{"id":671682,"date":"2025-05-27T14:40:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T11:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/june-and-hannah-ending-explained\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T14:40:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T11:40:36","slug":"june-and-hannah-ending-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/june-and-hannah-ending-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"June and Hannah Ending, Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> finale, titled \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale.\u201d]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>\u2018s<em> <\/em>creator Bruce Miller always knew how he was going to end the series. A key location detail changed along the way and he didn\u2019t know how many seasons it would take to get there, or that Margaret Atwood would write a sequel novel in 2019. But he knew that when the show reached its ending, June\u2019s story would circle back to where it began, but with new perspective.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cThis is definitely not a story where you get what you want most of the time \u2014 or where June gets what she wants. It\u2019s a story about how to live with the things you can\u2019t get,\u201d Miller explains to <em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> about the series finale. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe 2017 pilot of the Emmy-winning Hulu series had introduced viewers to Elisabeth Moss as June, the woman readers first met as Offred in Atwood\u2019s best-selling 1985 novel of the same name. The pilot flashed back to June being separated from her husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle) and daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake) before reintroducing her as a handmaid, wearing a red cloak and white bonnet, while sitting in a windowsill in the home of Gilead Commander Fred (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife, Serena Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tViewers who listened carefully could hear a click before June then said in voiceover: \u201cA chair. A table. A lamp. There\u2019s a window with white curtains, and the glass is shatterproof, but it isn\u2019t running away they\u2019re afraid of. A handmaid wouldn\u2019t get far. \u2026 My name is Offred. I had another name, but it\u2019s forbidden now. So many things are forbidden now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tNow with the series finale that began streaming on Tuesday, viewers understand that clicking sound was a tape recorder and that voiceover was a present-day June. In the series ender, aptly titled \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d and written by Miller and directed by Moss, June is again sitting in that Waterford windowsill after revisiting the remains of the Boston home that burnt down midway through the series. Except now, Gilead\u2019s occupation is over and Boston is free, and June is beginning to record the tale we\u2019ve been watching for six seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBut this means that <em>this<\/em> tale has reached its end, and June (and viewers) didn\u2019t get the reunion they\u2019d been hoping for since the start: The dystopian series doesn\u2019t end with June reuniting with her oldest daughter, Hannah. It ends with June continuing to fight for her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cWhen [Atwood\u2019s sequel novel]<em> The Testaments<\/em> comes out, you know certain things \u2014 you know that June\u2019s not dying, you know [her daughter] Hannah is still in Gilead. There\u2019s a whole other book about that story,\u201d Miller explains of how the series finale sets TV\u2019s Gilead universe on its next course; Miller, also creator of <em>The Testaments<\/em>, began working on that adaptation ahead of the final season, with Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang showrunning season six. \u201cYou <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>reciate the end of the novel and why leaving you loose ends is still satisfying because you feel like, \u2018This woman is still around. She made it this far,&#8217;\u201d he adds. \u201cIf she didn\u2019t make it any further, that\u2019s okay, but what a story of her making it this far. It is <em>the<\/em> story of women through history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe finale does \u2014 <em>praise fucking be! <\/em>\u2014 deliver the highly emotional mother-daughter reunion between Janine (Madeline Brewer) and Charlotte, facilitated by a revolutionized Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) with Naomi\u2019s (Ever Carradine) consent; while Serena is handed a fate left open to interpretation, as she is once again a refugee without a home for her and son Noah. After the deadly penultimate episode with the High Commander deaths of Nick (Max Minghella), Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) and Wharton (Josh Charles), the finale updated viewers that Gilead will continue to fall across the once-United States and that June will be among the resistance, fighting undercover until she gets Hannah out. Luke vows to do the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tFollowing up on <em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u2018s oral history on the blazing success of the series and how it will launch <em>The Testaments<\/em>, <em>THR <\/em>spoke with Miller and Moss in separate conversations edited below about how they delivered a satisfactory yet realistic ending to the beloved, timely saga while also setting up the sequel series, which is currently in production. In that near future, Aunt Lydia is the starring character and Chase Infiniti plays Agnes, which we know is the Gilead name given to Hannah, June\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t***<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Bruce, you recently told me that this is a story about living with what people can\u2019t get and how they survive. Before Margaret Atwood came to you with her plan to write sequel novel <em>The Testaments<\/em>, were you planning on reuniting June (Moss) with daughter Hannah? Or did that seem like too much of a neat ending for this world?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>BRUCE<\/strong> <strong>MILLER<\/strong> It felt like it was tying it too much in a bow. Given where we started with June, that seemed like a whole other section of her life. This show was about June and her daughter and her husband and how she lost everything, and how she has gradually been pulling a lot of that back together. It\u2019s <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>, not <em>Hannah\u2019s Tale<\/em>. It\u2019s focused on June\u2019s journey from handmaidness to freedom. The question of how she rebuilds her family felt like a whole other step, which we\u2019re seeing is a lot more complicated than just, \u201cLet\u2019s all go to Alaska.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWe spent the season with June at first thinking, \u201cI can dust off my hands and say, \u2018I\u2019m done.&#8217;\u201d [If she stayed in Alaska with her mom and daughter Holly], that\u2019s what that would look like: The neat ending. But it didn\u2019t end up like that. June threw herself back in \u2014 she couldn\u2019t walk away from her daughter, Hannah. I think they say it in the book: There\u2019s plenty of stories from people who get their kids back. Those are the one-in-a-million stories we always tell. I want to tell the story about the 999,000 people who don\u2019t get their kids back. They have to go through life and live, and it\u2019s not easy. June is a good example of someone who doesn\u2019t ever take the easy way out, but this is as hard as things get in the world and you see what that does to somebody.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>When Margaret said, \u201cI\u2019m writing <em>The Testaments<\/em> and this may influence what you do on <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale,<\/em>\u201d she told me that she gave you a very small no-kill list<\/strong>: <strong>Aunt Lydia, and June\u2019s two daughters, Hannah and Nichole\/Holly. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> Yes, a very small one. Lydia is a fucking cat. She has 900 lives, which is exactly how those people survived in those kind of regimes by being very good at stepping slightly out of the way when the shit starts to fall. Ann [Dowd] has taken that character in so many different directions and shown us doors to parts of her past and personality that we haven\u2019t opened yet. Aunt Lydia [by the end of <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>] is just starting to realize that maybe Gilead was lying to her, and maybe it isn\u2019t just her \u201cspecial girls\u201d who deserve to be free. Ann has built that slowly, carefully in a believable way over time. Margaret and her are wonderful friends. It\u2019s a great pleasure to be able to continue that character [in <em>The Testaments<\/em>]. If you look at what happened just in this last season \u2014 Lydia\u2019s at the end of a rope and then she\u2019s back already in power by the end, which is totally her! <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMargaret came to me as soon as she was having the inkling [of writing <em>The Testaments<\/em>], so it was very early for me to get the information. She let me know as the creator of the world that things might be shifting a little under my feet. The show went past the book, <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>. So I was trying to come up with an ending that fit well and certainly I was playing with a lot of the things that she talked about doing in <em>The Testaments<\/em>. But this is called<em> The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>. It\u2019s not <em>June\u2019s Tale<\/em>. It\u2019s her time as a handmaid. And at the end, the final episode is that she\u2019s not a handmaid anymore in any way, shape or form. She\u2019s nobody\u2019s handmaid: She\u2019s Onjune.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>ELISABETH MOSS<\/strong> I didn\u2019t have the task of writing [the ending], but I understand and I\u2019m aware that that was the biggest challenge:<em> The Testaments<\/em> has Hannah not get out. That was definitely something we would have played with for the end of <em>Handmaid\u2019s<\/em>; June maybe getting her out. But we had to move towards the sequel that had been written. Now, I don\u2019t think that was a bad thing. But was it the thing that was probably most present? Yeah, I would say so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Lizzie [<em>Moss goes by \u201cLizzie\u201d<\/em>], did you know after season three that because of <em>The Testaments<\/em> [which released in 2019] that this show was going to end differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> It was before I read it, because I spoke to Bruce about it. Then I read it and it was definitely like, \u201cSo that won\u2019t be our ending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Bruce, you have told me you always knew how the series would end. So, had you always imagined the final scene would be June saying those words that began her tale? Was that in your initial pitch for how you wanted to adapt the series?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> Yes, it was in my pitch because it\u2019s really the story of the book. It was how you think about her as a character from the beginning. What is that voiceover? Where\u2019s it coming from? From the beginning, I was thinking, \u201cSo what we\u2019re watching is this box of tapes that someone found, just dramatized.\u201d But it\u2019s this box of her story, her tale of being a handmaid. So I said that what I really wanted to do was that when you get to the end, you feel like you understood what you just saw and what it was as a full piece. I\u2019m hoping that it felt satisfying as an ending for this story. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> What I connected to with June at the beginning was the same thing I connected with at the very end. She has this quality of wanting to survive, not only as herself, but to create a better future specifically her children but also for the next generation. That is her goal in life. I saw that in episode one, in that first script. I remember calling my mom and telling her that. And it\u2019s the same thing in the very last scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tFor whatever reason, I\u2019m not a stranger to doing work that somehow ends up becoming a part of the zeitgeist or becoming relevant in a very present way. Those aren\u2019t choices that I\u2019m necessarily making on purpose. I\u2019ve just gravitated towards material that is, for me, personal. This story was personal and my job is to tell the personal side of things, the human side of things. When it then goes out into the world and becomes political or something on such a larger scale, I\u2019m grateful and moved by that.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:3000px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((2000\/3000)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/176040_320RT.jpg?w=3000\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"2000\" width=\"3000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">June (Elisabeth Moss, who directed the finale) returns to the Waterford house for the final scene in the series. The Boston home burned down at the end of season three.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Disney\/Steve Wilkie<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Lizzie, when we<\/strong> <strong>spoke at the beginning of the final season, you said this ending was true to Bruce\u2019s vision, but that the location shifted. Now I understand why the location was so important.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> The original idea was that June would maybe go to that cabin in the woods [that Luke and June hid out in near the border] from [a flashback in] season one, episode seven. June, Luke and Hannah were making pancakes \u2014 we call that the \u201cpancake episode.\u201d Originally, the idea was that June was going to go back there. And actually, before we started shooting, we established that cabin was still there. But then Bruce wrote a different location, and I think it\u2019s so much better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tOriginally, it was written that June goes and sits on the front steps of the Waterford house. And I said, \u201cI want her to go inside. I think it would be so much more powerful if she goes into that room.\u201d So I talked to Bruce and asked, \u201cCan we go inside the house?\u201d And he said, yes. He loved it, and so he wrote it so June goes inside the house.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> I really wanted the ending to be June back and kind of reclaiming Boston. That old neighborhood was taken away from her, so reclaiming it and going back there is the end of that part of her story. She\u2019s back in the same place, but in a very different position. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn the book, she records [the tale] in a cabin in Maine and buries it in the ground. Lizzie and I had talked about that and we could have done that here, with her going back into Gilead at the end. But so much of the show had a sense of place and was so connected to Boston. Seeing her walk back through those streets and those places now as a free person is something that, as Alexis Bledel\u2019s character says, was impossible. And look, it happened. So we should adjust what\u2019s possible and what\u2019s impossible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>I understand the finale scripts were redacted for the cast, who were only privy to their parts in the episode. Did you, as director, close the set when filming this final scene to keep it under wraps?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> I did close the set. Not to keep it secret, but mostly because I needed the set to be a very quiet space that day. When you\u2019re shooting the final scene of a show, it tends to attract some attention. So it was actually me as a director protecting my actor, who is me. I needed to be able to do my job that day, which was a very difficult job of ending a series as an actor and pulling off that final moment. So I closed the set for that reason. I also closed the set for the final scene inside the plane in episode nine [<em>Whitford and Minghella\u2019s final scene before Lawrence and Nick\u2019s deaths<\/em>].<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> It was a big thing to rebuild this [Waterford house] set. You have to make a commitment to the things you really want, and for Lizzie as director and me as a writer and both of us as executive producers, this was one of the things. Budgets are shrinking in Hollywood; our show is not any exception. When you get to the end of a show, you don\u2019t have money flying around, so we had to be careful with what we planned because we weren\u2019t going to be able to pick anything up afterwards. So we thought very long and hard from the beginning of the episode to make sure we protected that. You reduce the cost by giving [production designer Elisabeth Williams and her team] lots of lead time. But they had a lot of fun building the house interiors again. [The hallway to her room] goes up and down \u2014 there\u2019s a step up and then a step down. It feels like a [claustrophobic] funhouse staircase.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>I can\u2019t think of another director who filmed themselves in the final scene of a long-running series.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> That\u2019s a good question. That would be a fun fact to find out. But this cast, this crew has made me a better director. They made me a better actor. They made me a better producer. That post team made me better at what I do because of them. Every time I\u2019ve been talking with [season six showrunners] Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang I tell them how I miss collaborating with them. I don\u2019t see why we couldn\u2019t at some point come back and do something. What\u2019s so great about the landscape now is that we could do something in a few years if we wanted to. There\u2019s nothing saying we can\u2019t. There are no rules anymore. But I do think where we end it is right. They did a brilliant job of wrapping it up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> Lizzie did such a great job. In these last couple of episodes, she pulled out new elements of her performance as June. It\u2019s amazing to do that, six seasons in. That scene with her and Serena [where June forgives her in the finale] is some of the best work [she and Yvonne have] done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIt was very natural [for Lizzie to direct and act in the final episode], I think because we had been talking about it for a long time. You\u2019d imagine it being a very internal situation, but she was as communicative with the crew as she always is. It was a group effort so for Lizzie, it was that collective experience she loves. I think there\u2019s very few people you can compare to, just on the amount that the show rests on them. In addition to directing and being an executive producer who is ingrained with the show \u2014 creatively, she works on so many different levels \u2014 I think it makes it easier in that final scene. Both Lizzie and I we\u2019re really confident about it. We knew what it was going to be. I wasn\u2019t even there. I was very happy for her to do it on her own. I knew she\u2019d get it right, and she did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Lizzie, were you listening to yourself [from the pilot] as you were saying your final lines?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> I realized about 10 minutes before we shot it that I wanted to make sure that when I was speaking the final voiceover it matched the original voiceover from episode one. I wasn\u2019t sure if I wanted to do that or not, but I realized that I needed to match my mouth to [the pilot words]. We\u2019re setting up the final shot of the series, and I went on the Hulu app on my phone to episode one, and I just played it over and over and over again and memorized it in the cadence that I said it. I told our script supervisor that I can\u2019t get one word wrong. This has to be word-perfect. Then we did it, and it matches almost perfectly. There\u2019s a slight cadence change, when my body\u2019s going back and I lean forward, that we were able to fix in post. But what\u2019s in the finale is my voiceover from nine years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Bruce always told us this show was June\u2019s tale, so she survives. Even still, the audience wasn\u2019t sure she\u2019d make it through. I rewatched the pilot and knowing what you just said, that\u2019s wild and very meta.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> Oh, that\u2019s awesome. [Using the pilot voiceover] is an idea that I had and I didn\u2019t know if it would work, and then it ended up working and it\u2019s so cool because there\u2019s something slightly disconnected about it that\u2019s really interesting. I think almost subconsciously as an audience member, you feel the meta nature of it, especially when she says, \u201cMy name is Offred.\u201d And the [tape recording click] is in the pilot. After the door slams, you hear the click.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> The click of the recording at the beginning, we put in the pilot. So we have been thinking about this particular moment since then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>I also don\u2019t know that there\u2019s another IP that got a sequel midway through, which then tasked the show with landing the plane but keeping the world open. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> That\u2019s the key here. I\u2019m going to have to beg some flexibility. Most of the time, when you\u2019re adapting a book, the person who wrote it is not continuing the books. Sometimes they are with <em><a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game<\/a> of Thrones<\/em>. But most of the time, it was a book written in the past. In this case, there are great things about having Margaret around that outweigh the problem of her being able to change her world a little bit when she wants to. Of course she can do that. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBut I think the way to look at <em>The Testaments<\/em> is that <em>The Testaments <\/em>book is a sequel to <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> book, and there are things that are different between that and the show; timeline things that end up mattering because you want it to be consistent within the TV world. So [as creator of <em>The Testaments<\/em>], I\u2019m trying to make a sequel to the TV show <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale <\/em>and make that work cleanly. There are things that actually contradict from the book to the TV show, but each adaptation has to be its own thing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:3000px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((2000\/3000)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/176028_0117RT.jpg?w=3000\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"2000\" width=\"3000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">Husband Luke (O-T Fagbengle) with wife June (Elisabeth Moss) in their final scene.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Disney\/Steve Wilkie<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>You left June \u2014 and also Luke, and likely Rita (Amanda Brugel) and Moira (Samira Wiley) \u2014 still out there in the ether of this TV universe fighting against Gilead. Moss is an executive producer on <em>The Testaments,<\/em> but there\u2019s no word about an onscreen role. What would you say to people who are hoping June will show up in <em>The Testaments<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> That\u2019s a good thing to hope for. I hope she shows up there, too. She\u2019s still doing her job, still doing what she was doing in <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>. Luke and Moira are still out there somewhere, ringing the bell to get Hannah back. The beauty of having watched <em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> is that you understand there\u2019s this huge operation of people who are out there who care and who are risking themselves to get to reunite with their children. The people in <em>The Testaments <\/em>show don\u2019t feel that. But from experiencing <em>Handmaid\u2019s<\/em>, you know there\u2019s this whole operation. So is June influencing <em>The Testaments<\/em>? Absolutely. She\u2019s out there. She\u2019s trying to get Hannah back. Do we see her? I would love to see her.\u00a0I love Lizzie Moss, she\u2019s awesome! She\u2019s very involved behind the scenes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> You\u2019re just going to have to watch the show. [<em>Moss is currently filming the forthcoming Apple series Imperfect Women<\/em>.] I won\u2019t be there [on set of <em>The Testaments<\/em>], which is different as a producer. But I can\u2019t not be hands on. I don\u2019t know how to do it any other way. And it certainly feels hands on, given the amount of emails!<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>So if we weren\u2019t going to get Hannah back, did you always know you were going to give Janine Charlotte back? Thank you for that!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> Oh, my gosh. Yes. One of the things I always thought is that little girl looks so much like her. We had talked from the beginning, and a lot of it was about building Naomi and Janine to the point where that would happen. Building to where Naomi knows the one thing about Janine is that Janine is really tough, which she needs to know when she\u2019s [giving her daughter back]. Listen, I hope June does get Hannah back. But I\u2019m hoping that people feel like this is the ending to Janine\u2019s story [that she deserves]. The fact that I\u2019m not going to be able to work with or see Maddie Brewer every day is impossible to say out loud. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> Ever wasn\u2019t in that scene originally, and I asked if she could be there. I really wanted her to be a part of it. I felt that it was really important that Naomi is the one who hands Charlotte over to Janine. I felt like that was a story for Ever and for that character that needed to be her ending in the show. That Janine scene just kills me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Could there be a place for Janine in the background fight in <em>The Testaments<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> I would be thrilled. I think you should imagine that all these people are in the background still fighting to save these girls you see in <em>The Testaments<\/em>. Fighting, fighting, fighting. As calm as it will seem in Gilead, as sweet and human and beautiful as Gilead is in <em>The Testaments<\/em>, you know that there are people pounding on the walls from the outside \u2014 and you\u2019ve met those people. <\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:3000px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((2000\/3000)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/176031_0158RT.jpg?w=3000\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"2000\" width=\"3000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">Janine (Madeline Brewer) with daughter Charlotte in the series finale.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Disney\/Steve Wilkie<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>One character who may not be in that fight is Serena. I understand you had a different ending for her than the one that we saw. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> I don\u2019t believe \u201cwhat people deserve\u201d and all that stuff, but I wanted to kill her. Because I think she was such a horrible person and being dead on the side of the road completely anonymously [after she was pushed from the train in the beginning of the season] would have been a fitting end. I had to be convinced not to throw her off that train, along with the kid. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Wow. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> Bruce did tell me his thoughts and he told me that he was toying with certain things. I\u2019m not the writer, and I respect the role of the writer very much. So he told me what he was thinking and I thought, \u201cOkay, that\u2019s interesting. Wow, that would be kind of crazy if she didn\u2019t make it.\u201d But in my heart, I really wanted to see her survive because I\u2019m Serena\u2019s biggest fan. I\u2019m her biggest supporter and defender. I want her to live. I just think she deserves that, and I think Noah [her son] deserves that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> If it was Eva Braun and it was Hitler\u2019s kid, what would you do? I don\u2019t think anybody would hesitate. But I love what we ended up doing because what I really wanted for most of the characters is to get exactly what they wanted and see what happened. June got a ton of what she wanted and a ton of stuff she didn\u2019t expect, including Emily[\u2018s return], including reuniting with Luke, who she thought was dead at the beginning of the show. Serena\u2019s story really feels like the end of Serena\u2019s story, that she is someone who\u2019s never going to admit that she did wrong. But you can see how holding onto the illusion that she did right is getting very, very difficult. I love Serena. I love her to the point where I\u2019m so much more mad at her because she should know better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>But to see June forgive her in the end felt like it gave the audience permission to accept that as well.  <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> That scene also kills me. I think it\u2019s beautiful. I couldn\u2019t read [Serena\u2019s ending] without crying. I can\u2019t watch it without crying. Yvonne\u2019s performance is magnificent. Each and every single one of these actors is at the top of their fucking game this season. And she did it in one take. That whole speech when she\u2019s talking to the baby. I get chills talking about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> Circling back to their performances and the new things they all brought out in the final episode, they all did exceptional work. It\u2019s unfathomable that they would have these moments that you really feel are completely new and see different sides of the characters at the very last minute. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> Yvonne had the idea that she wanted to get to this place of acceptance and place of peace at the end. It would have been very easy to cut that scene shorter, but when we were in the edit I protected it because Yvonne wanted her character to find peace. You see this peace on her face where she realizes Noah is all she needs. That\u2019s all Serena ever wanted: Having a baby. I think her ending is my favorite ending in the series. It\u2019s so perfect.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:3000px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((2000\/3000)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/176022_0156RT.jpg?w=3000\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"2000\" width=\"3000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) with son Noah in the series finale.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Disney\/Steve Wilkie<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Did Alexis Bledel [who left the series after season four] need convincing to come back or was she excited when she got the call from you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> We were both thrilled that it might work out. I think she was really excited when we talked. The only thing that was hard was the logistics to get her up for the time we needed. But no, it was not hard at all, and it wasn\u2019t hard to decide to try to see if she was going to be available. It was great having her back that day \u2014 except she cried and hugged people every four feet, it seemed emotionally difficult! But it was wonderful to see her and Lizzie get right back into it after all that time. It\u2019s like watching the fucking Yankees bullpen every day with these guys. They\u2019re so good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> Bruce talked to me about bringing her back a while ago, before there was even an outline or script. I think I said to him at the time, \u201cYou realize now that you\u2019ve told me that, we have to do it.\u201d It\u2019s not the easiest thing in the world to call an actor and be like, \u201cCan you come back for this one episode?\u201d They\u2019re busy. But I was like, \u201cShe has to do it.\u201d I get very passionate about these things! And she wanted to do it from the beginning. She didn\u2019t need convincing at all. My first official scene on day one [on set] was with Alexis. So it meant a lot to get to work with her again. (<em>Bledel spoke to THR about her return<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Were there characters along the way who you considered killing but let live?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MILLER<\/strong> No, I don\u2019t really think about it that way. I think, do they end up in some place where they would die or not? By definition, the handmaid told this story. She had to live to the end, so the story is about her dodging explosions and stuff. That\u2019s part of the story. But the other people \u2014 I don\u2019t ever want to kill anybody, but I know that if I was in this group of people and Janine died, I would never recover. if Janine died <em>and<\/em> Alma [Nina Kiri] died, I would never recover. TV people die willy nilly. When people in your life die, it changes you. I don\u2019t know that June would be the same June if those people would have all been killed off. One of the reasons those people are in her memories is because they didn\u2019t die.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> I hope people see the positivity [in the ending]. The final piece of music that plays over the credits is so hopeful. The piece of music [we chose] is from season four, when June tells Luke that she\u2019s pregnant. It\u2019s so much about the future and the future being brighter, and the next generation having a better chance. So the final decision that we made on the series is about the future. <\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:3000px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((2000\/3000)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/176035_0117RT.jpg?w=3000\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"2000\" width=\"3000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">Alexis Bledel, here with Moss, returned as Emily for the series finale.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Disney\/Steve Wilkie<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>Does that mean we should find hope in June and Luke\u2019s final conversation? Because it was ambiguous.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<strong>MOSS<\/strong> Yes. I don\u2019t think I was so ambiguous! I definitely felt like there was hope in that future when I was standing there with him. We had this idea to play it like they were flirting with each other, like they had crushes on each other. Like, did they almost go back to the beginning? There\u2019s such a circular nature to the finale and absolutely I think there\u2019s a lot of hope for the two of them. But I think they have to kind of start again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t***<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale is now streaming all episodes on Hulu. Read THR\u2019s comprehensive oral history on the series and mini oral history on the penultimate episode.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-features\/the-handmaids-tale-series-finale-june-hannah-ending-explained-1236229967\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from The Handmaid\u2019s Tale series finale, titled \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale.\u201d] The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2018s creator Bruce Miller always knew how he was going to end the series. A key location detail changed along the way and he didn\u2019t know how many seasons it would take to get there, or that Margaret&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":671683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/176028_0053RT.jpg?w=1440&h=810&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[116383,81390,103563,12570,1940,136042,103565,46106,155449,26458,133115,138507],"class_list":["post-671682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-alexis-bledel","tag-ann-dowd","tag-bruce-miller","tag-elisabeth-moss","tag-hulu","tag-madeline-brewer","tag-margaret-atwood","tag-o-t-fagbenle","tag-samira-wiley","tag-the-handmaids-tale","tag-the-testaments","tag-yvonne-strahovski"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}