As the actress who embodies Serena on The Handmaid’s Tale, Yvonne Strahovski has never shied away from the fact that she is often conflicted about how she feels about her character. On the one hand, Strahovski has had to get herself to a place where she understands (and even justifies) Serena’s actions, but on the other, she feels “gross and dirty” admitting that because she also understands that Serena is “delusional.” Any inner conflict Strahovski may feel about Serena, though, has undoubtedly helped her layer her performance in the final season of the Hulu hit, which sees Serena experiencing her own conflict.
Almost attacked and then cast out of a train leaving Canada, Serena was on her own with her son at the start of the sixth and final season. They ended up finding refuge with a religious community where she was recognized, but her secret was kept. But as much as her faith was at the center of so many of her earlier decisions, so too was a hunger for power, and on the commune, that anonymity kept her down in a different, but still emotionally oppressive, way than her life as a wife in Gilead. So when Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) offered her a chance to lead again, she took it and went to New Bethlehem, where she hoped to find a way to change the way of life once more, but still ended up accepting Commander Wharton’s (Josh Charles) marriage proposal.
“Truthfully, the faith part of it has always been the most boring part [of her character],” Strahovski tells Gold Derby. “And so, it’s not ever something that I have personally been driven to operate through and from as her. … This season was probably the season where I got to let go of that the most because I think Serena lets go of it the most — because she is literally just completely option-less and has to just forge on with this opening position in front of her of being the female leader of New Bethlehem. … It really has become about the politics for her, more so than ever.”
That is not to say that she doesn’t have “flare-ups,” as Strahovski puts it, of her faith. After seeing flashbacks to her time with her father early on in the final season, it became clear that her father had an expectation of her to stay tied to faith. Because she had such a good relationship with him, Strahovski says it “is a point of guilt” to question or let go of her faith completely, and she also knows the value of using faith to keep others following her, even as her feelings about it changed.
Almost attacked and then cast out of a train leaving Canada, Serena was on her own with her son at the start of the sixth and final season. They ended up finding refuge with a religious community where she was recognized, but her secret was kept. But as much as her faith was at the center of so many of her earlier decisions, so too was a hunger for power, and on the commune, that anonymity kept her down in a different, but still emotionally oppressive, way than her life as a wife in Gilead. So when Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) offered her a chance to lead again, she took it and went to New Bethlehem, where she hoped to find a way to change the way of life once more, but still ended up accepting Commander Wharton’s (Josh Charles) marriage proposal.
Almost attacked and then cast out of a train leaving Canada, Serena was on her own with her son at the start of the sixth and final season. They ended up finding refuge with a religious community where she was recognized, but her secret was kept. But as much as her faith was at the center of so many of her earlier decisions, so too was a hunger for power, and on the commune, that anonymity kept her down in a different, but still emotionally oppressive, way than her life as a wife in Gilead. So when Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) offered her a chance to lead again, she took it and went to New Bethlehem, where she hoped to find a way to change the way of life once more, but still ended up accepting Commander Wharton’s (Josh Charles) marriage proposal.
