The Handmaid's Tale's Elisabeth Moss And Yvonne Strahovski Break Down Two Huge Premiere Moments: 'Girl, What Are You Doing?!' — Watch
Warning: This post contains spoilers from The Handmaid's Tale's Season 6 premiere. Proceed accordingly.
The Handmaid's Tale is, at its core, a story of a mother trying desperately to find her daughter. What beautiful symmetry, then, when that mother reunited with her own long-lost mom in the end of Tuesday's premiere episode.
Cherry Jones (Succession) reprised her role of June's mother, Holly, a character heretofore only seen in June's flashbacks. The last June had heard of Holly, an outspoken doctor and women's rights advocate, she'd been sent to Gilead's Colonies — an assignment that is effectively a death sentence. But when June arrived at a refugee camp in Alaska, it turned out that Holly was part of the facility's medical staff. "June Osborne? Sweetheart?" she called, moving toward a stunned June, who fell into her mom's embrace. (Read a full recap of the episode here.)
The women's reunion "really has to do with the ending, honestly," series star/executive producer/director Elisabeth Moss tells me in the video above. "It really has to do with where we're going." Given that Season 6 is the series' last, Moss adds, the creative team was hyperaware that it was their final shot to say what they wanted to say. "The whole show is so much about June's motherhood and June's role as mother. But I feel like, in order to really, fully telly that story, you've got to bring her own mom into it."
Plus, Moss says, "As soon as we knew that [Jones] was open to coming back on the show, I think it was just a no-brainer to get her back for this final season." (Executive producer Bruce Miller adds that he couldn't wait to see Moss and Jones share a scene once more, "I know it seems very sad and morose," he says, "but oh my God, it's so fun to watch them!")
But let's back up a minute: Most of the premiere is concerned with June's interaction with a different mother — Serena Joy, who manages to incite violence in a train car full of Gilead refugees once her true identity becomes known. There were many possible ways that The Handmaid's Tale could've ended June and Serena's ride on that refugee transport, but c'mon: Who could've foreseen June pushing Serena (and her baby!) out an open door to save them from an angry mob?!
In the video above, I ask Yvonne Strahovski, who plays Serena, about her character's inability to keep her mouth shut as the horde around her grows more hostile. "It really speaks to how embedded she is in this belief system of hers, and how narrow-minded and narcissistic it still is, and how she can't see outwards yet," she says. "June sort of feels like an exception to this rigid belief system, but it's still there."
She laughs. "And then she has this terrible moment on the train, and you just think, 'Oh God, what are you doing? Girl, what are you doing?!"
The Handmaid's Tale streams Tuesdays on Hulu. Press PLAY on the video above to hear more of what Moss and Strahovski have to say, then hit the comments with your thoughts!