‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ boss on the ‘impossibility’ of [SPOILER’s] return in series finale and ‘weepy’ karaoke scene

This article contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale season 6, episode 10, “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

After six seasons and eight years, The Handmaid’s Tale has finally written its last chapter.

Rather poetically, this meant the acclaimed Hulu drama went full circle, with June (Elisabeth Moss) returning to the (now bombed out) Waterford house where she was first held prisoner as a handmaid in season 1, and dictating what would become her book, the eponymous Handmaid’s Tale.

Before that, though, June tells us that the rebellion, at least in Boston, is over — it’s America again there, not Gilead. The plan is to take the country back, city by city, until she and Luke can get to Hannah someday. Feeling a bit down about the Hannah of it all, June has a serendipitous reunion with Emily (Alexis Bledel), whom we haven’t seen since season 4.

The two catch up, and Emily tells her that she was in Bridgeport, “a hotspot of rebellion” all this time. She was a Martha, and the house’s commander was “a friend,” so she was able to communicate with her family as she worked with the rebels. She encourages June to keep going by telling her, “I’m thinking of adjusting my concept of the impossible.”

Speaking of impossible reunions, Aunt Lydia finds Janine, and reunites her with her daughter, Charlotte, with the surprising help of Naomi. June’s mother, Holly, shows up with baby Nichole, and agrees to keep watching her while June continues the good fight. Serena and her baby make it to a refugee center, and she decides that June was right all along — all she needs is her son. Before we see June start her book, she and Luke part ways, with both vowing to keep fighting to get to Hannah. “So, meet you there?” he asks her, knowingly. “F— yeah,” she says with her trademark grin.

Entertainment Weekly caught up with series creator Bruce Miller, who wrote the finale episode, about the major return of Emily, the conversation he had with Moss about the way the series would end, and whether or not we might see some Handmaid’s faces pop up in his sequel series, The Testaments.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Compared to episode 8 and 9, the finale is very calm and subdued, and dare I say, happy? Tell me about that decision to reel it back in after these two massive, explosive episodes.

BRUCE MILLER: I was trying to think of it in the context of being the last episode of a series, not the finale, but the last episode of a series, and really capping the series in a way that was totally correct for your experience. And I think in a lot of ways it was mostly a contemplative experience of trauma, not a bombastic one. So looking back on the show, I would say probably the most memorable moments for me are June sitting, still thinking about something — oftentimes that was the saddest parts of the show or the most moving part. So at least it felt to me like I was going back to the very June-focused point of view, getting her reflection on the things that we had seen, but also kind of the end of that story, what happened after the big fight. 

And so in that way, I certainly wasn’t trying to write an analogy. I was trying to write something that was an interesting episode of television, and there’s a lot of terrible finales. And so I was also [thinking] first do no harm. I was trying not to undo things in the show by changing things. I had had a conversation about this ending with Elisabeth Moss, I think before we even signed her up for the show, about how it would possibly end. And it seemed like her free back in Boston, her being able to record her story, all of those things felt like they weren’t what we were aiming towards, they were what we had already lifted off from.

So from that conversation all those years ago, what ended up being different in the finale?

Well, when we discussed it, I remember Elisabeth and I discussed what had happened to the book. Because in some ways, the very last thing you know about the character of Offred in the book is that she recorded this thing. That’s the very last thing in the book. So it seemed for me like, oh, at some point, I have to say that thing, that’s the most important thing we find out, is that she decided to take all of this really uncomfortable stuff and tell us about it. So who was that woman? How did she make that decision? So in that way, it didn’t feel like I was picking a tone. It felt more like I was just following the tone of the piece as a whole, as opposed to the tone of that particular trio of episodes.

So it didn’t change that much when we got there in terms of the idea of it, in terms of the arc of June. But [the how] did change because in the book, there’s a different set of situations. And actually having that conversation early on is nice because you’re realizing, okay, we’re not going to be able to follow this book exactly because it’s not a TV show. And so let’s not get too hung up. And to be honest, Elisabeth Moss comes from… her career has been such a selection. She has unbelievably thoughtful taste, and so she’s been on shows that have lasted a long time and ended mindfully. So she’s one of the few people who you can have a conversation with on that kind of call and say, what are your ideas about ending this mindfully? Because she’s been through it more times than I had. You can only have a conversation with a few very unusual artists who have been through this more than once, and Elisabeth Moss is one of them.

It felt so inevitable that her journey would end back at the beginning, writing a book.

And she was a book editor [before Gilead]! Someone should have thought of it a long time ago. She should have thought of it. That’s the great thing. You’re like, “Duh. Of course.” And she loves to write and she misses it, and it’s so funny, she was writing a book in her head the whole time.

My heart dropped out of my chest when June was standing at the ice cream shop and we hear a voice, and realize it’s the long lost Emily. Why was the finale the right place to bring her back and what was that like, having Alexis back?

Wow. Why was it the best place? I mean, look at [your reaction], you could barely ask the question, and I can barely answer it. She’s so wonderful. The character’s amazing. It was incredibly exciting to have Alexis back just as a person. And she has a very complicated schedule with children and stuff, so it was hard to get her to come up, but I mean, it was a cry and hug fest the whole time we had her there. But to bring her back, she was such a part of June’s beginning in Gilead that it seemed like when June was in this particular episode, revisiting her actual experience on the ground in that neighborhood for the very first time… Because before this, June was there before Gilead, that was where she lived. Then she was there as a slave, and then she was a little bit there as a rebel, but now she’s here, she can walk around. She’s a free woman, she can put her hands in her pocket, she can wear whatever color she wants.

There’s a person who is part of that whole journey. I think until [we know] what happened to that person, it doesn’t really make it a complete experience. And so I love that. And I also loved the impossibility of it, just the idea, if you’re able to stand in front of that ice cream shop and Emily walks up next to you and she’s okay and she’s not happy, but she’s not unhappy, she’s kind of the same way she was before. But she’s really smart and she’s teaching June things and making her think about all sorts of stuff. And [it’s like], “Look at us walking exactly the same rhythm. Look at us.” And I think that’s the message [of Emily’s return]: “Look at us. It’s so f—ing impossible for us to be here alive and together.” That teaches June that it doesn’t matter what happens in Boston, you just keep fighting to get to Hannah. That’s what you keep doing. So it kind of gives her a moment of, “Look at something that we absolutely never in a million years imagined, both of us standing here free.” You never would’ve imagined that that was true. And so in a very scientific way, Emily says, “I’m thinking of redefining my concept of the impossible.”

It’s such a beautiful moment, and of course it gets June imagining a world without Gilead, which gives us a sort of alternate reality Handmaid’s Tale karaoke scene I didn’t know I needed.

Yeah, I mean, I think when you get to the end of a show like this, there’s a counting up of your victories or counting up of your losses aspect of it. And I think you can’t help but come out of this season, at the beginning of the finale episode, thinking I just have losses to count. That’s why for June, I think losing Nick [in episode 9] would be the end of the era that she feels like that. That’s when you sit and you write the book, because until that happens, it isn’t over. Your handmaid time isn’t over because you have this love that you can’t resolve. And when that happens, you would think about, okay, that was the Nick time. I’m going to write about Nick time and then that’ll be done. So I think that there’s so much to mourn at the beginning, that by the end, you want people to be counting up some of the victories as well, because it’s like what Luke says. It isn’t all horror, and that’s what the karaoke scene is about. The dream is about that. If you never went to Gilead, you would never know Janine, would you trade those things? Well, of course, but you’d still never know Janine. I mean, how horrible would that be? [The karaoke scene] was very weepy for all of us.

What was it like wrapping that final day of shooting?

I was able to be on set for the filming of this episode, almost all of it, which was one of the great pleasures of my life, I have to tell you. Everybody to the very last day and the very last minute is trying so hard to outdo themselves and to do the best, most interesting artistic job they can do, so it was amazing. D’Arcy Carden was on set the very last day, the very last thing we were shooting, she happened to be there, and I was like, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” because it was freezing, it was the middle of the night, and she was bouncing off the wall. She was so excited to be there to the very last minute. At some point, I was thinking about how we would approach the final day, and speaking to some of my producer colleagues, I thought, well, it should be like the first day. It should be like every other day. It’s just going to be a work day, because otherwise you can’t make the show. If you start thinking about, oh, is it going to be magical? Is it going to be this? Is it going to be that?

I reminded them, and I’ll remind you, that our very first day of shooting, day zero when we first shot anything, was the aquarium scene in Toronto [between June, Hannah, and Luke]. We could only shoot there in the middle of the night because the fish have to sleep, which is true, but that was the first time Jordana [Blake, who plays young Hannah] and Elisabeth and O-T [Fagbenle, who plays Luke] worked together, and it’s in the finale. Footage from that day is in the finale. So I think the emotional thing about when you get to that end of the work, for me, is realizing the day-to-day commitment to making the coolest TV show you possibly can make with every decision — that’s why it was fun. Every department, every person in the show, every actor is just bringing it to the very last take to the very last minute. I mean, it was a remarkable experience. And the end of the experience is only sad because you’re not going to be doing those things anymore, but those people are of course still in your life. People say, are you going to miss them? And I’m like, well, if I miss them, I’ll call them, because they’re still in my life — but they won’t be in my life in that way. 

Might we expect some of those familiar faces in your sequel series, The Testaments, which I know you’re working away on as we speak?

Fortunately, much of our [Handmaid’s] crew came to be part of that. So we were very lucky to get those people to join a new fledgling operation. But certainly, at the end of Handmaid’s Tale, just in the time that I was talking to everybody, this thought always goes through your head: how can I possibly work with this person again? I mean, we have a collection of wonderful humans as actors, so in any way, shape or form, when I can weasel that character back into the show some way for something and someone is around and willing to do it, a thousand percent would love to have any of them. And I know I spoke to all of them and made my enthusiasm clear.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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