The Handmaid's Tale’s Season 5, Episode 5 Promo Teases Danger
Despite its name, this episode doesn’t look like a “Fairytale” to me.
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 finally moved June Osborne to Canada after three and a half seasons of failing to escape Gilead. It also moved the Waterfords there, and, despite her best efforts, Serena Joy wound up on trial along with Fred. Season 5 so far has moved Serena to Gilead and back again (after offing Fred, of course). But in The Handmaid’s Tale’s Season 5, Episode 5 promo, it looks like she’s not the only one crossing the border.
Warning: Spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5, Episode 4 follow. Serena Joy never meant to return to Canada after Fred’s funeral in Gilead, believing she was safe down south. But the Commanders had a different idea and ordered her back north, under the pretense of starting and spearheading a “cultural center” to preach the Gilead gospel. Serena Joy and June were free in the same city for the first time, and the results were just as explosive as one would imagine.
But Serena’s arrival also was the catalyst for a reckoning between June and Luke, whose relationship had been strained since her return from Gilead as a hardened warrior. With Serena Joy in his city, Luke went all in on siding with his wife, including getting the cultural center shut down, and stepped up for June the way she wanted him to for the first time.
But Team June and Luke are about to try a much larger mission — which perhaps they should not have attempted, from the looks of the new promo.
Episode 5 is titled “Fairytale.” The synopsis is straightforward: “June and Luke embark on a dangerous quest. Serena gets to know her new hosts.”
Since the Season 5 premiere, Luke has been poked at for never attempting to enter Gilead to save his wife and daughter, instead helplessly mourning them from Canada. Episode 4 finally brought it out into the open, with Serena all but accusing him of cowardice. It’s not surprising that, having been called out, Luke now wants to go the distance and volunteer to re-enter Gilead with June in a feverish attempt to save Hannah. In terms of life choices, it’s perhaps not the smartest one he could make, but it is proof he wasn’t kidding about being all in with June.
As for Serena Joy, her first meeting with Mrs. Wheeler at the end of Episode 4 was eyebrow-raising, to say the least. Does she have the stomach to live among the true believers? It’s one thing to exploit them in a bid for power from afar. Living among them, however, is going to be an experience she may discover she does not care for at all.
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 continues with new episodes streaming every Wednesday on Hulu.
