‘Did “Handmaid’s Tale” Season 2 Finale Just Take Down the Series?’ Īlan Sepinwall believes that the show put itself in an impossible situation in Season 2. In an essay that examines the show’s allusions to contemporary politics, Rachel Vorona Cote argues that, “If the showrunners were not so adamant in their efforts to align their narrative with current events, perhaps June’s relationship with Serena would be a fascinating study in feminine intimacy and nothing more.” She continues, “But we have been asked, entreated, to make parallels, and Serena Joy, as others have argued, hearkens the honey-smiles of Ivanka and Hope Hicks and every other refined conservative woman who, with nails buffed and manicured, voted to divest millions in their country of constitutional rights.” ‘Does “The Handmaid’s Tale” Want Us to Empathize With Ivanka Trump?’
Her decision to give up Nicole because she knows the girl has no chance of reaching her full potential in Gilead is a little rushed - Serena barely has time to think about letting the infant go - but it’s ultimately believable because the show and Strahovski have demonstrated what a complicated, independent thinker dwells beneath her Commander’s Wife facade.”
We also know how much she cherishes baby Nicole, and wants the best for her. “By the time we reach the finale, we’ve learned that Serena was once a more powerful figure than her husband. “‘Handmaid’s Tale’ does something with Serena it doesn’t so much with other characters, aside from June: invest real time in her evolution,” Chaney notes. ‘“The Handmaid’s Tale” Wraps Up a Good but Frustrating Season’ įor Jen Chaney, who was lukewarm on the finale, the show’s efforts to humanize Serena were among the season’s highlights. “There are a lot of ways to feel about an attitude of ‘I never thought this society’s suffering would become mine, but now it is, so now I don’t like it anymore.’ But ‘Aw, she’s not so bad’ isn’t one of them.” “It is a bridge too far to narratively urge sympathy for someone who would crush those under her and actively participate in their imprisonment, their rape, and their suffering, simply because she eventually suffered a fraction of that suffering herself,” Holmes argues. ‘The Truck, the Choice and the “Handmaid’s Tale” Finale’ Īs far as Linda Holmes of NPR’s “Monkey See” is concerned, Offred’s request that the baby be called Nicole, as Serena Joy would have wanted, was as mystifying as her decision not to get in the car. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ has spent two seasons acquainting us with June, through Moss’s harrowing performance, but there is very little in that journey to prepare us for what she chooses to do in the final moments of the season.” “(To start: Is there really just one road leading out of Gilead to Canada, and if there’s just one, wouldn’t it be, I don’t know, guarded?)” Saraiya continues: “But the main problem is a deeper question concerning June’s character. “There’s so much about this sequence that is inexplicable to the point of incoherence,” she points out. Sonia Saraiya found the last scene of the finale ridiculous.
‘Why Did “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 2 Finale Have to End Like This?’ In her appraisal of the season and its ending, Margaret Lyons observes that, “as ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ strays further from its origins, it also strays further from one of its significant ideas: that June is ordinary.” In her view, that quality is “one of the haunting essentials of the book, where she’s only ever called Offred, which reminds us that you don’t need to be Harry Potter or Katniss Everdeen or Jesus Christ to retain your humanity in even the most oppressive, heinous circumstances.” ‘“The Handmaid’s Tale” Is Brutal and Not Much Else in Season 2’ But did her last-minute decision make any sense? And what could the writers possibly have in store for its third season? Our (spoiler-filled) roundup of sharp criticism and revealing post-finale interviews with the cast and creator may not entirely clear up your confusion, but it should shed some light on the controversial episode.
The reviews are in on the Season 2 finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which arrived on Hulu on Wednesday, and the prevailing sentiment among fans and critics alike is: Huh?īuilt around a series of whiplash-inducing twists, the episode, titled “The Word,” certainly left Elisabeth Moss’s Offred in a precarious position.