The Handmaid’s Story Showrunner on Bringing Extra Backstory to One in every of Its Most Sophisticated Characters

Watching The Handmaid’s Tale for the primary time, the inevitable query quickly rises: how did a spot as oppressive and merciless as Gilead come to be? Over six seasons, we’ve discovered the Gilead origin story by means of flashbacks sprinkled into the primary narrative—one thing that feels more and more like a cautionary tale for American viewers in 2025—and the Hulu present has additionally stuffed in blanks for its foremost gamers. However in a current episode, it gave us one other contemporary look into one character’s life “earlier than.”

We’ve lengthy been fascinated with Serena Joy Waterford, deftly performed by Yvonne Strahovski as a girl who backed Gilead’s right-wing Christian agenda from the beginning and married Fred Waterford, who turned the highly effective Commander Waterford as soon as the US underwent its pressured transformation. Although Serena was as soon as a well-liked creator and political speaker, she willingly put her profession apart and have become a dutiful spouse—for a time.

As The Handmaid’s Story has progressed, we’ve discovered Serena is way from a one-note zealot. Her want to grow to be a mom guided a few of her most odious actions, however she finally proved she wasn’t too inflexible to understand her failings as a human being—and started to really feel deep remorse about her half in turning the world the other way up.

In episode two, “Exile,” viewers acquired to satisfy Serena’s father for the primary time. (Her mom, who lives in Gilead, made an disagreeable impression again in season three and hasn’t been seen since.) There are two flashbacks within the episode, which within the present’s current day follows Serena’s determination to return to Gilead—particularly, the extra reformed New Bethlehem area, the place she thinks she’ll be capable of ease her guilt and get again on the trail God has envisioned for her.

Her relationship along with her father, a pastor, is part of the Serena puzzle the present’s been eager to discover, in response to The Handmaid’s Story creator Bruce Miller. Talking to the Wrap, he defined, “We’ve discovered about her, however that is actually attention-grabbing, as a result of it’s not a few relationship she selected, like with Fred … Right here, you’re like, how did you grow to be the lady you’re? I feel that’s the actually attention-grabbing query now, since you’ve plumbed the depths of Serena to know what’s there, you understand the lady that’s there. So while you get to season six, you’re asking the query of, what was her father like? And I don’t suppose you’re firstly, as a result of I feel she has one million relationships in her life, however that one will get far more attention-grabbing while you understand how a lot metal she has.”

The 2 scenes with Serena’s father unfold a couple of years aside; within the first one, she’s simply met Fred and her father is congratulating her on her e-book tour. Within the second, her father—who is way older and extra frail-looking—listens as she excitedly tells him “We’re about to alter the nation!”

At that time she thinks she’s making good on her father’s earlier urgings to be a beacon for the motion—however after all we all know her marriage to Fred can be crammed with distress, and the “adjustments” she helped spearhead will carry horror and tragedy, not “a brand new Backyard of Eden” as she envisions. Maybe she’s hoping New Bethlehem can be that as a substitute? You possibly can by no means predict what Serena will do, however she does have a tremendous method of at all times touchdown on her ft.

You possibly can watch new episodes of The Handmaid’s Story Tuesdays on Hulu.

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