‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5 Finale: June’s Final Smirk Is a ‘Full-Circle Moment’
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 ended with June and Luke saying a heartbreaking goodbye. June boards a train bound for Hawaii, now alone with her daughter Nichole and a broken arm. Suddenly she spies a familiar face on the train. Her final smirk mirrors a similar expression from the start of the season.
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 finale.]
Toronto is no longer safe in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5 finale
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 finale blew up the lives of all its characters. After a Gilead sympathizer runs June over with his truck, Luke beats him to a pulp. June’s attacker dies of his injuries, and Luke becomes a wanted man by the Toronto police.
As June and Luke realize that Toronto is no longer safe, they devise a plan to run before it’s too late. They head to a train station, which will take them to Hawaii with other American refugees. Luke tells June to take Nichole and go on without him moments before being apprehended by the police.
June’s smirk in the finale is a full-circle moment
Alone and sporting a broken arm, June wanders through the train with Nichole until she spies a familiar face — Serena Joy with baby Noah. “Do you have a diaper?” Serena asks. June returns a smirk.
“She’s almost making a joke because her baby is obviously a different size from June’s baby, so she knows the diapers aren’t going to fit,” Elisabeth Moss, who directed the season 5 finale, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“She’s offering it as this kind of olive branch, and what I wanted to do in response to that was to duplicate the smile that Serena gives June at the end of episode two,” she continued. “When Serena’s looking down from the screen at June, and she smiles, I wanted to do the same smile on June to have a full-circle moment.”
The scene in episode 2 comes in a very different context. Serena includes June’s daughter Hannah to be present at Fred’s televised funeral in Gilead. June watches from Toronto as Serena pats her daughter’s face and gives the camera an almost imperceptible smirk.
Season 5 ends on a positive note
By The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 finale, June and Serena find themselves in a very different situation. They aren’t friends by any means, but the pair are undeniably connected, and there’s a sense of relief that these two women won’t be going through the next chapter of their lives alone.
“It’s actually a pretty positive ending for the show and the season, which we don’t usually do,” Moss told THR. “It’s a cliffhanger, but there’s something positive about it. Of course, of all the people that would be on the train is this person who is her other half, the other half of this experience.”
All episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale are currently streaming on Hulu.
