Handmaid’s Tale Season 3 Finale Explained: Did June’s Rescue Plan Succeed?

Did June’s ambitious rescue plan work in The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 finale? The Handmaid’s Tale is based on the chilling Margaret Atwood novel, which is set in a dystopian future where a totalitarian regime has taken over most of the United States and renamed it Gilead. This future world is also seeing a crash in fertility rates, so this nightmarish society forces fertile women – dubbed “Handmaids” – to work for and bear the children of elite members of society. The story is mostly told from the perspective of June (Elisabeth Moss), who is given the new name Offred, after her “owner” Commander Fred (Joseph Fiennes).

The first season of The Handmaid’s Tale arrived in 2017 to critical acclaim, for its performances, production design, writing and depiction of the horrifying world of Gilead itself. The show’s critical reputation has dipped slightly in later seasons, as The Handmaid’s Tale’s need to maintain June’s place as a Handmaid has stretched credibility at times. Regardless, the series remains powerful and disturbing viewing, which is grounded by the fantastic performances of Moss and co-stars like Yvonne Strahovski and Alexis Bledel.

Coming into The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 finale “Mayday,” June had hatched a plan alongside many other Handmaids and Marthas to fly 52 children out of Gilead and into Canada. Needless to say, it’s a high stakes mission, and in addition to waiting for all of the children to arrive at Commander Lawrence’s house, June proves just how far she’s willing to go when she finds herself pointing a gun at a child when a Handmaid tries to back out. When authorities catch wind of what’s happening, June and the others lead the children through the forest at night to the airport.

Over in Canada, Commander Fred gains revenge on Serena, who set him up to be captured outside of Gilead so she could spend time with “her” rescued daughter Holly – who is really June’s child by Guardian Nick. Fred reveals to Agent Tuello that Serena arranged for June’s assault, and she’s arrested for the crime and separated from Holly once again. The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 finale sees June willing to sacrifice herself to distract the soldiers at the airport so the children can board the plane, though she’s helped by other Handmaid’s who pelt the guards with rocks, even when facing gunfire.

The plane takes off and lands in Canada, with Moira, Emily and Luke there to greet the 52 children and see firsthand how June’s seemingly impossible plan actually worked. Of course, Luke is quietly heartbroken when neither June nor their daughter Hannah comes out of the plane. The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 finale ends with June – who was wounded after a fight with a soldier – being carried off by other Handmaids as Mazzy Star’s “Into Dust” plays, with the ending strongly implying June will lead an uprising, while it’s likely Gilead will seek revenge for their the children being taken out of the country.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

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A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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