The Handmaid's Tale showrunner on Serena's shocking twist, [SPOILER]'s death, and what happens next
Warning: This article contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of The Handmaid's Tale.
Season 5 episode 6 of The Handmaid's Tale is a bit of a doozy, to say the least.
In a nutshell, nearly every character on the show faces a major crossroads by episode's end. Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) begins to realize that her benefactors, the Wheelers, may have taken her in as more of a handmaid than a friend. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) learns that Esther is pregnant after having been raped by Commander Putnam (Stephen Kunken), and goes to Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) to seek a punishment for Putnam. This leads to Nick (Max Minghella), with Lawrence watching on, executing Putnam in broad daylight during brunch with his wife. We also learn that Nick's wife, Rose (Carey Cox), is now expecting a baby — and she knows exactly what he did to Putnam.
And, finally, when Luke (O-T Fagbenle) and June (Elisabeth Moss) get separated at the border and June is turned over to the Wheelers to be "taken care of" once and for all, Serena begs and pleads to be there when their henchman, Ezra, plans to kill June. At the last second, she convinces him to let her be the one to pull the trigger, and instead of killing her archrival and former handmaid, she shoots Ezra (Rossif Sutherland) and takes his car with June in tow, destination unknown.
After we caught our breath, EW reached out to showrunner Bruce Miller to break down all of the episode's big moments and what they mean for the characters moving forward.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let's start at the end, actually, with probably the episode's biggest moment. Serena finally has a chance to kill June, and doesn't take it. Was it impulsive? Did she want to kill June? What was going through her head in that moment?
BRUCE MILLER: I think it is not impulsive. There's a point earlier in the episode where she decides that this is probably her best route out before she has the baby. So it's much more careful and thoughtful, just like she is — [she's] scheming, you know, and evil. But it's a scheme that she puts into play and works very, very carefully in order to get out of the hands of Ezra and the Wheelers. I think that in the moment, Serena definitely is tempted and definitely wants to kill her, but I think her plan is to somehow use this to get away from the Wheelers.
How long have you known you wanted to play with this idea of Serena becoming a handmaid of sorts?
Well, I think that once we decided to have Serena be pregnant, we were very focused on what anybody's pregnancy would be like in that world, or a world where fertility is falling. And then also, what would it be like for someone like Serena, if she got pregnant, how would she take that message? How would she sell that message to other people? What would she use it for, given her personality? Being pregnant doesn't change who you are, but it certainly changes sometimes what your priorities are, and it changes hers. But she's still in general a narcissistic snake, or spider maybe. And so she's not going to change that, but she may have another excuse, which is [she wants to] make the world okay for her baby. But it's still always about Serena.
We also learn that Nick's wife, Rose, is pregnant. And we see that she knows the terrible thing that Nick has just done, and she doesn't seem pleased by it. Can we trust her? The fact that she knows so much seems potentially dangerous to Nick.
Do you trust her is really more of my question. I mean, I don't know if I trust her. That's evolving, too. But I think what you'll see is, we tried to establish [Nick and Rose's] dynamic early on, which is it's a "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and it's very much when she asks, "Where were you all night?" she gets an honest answer, not an extensive one, but an honest one. And what does that do to a person like Rose, who you're starting to get to know, who is maybe a little tougher than you thought, and why is she letting this happen? She seems very nice. Why is she letting him walk over her? I think it's all weighed in on the fact that you're about to realize that there is another human being in the mix. And that person is Rose.
And, I think it begs the question of, how does this impact whatever relationship Nick and June have?
Oh, absolutely. And I think Nick is very tied up in feeling like a good or bad person about the things that he does. He does not want to do anything else. He's avoiding as much as possible doing anything else to make him feel like a bad person. He has plenty of those things on his plate.
And speaking of that, him killing Commander Putnam in broad daylight like that was interesting. He didn't hesitate at all. He made it look easy, but what are the ramifications moving forward?
Didn't he make it look easy, though? Wasn't that really interesting? I think that Nick has experienced close up violence before, and knows how much it tortures him. In fact, it made him prefer to kind of act as a driver who was a spy for the Eyes, as opposed to doing lots of other things that could have been interesting. He didn't want to have anything to do with violence anymore. And then gradually, as he moved up, he had to kind of command troops, he had to do this and that, and you have to kind of dip your toe back in from a distance. But not this time. This wasn't from a distance, and he didn't even pass it off to June like he did in the woods [with Commander Waterford's death].
Yeah, he just went for it.
That's what it's about. It's getting closer and closer and closer. And you can feel the walls closing in on Nick in this episode, and I just love the fact that you feel Rose — exactly what you said — is she dangerous? Is she dangerous to June but not to Nick? Is she dangerous to both of them? Is she dangerous to neither? What the hell's going on? She's certainly moving closer to being a problem or something, and so was Warren [Putnam], and now this. But anyway, it's the idea that you want to put pressure on the character where they're vulnerable and see what happens. And with Nick, I think it's his idea that, "I've done tons of bad things. I know how much that costs, and I'm going to not do any more if I can avoid it." And it's usually out of love [for him].
Sophie Giraud/Hulu Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) in episode 6 of season 5 of 'The Handmaid's Tale.'
We've also seen a shift in Aunt Lydia, sort of over time, but especially in this episode where she stands up for her handmaid and tries to get justice for her. This is interesting in light of her being an important part of The Handmaid's Tale's sequel, The Testaments, which is also in development as a series. What can you tell us about what we're seeing happen there with her character?
Well, I think we're seeing kind of an era of self-examination that she's going through. Things have been going on for a certain time in Gilead, and she's starting to lose… it doesn't seem to be getting any better with the next generation. So she's reckoning with the decision she's made when she was younger, or at the beginning of Gilead, what she threw her a lot in with, and that really is what The Testaments is about. So she's pivoting to those issues, and I think the character is growing in that direction. And that's why Margaret Atwood was inspired to write it, and that's why Ann [Dowd] makes such an incredible character. We're not doing it like, "Oh, we have to get into this very precise timeline with events." I think that's just going to make it bad TV. So we're trying to make this a really good TV show, and then we'll try to make The Testaments a really good TV show. And we'll go from there. But for Lydia, I think the natural arc is toward self-examination, she doesn't always end up where you think she's gonna end up, but she is doing that more and more.
I've loved her interactions with Commander Lawrence. Is it wrong to think there's an interesting connection between those two characters — is that reading into it too much?
They definitely have a sparkle when they're together. And it's certainly something we accentuate in the editing and the writing. And then I'm in your position, which is I watch it to see what's really there. Because it doesn't really matter what we were intending, the only thing that matters is what you got out of it. And so for the season, as it's going along, I really don't know what these things quite mean yet because I haven't seen how they play in the world in the order of the show. So it's always fun for me, there's a little bit extra there, but I would say they definitely have chemistry. I don't think there's a romantic element for either. I don't think she likes him very much at all. I think they find each other a little bit repulsive. But they also find each other impressive. It's the same way June feels about Serena. She respects her. She also detests her.
I also wanted to ask about Esther's pregnancy. We know she's going to be basically chained to a bed until she gives birth, if Gilead has its way. Have we seen the last of her character?
I don't know what Janine or June will ever find out about what happened. This may be the end of her story as far as our point of view goes, but Esther has a lot ahead of her and I don't imagine much of it is pleasant. A lot of it is casting, honestly. People are very successful and busy, and thank God, I'm so happy for them. I don't want to get in anybody's way. We'll figure out what we can do [in the future], but we certainly have not seen the last of her maybe even this season... I don't want to give anything away.
What should people expect from the rest of this season as a whole?
I think that there is a kind of inevitability about the way the show goes, that is driven by June and what would happen to June. Because her situation is so unique, it's a little hard to get used to, but I think that if you sat down with your friends and you had enough beer, you'll figure out what's going to happen next. [Laughs]
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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