Warning: This article contains MANY spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale season 3, episode 13, Mayday (and the rest of the season!) If you’re not caught up yet, bookmark us and come back once you’re ready to properly debrief. Ready? Let’s go!
I’ve been through approximately 15 boxes of tissues, but I think I’m good now.
Maybe.
Elisabeth Moss goes behind the episode. Post continues below video.
Just don’t mention Luke’s face when he wonders if Hannah is on that plane.
By now, you've probably watched The Handmaid's Tale season 3 finale, Mayday more than once in order to dissect every little moment (here's a rundown of the hidden details and symbolism, FYI).
We've moved past searching for meaning in the final Bible verse June recites or Serena's reaction to a coffee cup and now we're ready to focus on... Questions. And there are so many of them:
What was the Martha's plan?
Before embracing June's plan to smuggle kids out, the Marthas were pretty worried about it impacting their own plans to have something shipped in on the plane.
Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale season 3 finale. Post continues below audio.
Their black market shipment obviously arrived, so what was it? More bombs? Guns? Baking ingredients because they used all the flour making 'yes' muffins?
Did Billy get his art?
There were still paintings, including that damn Vermeer's one in the Lawrence house so... Maybe Billy from Jezebels has not yet cashed in on his art.
So when he turns up to grab it and discovers Lawrence is still there... Oh.
Trust June to promise something she cannot guarantee. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Did Commander Lawrence know about June's hand in Eleanor's death?
Showrunner Bruce Miller told Variety's TV Take podcast that the scary look Commander Lawrence gave June at the end of episode 12, Sacrifice, was Lawrence trying to figure June out.
"He has a great understanding of human nature but not such great intuition of human nature, so in some ways he’s looking at her and trying to puzzle out, ‘Could she be this? Could she be that?'" Miller said.
He said the finale wouldn't tackle that question because there was just too much else to get through in the one hour episode, but it's a story he wants to flesh out in season 4.
Nick... where are you?
We haven't seen old mate eyebrows since season 3, episode 6 which sort of makes sense, considering he was promoted to commander and shipped off to the front lines in Chicago.
Actor Max Minghella did film scenes for later in the season, but they were all cut.
Miller told Harper's Bazaar that the decision was made to evoke the same feeling of loss that June feels for the audience.
"When Nick’s gone, he’s truly gone for June, because it’s not like she can look on the internet or call. It’s like he was plucked off the face of the earth, and in the novel that was such a strong feeling, that he kind of disappeared," he explained.
"We made the best we could of it. Max is a wonderful actor. He has scenes that we filmed that we weren't able to use, and it’s heartbreaking. I feel like shit when I have to cut that stuff, but sometimes you have to make those decisions when you're trying to make a good TV show overall."
Speaking of Chicago...
Early in the season, the series made a big point of telling us about the war in Chicago. There were protests in Canada, and obviously Nick was shipped off the help the fight. So um, how's that war going?
How's the investigation into Winslow's disappearance tracking?
Did the Martha's INTENSE (and very therapeutic to watch) cleaning process and handy on-hand incinerator do the trick?
Are there any leads? Does anyone have any suspicions? Will Olivia Winslow and her gaggle of stolen children awkwardly end up living in Commander Lawrence's house, because 'Mi casa es su casa'.
Oh, and I guess a sort of related question would also be, does Gilead give a shit about Fred and Serena anymore?
Why were Moira, Emily and Luke all conveniently on hand to meet a plane from Gilead?
It makes sense that the trio, and other American/Gilead refugees would volunteer to help however they can, but judging by Moira's face when she sees all the children Canada did not know what to expect from that plane.
It could've been anything, and surely for security reasons Canada would prefer not to have volunteers in the hangar.
This will lead to war... right?
If there's one question I want to know the answer to most, it's this one. How will Gilead react to so many children being, in their eyes, stolen?
Will all the Marthas end up on the wall? How will Janine and the other handmaids explain their absence?
Children are Gilead's most valuable resource and it won't be just infuriating that they lost so many but also really... embarrassing.
Showrunner Miller agrees, telling Harper's Bazaar the Handmaid's team will turn to the UN for advice on how to play it.
"How weak does it make you look to the world if you can't even keep track of what ends up being probably 165 children? It might be beneficial for them to try to keep it quiet.
"Whenever we think about Gilead and what their government would do, we start with conversations with the UN about how decisions are made in pariah nations and enclosed nations that control all the information coming out of them," he explained. "We'll start by talking to people who actually know the answers to those questions, and then we can fictionalise from there."
Is there an underground network where June can hide?
There have been a lot of parallels drawn between June and Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who made many missions to rescue slaves through an underground network.
That in and of itself is a large parallel, but Tubman also carried a gun pistol for safety and reportedly threatened to shoot escaped slaves who got too scared and tried to turn back. Just like June did to the Martha who had second thoughts, and then Kiki/Rebecca.
Given all this, and that #MarthaMafia who can keep even a top-ranking commander's murder a secret, maybe there's somewhere underground June can go where she can continue to help the resistance.
She can't go back to being a handmaid after all that.
These questions become even more interesting when you remember that when the season 3 finale was written, season 4 had not yet been given the go-ahead.
There's so much to look forward to for season 4 but we're just going to have to be patient.
Blessed be the... wait?
For more on this topic:
- The 9 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 12, Sacrifice.
- The 9 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 11, Liars.
- The 5 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 10, Witness.
- The 5 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 9, Heroic.
- The 8 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 8, Unfit.
- The 7 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 7, Under His Eye.
- The 7 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 6, Household.
- The 7 things you may have missed in The Handmaid's Tale season 3, episode 5, Unknown Caller.
- Well, sh*t. Emily might be sent back to Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale.
- There's a new Handmaid's Tale fan theory that claims Nick is a rebellious American spy.
- "36 minutes into the new Handmaid’s Tale, I saw how refugees could be treated. It left me in tears."
- Just a bunch of juicy fan theories about the Handmaid's Tale in one convenient place.