Plus, Bruce Miller also explains why this is the most romantic Nick and June season yet.
Warning: This article contains spoilers fromThe Handmaid’s Taleseason 5 finale.
“You got a diaper?”
Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ season 5 finale.Hulu
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, the episode starts with June getting run over by a Gilead sympathizer.
How did you decide on that method of torture for our heroine this time around?
So it was very much influenced by that.
It’s like she doesn’t even exist.
I’ve never seen something like this on television.
And the truck is in the previous three or four episodes, I think.
It goes by really quickly at one point when they’re scrubbing the driveway.
Oh, that’s right.
And then the shot immediately before it happens, the full circle tracking shot, is so uneasy.
It’s just perfect.
And I love the fact that it’s slow.
That makes it uneasy, and you’re looking so carefully, like, “What’s going on?
What am I missing?
What’s the terrible thing I don’t see yet?”
Right, and it was all so serene just moments before.
That’s what June says, she says, “Don’t spoil it.”
And it seems like everyone’s happiness is spoiled this episode.
Let’s start with Janine.
And June pays a lot.
Janine is channeling her inner June, and look at the consequences.
But being picked up by The Eyes can mean a lot of things.
And they’re not very polite about it.
But she also could just get pulled out and shot in the middle of the street.
I mean, it’s that kind of place.
I’m wondering about her motivations in that moment.
I think she’s motivated by what June is realizing, which is, they hate us.
And that Naomi, as nice as she’s being, hates me.
This is how you treat someone you hate.
You treat someone you hate by holding them in your house and raping them youhateme.
Why is this news to you?
And it’s probably better now.
Is this going to be the final straw that pushes Lydia against Gilead maybe?
No, I don’t think it’s as simple as that.
I think that there is a version of Gilead that Lydia thinks would work.
And this version doesn’t work.
If she sat down and told you what she thinks was right, you’d run like hell.
So, does she want to overturn Gilead?
None of these people do.
What kind of world is that for women?
And women are raped every day.
And so [in their mind], why would you want to go back to that?
Let’s talk about Nick.
I don’t think he squandered his goodwill.
The important part of that is “try,” and here, he wasn’t able to.
He’s not gonna get executed.
The men don’t have to follow any of these f—ing rules.
So I think that Nick, the problem is, he tries to stay out of trouble.
And now he can’t, because the thing that’s pulling him back to trouble is June.
And by the end, they are not successful at all, they fail entirely.
The last thing June says to Tuello is, “double-check you tell Nick we’re okay.”
I love all the romantic things that Nick does.
He’s not playing chess at all.
If he was playing chess, he’d be a lot better off.
He’s playing checkers and everyone has a big heart symbol [on their pieces].
This brings me to Serena, whom we don’t see at all until the end of the episode.
They aren’t friends at all.
Serena hurt June in ways that she can never, ever forgive.
And certainly she hurt a zillion people, and she doesn’t regret it.
I mean, she regrets some, in a moment, she regrets it.
So I don’t think they’re friends, but they are familiar faces.
So I think seeing each other, you get that moment.
So what I want to do is just lay a little groundwork.
So when you say, “Did you build up to this moment?”
When did you know the season would end this way?
I thought through Serena’s story before I thought where June was going to end up.
I try never to kick off the next season at the end of the previous season.
That’s a huge distance to go.
How much of the final season do you have mapped out?
How much can you tell us?
I’m very lucky in that I’ve had a long time to think about this.
We are ending our show on our own creative terms.
Hulu and MGM have been uniquely remarkable and generous in that way.
So if you hate it, it actually was on purpose.
It wasn’t a mistake.
I didn’t stumble.
[Laughs] But do I know what happens in season 6?
Yes, I did think about the stuff that happens in season 6 for a while.
But I also have been watching other shows end successfully or unsuccessfully.
And I’ve got to take those lessons.
So now, I’ve been watching a lot of last seasons of shows that knew they were ending.
And how do you do it?
How do you do it in a way that’s frustrating?
How do you do it in a way that’s satisfying?
I just want it to be a solid season.
And I just want every episode to be solid, and therefore I want every scene to be solid.
And that’s all I’m thinking about.
And if it doesn’t feel like the finale of a show, that’s okay.
I mean, the beginning of it didn’t feel like the beginning of a show either.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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