Content note: this article contains references to rape and descriptive violence that readers may find upsetting.

It has been written, countless times over, that The Handmaid’s Tale holds a mirror up to reality. What none of us expected, though, was that reality would begin to reflect Margaret Atwood’s terrifying dystopia back in turn.

 Yes, many people have started to feel increasingly like they’re living in a dark prequel of sorts, and can you blame them? In the three years since the airing of the fifth season’s divisive finale – which saw Luke, Nick and Janine each finally snap in their own unique ways, and June paired up with her archnemesis Serena on a train bound west – we’ve seen Donald Trump’s return as president of one of the world’s most influential countries. As of March 2025, abortion is banned in 12 US states, while seven others impose gestational limits earlier than those set by Roe v Wade. An “unprecedented” increase in abortion-related prosecutions has been noted in the UK, too, with six women appearing in court over the past two years under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. 

Add to that an epidemic of violence against women and girls in the UK, the frightening extent to which self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate has captured the attention of young men, the Taliban’s brutal restrictions on Afghan women and a global backlash against women’s rights in one in four countries, and it’s little wonder that the world feels one step closer to the horrors depicted in Gilead – which also happens to be set in a not-so-distant future version of our world. One that’s been rendered almost unlivable in places by pollution and radioactive poisoning, presumably left over from nuclear fallout.

As we approach the premiere of the Channel 4 adaptation’s sixth and final season later this spring, it makes sense that some viewers have given up watching. Too much horror, too many grim musings on our current state of affairs – they tapped out in order to preserve their own emotional wellbeing. 

Some of them don’t even know that much of the action now takes place outside of Gilead; that June (Elisabeth Moss) escaped and reunited in Canada with her baby daughter; her husband, Luke (OT Fagbenle); and her best friend, Moira (Samira Wiley). That June and a group of vengeful ex-handmaids basically – and almost literally – tore Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) to shreds when he followed her over the border. That she became a prime target for murderous Gileadean fanatics, resulting in her being shot at and run over (and Luke being arrested for assaulting one of her attackers). That she was forced to flee Canada alongside an old enemy. Yeah, things have got very interesting indeed.

It’s time to tune back in, essentially, and not just because of the show’s prescience. It seems the sixth season could be very different to everything that’s come before: something more hopeful that offers us if not a bright beacon, then at least a flickering candle at the end of a very dark tunnel. Why? Well, for starters, it’s setting up the board for The Testaments – based on Atwood’s bestselling sequel, which jumps us forward in time by 15 years to a weakening Gilead. This means that all of our key characters are going to be shifting ever closer towards their final destinies: Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), for example, has already begun to feel less like a weapon or enforcer of the regime and more like a human being capable of empathy. Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), too, has seen firsthand the consequences of her own actions, and it’s been hinted that she may attempt to reform Gilead, forging an unlikely alliance with the woman she helped her husband to ritualistically rape over and over again.

Elsewhere, Luke and Moira join the resistance. Nick (Max Minghella), one of the original soldiers to fight for Gilead, strives once again for redemption as he aligns himself with the woman he loves. Janine (Madeline Brewer) finds herself somewhere very different to the world of red cloaks and white wings she’s always known. June, too, continues to fight the good fight – grappling with who she is, was and will eventually become. And the explosive trailer has hammered home the fact that she and her fellow handmaids won’t simply unite but will transform from veiled victims of the regime, like phoenixes, into its greatest threat. “For years we’ve been afraid of them,” June says. “Now it’s time for them to be afraid of us. This is the beginning of the end.”

June’s use of the word ‘us’ is crucial. While she has long been held up as the powder keg upon which Gilead has been sitting, the show’s final chapter is here to make it clear that standing against the lions of injustice will and could never be a job for just one person. Women are stronger together; our voices are amplified when we shout as one. And so, when our rights and norms are eroded away, we must find solidarity in resistance.

Yes, The Handmaid’s Tale remains an unsettling cautionary tale. Yes, there are likely more nightmarish scenes to come. And yes, it’s likely we will lose a few beloved characters before the final credits. In spite of all that, I suspect the defiant handmaids of Gilead are exactly the galvanising force we all need – now more than ever before. We owe it to ourselves to keep watching so that we might bear witness. Until the season premiere, then… Nolite te bastardes carborundorum!

Images: Disney