Elisabeth Moss Explains Why June Helps Serena Deliver Her Baby

Why would former Handmaid June Osborne help Serena Waterford, the woman who brutalized her for years, deliver her baby? June had many choices in that dilapidated barn.

In a recent interview, Elisabeth Moss explained why June helped Serena deliver her son, Noah, and it all came down to one thing: Necessity.

Though the women are in a battle with one another, they quickly realize they have a much bigger enemy to contend with in Gilead. The 10-episode fifth season focuses on how this fascist regime has grown in power.

“It’s really about the actual practicality of doing it,” says Moss. She reminds me that June knows a thing or two about delivering a baby in the middle of nowhere. “Believe it or not, and it takes us a second to get there in the season, obviously, but June wants Serena to be a good mother. June wants her to be a good person. She desperately wants it. June’s greatest strength and biggest flaw is her belief that Serena will find the right way and change. She’s also not going to do anything to harm that baby. She will not let Serena and Noah die out there.”

The two women also realize that Gilead is getting stronger and wiser. “It’s figuring out ways to make itself known and accepted internationally,” said Moss. “This is very dangerous and very problematic for both June and Serena.”

Because of this, June’s actions this season are acutely focused on necessity, practicality and survival. Emotions, for the time being, must be put aside as she’s forced to find a way to navigate the ever-changing power dynamics. Her plan includes finding a way to work with, not against, Serena, which means she must help her at her weakest and most vulnerable moment. They need one another now.

“I think that she makes this decision at the moment not to be Serena and not to be Gilead. She can’t let all that trauma, evil, and violence make her into them,” explained Moss. “I love that about her. I think it’s so noble and so heroic. To me, that is true heroism. It’s not about wearing a cape or carrying a weapon. It’s not about violence. It’s about deciding at the moment that you are going to be a better version of yourself, and to me, I think that’s so beautiful. Despite the whole tearing Fred apart thing, believe it or not, June is a good person.”

June and Serena have each done cruel things to one another. Serena showed no mercy when June was her Handmaid, and June took pleasure in the savagery of Commander Waterford’s death. Gilead turns people into versions of themselves they would never think were possible. Now, they must find a way to take Gilead down.

The fan-favorite Hulu drama, adapted from Margaret Atwood’s classic bestselling novel, was just renewed for a sixth and final season. Series creator Bruce Miller is developing The Testaments, a follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale that will pick up the story years later.