How Handmaid's Tale Ended In Series Finale: Surprise Reunions, Farewells -- and What Comes Next

SPOILER WARNING: This story discusses events of the series finale.

In the end, the story came full circle, harkening back to June Osborn's first discoveries of the horrors of life in this bastardization of Christian doctrine.

Not only did Miller bring Elisabeth Moss back to the burned-out Waterford home that was her first prison as a handmaid, but we launched the narrative conceit of the whole story, with June narrating the series first lines as she begins to tell her story.

After the explosive finale that closed last week's penultimate episode, the series finale went for a softer approach. There was no need to see how the battle against Gilead went after that blow of losing their top Commanders in Boston.

Instead, we just got a little exposition that Gilead forces quickly pulled out of the city, effectively handing a little piece of the fractured United States back. And just like that, it was over -- at least for those people living in Boston.

Gilead is still very much a threat, even as they have to regroup and reconfigure their command structure on the East Coast. And so, the battle may be won, but there is a long war to come.

"This is definitely not a story where you get what you want most of the time — or where June gets what she wants. It’s a story about how to live with the things you can’t get," Miller told The Hollywood Reporter.

For June, that get is still very much Hannah, so she's not nearly ready to give up the fight. Neither is her husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle), though it would appear they're relationship may not have survived the Nick of it all.

Don't get us wrong, there is no apparent animosity or anger between the two of them. But as they part to fight on separate fronts for the war to come, neither is there an embrace or any sign of romantic affection. There is love and respect, but it appears to stop there.

In fact, the couple are preparing to part ways again, as the revolution pulls them in separate directions -- but with a promise to see one another again when they reunite with Hannah.

"What I love about how June and Luke end up, how Bruce wrote [it] and how they played it, it just feels very real," says co-showrunner Eric Tuchman tells TheWrap. "It feels mature, it feels honest. It feels like a couple that have a long history together, that share a child, but they’re different people. They’ve changed. As much as they wish they could go back to who they were, they can’t."

"They’ve been forever changed by this experience. What they will never give away is the connection that they have. Of course, it’s through their daughter, but the love and respect that they have for each other," he continued. "So maybe they won’t be physically together, but they’ll always be bound together, and then sometime in the future, they’ll reunite again."

It might not be the family reunion with Hannah and smiles for everyone that fans were hoping for when this series launched in 2017, but it's definitely more in line with the tone of Atwood's novels.

While Miller may have known how he would end this series, even he didn't know that Atwood would pen a sequel focusing on Hannah's story, nor that Hulu would pick that show up to series, as well. The choices she made in that book informed how this story could end.

There was some good news for June, who started the hour thinking she and the rebellion would have to conquer all the way to Colorado to reunite her with Hannah. With the massive Commander losses, though, she learned that Hannah's Commander was relocating to Washington, DC, bringing her practically within arm's reach.

Obviously, across six seasons, Miller's take on The Handmaid's Tale went much deeper and further than Atwood did in her single 1985 novel. But still, he set the stage for her sequel, The Testaments, to come. Miller is also the creator and showrunner of that forthcoming adaptation.

This finale was a series of small moments that both closed this chapter of the Gilead story, and set the stage for the next one to come.

But this was never going to be a complete victory for anyone. Life and war are too messy for that. Instead, the best we could hope for was some human moments to hang our hearts on and feel some sense of accomplishment and closure.

One way Miller and his team did that was by bringing back a familiar face in Alexis Bledel's Emily. Her return came in a completely random moment, as June was looking at Boston trying to be rebuilt.

She and June catch up after Emily's fateful decision years back to stay and try to fight Gilead from the inside. That choice allowed Bledel to exit the show gracefully, with the door open for this return. Emily reveals that she was a Martha for seven months after her return to Gilead.

She and June walk along the water, as they did when Handmaids, but rather than seeing the dead bodies of rebels, they see effigies of the dead Commanders and a wall of graffiti representing the women of Gilead declaring their names that were stolen from them.

Another surprising reunion came with Janine (Madeline Brewer). As we saw that she'd been captured again by Gilead, we were fully prepared for her fate to remain unknown. Instead, in a late-night rendezvous, Janine was returned to the United States -- and she wasn't alone.

As June hugged her friend, she saw that there was a small child also being brought to the United States. She helped Janine see that she was not only free, but being reunited with her own lost daughter, Charlotte.

Perhaps most remarkably, Charlotte's return was facilitated by both Naomi (Ever Carradine) and Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) who finally spoke out against the Commanders at last week's aborted hanging of June Osborne and her fellow revolutionary handmaids. Aunt Lydia's story will continue into The Testaments, alongside Hannah (known as Agnes in Gilead).

Speaking with Variety, Moss admitted that they may not have made that choice to keep June and Hannah separated had Atwood not made it for them.

"That was a choice that Margaret made that we, of course, followed, and I don’t know if we would have done it if she hadn’t written The Testaments, she explained. "I really have no idea, but I can’t imagine it any other way. I think if there was no Testaments, this would be a very different experience for me."

"There is literally no one more aware of the audience’s desire for June to get Hannah back than me. It is the number one question I’m asked. It is the number one thing people want," Moss added, sharing that this is why they made the decision to sprinkle the finale with images of Hannah, including that final moment in June/Offred's room.

One of the most poignant and powerful scenes was a small one, but one that put a punctuation mark on perhaps the series' most important relationship all the way back to the premiere. As Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) and her son faced an uncertain future as Gilead refugees, June gave her something perhaps even more meaningful -- forgiveness.

As she was preparing to board a bus to an uncertain future, Serena offered a genuine and sincere apology for her actions. June made it clear that Serena should feel ashamed for the things she did and was part of.

"If words mean anything at all, I am sorry," Serena said in the heartfelt exchange, to which June replied that she does forgive her. "I forgive you, Serena. I do," she said sincerely, perhaps surprising herself.

For her part, Serena offered some sincere words of her own, telling June of Nick, "You know, if he ever thought he had a real choice, he would’ve chosen you."

June also told Serena that she needs to be okay with just being a mother. Sometimes you don't need to be driven by a larger ambition than to be the best you you can be in the very small world of your family. In Serena's final moment, sitting on a bad with no idea if she'd even have that come the next day, she looked more at peace than ever before.

June also shared a moment of semi-forgiveness for both Naomi and Aunt Lydia, as she offered her heartfelt thanks to both women for bringing Charlotte back and reuniting her with her actual mother, Janine.

It was particularly meaningful for June to share that moment with Lydia, as she suffered tremendously under the yoke that Aunt Lydia put her and her fellow handmaids under at the Red Center.

As much as The Handmaid's Tale is about Lydia's awakening, The Testaments is much more about her journey after opening her eyes to the truth of Gilead. Getting a nod of respect and appreciation from June, after everything, is a testament to the path she's chosen.

Lydia and Hannah won't be the only familiar faces returning, though it's not clear how closely he and his team will keep their story to the original book.

While teasing Bledel's return for this finale, Miller told Us Weekly, "We’re gonna bring characters from The Handmaid’s Tale to [The Testaments] as well. So there are people who show up -- but to tell you who they are will take away all the fun."

While there is no set release date for The Testaments, it is tentatively scheduled for the latter half of 2026 or early 2027.