Season 5 Was ‘Quite Emotional’ For Yvonne Strahovski

This article contains spoilers.

There’s a new Serena Joy Waterford in the fifth season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Not only has she been edged out of her protected position as the Wife of a powerful Commander, but as a single pregnant woman, she soon became a Handmaid.

At the end of the penultimate episode, Serena escaped. Now she knows first-hand the hell she created for so many, and though some fans might be happy to see Yvonne Strahovski’s Serena face karma, others are rooting for her and her baby Noah to start a new life in a safe place.

When asked in a recent interview if Serena had regrets now that she, too, is a mother, Strahovski explained that, in many ways, Serena is broken. “It’s quite painful to come to certain realizations about what you’ve done in the past. A lot is going on for Serena this season.”

What’s shocking in the 10-episode fifth season is that Elisabeth Moss’ June Osborne is the one who advised her on how to save herself and her baby. Serena may have been stripped of her power, but there is one thing no one can take from her: her cunning ability to manipulate those around her.

Serena and June are inextricably tied to one another, and their paths continuously cross. Throughout the season, each wanted to kill the other and even had opportunities to do so. Instead, they helped each other. June even helped Serena deliver her baby.

For Strahovski, filming the scenes with Serena’s son Noah was emotional. “I had my second baby, and he was eight weeks old when I went back to work for season five. Things were just quite close to home. I remember reading one of the episodes, and I had to read it with one eye. It was just too much. As an actress, you have to imagine a lot of things and then play them. So, it wasn’t very hard to imagine what it would’ve been like having a child for these scenes, and it was incredibly emotional.”

When asked to describe the layered and complicated relationship between Serena and June, Strahovski says it boils down to one word: Complicated. “There’s no other word that describes it. There are just so many elements to the relationship. These are two very smart women who, in another world, might’ve been friends. But there’s just so much that separates them.”

In a separate interview, Moss described their relationship as one of necessity and survival. There is an even bigger enemy to contend with. “Gilead has not gotten any weaker. Gilead is getting stronger but also smarter. It’s figuring out ways to make itself known and accepted internationally. This is very dangerous and very problematic for both June and Serena.”

Can a person who helped create this fascist regime have a morsel of good somewhere inside her soul? At this question, Strahovski paused before answering. “Perhaps, but she has to try to understand herself and why she’s acted out in the ways she has. She has to look at her past wounds and figure out why she’s done the things she’s done. If she can do this, I think so, but it would take a lot of deep-diving and time.”

This season provided Serena with a few opportunities to right her past wrongs. Might she and June become allies in the sixth and final season? “They have a very deep and dark history between them,” said Strahovksi. “I don’t know if that can ever be fully recovered, although we reach new heights and depths this season with their relationship.”

June and Serena may have a troubled and tormented history, but they’ll need one another to survive the wrath of Gilead.