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‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: 1 Anticipated Scene Was Cut From the Season 4 Finale

The season 4 finale of 'The Handmaid's Tale' premiered on Hulu on June 16. Before the episode premiered, multiple actors and Hulu promoted the premiere with images of Elisabeth Moss, Amanda Brugel, Samira Wiley, O-T Fagbenle, and Alexis Bledel with protestors dressed as Handmaids. Despite the hype about the scene, it was cut from the final version of the finale.
by Eryn Murphy
Published on
2 min read

In the week leading up to the season 4 finale of The Handmaid’s Tale, photos from the show’s set of Elisabeth Moss, Amanda Brugel, Samira Wiley, O-T Fagbenle, and Alexis Bledel were used to promote the episode. In the images, Moss, Brugel, Wiley, Fagbenle, and Bledel posed with extras dressed as Handmaids.

When season 4 episode 10 of The Handmaid’s Tale, “The Wilderness,” premiered on Hulu on June 16, the scene with June (Moss), Rita (Brugel), Luke (Fagbenle), Moira (Wiley), and Emily (Bledel) was nowhere to be found.

[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for season 4 episode 10 of The Handmaid’s Tale.]

Amanda Brugel, Elisabeth Moss, O-T Fagbenle, Samira Wiley, and Alexis Bledel kneel in front of extras dressed as Handmaids in 'The Handmaid's Tale'
Amanda Brugel, Elisabeth Moss, O-T Fagbenle, Samira Wiley, and Alexis Bledel in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ | Sophie Giraud/Hulu

The script for the season 4 finale of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is available online

While the scene of June, her husband, and her friends with the Handmaids did not make the final cut of “The Wilderness,” an early version of the episode’s script is available to read online. According to the script, the women dressed as Handmaids were protestors who supported Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and Serena Joy Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski).

In the cut scene, the protestors march to the house June shares with Luke and Moira. As Emily and June sit on the steps of the house and talk, they hear chanting. The group of friends then see the protestors dressed as Handmaids approaching the house.

When they reach June’s home, one protestor recites a speech encouraging June to reunite with the Waterfords as their Handmaid. June walks menacingly toward the group and snatches the speech from the protestor.

“In Gilead, they would cut out your tongue for that. Stay the f*ck away from my family,” she tells them according to the script.

Joseph Fiennes mentioned the deleted scene in an interview

At the end of the finale, June makes the shocking decision to kill Fred along with other former Handmaids from her support group. Following the premiere of the season 4 finale, Fiennes took part in multiple interviews to discuss his character’s death.

During an interview with ELLE, Fiennes mentioned the cut scene with the protestors, saying:

“There were also a couple of moments that were cut. There’s a crazy mob that are all for the Waterfords, as you might get in any society, a margin of people who are disenfranchised with whatever their government is doing and who will believe the lie of some new conspiracy. There was a scene where there were women dressing up as Handmaids to go to Offred’s home and undermine her, in favor of the Waterfords. So there was a moment where he thinks [June’s] coming into the cell to say, ‘Call these crazy fans off.’ But all of that muddied the water, and quite rightly, it was excluded.”

Related

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Showrunner Clarifies That Mark Tuello Is Not the Father of Serena Waterford’s Baby

Fred Waterford could return in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Even though June murdered Fred in “The Wilderness,” there is a strong chance fans will see Fred again in The Handmaid’s Tale. While speaking with ELLE, Fiennes admitted he would be happy to film flashback scenes of Fred.

“I would love to see a flashback of the really early years. I’ve always felt, certainly for subsidiary characters, it’s so helpful to have those backstories,” he said.

Season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale is currently streaming on Hulu.

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