The Handmaid’s Tale final season has a surprising problem – and it's letting down some key characters

As such, there's a lot to do if we're gonna bring about Gilead's downfall, a lot of moving pieces that need to be set in motion. That means the final 10 episodes of The Handmaid's Tale have a lot of lifting to do, and that's especially true for June Osborne at the centre of it all. But as much as we're longing for that downfall to happen already, the process needs to feel realistic or the show risks undoing all of the hard work it's put into telling this tale.

The season 6 premiere starts off strong, picking up directly after the previous cliffhanger where June and Serena Joy find themselves on the same train carrying refugees to Alaska. Of course, June's gonna June, so she ends up protecting Serena, despite everything that's happened between them both.

The episode progresses at a steady pace, mostly set within the confines of their carriage, but once the train reaches the station at Alaska, we lurch ahead abruptly in regular intervals throughout the next two episodes. In doing so, The Handmaid's Tale writers throw some key characters under the bus, or train, as it were.

For example, the rate at which Serena goes from Gilead pariah to spokesperson for New Bethlehem is enough to shock even the most hardened Jezebels patron. By the end of the episode, she's already emboldened to take it upon herself to "heal" this broken world, a far cry from the outcast whose eyes had begun to open beyond Gilead's facade.

All it takes is one conversation between two Commanders, and suddenly, Yvonne Strahovski's character has clawed back enough power to put her at odds with June once again.

While this can technically be explained away by a sudden two month time jump near the start of the episode, such a speedy shift still undercuts Serena's evolution as a character, sacrificing the nuances of her development just to set the pieces in motion for where this season will end. Because honestly, the brief, random flashbacks to Serena and her father were not enough to rectify this (flashbacks that are never returned to again for the rest of the season, I might add).

The same is also true for Moira Strand and Luke Bankole, aka June's bestie and June's husband. Previous seasons have often given the pair short thrift — which is especially problematic given that they're far the most integral characters of colour in this show — and nothing's changed in that regard across these first three episodes either.

After Luke was violently arrested at the end of the last season, he's very quickly reunited with June near the start of episode 2, and his release is negotiated incredibly fast. It's almost as if the arrest in the previous finale's cliffhanger was just included for that initial impact, and little else.

In episode 3, we learn that Luke and Moira are suddenly trapped in the no man's land between Canada and Gilead, which might seem like progress on the surface of it all. It's about time these two characters were given a more active role in the resistance (and when it comes to their own fates as well). But the problem is that we don't actually get to see this unfold. Instead, we come at it from June's perspective, so we don't catch up with either Luke or Moira until we visit no man's land with her.

Yep, the most important thing that's happened to these two major characters in forever mostly takes place offscreen until their white saviour eventually arrives. Without spoiling too much, later episodes do attempt to rectify this long-held criticism against the show, with some important conversations between June and Moira especially, although it's very much a case of too little, too late where the wider arc of race in The Handmaid's Tale is concerned.

And how does June help save her friend and husband? With some quick jollies back and forth to no man's land. Remember when travelling between Canada and Gilead was an ordeal? Remember when the entire crux of the show hinged on that fact?

June has a lot more help these days, from Nick and from the government, too, but it shouldn't be this easy to move back and forth now. Going into deadly territory shouldn't be as casual as popping down the local co-op for a pint of milk, yet it has to be now, apparently, in order for the necessary pieces to be set in place for what's to come.

Even June's mum is mad about it, which tracks because she's another casualty of the final season's rushed momentum. After Holly and June have it out over June's plan to leave the safety of Alaska behind to fight the good fight, Cherry Jones's character recedes into the background, little more than a glorified babysitter for her granddaughter, Nichole. And for such a big, surprising reveal, that Holly has actually been alive this whole time, it sure does feel inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

This isn't all to say that the final season is a bust. There are still highlights in these first three episodes, especially when things come to a head on the train in episode 1, but a lot is happening very quickly without much happening at all still.

The result is a somewhat disjointed, occasionally tedious return to this future that looks more like our own than ever. And that's a shame, because at its best, The Handmaid's Tale is a searing, unstoppable force of nature, much like June.

Let's just hope that the final episodes to come reckon with this ferocity in full as we hurtle towards the end of the series and maybe, just maybe, Gilead itself.

The Handmaid's Tale airs on Hulu in the US, and Channel 4 and Prime Video in the UK – you can sign up now for a free 30-day Prime Video trial.

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