The Handmaid’s Tale has officially come to an end after six seasons – but fans have been left divided over the final episode.
The sixth and final season – which is airing a few weeks behind in the UK on Prime Video and Channel 4 (so stop reading here if you want to avoid spoilers) – debuted its finale episode in the US today, following the aftermath of a fierce revolution against the tyrannical nation of Gilead, led by Elisabeth Moss’s former Handmaid June Osborne.
While some fans have branded the episode and series as a whole as “phenomenal”, others have been left disappointed.
The biggest disappointment seems to be the absence of a reunion between June and her daughter Hannah, who was taken from her as young child and given to another family under the Gileadean regime.
Sharing their reaction to the finale under a video posted by the show’s official Instagram page, one viewer wrote: “What WAS that?! I get the whole sentiment. But no loose ends tied up?! I don’t get why there wasn’t one more episode or even a season to get Hannah back?!”
“ALL WE WANTED WAS A HANNAH REUNION!!!!! Was that SO MUCH to ask for COME ON!!” said another, with a third adding: “Thanks for nothing in that final episode. What a wasted opportunity.”
“I think the worst part of it all is that we never got an ending that included Hannah,” wrote a fourth. “Hannah was the entire mission from day one.”
However, others were satisfied with the ending, writing: “Congratulations to everyone who played a part on this show – it was PHENOMENAL.”
One pointed out that June “doesn’t get Hannah back” in Margaret Atwood’s original book, while another said they “loved the ending” because it “sets us up for the next chapter”.
Some fans will know that a spin-off series titled The Testaments, based on Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name, is currently in the works.
Set 15 years after the original story, The Testaments is told from the perspective of a newly rebellious Aunt Lydia, who has secretly joined the resistance. Hannah – who was renamed Agnes by her new family – will also appear in the series as she begins to question Gilead and her origins.
“[The Testaments] is about someone on the top in Gilead. This is about Hannah or Agnes, who’s the daughter of a high commander who is the top of the food chain for women in Gilead, and it’s still awful,” the show’s creator Bruce Miller recently explained.
“That’s what we find out, is that being on the top of a food chain in a misogynistic society doesn’t make it any better. It just puts more of a target on your head.”
