‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Ignites In Flames — June Finally Topples Gilead’s Commanders In A Jaw-Dropping Rebellion That Leaves Power Up For Grabs! After Six Seasons Of Suffering And Resistance, June’s Revolution Explodes In The Most Shocking Episode Yet — A Deadly Plane Bomb Wipes Out Gilead’s Leaders In One Strike. But With Serena And Lydia Poised To Rise, And Hannah Still Lost, The Finale Promises Redemption, Reckoning — And A Cost No One Saw Coming.

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Blows the Roof Off — Gilead Falls in Fire and Fury as June Claims Her Reckoning

As The Handmaid’s Tale barrels toward its long-awaited conclusion, the penultimate episode explodes with the revolution fans have been aching for — and the reckoning June (Elisabeth Moss) has fought for across six harrowing seasons. In mere moments, three major characters are gone, and Gilead’s entire leadership is wiped out in a single, radical act. It’s a seismic shift. It’s bloody. And for June, it’s personal.

The quiet tension of past seasons finally breaks. The plan to sabotage Wharton and Serena’s wedding hits hard, but it’s only the prelude. With the clock ticking and the Commanders en route to a political summit, Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) — Gilead’s architect-turned-saboteur — boards the flight with a bomb in tow. In a stunning act of redemption, he sacrifices himself to destroy the very monster he helped create. Nick (Max Minghella), still entangled in moral compromise, follows him onto the plane — not to stop him, but to share his fate. Seconds later, the screen ignites in flame. The tyrants are gone. Gilead is decapitated.

And June? She survives — barely. After years of torment, failed uprisings, and unrelenting loss, her voice finally sparks a movement that turns the tide. She’s no longer just a survivor. She’s the leader of a revolution. Her defiance becomes salvation.

But even in victory, sorrow lingers. The daughter she risked everything to save, Hannah, is slipping away — older, colder, molded by Gilead. The haunting knowledge that she may never return as “Hannah,” but remain Agnes Jemima, casts a long shadow. For June, the cruelest irony may be applying her own philosophy — that women must choose their own lives — to the daughter who no longer chooses her.

Meanwhile, a power vacuum looms. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), reborn through survival, sees a divine mandate to reform Gilead under her own righteous rule. And Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), now twice widowed and politically unshackled, may rise anew. But creating something better won’t be easy. Tyranny is simple. Building justice is the real battle.

Still, one thing is certain — the Gilead we knew is gone. And June Osborne, the woman they couldn’t break, just lit the match.