When the series adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale debuted eight years ago, it came on the heels of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president of the United States. Much was made about how the show met the moment: outraged women donned their own versions of the titular handmaids’ white wings — the pink pussyhats — to protest the incumbent president who bragged about sexually assaulting women and who would no doubt take their rights away.
As the long-awaited sixth and final season of the show airs, our current political climate seems closer to that of the fictional Gilead than ever before. Trump has been elected for a second term, and viewers of The Handmaid’s Tale find themselves returning to watch June (Elisabeth Moss), Moira (Samira Wiley), Janine (Madeline Brewer) and Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) under his eye.
A quick recap of where we last left the main cast of characters: June and Nicole, her baby with Nick (Max Minghella), had reunited with June’s husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle) and bestie Moira in Canada, where /Gileadian refugee sentiment has been increasing. June and Luke’s daughter Hannah remains in Gilead. June’s former fellow handmaid Janine was whisked away in the season five finale after telling her former mistress Naomi (Ever Carradine) and the guardian of her baby, Charlotte/Angela, what she really thought of her. After giving birth to her baby boy, Serena Joy, now a widow after June and her fellow handmaids beat Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) to death the season prior, finds herself face to face with June and Nicole on a refugee train heading west.
June (Elisabeth Moss) and Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) find themselves together. Credit: Disney / Steve Wilkie
This time around, the United States of America appears to resemble the religious totalitarian state of Gilead more than ever before: the constitutional right to abortion was overturned in 2022 thanks to a conservative-packed Supreme Court made up of judges appointed during Trump’s first term; the transport secretary is diverting funds to states with higher-than-average marriage and birth rates in a ; and transgender individuals were among Trump’s first targets as part of his of his presidency (in Gilead, trans people are labelled and trans women are “unwomen” who are sent to the radioactive colonies).
And we mustn’t forget the rise of not dissimilar from the wives of Gilead, Elon Musk’s actions as head of the Department of Government Efficiency creating concern across the country around people’s , and Trump’s . After all, one of the main catalysts for Gilead’s establishment was climate change.
Margaret Atwood has often stated that the events of The Handmaid’s Tale are based on historical atrocities against women
Margaret Atwood has often that the events of The Handmaid’s Tale are based on historical atrocities against women, saying that when it comes to the events of the novel she didn’t “invent” any of the awful goings-on. In fact, boxes of newspaper clippings detailing horrific real-life occurrences make up the , a collection of material used to inspire The Handmaid’s Tale and its sequel The Testaments, and they live in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto for all to see. These include events like Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1988 , Romanian dictator Nicolas Ceaușescu’s banning of abortion and contraception, leading to the with conditions so inhumane that up to 20,000 children had died, and religious cult the arranging marriages and subordinating women. These are just three small paper clips of the thousands that informed The Handmaid’s Tale. The list goes on and on. And so, in many ways, an increasingly conservative government in the US is more alarming than anyone could have foreseen. This is the very thing dystopian novels are based on.
TALKING OVER EVERY EPISODE
Eyes On Gilead: A Handmaid's Tale Podcast
Conversely, this time around the resistance is, if not futile, then markedly more and . Instead of making noise and defending their constituents, female members of congress pink blazers to Trump’s speech to Congress in March while waving hand-held paddles that asserted that Trump lied and Musk stole. Meanwhile, the government’s view of democracy appears in executive orders that abandon due process and . In the words of , “recalcitrance appears to be product of Trump White House’s maximalist interpretation of executive powers”.
June says at the beginning of the first season, “when they slaughtered Congress we didn’t wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the Constitution, we didn’t wake up then either. They said it would be temporary.” I can’t help but be reminded of the catchcry of “just four more years” and “we survived him once, we can do it again” from those who clutched at any measure of optimism. It must be noted that Trump has that if he was elected again there wouldn’t be another election, and many have the first 100 days of his second term.
Where will things end for Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) in the final season? Credit: Hulu
“Now I’m awake to the world,” June continues in that aforementioned monologue. Over the course of six seasons, we’ve constantly seen June return to Gilead to fight for the part of her heart that still resides there in Hannah (and, to a lesser extent, Nick). “Rise up and fight for your freedom,” June spits in the season six trailer. She’s commanding her fellow Gileadians and those who have been victimised by it, but she might as well be talking to us.
The Handmaid’s Tale is not escapism. It never has been. It’s a dark and uncomfortable mirror that reflects our own world – even the ugly parts – and is arguably the defining series of the Trump era. But one can only imagine that the characters remaining in the “miserable hellscape” of Gilead — as Commander Lawrence calls the country he helped create — Janine, Nick, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), maybe even (Alexis Bledel) and, importantly, Hannah, will get their own form of escape or comeuppance.
The sixth and final season is premiering exclusively in Australia on both SBS and SBS On Demand with new episodes weekly, until the gripping series finale on Tuesday 27 May. See for how to watch every episode.
Stream free On Demand
The Handmaid's Tale
series • drama
MA15+
series • drama
MA15+
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