Everything You Need To Know About The Handmaid's Tale Season Finale

Graziadaily

28-05-2025

It's been eight-years since The Handmaid's Tale first graced our screens, and introduced us to the world of Gilead. Now, after six incredible seasons the much-loved show has come to an emotional end.
The TV series, which is an adaptation from a best-selling feminist book, Margaret Atwood's 1986 book of the same name, follows June, renamed Offred, as she navigates life in the totalitarian theocracy of Gilead, a former part of the United States. In Gilead, fertile women are forced into sex as Handmaids to have children for the elite.
The show's finale this week has got everyone talking. While many loose ends are tied together and relationships are fixed, but there is one moment fans were hoping for that never truly materialised. June is not definitively reunited with her daughter Hannah. In an interview, Yahlin Chang, who took over as co-showrunner for Season 6, explained this was because of the planned sequel, The Testaments, which is currently in the works with Hulu.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Chang said: 'Our hands were tied, unfortunately, and we could not bring June and Hannah together because of 'The Testaments,' which was something that we really struggled with. I struggled with, speaking for myself, not giving people what they wanted or what I wanted.'
The episode begins in the aftermath of episode nine, which saw Gilead's leadership destroyed and Massachusetts being freed. Next, the Mayday group focuses on liberating New York City.
In the final episode of The Handmaid's Tale, we see June released from Gilead, wrapping up loose ends as she prepared to find her daughter. We see June and Luke decide to end their relationship, but they both vow to stay part of the resistance movement. June also says goodbye to Serena, who will go and live in a refugee camp with Noah, her baby son, with Serena admitting she is 'ashamed' of the torture that she put June through. June finally accepts Serena's apology. 'I forgive you, Serena,' she says.
The episode ends with June revisiting her former home in old Waterford, where she first served as a handmaid. We see June start to write a book about her experiences, recording a tape recorder, with her reciting the first page of Margaret Atwood's novel.
'A chair. A table. A lamp. There's a window with white curtains, and the glass is shatterproof, but it isn't running away they're afraid of. A handmaid wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes. The ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge. Or a twisted sheet and a chandelier. I try not to think about those escapes. It's harder on ceremony days but thinking can hurt your chances. My name is Offred,' she said.
Fans of the show don't have to be too disappointed it's coming to an end. The Testaments is Margaret Atwood's 2019 sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, and takes place over a decade after the original story. The show, which is currently in its production stage with Hulu, is described by the platform as 'a coming-of-age story that finds a new generation of young women in Gilead grappling with the bleak future that awaits them.' It will pick up more than 15 years after the events of "The Handmaid's Tale."'
The show is set to document the journeys of Agnes and Hannah, June's daughter, and a fresh generation of young women. 'For these young women, growing up in Gilead is all they have ever known, having no tangible memories of the outside world prior to their indoctrination into this life,' Hulu said about the series. 'Facing the prospect of being married off and living a life of servitude, they will be forced to search for allies, both new and old, to help in their fight for freedom and the life they deserve.'