Elisabeth Moss and her co-stars tease ET with what’s still to come on season two of the Hulu hit.
Spoiler alert! This post contains talk of The Handmaid’s Tale season two, episode six, “First Blood.” If you have not watched, or do not want to know what happened, click out now!
Blessed be?
The Handmaid’s Tale season two took a major turn at the end of its sixth episode, “First Blood,” when Ofglen sets off an explosive at the new Rachel and Leah Center, aka the handmaid training facility. The explosion leaves the fate of Gilead, and almost every commander and handmaid viewers know, up in the air going into the second half of season two. Now, ET has the scoop on where the show goes from here, straight from the stars.
“So, there’s an explosion midway, and then we do all of our work to heal and you think that everything’s going to be OK, and then everything goes to hell,” Amanda Brugel (Rita) says. “When I read episode six, I really thought, ‘This is as high as we’re going to fly. We can’t possibly do any worse.’ Then, I read seven and then eight and then nine and then 10, and I was like, ‘I quit!’ I can’t do this anymore. It’s too much. Too much for my heart.”
“I think the second half of the season is even more … it's dangerous,” Samira Wiley (Moira) promises. “Honestly, here -- I'll tell you what I said after I read the last script: ‘Can we actually do that?! We can do that?! OK!’ It's... it's something to watch.”
“In the beginning, you could never guess where we’re going to be in the end, quite honestly,” Elisabeth Moss (June/Offred) adds.
“It's f-- it's messed up!” Madeline Brewer (Janine) says. “It's messed up.”
It seems episode seven will find each of the characters on new paths, especially the handmaids.
“Things get turned up in a real way in a way that’s sort of irreversible,” O-T Fagbenle offers. “The resistance is real … [and] some stuff goes down in Canada which sort of puts [Luke and Moira] on a path of adventure.”
“The next half of the season ... I think it really, it sees Offred really resist in a way we haven’t seen before,” Joseph Fiennes (Fred) offers, echoing Fagbenle’s resistance tease.
“Well, a lot of it is fallout from that, what occurs in episode six, certainly for my character that catapults me into a different experience,” Alexis Bledel (Emily) teases. “Yeah, it creates a real shift for the characters.”
Part of that “shift” will be unexpected onscreen reunions for key characters -- Fagbenle promises ET that viewers will see more “Luke-and-June action” in the second half of season two.
The shift also means certain characters’ views will be challenged, seemingly including Serena Joy.
“I think Serena’s motivation is always been to get her child,” Yvonne Strahovski (Serena) notes. “That’s the light at the end of her tunnel. And she will fight heaven and earth to get what she wants. And I think she’s going to find some bumps in that road, bumps being a very loose description of what is to come.”
“I think this season is going to be very confronting for Serena,” she adds. “She’s faced with a lot of scenarios that might beg her to question whether Gilead remains to be the place for her.”
In the end, though, will be hope -- at least according to Aunt Lydia herself, Ann Dowd.
“It doesn’t let up,” she promises of the final episodes. “There’s despair, there’s Gilead in its full force. There’s hope, there’s resilience, there’s rebellion, you know. It’s thrilling, I have to say.”
New episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale debut Wednesdays on Hulu.
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