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The Handmaid’s Tale is back for its sixth and final season after a long break. The story’s dystopia always felt unnervingly close to our modern era, and that continues to hold true as we’re...
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00:00The Handmaid's Tale is back for its sixth and final season after a long break.
00:05The story's dystopia always felt unnervingly close to our modern era,
00:10and that continues to hold true as we're dropped into the first three episodes of its final run.
00:16Over the show's previous five seasons, some viewers have felt that the show had lost its spark.
00:21So does it seem like it's finally getting it back now for this final round?
00:26Let's unpack what's happened so far in Season 6, what it all means, and where things might be going next.
00:33We can't just let them win.
00:35Just to note, we'll be breaking this video into chapters by episode,
00:38so if you don't have time to watch all three episodes at once,
00:41you can just pause the video and come back as you finish each episode.
00:44Before we dive into the new episodes, let's quickly turn back the clock
00:48to remember where the show left off at the end of Season 5.
00:51America wasn't Gilead until it was, and then it was too f***ing late.
00:57Over the course of the fifth season, we saw Gilead continue to attempt to consolidate power
01:02and keep its regime from crumbling.
01:04While more and more people were able to escape and get asylum in Canada,
01:08leading to a rising anti-refugee sentiment in the country.
01:11Commander Lawrence began putting into motion his idea for a new and
01:15improved settlement that can work as a sort of in-between state,
01:19connecting Gilead to the outside world and vice versa.
01:22As Season 5 neared its end, June had made it to Canada and reconnected with Luke,
01:27but unfortunately she still wasn't safe.
01:30They decided to attempt to head west with Nicole to find a more safe and secure place to live,
01:35and where they could hopefully be able to better strategize a plan to save their daughter Hannah.
01:40Saving Hannah quickly had become a particularly pressing matter because June was informed by Nick
01:46that the purple robe she had seen Hannah wearing indicated that she had been placed in a school
01:51for wives in training.
01:53Serena had come to realize that her position in society might not be as secure as she might have
01:58once imagined, and after being threatened with being sent away without her son Noah,
02:03she made a break for it.
02:05Janine stood up to Naomi and was soon apprehended for it.
02:09While still grappling with the attempt on her life, June is yet again attacked. This time,
02:14a Gilead-branded vehicle hits her and almost kills her,
02:18but Luke is able to stop it just in time by beating up the driver,
02:22who eventually succumbs to his injuries.
02:25A warrant was put out for Luke's arrest, and that, combined with everything else boiling over,
02:30pushed June to decide that it's time to go now.
02:33We have to go.
02:35We have to run.
02:38Now.
02:39They decided to flee, first by plane, though,
02:41after they're warned about the amount of police at the airport, they opt for the refugee train.
02:46Luke, realizing that his being hunted by the authorities would also put June and Nicole in
02:51danger, decided to turn himself in so that they have a chance to make it out west to safety.
02:56Do not do this.
02:58Don't.
02:59Do this.
03:00They're not letting the train leave.
03:01Until they find me.
03:02So get on the train.
03:03The couple are forced to part yet again,
03:06as this time June boards the train and Luke is taken into custody.
03:10At the last moment, June ran into none other than Serena on the train.
03:16Season 6 opens right where Season 5 left off, with June still on the train with Nicole,
03:21headed west in hopes of sailing out to Hawaii and finally being out of reach of Gilligad's grasp,
03:26where she'll be able to strategize both how to save Hannah and reunite with Luke.
03:30June is still struggling with her injuries from being hit,
03:33and it turns out that her arm wound has become infected.
03:37Serena is attempting to turn over a new leaf.
03:40Kind of.
03:41She attempts to convince June that she really is ready to be free,
03:45and to be on the side of the good fight for once.
03:47June is, unsurprisingly, not convinced.
03:50No one on the train, aside from June, knows who she is or what her background is.
03:55So Serena believes that this is her chance for a new start for herself and her son Noah.
04:00Serena has always represented the question of how much sympathy we could, or should,
04:04have for someone who helps uphold a system that harms others, and even themselves to a degree.
04:10And that continues here.
04:12As she feels like, because she has finally decided to turn away from cruelty,
04:16everyone else should just be on her side and forget and forgive all of her previous choices
04:20that caused so much harm.
04:22We can see this in the way that she expects to be able to make jokes with June.
04:26Like about stealing her baby while she's asleep.
04:29You think I'm going to steal your daughter while you're sleeping like some kind of a Disney villain?
04:33For God's sake, June. That's completely idiotic.
04:36Because she, at the end of the day, sees herself as the center of everything.
04:41She can't quite really grasp the degree to which just because she says she's changed,
04:46doesn't mean that anyone else is going to believe her until she actually proves it.
04:51Maybe your friend could take your daughter for a moment.
04:53Yes. No.
04:54And while she may profess to be turning a new corner,
04:58we can see through her actions that she hasn't actually truly left the mindset of Gilead behind.
05:03In an attempt to be helpful, she takes control over the other women and children on the train,
05:09segregating them from everyone else for their own good.
05:14Nick, who had been in custody for slugging Lawrence at the end of last season,
05:18returns home to his wife Rose, who is not particularly happy to see him.
05:22Rose's father, Commander Wharton, who had been a threatening but unseen presence until now,
05:29has come to New Bethlehem to keep a watchful eye over Nick, Rose, and their coming baby.
05:34Loira finds out that the Canadian cabinet is looking to make some major moves,
05:38turning away from America and embracing Gilead.
05:42The stress that it feels like everything is collapsing and people are giving up the fight,
05:46she decides to join the resistance in a new, possibly dangerous way.
05:50I want to help.
05:54I need to help.
05:55While the train was initially headed for Vancouver, it turns out that it is no longer.
06:00They're overwhelmed and they won't let the train come in.
06:03But where it is going now is anyone's guess.
06:07As the women in the train car are sharing their stories, June opens up about a deep,
06:11hidden level of her grief. She feels that she let Hannah go when she was captured,
06:17even though she was being overpowered by multiple armed men. She still carries trauma and guilt
06:22because she feels like she should have somehow done more to hold onto her daughter.
06:26They were soldiers.
06:28I'm her mom.
06:29This bubbles up in every facet of June's life in ways big and small,
06:34from her endless drive to get Hannah back at any cost,
06:37to tiny moments like earlier in the day when she was caring for Noah and comforts him with.
06:41The doctor that was helping June with her arm blows up Serena's spot and lets everyone know
06:48who she really is. And they are not happy about it. Here, June has to make a critical decision.
06:55To save Serena or let everyone tear her to shreds. Even given all of Serena's evil,
07:00their past has bonded them together in a dark way.
07:04And to some degree, June wants to believe that someone like Serena can change,
07:09no matter how much previous evidence she might have been given to the contrary.
07:13Though she's called a traitor for it, she does help Serena flee.
07:17This isn't the first time June has helped someone escape a group punishment.
07:21But this time, it isn't an innocent. Serena very much deserves to be met with the consequences of
07:27her actions. She's someone who was absolutely partly responsible for the suffering these women
07:33endured. But June is compelled not just by her own morals and sense of justice,
07:38but also by the trauma she's endured and the other sides of Serena that she feels like she's seen.
07:45That she still has hopes might win out in the battle for her soul in the end.
07:49After Serena escapes, the train heads onto its new destination, Alaska. And June is met with
07:55another big surprise. This time, finally running into her mother. This episode opens following Serena
08:01after her escape from the train with her son. She comes upon a religious commune that accepts refugees.
08:08And now, realizing just how much she and women like her are hated, decides to come up with an alias.
08:14How much should we call you?
08:17Rachel.
08:17While June is obviously happy to see her mother after being separated for so long,
08:22it's clear that there are other feelings coming up to the surface as well.
08:26We learn about what happened to June's mom, Holly, during Gilead's rise. She was convicted and sent
08:31to work in the colonies, where she was kept prisoner.
08:34How did you survive that?
08:40Well, a doctor's useful.
08:42It wasn't God. We had a really smart doctor who gave a shit.
08:46Eventually, her colony was liberated by the army, and she was sent to Alaska. Holly's optimistic belief
08:51that she and June would always find each other again, and that June would make it out of anything
08:56because she had raised her to be a fighter, brings up a deep pain for June. The last time she saw Hannah,
09:02she didn't remember her. And it's clear that June worries that she didn't have enough time to raise
09:08Hannah to be a fighter, and thus she might end up trapped forever if she can't free her herself.
09:14She also has to carry the guilt of getting out while other handmaids are still trapped.
09:18And she tells her mother that she won't remove her ear tag until all of the handmaids are free.
09:23Luke is still stuck in Toronto, awaiting his court date,
09:26but thankfully at least gets the update from Moira that June and Nicole safely made it to Alaska.
09:31There's a moment of levity as June is able to call Moira and Luke.
09:34She's relieved to hear that Luke is out of prison, and he and Moira are ecstatic to find out that June
09:39found Holly. But Luke and Moira keep the fact that they're planning to go on a Mayday mission
09:45into No Man's Land a secret. After a time jump, we learn that the leader of the commune
09:50actually knew who Serena was the entire time.
09:54I wanted to serve the glory of God.
09:56Is that all? It went wrong. All by itself.
10:01Lawrence arrives and asks, backed up both by stroking her ego and threats of Noah being taken
10:07from her by the eyes, Serena to return and be the spokesperson for New Bethlehem.
10:12Nick continues to play both sides, living as a commander but also working to pass intel to the
10:17resistance operatives. Like Serena, Nick has also long been used to question just how reformed someone
10:23who functions within the machine of cruelty can truly be. While he has helped out June and Mayday
10:29numerous times, he's also not always been totally on their side. As he settled more and more into his
10:35life as a commander and with his wife and soon to be born son, the allure of just giving up helping
10:41the resistance altogether has pulled harder and harder. And in this episode, we see him choose to
10:47go a little further down that path. Across the show, we see play out the idea of how,
10:53while many people might like to think of themselves as good, they'll often choose to keep power over
10:59doing the right thing when push comes to shove. The episode ends with both Serena and June making their
11:05way back to the world they had left. As the title suggests, this episode interrogates the idea of
11:12devotion. To a cause, to a religion, to each other, to the future? Serena has doubled down on her
11:18devotion to her religion, and now to helping build New Bethlehem. Her belief in this higher power seems
11:25to rest pretty firmly on the fact that things always seem to work out for her in the end. As June remarks,
11:31She holds onto the religion because it's the base of the structure of the society in which she gets
11:44to be on top. No matter how much it might harm anyone else, as long as it's good for her,
11:50she's happy to uphold it. The world needs New Bethlehem to work, and to grow, and to thrive.
11:59In various governments on the show, we've seen a dedication to attempting to keep a status quo,
12:05even as it crumbles. And we see this here again a bit in the dignitaries who have come to visit New
12:10Bethlehem, and though it's quite clearly just creating the same issue again but with nicer language,
12:15are swayed by this more easily digestible package. For his part, Lawrence isn't interested in creating
12:22anything new, just something profitable. He doesn't really care about fixing the problems of Gilead,
12:28but rather just papering them over so that they're easier to ignore, at least for those at the top.
12:33Mayday sits on the other end of the spectrum, devoted to tearing down structures that have
12:38created this unjust world at any cost. Though he has gotten pulled further and further into the
12:44running of New Bethlehem, Nick hasn't totally devoted himself to the cause, but not out of some
12:50larger moral issue, but instead more specifically out of his connection to June. He ends up agreeing
12:57to help her save Luke and Moira from where they're trapped in No Man's Land after the flubbed pickup
13:02operation, even though he knows it'll likely cause him problems and even possibly get him in trouble.
13:07While he did help in this instance, he's very much a part of this tyrannical power structure.
13:12And as June's mother very clearly pointed out to her, that means he'll never truly be trustworthy.
13:18If his desire to help is only out of his love for June and Nicole, what happens when he falls out
13:24of love with June and has a new baby to focus on? To justify so much of the cruelty of Gilead,
13:30many of its most ardent supporters had convinced themselves that it was all for the greater good
13:34in the end. But we continue to see that break down when confronted with reality more and more.
13:41Hot Lydia, for example, who had been a terrifying proponent of Gilead's work,
13:45is shocked by the truth about what really happens to the handmaids in this society when she finds
13:50out where Janine has been sent.
13:52But you shouldn't be here. You all bore fruit. I was told you'd be rewarded for your service.
13:59Yeah, well, surprise. They lied to you.
14:02June has to deal with the question of devotion across multiple axes. To her trapped daughter Hannah,
14:08to her free daughter Nicole, who she left with her mother in Alaska. To Mayday and the resistance.
14:13To her husband. To Nick. To herself. Being pulled across so many lines means that she can't possibly
14:19devote herself fully to anything or anyone. And so in each moment she must make tough decisions as
14:25to where she'll orient her attention. And thus, what she'll have to, at least for the time, neglect.
14:32She feels like no matter which route she chooses, someone she loves is going to get hurt. Not to
14:38mention all of the handmaids and children who are still trapped in Gilead. But she knows that
14:43she can't become paralyzed into doing nothing. So she makes the decision to continue fighting.
14:49The idea of if Serena will get a proper redemption arc has been in play since early on in the show.
14:55And at the very beginning of this season, it seemed like things might finally be heading that way.
15:00But now, by the end of the third episode, it looks like things might be going in the opposite
15:05direction. With Serena regaining her throne of power, and thus possibly evolving into an even
15:12worse villain than before. While her story certainly isn't over, there's so much that could happen in
15:17the next seven episodes. Her arc, and her continual retreating back into the safety of the power
15:23structure that upholds her at the expense of others, absolutely rings true to a pattern we so often see
15:29play out in real life. The show feels so close to our modern era and problems not just because of
15:34the totalitarian society and larger structures of cruelty, but also because it's so adept at
15:40honing in on the smaller, interpersonal issues at play, too. The individual choices people make,
15:46and how those affect this society. Either to uphold it, or to help tear it down.
15:51Some viewers have complained, especially during the show's later seasons, that it came to feel
15:56repetitive or like it wasn't moving toward a real, desired conclusion. Which, fair enough.
16:01But that's also just… how it is to actually try to survive in and take down a totalitarian regime
16:07of this magnitude. It isn't something where one person or a small group of people can just decide,
16:12okay, yeah, this is bad, let's stop it right now, and then everything is fixed in a week or two.
16:17It's a long, drawn-out process of trying and failing and trying and failing again, doing anything you
16:23can think of to make a change and having to grapple with the fact that it often won't work. But you
16:29have to keep trying anyway. While we'd love to imagine that this season will be building toward
16:34the cathartic toppling of Gilead and the evil regime, unfortunately, it looks like we already
16:40know that that won't be the case, at least not entirely. Because Hulu has already announced it will
16:46be making a series based on the Handmaid Tales sequel, The Testaments. Gilead definitely still exists
16:51within that series, and so it's safe to assume that the Handmaid's Tale series finale won't include
16:57the end of that terrifying society. But that doesn't mean things are totally without hope.
17:02Even if they don't totally topple the regime, they could still save a lot of people, and help
17:08set society back down a better path, even if they aren't able to see it all the way to that new end.
17:16That's the take! Click here to watch the video we think you'll love, or here to check out a whole
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