‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5 Finale: Fans Have Seen That Truck Before
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 finale escalated the dangers June and her loved ones are facing in Toronto. After nearly getting shot in the previous episode, a Gilead sympathizer in a truck tries to mow June down. The violent scene was quite a shock, but this isn’t the first time viewers have seen that truck on the show.
[SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 finale.]
Toronto is no longer safe in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 slowly ramped up the dangers that June and her loved ones experience in Canada. Feelings of unease grew when the series introduced fans to Gilead sympathizers like the Wheelers, living in Toronto.
Then in episode 8, Canadian protestors, tired of refugees living in their country, began to protest and graffiti the sidewalk in front of June’s house. “In this episode, we see that there’s a growing sense of anti-refugee sentiment in Canada,” executive producer Erich Tuchman said in a featurette.
Things escalate in episode 9. During a memorial for the soldiers who tried to rescue children from a Wives School, gunshots ring out, and June narrowly avoids the bullets.
Fans have seen the truck that ran over June before
A final and even more direct attempt on June’s life is made in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 finale. A Gilead sympathizer hits June with his truck, then runs over her arm. Luckily before he can kill her, Luke pulls the driver out of the car. The shockingly graphic scene is shot from June’s point of view, following her as she lies on the pavement in front of her house.
“It’s a remarkable directing job by Lizzie [Moss] and the entire crew to do something like that, to make it, I think, feel so real,” showrunner Bruce Miller told Entertainment Weekly. “I’ve never seen something like this on television. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s what it feels like to get run over in the middle of the street.'”
The scene is certainly a shock, but The Handmaid’s Tale gave viewers a glimpse of that truck before. “The truck is in the previous three or four episodes, I think. It goes by really quickly at one point when they’re scrubbing the driveway,” Miller added.
Elisabeth Moss directed the season 5 finale
Moss does an excellent job of increasing June’s sense of unease. The season 5 finale begins with a quiet morning. June, Moira, and Luke are enjoying the silence before Nichole wakes up, without any honking or screaming protestors. As the cliché goes, it’s almost too quiet.
Mark Tuello arrives, and when June walks him out, the camera pans slowly around her neighborhood right before the truck starts up. “It’s just perfect. And I love the fact that it’s slow,” Miller said of the shot. “That makes it uneasy, and you’re looking so carefully, like, “What’s going on? What am I missing? What’s the terrible thing I don’t see yet?'”
All episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale are currently streaming on Hulu.
