The Biggest OMG Moments From ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5
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It feels like an eternity since we’ve had new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale—and, well, it’s been almost a year and a half, so that’s basically the same thing! But after such a long wait, we’ve finally been rewarded, because season 5 is officially here and so much has happened already. Season 4 left us off with the kinda brutal (and by that I mean VERY brutal) murder of Fred Waterford, and it seems like season 5 took that energy and just ran with it because these first few episodes were nothing short of a dramatic, chaotic, vengeful mess.
Whether you have already watched the new episodes and need a debrief of everything you just witnessed or you’re simply looking to get your hands on some spoilers to prep yourself before taking the episodes in, here are the most jaw-dropping moments from season 5 so far.
Season 5, Episode 1: “Morning”
Fred is still dead!!
Praise be! June makes it back home after literally tearing Fred apart at the end of last season, but before she can even wash the blood off herself, she hops back in the car heading off to god knows where, freaking the sh*t out of Luke and Moira. Turns out, she went to join the other ex-Handmaids who helped kill Fred for some pancakes and, uh, sharing of guns? Things get heated as the other women say they want to get revenge on their Gileadean abusers, but June doesn’t seem to want to be a part of it.
Umm, Nick is now married??!
So it turns out that Nick has a new wife, ’cause as you might recall, his first one didn’t last very long (RIP, Eden!). What’s even more surprising is that his wife seems to know about June and is totally okay with Nick helping her.
Serena gets rushed away to safety.
After it’s discovered that Freddie boy is no more, Serena is put in handcuffs and hurried off to a safe house. And in the midst of this, she’s bluntly told that her husband has been killed. At the safe house, Serena-sympathizer Mark Tuello tells her exactly what happened to Fred, including the fact that his ring finger had been cut off and mailed to her. As gross as that is, it makes it very clear to Serena that June, not Gilead, is responsible for his murder.
Emily has gone back to Gilead.
June heads over to Emily’s house to see her but the only person there is Emily’s wife, Sylvia, who drops the MAJOR bomb that Emily has voluntarily gone back to Gilead to fight and to possibly try to find her mortal enemy Aunt Lydia. Iiiiinteresting.
June (finally) tries to come clean.
After trying to literally come clean by scrubbing off all the blood she’d been smearing around town all morning, June heads on down to a Toronto police station to turn herself in for Fred’s murder. But since the murder happened in No Man’s Land, which isn’t technically part of Canada, it’s of no concern to Canadian police and June is free to go (apart from having to pay a fine for putting a human finger in the mail).
Fred’s body is shredded.
And not in a good way. Serena goes to the morgue to see her husband and he straight-up looks like he was attacked by a rabid bear. This is also where she learns that June isn’t going to get in any trouble for it and will remain a free woman, which clearly terrifies her.
Serena’s support is growing in Canada.
As she comes out of the morgue, there’s a surprisingly large candlelit vigil there to support Serena. The Canadians in it are just throwing out “praise be” and “under His eye,” totally naive to the actual monstrosities of the Gilead they’re supporting. This is also where Serena reveals she’ll be leaving Canada to give Fred a proper funeral in Gilead.
Season 5, Episode 2: “Ballet”
June wants to kill Serena.
Like, really badly. After lying awake in bed, thinking about all the traumatic, abusive BS Serena has put her through, June goes and buries her gun in the yard for safekeeping. Then, later, when Rita is over at her house, June can’t stop talking about all the horrendous stuff Serena did to Rita. After that, she tells Luke about sending the finger to Serena and he tells her she needs to stop obsessing over Serena so that she can be there for her family.
Serena makes her grand return to Gilead.
Arriving in a private jet, Serena struts her way off the plane as if she’s the damn queen of Gilead. But she quickly learns that the funeral Gilead has in mind for Fred is, er, a lot less spectacular than what she wanted. Seems they’re not big fans of Fred either.
Aunt Lydia is back on her BS.
She’s rounded up her “girls” and brings them to Fred’s wake to show off to Commanders in need of a Handmaid. Oh, and she’s already planning on placing Esther with Commander Putnam and leaves her alone with him in his office, where things get, um, extremely creepy.
Serena gets Fred an over-the-top funeral featuring Hannah.
Framing it as a way to connect with the outside world and bring them into Gilead, Serena pitches the Commanders on the idea of giving Fred a grand funeral and airing it on TV. They eventually get on board, and what ensues is the most wild, performative funeral you’ve ever seen. Serena is in what looks like an all-black wedding ’fit, veil and all, and she’s accompanied by a procession of Commanders, Handmaids, and a group of young girls that includes June and Luke’s daughter Hannah.
The girls are all in a purple color we’ve never seen before (intrigue!), and Hannah just so happens to be chosen to give Serena a bouquet of flowers and Serena, in return, kisses her on the forehead. Knowing that June will see this (which she does, on the massive screens in Yonge-Dundas Square), it’s clearly an attempt to get back at June and make her feel some pain.
A murder-suicide by poisoned chocolate.
Young, scared, and angry Esther is not about to get sent away to the Putnams, so what does she do? Poison some chocolate truffles, of course. She gives one to Janine (who she blames for helping to arrange the Putnam situation) and takes one herself. They both fall to the floor and cough up a disgusting amount of blood that it doesn’t look like there’s any coming back from.
Season 5, Episode 3: “Border”
June and Moira head to the border.
June needs some answers about what the purple color that Hannah was wearing means, so Moira takes her to meet with a group of women at the border who have been able to send messages into Gilead. There, she learns that Mayday is (a) real and (b) made it to Canada.
Nick and his wife met just a few months ago.
Her name is Rose and they met attending a gala in D.C. Nick seems to genuinely like her, even though his feelings for June are still, um, complicated. He also asks Tuello to not tell June about Rose so that he can be the one to do it himself.
Janine and Esther are still alive?!?
Somehow, even after all that poison eating and blood coughing, the two ladies are still alive (although I’m sure Aunt Lydia slapping an unconscious Esther across the face didn’t help??). Lydia vowed to God to change her ways if Janine was spared, buuut we’ll believe it when we see it.
Serena wants to marry Lawrence?
Lawrence announces he has no plans to remarry, but Serena reminds the Commander that an unmarried man in Gilead won’t go far. And then seems to insinuate that they should get married as a strategic move. IN FACT, she later tells Tuello that she plans to stay in Gilead and won’t be unmarried for much longer. (Oh, and she said that right after she kissed Tuello on the cheek with more sexual tension than she ever had with Fred.) But as it turns out, Lawrence is not on board and they won’t be getting hitched.
The Plums are child brides in training.
So, um, apparently, the purple color is given to the daughters of high-ranking families when they’re sent to a new wife-training school. Nick tells June that it means that “they’re ready” for marriage. Hannah is only 12, so that’s just a touch sickening.
JK, Serena is actually going back to Toronto.
Gilead wants to expand its influence and thinks having “a capable, impressive woman” like Serena singing Gilead’s praises would look good. So off she goes, back on the plane to head north of the border where she’s once again met with a candlelit vigil (*insert extreme eye roll here*).
June ambushes Serena.
Just as she’s feeling like she’s living her best life having been greeted at the airport by all those supporters, Serena’s car gets blocked on the road by none other than June, who bangs on the window and in a terrifying voice tells Serena to never touch her daughter again.
Season 5, Episode 4: “Dear Offred”
Serena is a “free” woman.
And by that I mean she’s finally, officially released from police custody and now shacking up at the Gilead-owned property in Toronto so that she can tell everyone how ~amazing~ Gilead is.
June takes her gun on a road trip.
June, (rightfully) pissed off that Serena is out and about, packs up her handgun and heads to Serena’s new home. The two have an intense staring contest through the window, scaring Serena.
Lydia proposes a new Handmaid system.
After getting a dressing-down from Janine that really seems to strike a chord, Aunt Lydia goes to Lawrence to propose a new Handmaid system where the women stay at the Red Center, not in Commanders’ homes. Aaaand he immediately shoots it down. SHOCKING!
Serena sends a f*cked-up letter to June.
Not only does she invite June to the opening of the Gilead Information Center, but she addresses the envelope to Offred, which is a level of maniacal behavior that I almost have to admire? It pisses off Luke enough to go see Serena in person, but Serena being Serena, she manages to manipulate the situation into making Luke not feel like a man because he left his family behind in Gilead.
June could have killed Serena…but doesn’t.
June, armed with her gun, comes face-to-face with Serena outside the Gilead Center, and although she puts her hand on her gun, she ultimately lets Serena get away. Later, June tells Luke she can’t promise she’ll hold back next time…and then they have some steamy hot sex. I guess potential murder really gets some people going?
Luke gets the Gilead Center shut down.
Who knew building codes could be so powerful? ’Cause turns out, they were enough to put an end to the center before it even got going. Blessed be the construction violations.
Serena has a new home.
After the incident at the Gilead Center, Serena goes to stay with the Wheelers, a well-to-do, Gilead-obsessed couple. And the wife is, um, creepily obsessed with Serena’s pregnancy.
Season 5, Episode 5: “Fairytale”
A mob of Canadians want the Americans gone.
Tensions are rising between the Canadians and Americans. On their way to meet with a Guardian who’s coming to the border with intel about the Wife Schools, June, Luke, and Moira come across a group of protestors who aren’t too happy about all the Americans who have come into the country.
June and Luke head into No Man’s Land.
The Guardian isn’t able to make it the entire way to them, so Luke says he’s going in to find him—and June, looking proud of how brave Luke is being, says she’s going with him. Once they find the Guardian, he leads them to a hideout and gives them the lowdown on the Wife Schools. Turns out, the girls there are treated like princesses while they’re taught to run a household. Buuut he also says they’re moved through the school quickly and then married off, and that includes 12-year-olds like Hannah. He also gives Luke and June a USB with all the info they have on the school.
Serena meets with her fangirls and gets a brilliant idea.
A group of ladies comes to the Wheeler house to meet with Serena and marvel at her pregnancy. And it seems all of those women touching her stomach gave her an idea because afterward, while on a call with Commanders Lawrence and Putnam, she says they should open a fertility center if they really want Gilead to appeal to people on the outside.
Serena didn’t want a Handmaid at first.
In a couple of flashback scenes, we get some interesting context around how Serena eventually came to have June posted to her home. Turns out, she didn’t even want to consider using a Handmaid and seemed to find the whole idea to be pretty uncomfy. Cut to the next flashback scene and she is meeting with Aunt Lydia to select a Handmaid and handpicks June.
Lawrence has a plan to get Americans back in Gilead.
The details aren’t entirely clear, but he’s got a plan called New Bethlehem that, according to Commander Putnam, would have them “welcome back” traitors and forgive them. But Lawrence knows that if they keep their borders up, then Gilead will die. Seems kinda sus but also intriguing?
Serena realizes she’s trapped.
While trying to go speak to a well-wisher outside the house, Serena’s bodyguard Ezra tells her that Mr. Wheeler informed him not to open the gate. And it seems Ezra is listening to the man of the house over Serena. Shocker! When she tells Mr. Wheeler she wants to get back to the center to start working on the fertility clinic, he basically tells her she won’t be leaving the house because she’s pregnant. And when she asks for a cellphone, he shuts that right down. Is Serena finally getting a taste of her own medicine??
The helpful Guardian gets blown up.
On their way back toward the border, the Guardian steps on a land mine, blowing off one of his legs. Luke and June start to help him but ultimately have to leave because the blast draws the attention of some guards and leads to them getting chased down.
June gets caught AGAIN.
Insert massive eye roll here. But this time, it’s with Luke…so that’s different at least? Sadly, the duo weren’t able to run away fast enough and they get surrounded by trucks and men with flashlights who grab them and haul them off.
Season 5, Episode 6: “Together”
The people who abducted June and Luke aren’t from Gilead.
They may not be Gilead soldiers, but they sure seem to know enough about it, asking June who she’s “of” because they spotted her ear tag. They get thrown into separate cages and Luke tries to make a break for it but immediately gets tackled and beat up.
Serena’s confinement keeps on going…and gets worse.
The Wheelers set up an entire birthing suite in their house so that Serena never actually has to leave the property. Even her gynecologist (who creepily asks her on a date immediately after finishing examining her??) tells her to stay at home and rest more. Mrs. Wheeler loses it when Serena says she doesn’t want to date her gyno and that she might not even get married anytime soon, and she sends Serena to her room. Serena breaks down crying, and I’ve gotta say, the lack of power is a weird look on her.
Umm, so, Esther is pregnant.
So that creepy visit with Commander Putnam? Turns out a lot more happened than just eating chocolates. OF COURSE Aunt Lydia asks Esther if she did anything to encourage getting raped (*screams internally*), but ultimately she seems to be on Esther’s side. She even reports the rape to Commander Lawrence, telling him Putnam needs to be punished. Lydia may have turned a blind eye to all of Gilead’s horrors, but she seems to be acknowledging them (slowly) now, and I’m here for it. But frankly, it’s going to take a lot more than this for her to redeem herself.
Turns out, the people who captured June and Luke work for Mr. Wheeler.
He brings Serena into his office to say his team in No Man’s Land caught June and Luke, and he’s sending Ezra down there to “deal with her.” Serena asks to go to witness June’s death herself, which, after some protest, he finally agrees to. In an interesting scene as she’s leaving the house to go, Serena is wearing a reddish-brown coat while Mrs. Wheeler is decked out in full Gilead Wife teal.
Commander Putnam gets his.
While he’s eating breakfast with his wife, Putnam gets hauled out of a restaurant and thrown to his knees. Nick and Lawrence are waiting outside to tell him he’s been found guilty of “sins of the flesh,” aka raping Esther. Nick pulls out his gun and shoots Putnam point-blank in the head. His body gets strung up on the wall and Lydia brings her girls to see it to show them that justice was served.
Aaand Nick is having a baby.
We find out that Rose is pregnant, and we really don’t get any other deets about it, but I guess Nichole is going to get a little half brother or sister?
JK, Serena didn’t actually want to watch June get killed.
She asks Ezra if she can be the one to do the deed, and when he gives Serena the gun, she uses it to shoot him (on his bulletproof vest, so he’s not dead but he gets knocked down and winded) and then forces June to get in the car and drive her away. She seems kinda frazzled and doesn’t exactly look like she has a plan, so how this plays out should be preeetty interesting.
Season 5, Episode 7: “No Man’s Land”
Serena goes into labor.
As if taking June hostage wasn’t chaotic enough, Serena starts having contractions in the back seat of the car. And even though June has a chance to make a run for it, she goes back to (begrudgingly) see what’s up with Serena. June tries to take Serena to a hospital, but she desperately doesn’t want to be found by the Wheelers. She even later tells June she can’t go back there because she feels like she’s their Handmaid.
June and Serena seemed almost…friendly (??) at first.
In a flashback to when June was a new Handmaid for the Waterfords, she and Serena attend a birth at another wife’s house and they make eye contact across the room, with Serena making a face and smiling at how over the top the whole ceremony is. Considering how much hatred there is between the two, this was a shockingly pleasant moment…almost like in another world, they could have possibly been friends??
Serena has her baby in a barn.
How very biblical for her! And even though there were moments when the idea of killing Serena in her vulnerable state seems to cross June’s mind, she coaches her through it (well, she does leave out of frustration at one point but eventually goes back to help). The baby is a boy and Serena names him Noah (even more biblical!).
We find out why June didn’t kill Serena.
When Serena asks June why she didn’t kill her outside of the Gilead center when she very well could have (she had a gun, remember!), June just says, with tears in her eyes, that she didn’t want to. This is one complicated relationship, y’all!
June finally convinces Serena to go to a hospital.
After panicking about the Wheelers and even suggesting that June take Noah for her and Luke to raise (so that he can be a better person than his parents were/are, obvs), June somehow still manages to take the higher road and tells Serena she’s going to help save her. She convinces her to leave the barn and takes her to a hospital.
Luke makes it back to Canada!!!
It’s not entirely explained how he got out of captivity, but Luke shows up at the hospital and tells June that he got the USB with the info on the Wife Schools to Tuello, who’s now starting an investigation.
Aaand Luke quickly effs up June’s plan.
He calls Canadian Immigration and they show up at the hospital to detain Serena for her illegal border crossing and lack of immigration status. Turns out, the detention facility she’s going to doesn’t allow infants, so she’s going to be separated from her new baby for who knows how long. As Luke put it, now she knows what it feels like, and I couldn’t agree more.
Season 5, Episode 8: “Motherland”
The Canadians are getting angrier and Luke wants out.
June, Luke, Moira, and Rita are whipping up some breakfast when all of a sudden, a bunch of Canadians come protesting down their street, yelling for the Americans to “go home.” After, when Luke, Moira, and June are cleaning up the graffiti left by the protestors, Luke suggests they leave Canada and head for Alaska, Hawaii, or Europe, which June obviously shuts down because it’d be too far from Hannah.
We finally find out what New Bethlehem is.
So turns out, Lawrence’s brainchild is a small city on an island with modernized New England–style homes that will give Gilead refugees a chance to come back, reunite with their families, and live a bit more of a liberal life (you know, one where women are allowed to read books). There also won’t be any Handmaids or hangings, which would be a BIG change. Lawrence says they’ll keep New Bethlehem under wraps from the rest of Gilead for a while, but he eventually wants all of Gilead to be like that.
The Wheelers have Serena’s baby.
And don’t seem too keen on giving him back?? Even though they’re not actually super into taking care of him?? When Mrs. Wheeler visits Serena at the detention center, she basically makes it seem like Serena is in no mental state to care for Noah. And she happens to mention that they’re doing “cry it out” sleep training with him.
Lawrence wants June in New Bethlehem.
He meets up with June in Toronto and gives her an extremely tempting proposal: She comes to New Bethlehem and she’ll get to be reunited with Hannah. Luke is so far from being on board and rightfully skeptical of any promises from Gilead. They later learn from Tuello that Lawrence approached a number of Gilead defectors to come back, and Tuello warns June that it could be incredibly dangerous.
Serena gets out of the detention center.
While on his Canadian visit, Lawrence manages to convince the Canadian government to release Serena into Gilead’s custody…aaand she’s immediately getting sent back to the Wheelers. June visits Serena just before she’s released and she begs June to help her get a lawyer or a Canadian to sponsor her, but June quickly reminds her they’re not friends and that she hasn’t forgiven her. She does give Serena one piece of advice though: Go be with her child, but start plotting her revenge against the Wheelers.
June and Luke get video footage of Hannah.
Luke finds an envelope addressed to June at their house, and inside is a DVD with a video of Hannah walking across a hallway at the Wife School. The footage pushes June over the edge and she says she has to go back to Gilead, even if it means going without Luke. They give the disk to Tuello, who says they’ll investigate.
The Americans found Hannah!!!
Tuello calls June and tells her they tracked down the Wife School and are going to do a raid and bring Hannah back to them! Praise be!!
Season 5, Episode 9: “Allegiance”
Mrs. Wheeler is trying to keep Serena down.
And keep her baby away from her too. Serena asks for permission to go to the opening of the Gilead fertility center and Mrs. Wheeler shuts her down with lightning speed. AND THEN she tells Serena to start pumping bottles for Noah so that she isn’t the one feeding him. Essentially, she’s trying to keep Noah away from his mom so that she can have him for herself.
Commander Lawrence wants to marry Mrs. Putnam.
He invites Naomi over to his house and proposes an arrangement that will get them both what they want: for her, a home for her and Angela, and for him, the image of being a traditional family man. She’s not exactly sold on the idea because Lawrence did, after all, have her husband killed in the first place.
Serena schemes her way into the fertility center opening.
She goes to see Mr. Wheeler late at night in his office and makes her pitch—she and Noah are a hopeful symbol that people will want to see IRL. He ends up agreeing and Mrs. Wheeler is pissed when she finds out. So pissed that she slaps Serena…a couple of times. And there’s no way she’s letting Serena out of her sight, so she goes to the opening to keep an eye on her.
Okay, so, Hannah definitely remembers who she really is.
Or at the very least, what her real name is. While flipping through what appears to be an illustration-only, Bible-type book (girls aren’t allowed to read or write, after all), she pulls out a drawing and signs her name on it as Hannah. So not only is she defying the rules by writing (and risking getting her finger cut off!), but she’s not using her Gilead-approved named. Looks like she takes after her mother.
The raid on Hannah’s school fails.
Like, completely fails. Gilead anticipated the attack and shoots down all three planes that were on their way to the Wife School to carry out the raid. There weren’t any survivors.
Serena makes a freaking break for it!!
Mrs. Wheeler tries to send Serena home from the fertility center opening (obviously wanting to be the one who’s showing off Noah herself), so Serena agrees but says she’s going to nurse Noah before leaving. She heads to a back room, where she bolts out the emergency exit and runs into the street, begging a young woman in a car to let her get in. She does and they drive off. I’ve never been one to cheer for Serena, but I gotta admit that I was rooting for her this time.
June meets up with Nick.
Lawrence arranges a meeting between the two that starts off with June confronting Nick about how he rejected Tuello’s offer to help him come to Canada and swiftly moves to Nick telling June that his wife is pregnant. Nick also seems to kinda be drinking Lawrence’s Kool-Aid and thinks they’re making Gilead better. He tells June he loves her and says to tell Nichole he loves her too, and then he heads on back to Gilead.
The Canadians aren’t acting very, um, Canadian.
They’re furious that the Americans are still there, protesting the memorial for the soldiers lost during the raid. And as the daughter of one of the killed soldiers is reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, one of the protestors starts shooting, sending everyone there into a panic.
Season 5, Episode 10: “Safe”
Janine gets posted…for about five seconds.
Lydia is told that people are noticing how soft she is on Janine and that she needs to get posted ASAP. So Lydia tries her best to get her posted with Commander Lawrence and Naomi Putnam (so that way she can see her daughter, Angela) but that doesn’t work out after Janine loses it on Naomi when she insinuates she and Janine are friends and then immediately calls her Oflawrence.
Lawrence and Naomi get married.
Speaking of the Commander and the former Mrs. Putnam, the two seal the deal of their strategic arrangement and get officially married.
Someone tries to kill June.
Outside, in front of her house, someone in a truck comes speeding at June and hits her, sending her flying forward. They come at her again, running over her arm this time. They then try to run her over AGAIN, but Luke runs out of the house and pulls the driver out of the truck and beats him up.
Nick comes to see June in Toronto.
Tuello meets Nick at the border and brings him over to see June in the hospital after she got run over. Nick goes in to see her but she’s still asleep, so she doesn’t even know he was there. When Tuello is taking Nick back, he gets Nick to sign an agreement to work together.
The man that ran over June died in the hospital.
And since Luke is technically responsible for the death, the police are looking for him. June insists that they need to flee (the Canadians already hate the American refugees so they’re not going to take the news of Luke killing a Canadian too well) so they book flights to Hawaii. Unfortunately, Tuello lets them know that their flights have been flagged and they’d be arrested at the airport if they go there. Instead, he says he can try to get them on a train that’s taking Americans west so that they can go to Alaska or Hawaii.
Janine gets hauled off by the Eyes.
After she insulted Naomi (now Mrs. Lawrence) the eyes come to the Red Center and drag her away, despite Aunt Lydia’s protests. She gets thrown in a van, presumably to be taken to the colonies, but we don’t know yet for sure.
June gets on the train… without Luke.
There are police at the train station looking for Luke with a photo of him in hand, so the fake IDs Tuello got him and June aren’t going to be much help. Luke insists that June and Nicole go ahead of him and get on the train (promising that he’ll be right behind her) but once they do, he gives himself up to the police and gets arrested.
Nick’s in biiiiig trouble.
It seems that Nick has been found out and he’s being detained. He gets a visit from his wife, Rose, (whose father just so happens to be one of the top commanders) and she’s pissed that he keeps going to see June. He admits that he can’t let go of June, and Rose says she doesn’t want to be with him anymore and leaves him with a very ominous “We had a good thing, and then you had to go and ruin it.” It doesn’t seem like Gilead would be down for divorce so this is probably only going to end one way.
Serena’s somehow also on the train.
When I tell you I gasped…I GASPED. We never actually see what happened between Serena making a break for it with Noah from the Gilead fertility center and her showing up on the refugee train, but she’s somehow managed to pull it off. And now her and June are stuck together with their babies on a cross-country train. Things should get pretty interesting next season.
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