We got answers about that shocking turn of events.
Warning: This article contains spoilers from Wednesday’s episode ofThe Handmaid’s Tale.
Season 5 episode 6 ofThe Handmaid’s Taleis a bit of a doozy, to say the least.
Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) in episode 6 of season 5 of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.'.Sophie Giraud/Hulu
In a nutshell, nearly every character on the show faces a major crossroads by episode’s end.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start at the end, actually, with probably the episode’s biggest moment.
Serena finally has a chance to kill June, and doesn’t take it.
Did she want to kill June?
What was going through her head in that moment?
BRUCE MILLER:I think it is not impulsive.
How long have you known you wanted to play with this idea of Serena becoming a handmaid of sorts?
How would she sell that message to other people?
What would she use it for, given her personality?
But she’s still in general a narcissistic snake, or spider maybe.
But it’s still always about Serena.
We also learn that Nick’s wife, Rose, is pregnant.
Can we trust her?
The fact that she knows so much seems potentially dangerous to Nick.
Doyou trust her is really more of my question.
I mean, I don’t know if I trust her.
That’s evolving, too.
she gets an honest answer, not an extensive one, but an honest one.
She seems very nice.
Why is she letting him walk over her?
And that person is Rose.
He does not want to do anything else.
He’s avoiding as much as possible doing anything else to make him feel like a bad person.
He has plenty of those things on his plate.
And speaking of that, him killing Commander Putnam in broad daylight like that was interesting.
He didn’t hesitate at all.
He made it look easy, but what are the ramifications moving forward?
Didn’t he make it look easy, though?
Wasn’t that really interesting?
I think that Nick has experienced close up violence before, and knows how much it tortures him.
He didn’t want to have anything to do with violence anymore.
But not this time.
Yeah, he just went for it.
That’s what it’s about.
It’s getting closer and closer and closer.
Is she dangerous to June but not to Nick?
Is she dangerous to both of them?
Is she dangerous to neither?
What the hell’s going on?
And it’s usually out of love [for him].
What can you tell us about what we’re seeing happen there with her character?
Well, I think we’re seeing kind of an era of self-examination that she’s going through.
So she’s pivoting to those issues, and I think the character is growing in that direction.
I think that’s just going to make it bad TV.
And we’ll go from there.
I’ve loved her interactions with Commander Lawrence.
They definitely have a sparkle when they’re together.
And it’s certainly something we accentuate in the editing and the writing.
And then I’m in your position, which is I watch it to see what’s really there.
I don’t think there’s a romantic element for either.
I don’t think she likes him very much at all.
I think they find each other a little bit repulsive.
But they also find each other impressive.
It’s the same way June feels about Serena.
She also detests her.
I also wanted to ask about Esther’s pregnancy.
Have we seen the last of her character?
I don’t know what Janine or June will ever find out about what happened.
A lot of it is casting, honestly.
People are very successful and busy, and thank God, I’m so happy for them.
I don’t want to get in anybody’s way.
I don’t want to give anything away.
What should people expect from the rest of this season as a whole?
[Laughs]
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
