How The Handmaid’s Tale Ending Compares To The Book

40 years after Margaret Atwood’s e-book was launched, The Handmaid’s Tale now has one other ending with the conclusion of Hulu’s TV present. After six seasons throughout eight years, The Handmaid’s Tale‘s ending partially wraps up the story of June Osborne, aka Offred, and lots of others inside Gilead. I say partially as a result of, like with Atwood’s books, there will be extra to return on the TV facet of issues.

The Testaments show will choose issues up just a few years after the sequence finale, very like how Atwood’s e-book of the identical title, revealed in 2019, continued the story of Gilead a few years later. There’ll, inevitably, be some discrepancies and variations between the 2, and partly that is due to simply how different The Handmaid’s Tale show was from the book by (and, actually, lengthy earlier than) the top.

The Handmaid’s Story Ebook Ending Was The Finish Of Season 1

The Present Continued Far Past Margaret Atwood’s Novel

The Handmaid’s Story season 1 finale finds June in a predicament: having continued her sexual relationship with Nick, she’s now pregnant along with his youngster, and liable to the Waterfords’ anger and energy due to it. That is when a black van comes to select her up – unbeknownst to the Waterfords. Nick encourages June to belief him, and he or she climbs into the van and is taken away, which is the place the season ends.

That is the precise level the e-book ends Offred’s story on too, with Atwood writing (from Offred’s POV): “And so I step up, into the darkness inside; or else, the sunshine.” We get to see the Waterfords’ shock and anger as she heads out; Nick reassures her it is Mayday. However, as readers, we by no means get to see what occurs subsequent.

Within the present, after all, June’s story continued… and continued.

Within the present, after all, June’s story continued… and continued. Finally, she was introduced again to Gilead, earlier than escaping, returning, and so forth, all the way in which to season 6. That introduced issues full circle to the start of the present, and an essential a part of the e-book’s ending too.

How The Handmaid’s Story Present Ending Connects To The Ebook

It Additionally Goes Again To The Pilot Episode

Picture through Hulu

June’s story ends along with her again on the Waterfords’ home, which has been severely broken within the combating, however stays standing, proper all the way down to the wardrobe with “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum“ scrawled on it. This is not simply taking her again to the place it began, however has very particular callbacks to each the pilot episode and the e-book, too, as June begins her: “A chair, a desk, a lamp…” speech.

Much more direct a connection, although, is June deciding to document her story.

That is one thing June mentioned within the very first episode (and second scene) of the present, with Elisabeth Moss syncing her new dialogue up with the audio from there, nevertheless it comes straight from the e-book’s second chapter. Much more direct a connection, although, is June deciding to document her story. That’s one thing Offred did within the e-book, too, with the tapes discovered a lot later, and so that is the sequence’ nod in the direction of it.

The Handmaid’s Story Nonetheless Leaves Out Half Of The Ebook’s Ending

Atwood’s Ebook Goes Into The Future

June (Elisabeth Moss) using a recorder to tell her story in the ruins of the Waterfords' house in The Handmaid's Tale Season 6 Ep 10 — Picture through Hulu

The top of June’s story in The Handmaid’s Story is not really the top of the e-book, as Atwood provides in a “historic notes” part, which is about lots of of years later in 2195. It covers the Twelfth Symposium on Gileadean Research, and extra particularly, the uncovering of the tapes left behind by a handmaid, Offred.

June and Emily looking at the wall with inscriptions of the freed handmaids in The Handmaid's Tale Season 6 Ep 10

Associated

How The Handmaid’s Tale’s Season 6 Finale Sets Up The Testaments

The Handmaid’s Story has come to an finish with the season 6 finale, with the finale organising The Testaments sequel sequence in a number of main methods.

Crucially, this reveals that Gilead had fallen a while earlier, and that the world has returned to a way of normalcy, with one speaker noting that the pressures that led to Gilead aren’t confronted by the world now. That itself comes with its personal misogyny, after all: the speaker refuses to move judgment on Gilead’s actions, makes a sexist remark a few feminine professor (the existence of which no less than highlights the development from Gilead), and a lot of the chapter is in regards to the authenticity of the tapes and the identification of the people it refers to.

The Testaments has a sequence order from Hulu, however doesn’t but have a launch date, although someday in 2026 appears doubtless.

It is sensible that The Handmaid’s Story‘s sequence finale would not embody this. Definitely, it helps to maintain the main focus squarely on June, which is a way more emotional farewell, and going to this point into the long run might’ve risked undermining that and even complicated some viewers. It additionally may’ve impacted The Testaments, since that may present a Gilead that very a lot nonetheless exists. It really works nice within the e-book, and is even revisited within the sequel, however present’s ending did its personal factor whereas honoring the supply materials too.