‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 2 Ending Explained

The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 finale left fans shocked when June made a game-changing decision that will affect all of Gilead moving forward, and now actress Elisabeth Moss is explaining those final moments that left fans screaming at their TVs.

Throughout the course of The Handmaid’s Tale‘s second season, June, cloaked in red as Offred in the oppressive land known as Gilead, tirelessly fights for the freedom of herself and her unborn child, but when faced with a truck that will finally lead her out of Gilead and into the safety of Canada, where her husband and best friend are waiting, she chooses to stay behind, a decision that ultimately sets up the course moving forward. While there are multiple reasons as to why June made the decision that she did, her daughter, Hannah, was one of the main influences.

“Hannah is the first one. It’s as simple as that. She cannot leave her daughter there. She doesn’t know if she can get back in if she leaves. What can she do from the outside? She doesn’t know,” star Elizabeth Moss, who just picked up an Emmy nod for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Moss also speculated that the recent hope of an uprising within Gilead and the knowledge that she is not the only person working against the system perhaps stirred June to stay.

“She just discovered that there’s a legitimate and strong underground network of Marthas working for the resistance,” Moss continued. “The wives led by Serena just rebelled against the men and government of Gilead. They are starting to resist. And she just saw a commander help his handmaid and her dear friend Emily escape. A commander. How deep does this underground network of resistance go? She knows now she isn’t alone.”

Although June’s decision to stay while her infant daughter and Emily were whisked away to safety will likely come with consequences, Moss believes that staying was the only decision that June could make, and that it is one that will be crucial in paving the way for any future resistance that is to come.

“There are very few people who can fight from the inside, and you have to have both. There are very few people who are as smart and experienced with Gilead as June is, who are as connected to a high-ranking commander such as Waterford or Lawrence, who know the ins and out, who have someone connected like Nick, who knows that there’s a network of Marthas,” Moss said. “She has very particular qualities that make her the one who should lead the resistance.”

While fans will have to wait until next year to find out what the consequences of June’s decisions will be and how she will go about reuniting with Hannah, seasons 1 and 2 of the popular series are currently streaming on Hulu.