crashdown

I think this is a ridiculous exaggeration of Serena's culpability, and it's one that seems common in the HMT fandom. She bears SOME responsibility for Gilead, but she doesn't have as much blood on her hands as, for instance, Fred did. She wrote a book urging women to embrace their biological destinies and have children. That book became one of the foundational texts for Gilead. She was explicitly shut out of the planning of Gilead because she was a woman. Sure, she thought the vision of her husband and other commanders was a good idea, but she DID NOT PLAN IT HERSELF. She has *some* culpability for Gilead, but nothing close to that of the MALE commanders who ACTUALLY DID THE PLANNING. As an analogy, Henry Ford wrote a four-volume anti-semitic set of pamphlets that greatly influenced Hitler and the rise of naziism. I imagine that Ford would have been on board with naziism in its early conceptional stage. How responsible was Henry Ford for the deaths of six million Jews? As responsible as first-degree participants like Hitler? I don't think so, and neither is Serena.

That's what irritates me most--obviously, she could have stayed in Boston. She was the one who GAVE them Boston. Tuello has said over and over to Nick that he just had to play ball for a little while and he could get full immunity in America. (Nick just never wanted to do that.) The *only* reason Serena couldn't stay was a plot device--they needed to give her a poetic and fitting ending where she had the thing she wanted most and exactly nothing else, where they could have their cool literary parallel with the bed, table, and chair in June's original bedroom at the Waterfords. As someone fond of Serena, I'm exasperated on her behalf. Objectively, she screwed herself by giving June that intel. If she hadn't, Gilead wouldn't have pulled out of Boston. She'd have been able to go to New Bethlehem (which would still exist) and have both Noah and a nice seaside condo. I've read similar sentiments all over the Internet. It's convinced me to watch Andor!

Actually, only Luke (and Moira) is working with Mayday. June is going to be working with Tuello, and I guess occasionally the interests of the Americans and Mayday will intersect, as they did for the Take Back Boston mission. It's a little confusing, but I assume it's partially a way to give a reason for Luke and June to split up. Luke is full-on Mayday, and June is not.

Of course Tuello wouldn't become genuinely involved with Serena or (gasp!) marry her! But he could easily pull the strings necessary for her to become an American asset and have the protection that such assets get. In fact, it's exactly what would have happened if this weren't the final episode, necessitating a Fitting End for Serena. They could not have taken back Massachusetts without Serena's intel, which June freely admitted. She'd have been rewarded for that with safety in Boston. But since she's obviously not ready to full-on fight against Gilead, they had to move in another direction. If they want her back for The Testaments for an occasional cameo, I have no doubt that they'll figure out a reasonable way for that to happen. I also have no doubt that Elisabeth Moss will *really* want that to happen, if The Testaments is successful at all. I don't imagine we'll see Serena before a few seasons have passed and they're scrambling around for some new story. At the very least, I'm confident that someone will mention her in passing. I think it's appropriate, too. Serena has the two things she wanted most--June's forgiveness and Noah--and exactly nothing else. It's a good ending for her. Whether she'd do it all over again, knowing that she'd get Noah at the end of it, is an interesting question. I'm pretty sure that she'd do it all over again with some anonymous Handmaid, even though she HAS changed in many ways. Would she do ALL of it all over again, TO JUNE? No, I actually don't think that she could manage that--she loves June too much for that. I also agree that June would give up Holly/Nichole and Janine to prevent Gilead, but I don't think she'd give up Hannah for it. There are limits for both of them. I think objectively it was not a particularly good series finale--too much forced fan service, not much really happening. The fact that it also had to move a few chess pieces around to set up for The Testaments didn't help. But really, there are very few series finales that I really think are GOOD: Star Trek TNG; Six Feet Under; The Americans; Halt and Catch Fire; Friday Night Lights; Newhart; Bojack Horseman; Freaks and Geeks. (Man, that's off the top of my head! I watch too much television!) The point is, series finales are hard, and expectations should necessarily be low. This wasn't a great finale, but it certainly isn't the worst one that I've ever seen. I thought exactly the same thing, and it would actually have been a dark and hilarious ending--June dies in the remnants of the Waterford house after surviving everything else. It would have been fire! :-)

Nightly rapes and abuse will do that to you!

Yes, you're right--that was probably intended to be a sop to Osblaine shippers. However, it didn't go over well, because the idea of Serena, of all people, giving Nick more grace than June did is anathema to them. I personally love that line, because it's such a weird thing for Serena to be saying--Serena, who never manages to empathize with anyone except June. But Nick and Serena have always had a fascinating link through June: they've been set up as sort of literary doubles, torn between choosing June (whom they both love) and choosing Gilead (which gives them status and power). Ultimately, Serena chose June and Nick chose Gilead, but it easily could have gone the other way. Serena said that "he would have chosen you" line because she REALLY understands what it's like to want to choose June and not feel able to do so.

Nick/June shippers (Osblaine) are feeling betrayed by the show because Nick was killed and June isn't mourning him properly. They've turned against June viciously. I'm sympathetic to shippers, but if you worship the sort-of-Nazi guy at the expense of the female resistance heroine, you've sort of lost the plot of what The Handmaid's Tale is supposed to be about.

Never say never--Tuello is essentially "America," and he can make whatever he wants to happen come to pass with a wave of his hand. I think the fact that June is joining forces with Tuello instead of Mayday and the fact that Tuello is Serena's only link to the world leaves things pretty open. (There's also the fact that Lizzie Moss has said she'd love to see what Serena's up to in The Testaments, of course! She's apparently the one who saved Serena at all, BTW. Bruce Miller wanted to push her off the train and have her dead on the side of the road as an anonymous corpse.) I wondered if the fact that Emily had been hanging out in Connecticut was some sort of sly meta joke about Gilmore Girls. If so, I chuckled.

I don’t think Nick shippers see it *quite* that way. Osblaine is going batshit all over the Internet.

The source showed pictures, so there's a decent chance that it's true. Also, Serena seems to be escaping into the woods with Noah, and Jeanine is reunited with Charlotte (also in the woods).

Rumor from decent sources has it that Emily will appear in 6.10. I hope she does. I'll be glad to see her!

I'm sure they did it because they knew that the final season would take place in Gilead, and they wanted to leave open the possibility of an Emily return. It didn't work out that way, but if they'd shipped her off with her family to some idyllic life in Hawaii, it would have been impossible. Except that it would be nonsensical for what's left of a near-poverty-stricken America to cooperate with both Canada and enemy Gilead to spend the incredible amounts of money it would take to build a railroad through largely uninhabited wilderness. The universe of The Handmaid's Tale can indeed be different from our universe, but it has to make sense. It doesn't.

No, she isn't--I don't know why people keep saying that. She WAS pregnant during the break, and she had the baby in 2024.

Yes, that's true of the book. They're going a different way in the TV adaptation.

They've more or less confirmed that Nichole/Holly will NOT be part of the show. There's a Daisy character, but it will be some other person, not June's daughter. The series will focus on Hannah and her friends growing up in Gilead. I've been calling it Gilead 90210 in my head, and I'm nervous that it's going to be a kind of teen soap. Bruce Miller's background is The 100, after all.