawrence to Jezebels to meet Billy, and afterward encounters Winslow, who attempts to rape her. June fights off and kills Winslow. Afterward, a Martha helps June escape, and she reveals to June that she was one of the five women from Chicago that June had saved from the Colonies. The Marthas working at the brothel clean the room and cremate Winslow's body. Meanwhile, the Waterfords travel to meet with Mark Tuello in order to expedite Nichole's return. They stop at their friends' house where they dine with their family and hear them sing Dona nobis pacem and imagine life in a world where the Sons of Jacob did not establish rule. When the Waterfords drive to meet Tuello, he, unbeknownst to Fred, leads them to Canada where the Canadian Army arrests Fred for war crimes. | ||||||
| 35 | 12 | "Sacrifice" | Deniz Gamze Ergüven | Eric Tuchman | August 7, 2019 (2019-08-07) | |
| Commanders Putnam and Calhoun meet with Lawrence to discuss the current events in Gilead. Beth informs June that the plan to get the children out of Gilead is underway with an airplane being expected to arrive in one week. In Canada, the Waterfords spend time in a detention facility and while Fred worries for Serena's safety, she reveals to him that she has betrayed him and was involved in their capture, in order that she might get to spend time with Nichole. Luke and Moira meet with Fred and Serena respectively, and Serena is allowed to spend time with Nichole. In an argument over June, Luke punches Fred. Olivia Winslow and Naomi Putnam come to visit the Lawrence house to pray for the safety of Commander Winslow, who officials believe has been kidnapped. Eleanor begins ranting incoherently, almost spilling news of June's plan to take kidnapped children from their Gilead families. After June scolds Eleanor, she retreats to her room. June later goes to deliver food and drink to Eleanor, but sees that she has overdosed on medication to try to kill herself. Eleanor is groggy but still breathing, but ultimately June decides not to help her and quietly leaves. Eleanor is found dead the next morning by Sienna, and a funeral is later held for her. | ||||||
| 36 | 13 | "Mayday" | Mike Barker | Bruce Miller | August 14, 2019 (2019-08-14) | |
| After being captured, June witnessed disabled women being rounded up and executed. She tried to find out Hannah's whereabouts from a Guardian, who tells her to be quiet, and she is thrown into a truck with Janine. In the present, hours before the intended midnight meeting time, a Martha brings a little girl to the Lawrence household, still in daylight. The Martha later loses her nerve, changes her mind and threatens to leave with the child, but June stops her at the point of a gun, retaining the girl. The Martha is caught returning home, causing Gilead to intensify patrols of the region. More children than originally planned arrive at the Lawrence household, and when Janine informs June that soldiers are checking every house, they all start heading to the airport. In Canada, Fred informs Tuello of the crimes Serena is responsible for in retaliation for her betrayal. She is shocked to be detained after previously having been given freedom to roam the city and spend time with Nichole. Outside the airport, June and other handmaids and Marthas (including Janine, Alma, Brianna, Beth and Sienna) cause a distraction, throwing stones at two Guardian soldiers to allow Rita and the children to sneak aboard the airplane. June is shot but manages to see the plane escaping. When the plane lands, Luke, Moira and Emily are all volunteering at the airport in Canada, where the girl is reunited with her father. Rita informs Luke that June is responsible for the delivery of the children to safety. June is badly wounded but is found by Janine, Alma, Brianna and other handmaids who carry her out of the woods using her cloak. While closing her eyes, she recites the words of Exodus 3:7–8. | ||||||
Season 4 (2021)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 | 1 | "Pigs" | Colin Watkinson | Bruce Miller | April 27, 2021 (2021-04-27) | |
| A badly wounded June is taken to a Mayday safehouse by the other handmaids, which is a farmhouse run by Esther Keyes, the fiercely angry 14-year-old bride of Commander Keyes. Esther has been sedating her elderly husband to keep him from finding out about her involvement with helping Mayday, and with the arrival of June, helps the fugitive handmaids secure complete control over the compound. After learning that Esther was gang raped by her husband's associates, June promises that God will bring those men to justice. One of the rapists later trespasses on the farm and Esther, under June's direction, executes him in the barn for the crimes of rape and treason. Aunt Lydia is interrogated at the hands of the Commanders and is pardoned; she declares June a menace who must be destroyed to prevent her taking down Gilead. Serena and Fred meanwhile discover the arrival of the rescued children in Canada and the threat of war their arrival heralds as Gilead demands their return. They are also informed that they will be kept in custody as their trial will be postponed. | ||||||
| 38 | 2 | "Nightshade" | Colin Watkinson | Kira Snyder | April 27, 2021 (2021-04-27) | |
| Esther is uneasy over so many escapees being at her farm and wants the newcomers to move on. June is escorted to a Jezebel house to get the details of the next safe house. While at the Jezebels, June realizes it is filled with visiting commanders and June decides to liberate the Jezebels. June helps the women to poison the commanders, intending to leave for the safe house the next day. June successfully returns to the Keyes farm from the Jezebels to find bullet casings on the ground. Suspicious, her escort reaches for his pistol and is shot in the head by a sniper. While June is surrounded by snipers, Nick comes out of the shadows and reveals himself to be looking for the handmaids. He takes June as a prisoner. Meanwhile, Rita struggles with her new freedom in Canada, and the rescued children are reunited with family in Canada, though several express a desire to return to their previous captors in Gilead. Serena meets Fred in the facility's chapel and tries to reconcile with him but he is still angry at her betrayal; afterward, she is told by Mark Tuello that she is pregnant. | ||||||
| 39 | 3 | "The Crossing" | Elisabeth Moss | Bruce Miller | April 27, 2021 (2021-04-27) | |
| Gilead police torture June to make her reveal the location of the other handmaids. Faced with having her fingernails ripped off with pliers, June lies about the location of her fellow handmaids. As punishment, June is taken to the roof of the center and forced to watch Beth and Sienna being pushed to their deaths. Lawrence warns June that they will hurt Hannah if June does not disclose the handmaids' location. After seeing her terrified daughter and fearing for her safety, June reveals the location of her friends. June expects to be executed but Aunt Lydia explains that she and the others will be sent to an agricultural "Magdalene Colony" to labor in the fields and be raped by commanders and their wives for the ceremony. On her way to the colony, June and Nick meet and Nick tells June that Hannah is safe and back home. June, Janine, Aunt Lydia, and four other handmaids are traveling to the colony when they stop at a train crossing. June attacks Lydia and the handmaids stage an escape, but the driver shoots and kills two handmaids as they run to put the oncoming train between themselves and the driver. June and Janine cross the tracks and escape, but Alma and Brianna are both hit by the passing train, killing them. | ||||||
| 40 | 4 | "Milk" | Christina Choe | Jacey Heldrich | May 5, 2021 (2021-05-05) | |
| June and Janine walk for miles and escape Gilead in a milk tanker that is part of a train headed to Chicago. After Janine questions how they were found, June confesses that she revealed the location of the handmaids. Janine is disgusted with June and says she would never have ratted out her friends. American fighters raid the train and bring them to their living quarters, but the group is short on resources. June decides they must leave after the leader Steven asks for oral sex in exchange for taking them in, but Janine agrees to submit to the abuse, which provides the two with food and shelter. In flashbacks, young mother Janine visits a crisis pregnancy center, where she is advised to continue her current pregnancy rather than abort her child. She subsequently visits a different doctor, who gives her abortion pills. In Canada, Rita is told that there is no news of her relatives at any of the refugee camps, but Moira assures her that they may be using forged passports with fake names. Rita receives a request from Serena to visit her where she and Fred are awaiting trial. During the visit, Serena reveals that she is pregnant with a boy and gives Rita the fetal ultrasound as a gift, asking Rita's help to care for the child. Rita does not object to the request but later informs Fred of Serena's pregnancy. | ||||||
| 41 | 5 | "Chicago" | Christina Choe | John Herrera & Nina Fiore | May 12, 2021 (2021-05-12) | |
| Janine develops a relationship with Steven, which strains her friendship with June. June feels the Americans are too cautious in their fight against Gilead. June asks Steven if she can accompany a group to trade with another camp intending to contact the Nighthawk rebels, and he agrees after Janine vouches for her. Nick is still eager to find June and on Lawrence's suggestion he meets with two Marthas: one of them reveals that June is in Chicago. Meanwhile, Aunt Lydia tries to blackmail Commander Lawrence but instead strikes a deal with him to be reinstated as an active Aunt in exchange for compromising information that Lawrence can use against other Commanders to recover his own position. The Commanders agree to Lawrence's suggestion of a short ceasefire on Gilead's borders in order to alleviate Gilead's economic crisis, which Nick hopes to exploit as a chance to find June. June leaves Steven's Chicago camp and Janine decides to leave with her. The Commanders tell Nick to withdraw troops from the borders because they plan an aerial attack prior to the ceasefire in an attempt to quash the rebel factions. Gilead bombs Chicago just before the ceasefire, and Moira, one of the relief workers, finds shell-shocked June injured amidst the rubble; however, Janine's fate is unknown. | ||||||
| 42 | 6 | "Vows" | Richard Shepard | Dorothy Fortenberry | May 19, 2021 (2021-05-19) | |
| Moira convinces June to leave for Canada on the ship with the relief workers, as the situation in Chicago has become chaotic. Hundreds of desperate refugees are being prevented from boarding the boat leaving Chicago, as this violates the ceasefire terms that the relief workers operate under. June tries to escape in a lifeboat in a desperate bid to rescue Hannah, but Moira begs her to sneak aboard the relief ship and be reunited with Luke and Nichole. June has flashbacks to the times when she and Luke were planning their life together and when June became pregnant with Hannah. On the way to Canada, the ship must first be checked by Gileadean patrol boats. The relief team reluctantly agrees to provide a false identity card for June to prevent her from being recaptured. Moira's girlfriend Oona, who is in charge of the mission, ends their relationship as Oona feels Moira has put her friend above the mission of the relief workers. Eventually the ship arrives in Canada and June is reunited with Luke, although she is wracked with guilt over leaving Hannah behind. | ||||||
| 43 | 7 | "Home" | Richard Shepard | Yahlin Chang | May 26, 2021 (2021-05-26) | |
| June officially requests asylum in Canada as Tuello arrives at the docked boat. Luke and June are taken to a hotel, where June sleeps for seventeen hours and is then interviewed by Tuello. Luke takes June back to his house where she is reunited with Emily, Nichole, and Rita, who informs June that Serena is pregnant. Oona stops by the house to deliver a gift for June and lets Moira know that her NGO is no longer able to perform work outside of Canada; Moira apologizes and lets Oona know that she cares for her and wants to discuss their relationship rather than end it. Serena prays in the chapel for a healthy baby and is overheard by Tuello, who suggests that she speak with Fred. In the middle of the night, June asks to see Serena in prison. Serena tries to make amends, but June furiously condemns her for the torture inflicted on her in Gilead. June returns home and initiates very aggressive sex with Luke, similar to the way she was raped. The next day, June warns Tuello that Serena is manipulative and not to trust her. | ||||||
| 44 | 8 | "Testimony" | Elisabeth Moss | Kira Snyder | June 2, 2021 (2021-06-02) | |
| June gives testimony against the Waterfords at the International Criminal Court and leaves after cross-examination by the defense attorney. Luke observes the court proceedings to better understand what June has gone through, despite June's wish that he not attend. At the hearing, Fred arrogantly denies all responsibility and brags that the Waterford's actions in Gilead led to the amelioration of the global fertility crisis. In a therapy group for former handmaids, Irene, a former Aunt, requests to speak with Emily, but she rebuffs her. It is revealed that Irene informed the Eyes of Emily's relationship with a Martha, which caused Emily to be genitally mutilated and her lover murdered. Irene asks Emily for forgiveness for her behavior in Gilead and offers her reparations, but Emily coldly refuses. Moira later convinces Emily to speak to Irene privately and get her to testify in court, but when Emily drives to Irene's house, she discovers that Irene has died by suicide, hanging herself. In the next therapy session, Emily is indifferent to Irene's demise. June tells Luke about her last meeting with Hannah. As the Waterfords prepare for the next court day, they are greeted by a large contingent of pro-Gilead supporters. Meanwhile in Gilead, Aunt Lydia is reprimanded by Lawrence for her violent attacks on a handmaid in training and even another Aunt, but he places the recaptured Janine in Lydia's care anyway. Janine begs not be made a handmaid again, but Aunt Lydia just embraces her. | ||||||
| 45 | 9 | "Progress" | Elisabeth Moss | Eric Tuchman & Aly Monroe | June 9, 2021 (2021-06-09) | |
| Luke and June continue their search for Hannah by calling Commander Lawrence but he refuses to help them. In Gilead, Esther is now a handmaid in training and defiantly goes on a hunger strike. Janine encourages her to stop her defiance to avoid torture or worse. Esther reluctantly complies with Gileadean norms, for which Aunt Lydia praises the two young women. June agrees to a meeting with Nick to obtain information about Hannah, a suggestion made by Luke. Tuello arranges the meeting at a Catholic school in the neutral zone. June takes Nichole with her, which pleases Nick, who gives their daughter a doll. They emotionally embrace and Nick provides June with a file on Hannah, including some recent photographs and her current location in Colorado. Fred and Serena are visited by Commander Warren Putnam and his wife Naomi. Assuming that the Waterfords will soon be in jail, Naomi offers to take care of the Waterford baby, and Warren informs Fred that Gilead will not negotiate their release for political reasons. Fred then strikes a deal with Tuello to dismiss the ICC charges against him in return for information on Gilead's inner workings. When June learns of this, she rages against Tuello for what she sees as a betrayal. | ||||||
| 46 | 10 | "The Wilderness" | Liz Garbus | Bruce Miller | June 16, 2021 (2021-06-16) | |
| June's testimony against Fred is recorded as the ICC judges are busy. She reveals to Emily that she is outraged that Fred will be flying to Geneva where he will be granted immunity. June meets with Fred, who tries to apologize for the pain she felt when her daughter was taken away from her. June is disgusted that Fred will never experience the terror she was forced to endure and bargains with Tuello for Fred to be brought to justice. She arranges for the two to meet in a closed diner with Commander Lawrence, who proposes to release 22 freedom fighting Gileadan women in exchange for Fred. Tuello says he will seek approval from his boss. Fred says goodbye to Serena and prepares to leave for Geneva, but before he can board the airplane, he is arrested by Tuello, traded for the 22 women and brought to Lawrence and Nick, who delivers Fred to June in No Man's Land. June, Emily and other former handmaids chase Fred through the forest, beat him to death and hang him on a wall. June arrives home with blood on her face, much to the shock of Luke who realizes the full extent of her brutalization at the hands of Gilead and what she is now capable of in vengeance. As Serena waits for Fred to video call her online as they had planned, a security officer sorts Serena's mail and opens an envelope that includes Fred's wedding ring and ring finger. | ||||||
Season 5 (2022)
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 | 1 | "Morning" | Elisabeth Moss | Bruce Miller | September 14, 2022 (2022-09-14) | |
| Following Fred's murder, a euphoric June confesses to Luke and Moira her involvement and drives to a diner to meet with the ex-handmaids who helped her, including Danielle, Tyler, and Vicky. June begins experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and becomes agitated when the emboldened handmaids begin asking for her help in hunting down the people who also abused them in Gilead. When June declines, they condemn her for not wanting to help, calling her selfish. After noticing that Emily has gone missing, June drives to Emily's home where her wife Sylvia tells June that Emily has gone back to Gilead to fight. June has another episode in a washroom, where she desperately tries to cleanse herself of Fred's dried blood on her body. June goes to a beach on the Lake Ontario shore, and comes to terms with her actions, feeling both joy and regret. She thinks of Hannah. Unwilling to live a life in fear again, June goes to confess to authorities at the police station, where, despite Luke’s protests, she confesses to murdering Fred and is taken away; as the murder took place in no man's land, June is not charged and she is released, but is fined $88 for mailing Fred's finger to the ICC detention facility. June confesses to Luke that she loved killing Fred and to Moira that she is scared of her own eagerness for violent revenge even while feeling disturbed by her actions; Moira tells June she is afraid of her and is uncertain about June taking care of Nichole by herself. Serena is informed of Fred’s demise and Tuello gives her details of his murder. After surmising that June was responsible, she is later informed that charges will not be filed. After viewing Fred's body at the morgue, Serena witnesses a candlelit vigil being held in his memory. Upon seeing this, she demands to return to Gilead with her husband so that she can bury him there. | ||||||
| 48 | 2 | "Ballet" | Elisabeth Moss | Nina Fiore & John Herrera | September 14, 2022 (2022-09-14) | |
| Serena returns to Gilead for Fred's funeral. She pressures Commander Lawrence to make it a huge event, to show the world how Gilead honors its leaders. Fred is given a grand funeral with international coverage. Luke and June attend a ballet performance. As they leave the theater, they see Hannah prominently displayed on the city's jumbotrons, presenting Serena with flowers, an orchestrated message from Serena to June. Esther shares some chocolates she stole from Commander Putnam with Janine, which she secretly poisoned to kill them both. As they are eating, Esther tells Janine she hates her, as she acts as a mere stooge for Gilead. They are discovered choking on blood by Aunt Lydia. | ||||||
| 49 | 3 | "Border" | Dana Gonzales | Aly Monroe | September 21, 2022 (2022-09-21) | |
| A distraught Aunt Lydia prays for Janine's recovery, promising God that she will be more compassionate to the handmaids if she recovers. Janine emerges from her coma. June arranges a phone call and Nick informs her that he is now married. Nick tells her that the plum-colored dress worn by Hannah at Fred Waterford's funeral means that Hannah is now of age to attend a "wives" school, and Hannah could be married off soon. Although she wants to stay in Gilead, Serena is told by the High Commanders that they want her to serve as a diplomat for Gilead in Toronto to paint a positive image of the country to the international community, but also because her status as a high-ranking, unwed mother makes her ill-fitted to Gilead's caste system. | ||||||
| 50 | 4 | "Dear Offred" | Dana Gonzales | Jacey Heldrich | September 28, 2022 (2022-09-28) | |
| A supporter of the Sons of Jacob sees June in a park and the two verbally battle one another. Janine is able to walk after doing physical therapy. Lydia condemns Esther for the suicide/murder attempt but Janine doesn't. She finally tells Lydia the truth; the women imprisoned by Lydia hate her. Serena is released from custody of the government of the United States in exile; she commences her efforts to erect a Gilead Cultural Center in Toronto. June receives an invitation from Serena via post to attend the grand opening of the Gilead Cultural Center and Luke subsequently arranges to meet Serena in order to tell her that he is attempting to have the embassy closed for the violation of building ordinances. June later arrives at the embassy amidst an argument between Sons of Jacob supporters and those protesting them including Moira, Danielle and Tyler. After a loyalist punches Moira in the face, June fires a gun in the air, causing panic. Serena is rushed out the back of the building by her bodyguard, but they run into the fleeing June and Luke. June has a perfect opportunity to shoot Serena, but freezes when she sees Serena's pregnancy and runs away instead. | ||||||
| 51 | 5 | "Fairytale" | Eva Vives | J. Holtham | October 5, 2022 (2022-10-05) | |
| June and Luke embark on a dangerous quest into No Man's Land to meet a Guardian who has information about the Wives' school that Hannah is attending. They meet the Guardian and spend the night drinking and listening to music with him in the abandoned bowling alley where he spends his days when not patrolling. At night, they attempt to take a shortcut back to Canada, but the Guardian steps on a landmine, alerting others to their presence. Luke and June run for the border, but are apprehended by men in black trucks. Meanwhile, Serena gets to know her new hosts, the Wheelers, who seem a little too interested in her pregnancy. Putnam and Lawrence discuss the future of Gilead, which Lawrence wants to liberalize with a plan he calls "New Bethlehem", while Putnam insists no such plan will ever happen in Gilead. | ||||||
| 52 | 6 | "Together" | Eva Vives | Katherine Collins | October 12, 2022 (2022-10-12) | |
| Serena's obstetrician invites Serena to dinner though Serena is unsure on whether to accept the invitation. Serena and Mrs. Wheeler get into a verbal argument after Serena expresses a desire to remain a widow rather than remarrying; after insisting on being able to go on a walk, she is then told to go to her room. June and Luke are captured by Commander Wheeler's guard in No Man's Land, located between Gilead and Canada. When Luke tries to resist, he is beaten by these troops. Commander Wheeler informs Serena that June has been captured and Serena pleads to be able to visit No Man's Land to witness her execution, which she believes to be the administration of justice, in light of June murdering Fred. Luke is dumped by Commander Wheeler's troops near the border, while June is taken to meet Ezra and Serena. Serena asks Ezra for the gun to execute June, but Serena instead shoots Ezra and orders June to drive the car while she enters into labor. Back in Gilead, Esther learns that she is pregnant and Lydia wishes to know how, as she doesn’t have a posting. Esther tells her that she was raped by Commander Putnam. After Lydia reports the incident to Commander Lawrence, who states his failure to see the distinction between it and the Ceremony much to Lydia's chagrin, Commander Putnam is arrested on Lawrence and Nick's orders and summarily executed by the latter, in front of Naomi. It is also revealed that Nick’s wife Rose is pregnant. | ||||||
| 53 | 7 | "No Man's Land" | Natalia Leite | Rachel Shukert | October 19, 2022 (2022-10-19) | |
| Serena forces June at gunpoint to drive her through No Man's Land as her contractions increase in frequency. After crashing the car, the two seek refuge in an abandoned barn, where Serena's labor intensifies. Though June attempts to abandon her and leave in the car after Serena lashes out, June pities her and decides to stay, helping her deliver her son, Noah. As the sun begins to set, Serena develops a fever and June insists that they return to Canada. Serena initially refuses, insisting that she does not deserve to live anymore and that she was merely a vessel to deliver Noah to a mother who deserves him, such as June. June, however, does not accept her Gileadean philosophy and convinces Serena to return to Canada and go to the hospital. While Serena is receiving medical attention in the hospital, June uses the phone to call Moira, who sends Luke to pick her up. On their way out, immigration officers, called by Luke, enter the hospital and arrest Serena for entering the country illegally, telling her that she will be detained, and Noah will be placed with child services. Serena cries hysterically and begs June for help. In flashbacks, June attends a fellow handmaid's birth not long after being posted with the Waterfords. The handmaid experiences complications, and her baby is delivered via C-section just before she dies and June along with Janine, Alma, Brianna and the other handmaids are forced by Aunt Lydia to stay in the room and pray. As the mourning handmaids leave the house, June shares a knowing glance with Serena, who is celebrating the birth of the baby with the other Wives. | ||||||
| 54 | 8 | "Motherland" | Natalia Leite | Yahlin Chang | October 26, 2022 (2022-10-26) | |
| As anti-refugee sentiment builds in Canada, Luke and June wonder if staying in Canada is the right choice for them. Commander Lawrence establishes his settlement of New Bethlehem on an island, where he says Gileadean refugees will be able to return and live freely as a way of easing diplomatic tensions with the rest of the world. He travels to Toronto, where he offers June the chance to move to New Bethlehem and promises to move Hannah there too after she is married off. While June strongly considers this offer, Luke vehemently rejects it. As June becomes more convinced that she must return to Gilead to save Hannah, a strange envelope arrives in the mail with a DVD with a video of Hannah's Wife school on it. Mark Tuello and the Americans use the video to track Hannah's location and tell June they will conduct a military raid and rescue the girls. Meanwhile, Serena is in immigration detention, where she pumps breast milk to give to the Wheelers to feed Noah, as they are his foster family now. Lawrence tells Serena he can get her out, but only on the condition that she stay with the Wheelers to breastfeed Noah. She calls June, who visits her to tell her that they are not friends and that if she wants out of detention she should move back in with the Wheelers and plot her revenge. Serena is released into the Wheelers' custody, who admonish her for being a bad mother before allowing her to feed Noah. | ||||||
| 55 | 9 | "Allegiance" | Bradley Whitford | Eric Tuchman | November 2, 2022 (2022-11-02) | |
| The military raid on Hannah's school ends in tragedy as the fighter jets are shot down by Gileadean air defense. Lawrence calls June, claiming the incident was in self defense and asks her to join New Bethlehem, but she again refuses and angrily reveals her involvement in the death of Lawrence's late wife Eleanor. In order to receive better intel, Tuello asks June to convince Nick to be a mole for the Canadians within Gilead. Upon their meeting, Nick reveals his desire to improve Gilead's international image beside Lawrence, as well as the pregnancy of his wife Rose, ultimately declining the Canadian offer and professing his continued love for June, who reciprocates. To increase his position of power and protect her from Gileadean law, Lawrence asks Naomi Putnam to become his new wife. Elsewhere, Serena asks Commander Wheeler to use her influence and image with Noah at the reopening of the Gilead Cultural Center in Toronto to persuade Canadians to join Gilead, which he agrees to, much to Mrs. Wheeler's outrage. At the Center, as Serena is about to be sent back home without Noah, she escapes with him in tow after getting help from the Wheelers' Martha. The memorial service for the lost American pilots is disrupted by the continued anti-refugee protests, which suddenly ends in gunfire aimed at June. | ||||||
| 56 | 10 | "Safe" | Elisabeth Moss | Bruce Miller | November 9, 2022 (2022-11-09) | |
| June feels uneasy in Canada in the aftermath of the attempt on her life as anti-refugee sentiment increases, but Luke reassures her that they're fine. As she is walking outside, a truck with a Gileadean bumper sticker runs into her before running over her arm. Before the truck can crush her, Luke intervenes and beats the driver severely and June is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, Nick worries more and more about June's safety, knowing that Gilead will not stop until she is dead. He decides to accept Tuello's offer of being a mole in order to protect June. After visiting June in the hospital, Nick returns to Gilead and punches Lawrence at his wedding, blaming him for the attack. While Nick sits in jail, Rose visits him and says that she knew he still loved June and tells him she is done with him. Janine is told by Aunt Lydia that she will be posted with Commander Lawrence and Naomi. Initially open to the idea of spending more time with her daughter, Janine lashes out at Naomi when she is called "Ofjoseph" by her, telling Naomi that that is not her name and that she hates her. As a result, Janine is later arrested by the Eyes along with a Martha from Lawrence's household who was seen giving Janine information about June's safety. Back in Canada, the driver who attacked June dies as a result of Luke's beating, and Rita informs him that the Toronto police will issue a warrant for his arrest. Luke brushes it off as an overreaction, but June insists that they cannot wait until it is too late to leave, like they did in Boston during the rise of Gilead. They initially plan to fly from Toronto to Honolulu via Anchorage, but Tuello arrives to inform them that the police will be waiting for them at the airport. Instead, he offers them new travel documents and offers them passage on a train bound for Vancouver, from where they can take a boat to Hawaii. While in the queue at the train station, the two see police checking documents. Realizing June and Nichole cannot get to safety with him, Luke stays behind and is arrested while they board the train. While on the train, June hears another baby cry and finds Serena and Noah on the train as well. | ||||||
References
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In its third installment, however, the drama digs even deeper into the emotional toll Gilead has taken on everyone—both those left in what was once the United States and those who've made it out. The lives and dreams that each character lost to this totalitarian regime have been laid out in excruciating detail before—but this week, the show lays those losses bare with more subtlety than perhaps any other episode. ... (In richer households, handmaids do the childbearing, Wives raise the children, and Marthas do the housework. Econowives, in contrast, "have to do everything; if they can.")
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A clear example of Atwood's focus on the Reconstructionism of theonomy is his way of representing the death penalty.
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They walk past a priest, doctor and gay man hanging dead from a wall in their Cambridge, Massachusetts neighbourhood along the river; they see St. Paul's Catholic Church where Offred was baptized, being torn down.
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In the screen version, Offred and her friend Ofglen (Alexis Bledel) surreptitiously lament the demolition of St. Paul's, their local church.
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On their stroll, they walk past the remains of St. Paul's, a historic cathedral in Boston. Burned and bombed, it resembles the churches of Europe during WWII. June pauses to remember her daughter's baptism, which took place there years prior, and Ofglen notes that Gileadean thugs were also successful in taking down St. Patrick's cathedral in New York City. "They blew it up and dumped every stone in the Hudson River. They erased it." Upon hearing this bit of news, June asks, "How do you know that? And how do you know there's an Eye in my house?"
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The group has a plan to escape, but Luke refuses to leave – until Zoe (Rosa Gilmore), one of the rebels, shows him a town that was hanged from the rafters of their church after trying to resist.
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Finally, one of these guardian angels discreetly escorts him to a local church building, driving home the point of what's at stake for those who attempt to survive and resist from within. This mass-hanging in the belly of a church is more than just the episode's visual centerpiece: it is a wake-up call, underscoring once and for all that Gilead is not a religious movement or a political revolution, it is not something you can reason with or withstand on your own.
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Following her great escape from Handmaid training, Moira is helped by a Quaker family.
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Since we last saw the escapee, she made it to Boston, hooked up with some Quakers who had ties to the Femaleroad that helped smuggle handmaids out of the country. She did not make it farther than an office park outside the city. "They shot the guys who helped me", Moira sadly tells Offred, adding that because she was a "corrupting influence", she was interrogated and then given a choice: the colonies or the jezebels.
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"Unwomen" alternates between the Colonies, where "unwomen" (gender traitors, defiant Handmaids, the infertile of low economic status, sex workers, collaborators against the republic—you know, "undesirables") are sent to perform brutal manual labor...
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Offred does not have many cards left to play, and seems to be drifting toward breaking the vow she made to her child at the end of this season's fifth episode, accepting that she will inevitably lose this baby. She is looking for someone to do what she cannot. In a moment alone with Rita, Offred asks her to act as a godparent, telling her, "I want my baby to know kindness. I need her to have someone kind in her life." Rita says she will do what she can, but she is just plain scared. It is not enough. Nobody but June is going to put this baby first.
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This news brings back the fire in Offred's belly and she muses, "Moira is Hannah's godmother. She got out. It was impossible, and she did it."
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External links
| Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale | |
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