6 Questions We Still Have After 'The Handmaid's Tale' Finale: What Was Left Unsaid And Why It Matters

Elle

05-07-2025

If you were expecting episode 10 of The Handmaid's Tale to bring the same explosive, knuckle-clenching tension as episode 9, you might have been disappointed. But this wasn't a finale built on adrenaline. This was post-bomb. Post-rebellion. Mayday and the American Army have reclaimed Boston, but the fight continues. After six seasons of breath-holding, edge-of-your-seat storytelling, the slower pace of the finale felt like a release. The subtle nods to references throughout the previous five series reminded us why we have watched, often through squirming, half-covered eyes, for so long.
The pace felt completely different to the rest of the series, which was deliberate. It wasn't the happy, conclusive ending we all longed for since the very first episode. It was watching the characters we had grown to love or hate, living in their current reality. It aimed to remind us that this dystopian world we have been engrossed in for the last eight years wasn't too far from our reality and that sometimes means the mundane. We see flashbacks of June (Elisabeth Moss) with Hannah (Jordana Blake), a karaoke scene and the image of what life could have been for these women if Gilead had never happened. And a wall painted with the words of rebellion. Nothing that told us how it was all going to end, or if it indeed ever does.
The Testaments, which is already in production, promises to fast-forward us 15 years. And while we don't yet know which characters will return, or in what state, we do know this: the groundwork has been laid. There's a shift coming. But we won't know why or how for a while. Will we see Hannah escape? Does Aunt Lydia's quiet rebellion become something bigger? Who knows? But, I for one will be watching.
There was something deeply comforting, however, in how the final episode was so rooted in women. Their resilience, grief, fight and choices, but there's a nagging feeling that maybe it was all for nothing? Gilead is still surviving, June has not been reunited with Hannah, there are many ends left untied and I understand why many would feel disappointed or even let down by the final episode.
However, maybe it's the lack of a conclusive ending that makes it even more powerful? It quietly and deliberately left space for more. More healing. More reckoning. More resistance. But we, the viewer, will have to decide what that means. So before we move on, let's take a look at what was left unsaid and what that silence might be trying to tell us.
Let's start with the obvious: Hannah is still in Gilead. We find out she's moving from Colorado to DC, but there are no plans for a rescue as far as we can tell. It is this heart-wrenching realisation throughout the entire episode that everything June has fought for, every risk she has taken, hasn't achieved her ultimate goal. As a mum, this hits home with me. June is freer than she's ever been, but she's not at peace. And how could she be?
She ends the show fighting, not physically this time, but through her words, through memory, through testimony. Her voiceover in the finale feels less like a sign-off and more like a beginning. After six seasons of trauma, rage and survival, June has learned that fighting back doesn't always look like fire and blood. Sometimes, it looks like writing things down. Like telling the truth. Like keeping going. The message is clear: when the world is dark, you need to be the light through telling your truth. When June's mother tells her to write a book, it feels like we have come full circle.
She's not a symbol anymore. She's a woman with scars and choices. And in a show that often reduced her to bowed heads and silent screams, watching her regain her voice quietly, on her terms, was the most radical act of all. When she tells Holly she has to go back and fight for all the little girls, we know it isn't over. The show may have ended, but the battle against Gilead has only just started. There's hope now; these are not just rescue missions anymore. The fight is now a true battle. And the sad thing for fans of the show is that we aren't going to see it for ourselves.
Of all the characters, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) feels the most unresolved, and that's deliberate. The finale gives us a Serena who is finally stripped of her power, her costume and most of her illusions. She's not a wife, spokesperson, or victim in designer heels. She's a refugee mother, navigating a world she once helped destroy. She is a 'nobody', completely in the hands of the American army.
Even as she pleads with June and talks of her shame, we're left wondering if she can ever really seek redemption after everything that's happened. She may have helped bring down Boston, left with only her son, but she knows she doesn't deserve June or anyone's forgiveness, even when it is offered to her. But what does this mean for her future? We will never know. Will she land on her feet again? It's highly probable, but that is down to our imagination to decide.
If the finale gave us one moment of pure emotional joy, it belonged to Janine (Madeline Brewer). After being taken by the Eyes, Janine is unexpectedly released. She doesn't escape, or plead, or manipulate. She's simply let go. And in a show that has repeatedly stripped her of agency, it's powerful to watch her receive something. Something she's wanted more than anything else: her daughter.
Charlotte, no longer the baby she once sang lullabies to, is brought to her at the border by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Naomi Putnam (Ever Carradine), but as they hug, you understand why these women were prepared to risk everything for their children. For a character who's been brutalised, manipulated, dismissed and gaslit more than almost any other, this moment feels like rebellion in its purest form. Not the loud kind. Not the kind with bombs or speeches. But the quiet kind. The kind that happens when a mother holds her child again. How that is going to look in the struggling remains of America, we do not know, but the chances are it will not be easy for either of them to overcome the trauma they've both faced.
What's just as interesting is what this ending reveals about Lydia and Naomi. Lydia, so long Gilead's mouthpiece, becomes an accomplice in Janine's peace. It's a turning point that feels earned, years of doubt, emotional conflict, and buried guilt bubbling to the surface. In helping Janine, she finally steps outside of the system she upheld for so long.
Naomi, too, shifts. She was always cold, performative and impossible to read. But here she plays a part in doing something that goes against everything Gilead stands for, everything she has stood by for so long. It may not be at great risk or cost to her, as let's face it, she was not maternal, but her change in stance gives another woman everything. In a world where women have often been turned against each other, it felt quietly radical. It also opens the question as to what this shift means for the other wives. Were they starting to see Gilead for what it really is? A part of me thinks that this would be the ultimate downfall, not a battle with the American army. Yet, we won't know the answer to this until at least The Testaments.
The moment between Luke (O-T Fagbenle) and June gutted me, not because it was tragic, but because it was so full of love. A quiet, mature, unselfish love. When Luke says 'Meet you there,' and June replies 'F**k yeah,' it's not a promise, it's a hope. The kind you say out loud because you need to believe there's still a version of your life waiting on the other side. Whether they'll ever build it, who knows? But in that moment, it was enough to believe they might.
And then there's the mention of the book. The theme we've seen running through the finale, but instead of it being about strength and fight, Luke reminds her that there was also a lot of love. A reference to Nick (Max Minghella) and her friendships that feels so generous. When he says, 'You can also write about the love,' I felt a tear roll down my face. Gilead has for so long dehumanised women, weaponised their bodies and tried to erase their stories. Luke could have easily been angry at June, but instead he shows understanding and compassion. This makes you think that maybe there is a chance they will be able to reconcile, but again, we will never know or get to see it.
There is no doubt one of the key themes of season six has been Aunt Lydia's rising resistance, which fans will know is leading towards her role in The Testaments. For the last six series, she was the villain, one that felt even more uncomfortable to watch than the Commanders at times. The enforcer of Gilead's most brutal systems. The perceived righteousness when everything she stood for was so wrong. Yet in the final few episodes, Aunt Lydia's choices suggest something more subversive. After letting the Handmaids go and her powerful words of resistance during the hanging, she has continued in the same vein, but this time, it was helping Janine reunite with her daughter. The ultimate betrayal of Gilead.
What this means for her position in Gilead, we won't know. But how she could go back to training Handmaids and agreeing with rape and forced adoption after making these moves seems an impossible thought. There is no doubt Lydia's story deserves a second act, which is why I for one will be counting down the days to find out what happens.
As the episode draws to a close, June sits in the bedroom where this nightmare started and lists the items in her room, then stares down the camera, introducing herself in the traditional Gilead style: 'My name is Offred.' But this time, there is a message behind her eyes and a subtle grin. She has nothing else left to lose. She has given up Holly to continue the fight; she doesn't have Hannah, Nick is gone and she is no longer tied to Luke. She is alone and it feels like there could be another six seasons of what June is prepared to do next, not only to find Hannah, but to bring down Gilead once and for all. Yet, we will just have to use our imaginations as this is not something we will ever get to see.
There was no happy ending or ultimate conclusion. We end the six seasons in a similar place to where it all started. Gilead still exists, Handmaid's still exist, June is still without Hannah. Yet, there is a message that is clear. If you believe something is worth fighting for, never give up. Oh, and 'Don't let the b*****ds get you down.' And maybe that was the whole point.
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