The Handmaid's Tale Season 5 - TV Series Review

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[center] Image Source [/center]"Turns out, after all this, I guess I'm a better Christian than you. "June Osborne to Serena Waterford, "Motherland", The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale Season 5 premiered on 14 September 2022 and concluded on 9 November 2022. It consisted of 10 episodes and starred Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne, Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy Waterford, Madeline Brewer as Janine Lindo, Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia, O.T Fagbenle as Luke Bankole, Sam Jaeger as Mark Tuello, Max Minghella as Commander Nick Blaine, Amanda Brugel as Rita Blue, Samira Wiley as Moira Strand and Bradley Whitford as Commander Joseph Lawrence. This review will contain spoilers.

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The show picks up after the season four finale "The Wilderness" which saw June and a group of former handmaids get revenge against Commander Fred Waterford by killing him. In season five, June struggles to process her trauma and rage and redefine her identity and purpose now that her abuser has finally met justice. A heavily pregnant Serena adapts to life as a widow and tries to increase Gilead's presence in Canada. June and Luke try to rebuild their relationship and continue their mission to rescue their daughter Hannah from Gilead and reunite with her before it is too late.

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One of the things that I liked so much about season five was how it focused less on June and Nick and instead devoted a lot of time to rebuilding June and Luke as a couple. I am not a huge fan of June and Nick and have spoken in the past that I felt that they were problematic as a couple due to the balance imbalance of Nick being a Commander and June being a handmaid. After last season, I was worried that June and Luke's relationship wasn't going to last. I was pretty convinced that Luke was going to break up with June after discovering she killed her rapist and abuser Fred Waterford. To my surprise, he stuck by her, and even defended her. I was pleased to see the writers took things in that direction.

In the episode "Dear Offred" June is disturbed when a heavily pregnant Serena Waterford becomes a spokesperson for Gilead in Toronto. June wants to murder her, but Luke talks her down, and asks her to let him talk to her. He visits Serena and tells her that June is going to kill her, and he will let her. Luke won me over so much in this scene. I love how he is unafraid of June's rage and completely understands her need to get revenge.

Later in the episode, June tells Luke that she can't promise she won't kill Serena the next time she sees her. Luke tells her he can't promise he won't kill her either, so they'll just have to trust each other. I loved that Luke doesn't tell June to calm down, or not to kill Serena, and even admits he shares the same murderous urge that she does. He validates her feelings and even returns them. The two of them start kissing and then share a sex scene together. This was one of my favourite moments in the season. As they undress each other, Luke kisses her scars, and she kisses his. It was a beautiful healing moment between them.



One of the things that I liked most about this season was Luke finally got some much-needed character development. In the episode "Fairytale" June and Luke travel into No Man's Land to make contact with a Guardian who has information for them about Hannah. They meet up with a young Guardian named Jaeden who takes them back to an old bowling alley and gives them a flash drive with information about Hannah's school on it.

Luke and June discover that Jaeden is a sweet young man, but are saddened when he tells them that he has very little memories of what his life was like before Gilead. Jaeden grabs them beers and insists they stay and bowl for a while. After playing a few games of bowling, Luke starts playing on the keyboard and serenades June with Al Green's "Let's Stay Together". Luke pulls June into his arms and they start to dance. Jaeden asks Luke if he wrote the song, and he tells him he did with a little smile. Jaeden, smiling, shines a light onto a disco ball as they dance and it makes them laugh. This was such a lovely moment between June and Luke. Jaeden's wonder at Luke's singing was bittersweet because you could tell that it had been a long time since he had last heard music like that. I loved the look of child-like happiness on his face as he watched June and Luke dance.

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Luke's character journey this season involved him battling with guilt for not returning to Gilead to try and rescue Hannah and leaving his wife June to take all of the risks and suffer the consequences. In the episode "Dear Offred" Serena reminds him of this and taunts him by telling him at least June had Nick's support in Gilead. It is Serena's cruel comments which encourage Luke to want to go into No Man's Land to meet Jaeden.

In the episode "Together", June and Luke get captured trying to return from meeting Jaeden in No Man's Land, and are driven to a warehouse and placed in separate cages. Despite the seriousness of the situation, June and Luke flirt and joke with each other while in captivity. When the guards return, June is experienced enough to know what to do next, but Luke is not. He tries to escape his cell and rescue June, causing the guards to beat him and lock him back in his cell. Later, June apologises to Luke for letting him come into No Man's Land and risk his life. Luke tells her no apology is necessary, he made the choice to take the risk and suffer the consequences. June tells Luke not to lose hope and they hold hands through the bars.

What I love about this episode is how Luke is given more agency, takes some risks, and gets a little glimpse into what June suffered in Gilead. His motivations to protect his wife and take some of the risks and shield her from the consequences is relatable. I also liked that we got to see more of June and Luke taking risks together as a couple in this episode.

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I thought for the longest time that The Handmaid's Tale was setting June up to have to choose between Luke or Nick. I hated the love triangle that existed between them and the arguments that fans would get into over which one was better suited for June. To my surprise the writers haven't made June pick one of them yet. I am really happy about that. June has a child with both men, and loves both men, but she is not their property to share around. She is free to make her own choices.

I really liked Commander Nick Blaine's storyline this season. I have been critical of Nick for a long time for choosing to stay in Gilead and becoming a Commander, instead of choosing to join June and the resistance, and to reunite with their daughter Nichole in Canada. In the season five episode "Safe" Mark Tuello finally calls Nick out on his torn allegiances between Gilead and June and asks him why he never used his influence to leave for Canada. Nick struggles to defend his actions, because he knows that Tuello is right to judge him for his lack of action. He could leave Gilead and use his contacts and knowledge to help bring it all down, but he doesn't. He remained behind and gained power for himself and helped build a regime that dismantled the rights of women and reduced their legal status to property. He cares for June and Nichole, but what about all of the other women and girls in Gilead? In "Safe" Nick comes closer than ever before to cracking under the pressure to choose a side. After June is attacked, he punches Commander Lawrence, and gets himself arrested. I want to see more of this angry, emotional Nick in season six.

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I am not a fan of Aunt Lydia. The writers of The Handmaid's Tale have been laying the groundwork of her redemption arc for sometime now. Aunt Lydia is a very strict and brutal woman who has been brainwashed by Gilead into oppressing and punishing the Handmaids. In season five, we start to see more cracks appear in her, as she starts to question if her treatment of the Handmaids has been cruel. In the previous season, we saw Aunt Lydia and Commander Lawrence start to conspire together. In season five, their relationship comes under strain as Aunt Lydia starts to fight more to protect the Handmaids from being brutalised at the hands of men. It is clear that the show is setting up Aunt Lydia and Commander Lawrence to become enemies in season six. I don't think Aunt Lydia's redemption arc will see her abandon Gilead completely, she is too much of a believer, and sees the Handmaids under her protection as "Her girls". I want to see how far she will go to protect them from Commander Lawrence in season six.

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I thought that Mckenna Grace delivered a fantastic performance this season as Esther Keyes. Esther is a traumatised fourteen-year-old struggling to adapt to her new life as a handmaid. Esther was first introduced in season four as the young wife of an elderly commander. After poisoning her husband and helping June, Esther is arrested and made into a handmaid.

In season five her storyline is short and very tragic. In the episode "Ballet" Esther is raped by Commander Putnam, one day before she was due to be posted to his house as his handmaid. Traumatised, Esther poisons herself and Janine, calling her friend a disgrace for helping Aunt Lydia and not rebelling like June had. In the episode "Together" it is revealed that Esther is pregnant from the rape. When a horrified Aunt Lydia tries to soothe Esther, she recoils at her touch and becomes aggressive, screaming in bed, and struggling against her restraints.

I really hope that Esther will make an appearance in the sixth season of The Handmaid's Tale and that her story will have a satisfying ending. Some fans of the show didn't like it when she poisoned Janine. They thought it was unfair because Janine, another handmaid, has also suffered a lot in Gilead. I think this is unfair. Esther and Janine are both victims of Gilead. Janine forgives Esther for poisoning her because she understands that she is a traumatised and frightened child lashing out against Gilead.

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I thought that Serena Joy Waterford had the most interesting storyline this season. There were a lot of fans that speculated that Serena would be made into a Handmaid after the death of her husband. I wasn't a fan of that idea. Serena is an awful, terrible person, but she doesn't deserve to be made into a Handmaid. She needs to be sent to prison for her crimes not stripped of her rights, reduced to property, and raped once a month. No one deserves to be made into a Handmaid, not even Serena Waterford.

Serena has always been a narcissist who thought that the laws in Gilead that stripped women of their rights would never affect her. In season five, she is sent to live in Canada and confined to a household and forced to live as an unofficial Handmaid, which devastates her. This forces her to reflect on her past choices and how she treated June when she was assigned to her house in Gilead as a Handmaid. I am not convinced that Serena is going to have a full redemption arc, because I believe she is a narcissist, who only really cares about herself and doesn't have much empathy for others. It was nice seeing her get knocked down a couple of pegs and finally realise that she made a terrible mistake putting her trust in Gilead. Yvonne Strahovski is definitely the star of this season. She gives a truly stunning performance of a deeply flawed, complicated woman. I can't wait to see her return as Serena Joy Waterford. The sixth and final season of The Handmaid's Tale will return in 2023.

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