Featured Image Credit: Hulu
Topics: TV And Film
Lucy Devine
Warning: Article contains spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale
The Handmaid's Tale Season 5 has just been given a release date - and we don't have too long to wait.
Taking to its social media, the show revealed when fans can expect the new season, after the explosive fourth instalment aired last year.
"Season 5 arrives September 14," the post read, alongside two images of June (Elisabeth Moss), as well as Serena Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski), who appears to be at a funeral and dressed head-to-toe in black.
Fans of the show will know that Season 4 ended with Serena's husband, Fred Waterford, being brutally murdered by June and other former handmaids who had escaped the clutches of Gilead.
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The final scene showed June's husband, Luke (O-T Fagbenle) finding her covered in blood, holding her daughter Nichole in her bedroom. Luke sinks to the floor as he realises what has happened.
"I know. I'm sorry," whispers June. "Just give me five minutes, okay? Just give me five minutes with her, then I'll go."
It's not clear why June feels she has to leave, but creator and showrunner Bruce Miller told The Hollywood Reporter: "That moment at the end is her as a mother knowing she had chosen something that makes her feel like she can never be a mother again.
"She’s holding that baby and she’s thinking to herself this way, as a mother, and then she thinks of herself that way in the woods with dead Fred, and then she thinks of herself as a mother again and that’s where she is. Those two things are pushing up against each other... You put those two things together when she believes, and I think we as the audience believe, that those two things can’t coexist."
But with Fred gone, what's next for Serena? Speaking to Deadline, Yvonne Strahovski - who plays Serena - explained some possible theories.
She said: “I don’t really know which way they're gonna go with Serena, but I keep imagining her moving forward. Frustratingly, for the audience in a capacity where she gets out and things work out and she gains some kind of political traction.”
Many fans are of the opinion that Serena will start a new life for herself - and her baby - in Canada.
Before Gilead was formed, flashbacks to Fred and Serena's life prior showed Serena to be an author, having just had a controversial novel published.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth Moss has recently described the fifth season as 'possibly one of the wilder rides that we’ve had'.
“And it’s not lip service. I truly mean I almost can’t keep up with the amount of activity that’s happening," she told TVLine.
An official synopsis for the fifth season explains: "June faces consequences for killing Commander Waterford while struggling to redefine her identity and purpose.
"The widowed Serena attempts to raise her profile in Toronto as Gilead’s influence creeps into Canada. Commander Lawrence works with Aunt Lydia as he tries to reform Gilead and rise in power. June, Luke and Moira fight Gilead from a distance as they continue their mission to save and reunite with Hannah."
Whatever happens in the fifth season, we know we're going to be hooked!