‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6 Premiere Reunions, Explained

[This story contains spoilers from the three-episode season six premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale, “Train,” “Exile” and “Devotion.”]

The biggest question for The Handmaid’s Tale viewers heading into the sixth and final season was what was going to happen to June and Serena after they got on that train.

The three-episode premiere of the Emmy-winning dystopian Hulu saga quickly answered that question by setting its starring women on diverging paths once again for the final chapter in this Gilead story. Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) ends up jumping from the train, with her baby son in her arms, to escape a mob of Gilead refugee women looking for revenge against the former Gilead wife. She eventually makes her way back to Gilead via New Bethlehem, the reformed community founded by Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) where she is needed to recruit refugees.

June (Elisabeth Moss), who helped Serena escape, ends up making it to Alaska, where she reunites with her mother Holly (played by returning star Cherry Jones), giving the hero of this tale a much-needed win after the harrowing journey she took to get there in the events of season five. The mother-daughter reunion reminds the audience what June is fighting for, as she updates her mother that her oldest daughter, Hannah (Jordana Blake), remains in Gilead.

June’s Alaskan visit is short-lived, as she’s quickly pulled back into the fight and joins the Mayday rebellion on a mission to save her husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle), who is out on bail after his finale arrest, and best friend Moira (Samira Wiley), who are trapped in No Man’s Land, the disputed territory in the Gileadean-Canadian border region. She calls on Nick (Max Minghella), now a High Commander, for help and he obliges the mother of their daughter Nichole, who June is now calling by her birth name, Holly.

The third episode ends with a successful rescue mission, which brings about an awkward reunion with Luke and Nick, as Moira also meets Nick for the first time, and another poignant goodbye for June and her star-crossed lover. This time, June and Nick agree it’s not goodbye. It’s see you later.

Below, longtime writers and season six co-showrunners Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang unpack all of those reunions in the first three episodes — also including Janine (Madeline Brewer), who is now a Jezebel, with Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) — and explain how these early events of the season will set up what’s to come as the 10-episode final chapter unspools the rest of June’s tale: “This is a season where every character reveals who they really are.”

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When I spoke with creator Bruce Miller and star/executive producer/director Elisabeth Moss at the end of season five, they didn’t know yet what would happen after June and Serena got on that train. When you got back into the room and started to break the story, how did you figure out that you were going to set them on these different paths?

YAHLIN CHANG Bruce actually thought about it for a long time, what he wanted to happen on that train. I think the fun of that episode is that it starts out as a June and Serena working on their relationship story, and then it takes this dark scary turn. The end of that episode I credit entirely to my co-showrunner Eric Tuchman, because he was the one who was really beating the drum of, “Wouldn’t it be great if [June’s mother] Holly were in Alaska? Holly needs to be in Alaska to receive June.” I just loved that, and it happened because of him.

ERIC TUCHMAN Everybody has good ideas in the writers room, but for that episode, because it became such a dark disturbing story, which is very much in line with a lot of what the Handmaid’s Tale has been about, we wanted this [premiere] ending to feel uplifting and hopeful that there was still a light in this darkness. What better for June, after this harrowing experience on the train, then to reunite with her mother who she thought was dead? It’s wish-fulfillment for a lot of people, including me. The fact that we got Cherry Jones [who played Holly in seasons two and three] back to play this role again and to act in those scenes with Lizzie [Moss] is one of my favorite things about the season.

Lizzie also directed the premiere, as well as episode two. With Lizzie herself becoming a mother before filming, and having her baby with her on set, how emotional was that mother-daughter reunion to film? We see three generations of women in June’s family together, and a needed embrace for June after a harrowing journey.

TUCHMAN Well, I happened to be there for those Holly scenes with Cherry Jones, and Lizzie had her child with her for most of that shoot. It’s just another facet of what makes her this extraordinary superwoman who is producing, acting, directing and being a full-time mother at the same time. She is juggling all these balls so beautifully and without ever really breaking a sweat. She has the most positive upbeat attitude always, and that infuses the entire set with that enthusiasm and passion for the show.

CHANG Bradley Whitford jokes about how so many of our actresses had babies at the end of the show, which he’s called dyslexic method acting. (Laughs)

On the flipside, one of the more disappointing moments for Serena came on that train. She had an opportunity to ask these Gilead refugee women for forgiveness, and instead she doubles down on her Gilead intentions. Can you talk about that scene and what it tells us about Serena in the final season?

CHANG Serena’s going to Serena. That’s how I feel about her and how we craft her throughout the season. She has an ego. She always has to be in the right. She always has to feel like she’s close to god or doing what god wants, and even when she asks for forgiveness from June or wants redemption, she really feels like she has this very special relationship with god and has a certain divine responsibility. So I think she really believes a lot of what she says on that train. She does believe that she saved the country and yes, it took a couple dark turns and didn’t work out exactly as she wanted, but she really does think that America sucked in many ways and had to change. And so, god bless her. She doesn’t lie about her true feelings. That’s the one thing that she has going for her: she doesn’t lie.

We see her returning to Gilead via New Bethlehem, the reformed societal vision from Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford). Serena, now wearing a new purple color, attracts the attention of Gilead Commander Wharton, played by Josh Charles, who is the father-in-law to Nick (Max Minghella), who is now a High Commander himself. How does this third episode set Serena up in New Bethlehem?

TUCHMAN She returns to New Bethlehem very determined to be an independent voice, a woman of real influence. She’s not going to get sucked into the role that Gilead has had her play before, which is either as a wife or is just someone there for a photo op. She really wants to contribute and change Gilead into the Gilead she knows it can be. And then she comes across someone who is powerful and influential, who’s courting her, who seems to embrace her desire for reform, and she gets sucked back in. He’s not only a good romantic match, but he’s a good figure with power and influence that can help her. She loves power.

CHANG Serena is ambitious and that’s even in her decision to go back to New Bethlehem. On the one hand she felt like god has called her to this purpose. But the first thing was that she was threatened. She had to get the hell out of Gilead, and make sure that the Wheelers didn’t get her baby. [When Lawrence tells her that the Eyes know where she is], she then turns it over in her mind to, “God has called me back to set things right.”

We see Janine (Madeline Brewer) in episode three and she is now a Jezebel. She has this reunion scene with Aunt Lydia where she sends Lydia away. Aunt Lydia (who will star in the sequel series The Testaments) has been starting to see things differently since last season. How will seeing Janine at Jezebel’s continue to turn the wheels for Aunt Lydia?

TUCHMAN Janine and Lydia have a really complicated, almost mother-daughter relationship. Lydia genuinely feels love and protectiveness toward her most precious girl, Janine. And when she sees Janine in this den of iniquity, we’re again chipping away at Lydia’s delusions about what Gilead really is. We’re taking those rose-colored glasses off that she’s been wearing for so long. To see Janine suffering in this place is yet another step in her journey to stop being so willfully blind about what the truth is behind Gilead. Stop hiding behind religion. It’s really about power.

The third episode sees June leaving baby Holly (formerly Nichole) with her mother and going on the rescue mission to save Luke (O-T Fagbenle) and Moira (Samira Wiley). This leads to her reunion with Nick. Nick calls June out for choosing Luke, but June makes it clear she loves them both. I’ve spoken with O-T about June and Nick, and he thinks people are crazy for shipping them. Because their love came from trauma, is June blinded to the red flags she should see in Nick?

CHANG I think you’re absolutely right that her relationship with Nick was forged in trauma. It kept her alive and it gave her a reason to survive those horrible, horrible years in Gilead, and they have this amazing bond. Also, Nick is always there for her and always doing whatever she needs at great risk to himself. So of course, she’s loves him. And Luke has been so reliable and has waited for her for so long, so she has she has a real love for him too, but it’s a different kind of love. With Nick I think it’s more lusty and passionate and with Luke it’s the love of a super strong attachment to a husband who has stood by her. But, as you said, there are certain things about Nick that she is blind to and that our viewers and we as writers are blind to because we’re invested in this romance. And that is that he is a commander in Gilead. And that’s the truth of it.

Bruce Miller has always said he knew the show’s ending from the start. Did things evolve or change at all, or was there a North star you were working towards this season?

TUCHMAN I think the ending is true to Bruce’s vision that he’s had for a long time. You know, it’s called the Handmaid’s Tale and it ties into the telling of this story. It didn’t dictate the rest of the stories that we’re telling across the season and we could still lead to that ending that Bruce has always wanted. So we did get to do a lot of juicy stories for June and for our entire ensemble.

CHANG Yeah, I think he knew what that last scene should be for a long time.

What are some of the biggest themes you are tackling this season?

TUCHMAN We really wanted this season to be, as Yahlin has called it, a season of triumph and uplift. It’s been a lot of dark and disturbing stories in the past, but now it’s the final season and it’s a season about fighting back, about defiance and resilience and courage and guts and hopefulness. It’s time. Our audience has stuck with us through the darkest times and it’s time for them to be rewarded for that passion and commitment they have for the show, and we’re going to deliver it for them this season.

When it comes to giving your sprawling ensemble all some closure, was that the biggest challenge that you had for this final season?

CHANG That was challenging for sure. One thing we really wanted to do this season was to give a fleshed-out story arc to every one of our characters and our amazing actors. There were past seasons when they maybe got less screen time or they didn’t get to have a fully fleshed-out arc and we really felt like they deserved it, and wanted to do justice by those characters. They each deserved a really good fleshed-out arc, which I think they have this season. And yes, it’s always a challenge because there are so many riches and they’re all so great, and there’s limited time on screen. But I think we get to see that they all become even more themselves and return to inner strengths that maybe we didn’t know they had. So they evolve in in beautiful ways, all of them.

TUCHMAN I think this is a season where every character reveals who they really are. The choices that they make, they’re each at a crossroad reveal. Do they have the courage and the guts, or are they more selfish and self-serving? We’ll see. Everybody exposes their true self.

The Handmaid’s Tale has never stopped being prophetic, but there’s a sense of dejà vu with the show again releasing under Trump 2.0. How does that feel to be here, eight years later, with this Gilead story again being so timely?

TUCHMAN Never would have expected it. Yahlin joined us in the second season. I was there from the beginning and in the first, we had an election in 2016. While we were in production. It was an election with a result that most of us on the show did not expect and the show became suddenly very timely and resonated with a lot of people. Many people have called the show a cautionary tale and it seems to me that not enough people were cautioned, and here we are again after a very consequential, shocking election. I never would have anticipated that that’s where we would be. But here we are.

CHANG I was working on a show where we make stuff up, right? And I just cannot believe that as a woman, I have fewer rights now than when I started on the show in 2017. I never thought that Roe v. Wade would get overturned. It seems like the stuff you would make up, especially at that time with the #MeToo movement when it seemed like society was really moving forward.

Working on this show, you really have to get into the minds of authoritarians to write the characters on the Gilead side. Getting into those minds is about imagining what the worst people would do if given the reins of power. You have to imagine if you have no moral compass, if you are completely guided by avarice and selfishness and cowardice and covering your own ass, how would you act and what would you do? In that way, what’s happening now feels very understandable and predictable to a certain extent.

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The Handmaid’s Tale is now streaming the first three episodes of seasons six, with new episodes releasing weekly on Tuesdays. Follow along with THR‘s final season coverage.