‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Brings (Spoiler) Back for Series Finale in Major Return — How It Happened

Disney / Steve Wilkie

“Alexis has a complicated schedule and a complicated life, and it didn’t work out that it was a good time to do it until the end,” Miller says. “She moved heaven and earth to get up to us, and so there were a lot more practical concerns than character and emotional concerns.”

“I always wanted to know what happened to the character that she was playing, Emily, but also she was so central to June for so long,” he continues. “Even before the show started, they were walking partners. So there was something about bringing her back at the end that if June was going to re-experience that part of her life, it felt like it was impossible to do without that person because without knowing that both of them had made it out, you couldn’t believe in the impossible being possible. But the two of them together, both being alive and free really, I think was the one thing that June and the audience really did not expect to occur. I hope.”

Bledel won an Emmy for her performance in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1, which saw her character experience some of the show’s most disturbing body horror, such as the surgical removal of her clitoris as punishment for fighting back against those in Gilead trying to break her and the other trapped handmaids.

Emily went on to escape Gilead with June’s help and make a new life in Canada, but reconnecting with her wife and their son was a long and difficult process. She committed herself to it nonetheless before feeling the urge to go back to Gilead and try and take down the regime from the inside.

Another presumed-dead character came back in the Season 6 premiere: Holly, June’s mother played by Cherry Jones, who had previously only been seen in flashbacks.

The Handmaid’s Tale, Series Finale Available Now, Hulu