Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 5 of the Handmaid's Tale.
In the penultimate season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the arc of Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) has taken an interesting turn. For the first few seasons in Gilead, Serena was the proud wife of Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and through gritted teeth lived happily with their handmaid, Offred (Elisabeth Moss). Offred/June was finally able to escape into Canada to reunite with her husband, Luke (O-T Fagbenie). Simultaneously, Serena and Fred were arrested in Canada. Through a series of backdoor deals and political dealings, Fred was released into the wilderness only to be hunted down and brutally murdered by June and a group of handmaids out for revenge.
Serena, who discovered she was miraculously finally pregnant, is trying desperately to ingratiate herself back into Gilead society. Commander Putnam (Stephen Kunken) and Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) have to support and publicize Serena because of her miracle pregnancy; however, they can also keep her at arm’s length by assigning her to start their movement in Canada.
Serena, now stationed in Canada to be in charge of the growing movement there, has opened a welcome center for Gilead followers. Luke and June see to it that the center is attacked and ultimately shut down, and Serena is swiftly moved to a safe house of two huge benefactors in the Canadian Gilead movement. Commander Ryan Wheeler (Lucas Neff) and his wife, Alanis (Genevieve Angelson) welcome Serena into their home and their vast grounds. But is it all too good to be true? Isn’t it always?
What Goes Around Comes Around
As Serena spends more time with the Wheelers, she begins to feel unsafe. She isn’t allowed to contact the outside world or Gilead without supervision. She isn’t allowed to talk to supporters or reporters outside the gate or be in charge of her new (and kind of brilliant) idea that Gilead promotes a fertility clinic instead of a Gilead center. Her walks and her meals are supervised, and the walls are starting to close in on Serena Joy.
And when she finally does get to meet the elusive Commander Wheeler, he pumps her full of “vitamins” and tells her that he will be running the fertility center, leaving her free to concentrate on her pregnancy. Are the Wheelers just being protective or do they have something way more sinister in mind? Is Serena’s miracle baby in danger of being taken by a married couple since the dogmatic beliefs that she has lived by for the past decade of her life dictate that a child can’t be raised by a single woman? Is she finally the prisoner and not the warden? Even her new doctor (Jeremy Shamos) makes a house call and the visit is moved to the attic where she discovers a full birthing suite where the good doctor takes it upon himself to ask her on a date. (It's hard to give out awards for the creepiest Gilead loyalist, but Dr. Landers is sure in the running.) Serena's fears are confirmed when Alanis literally sends her to her room when Serena informs her she may have the audacity to live as a single mother for a while. The Wheelers are turning out to be way more frightening than Gilead could ever hope to be. Serena has become the handmaid and there’s nothing she can do. Life comes at ya fast, huh, Serena?
But Does Serena Deserve What She Gets?
So does Serena deserve all this? Oh, hell yes, she does. She deserves to understand what it’s like to have all your rights taken away, to have no control over your own decisions, and to be treated like a child in a prison, no matter how pretty the walls are. She deserves to feel what June and all the victims of Gilead felt. It is absolutely delightful to watch her suffer and see her go through the gamut of emotions that all the women have gone through.
Is it wrong to celebrate watching this beautiful karma unfold before our eyes? No, it’s not wrong. It sure feels like Fred and Serena had this coming, and it’s easy to wonder if she hadn’t gotten pregnant if her fate could have been the same as her husband. Maybe she knows that because now, Serena is genuinely scared.
So we come to the most important question which is, what does she do now? Will she atone? With the history of Serena’s decision-making, all signs point to no. But being a prisoner does funny things to a person. Is there redemption in Serena’s future? Even if she can’t be fully redeemed will she be able to make amends enough to garner sympathy? Ugh, it pains me to say this, but I think she can. Strahovski’s performance is so compelling and Serena is so complex. I want to hate her so much, and I really do hate her, but if the choice is life and death of herself and her unborn miracle baby, she will even turn to her greatest nemesis for help.
A Sense of Hope
At the end of this week’s episode, she finds a way to escape her captors and save June in one fell swoop. And by the looks of it, maybe went into labor? But if anyone knows about giving birth without help, it’s June. The hope I have lies with June and Serena together. They have hated each other for so long and wished for nothing but bad things for each other to the point of literally threatening death. But now, they may be all each other has.
And imagine the power if they could find common ground and work together? Imagine the power of June and Serena together. June and Serena have both made questionable decisions based on survival in the past few years of their lives, but there has to be hope at the end. Hope is the only way that either are ever going to be safe. One of the hardest things in the world to do is forgive and have empathy for people who have only done bad things. So when they start to do good things, or at least try to be better, isn’t it up to us to give them that chance?
Serena Joy is about as bad as it gets. But by being in the audience of this show for the last five years, if we don’t walk away with some sort of hope, was it even worth it? The redemptive arc has got to show us that sure you can be going through hell, but there is a way out, you just have to keep going. That starts with Serena. And ironically, it’s hard to believe June can't find her way out without her. The two women have both been imprisoned, both literally and figuratively. And now it’s time they both break free.