It is getting close to half a
decade now since Hulu premiered “A Handmaid’s Tale,” a TV adaptation and
expansion of a dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood. For three seasons, viewers
have followed, sympathized with and supported the character of Offred,
portrayed by Elizabeth Moss. A fertile woman enslaved as a baby-maker to an
elite family of the religious extremist post-US nation of Gilead, she gradually
begins working to undermine the current society, all while seeking to reunite
with her husband, an exile in Canada, and her daughter, raised by an elite
Gilead family. The end of season 3 in 2019 led to a “Handmaid” drought, which
ends this April.
Entertainment Weekly has it that season 4 of “The Handmaid’s Tale”
is due to arrive for streaming on Hulu this April 28. That should end over a
year and a half of no word on what happened to June Osborne/Offred/Ofjoseph
since the daring evacuation of children from Gilead to Canada that ended season
3. While wounded in action, June survives and remains in Gilead to further
stoke the fires of revolution, even as the world continues to sanction the
nation and the situation grows dire.
A scene from the trailer sees
June (Elizabeth Moss) out of her Handmaid garb for once; then it flashes back
to her trying to coerce more cooperation among the Handmaids to rise up. “We
don’t hide. We fight,” she tells one. Armed guardians increasingly patrol the
streets while the Gilead leadership ponders the intensified unrest that the
child evacuation has triggered in their country. One prominent voice in
labeling June as an existential threat to Gilead is Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd). As
the season tagline “Let freedom reign” flashes, a now-civilian-garbed June
gives her name and determinedly declares herself to be a United States citizen.
Series show-runner Bruce Miller
noted how he deliberately steered Moss’ character of June into becoming more
morally compromised towards the end of season 3. Season 4 is stated in the
official description to pick up on this thread, as the once-integrity-bound
June makes decisions and takes actions that gradually break down her true self
from “the time before” and threaten to make her a dangerous stranger to those
who know her, including her lost family. But is it worth it in order to end
Gilead? Fans of “The Handmaid’s Tale” can start following season 4 when it
premieres April 28.
Image courtesy of Digital Spy
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