It feels like an age since we last saw Elisabeth Moss’s June board a train with baby Nichole in the season five finale. Fleeing the growing unrest in Canada and walking straight into an inevitable (and slightly awkward) encounter with Serena Joy, the episode left things on an excruciating cliffhanger.
Now, after nearly three years, The Handmaid’s Tale has returned to the UK for its sixth and final season. The show is one month behind the US, where viewers are already seven episodes deep into the explosive series. This final season will begin setting up The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s Booker-prize-winning sequel to the original novel.
With June on a mission to take down Gilead, the question remains: will she succeed in the season finale? Having premiered in the UK last weekend, here’s what to expect from season six, and when and how you can watch it in the UK.
Where to watch ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in the UK
Episode 1 is already available on Amazon Prime Video and Channel 4’s streaming service, with subsequent episodes dropping every Saturday.
If you want to watch The Handmaid’s Tale without the ads, you’ll need an Amazon Prime subscription. A regular membership costs £9.99 per month. But if you haven’t been an Amazon Prime member in the last 12 months, you can also sign up for a 30-day free trial, which gives you all the perks of a Prime membership, including free next-day delivery.
If you’re not a Prime subscriber but still want to watch the show without adverts, you can sign up for Channel 4+. It costs £3.99 per month or £39.99 annually, but if you already have Prime, you might as well take advantage of the membership. Don’t mind the ads? It’ll also be live on Channel 4 whenever it releases. Amazon Prime Video has seasons one to five in its back catalogue if you want to catch up before the season premiere.
What is The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 about?
Without giving away any spoilers for viewers in the UK, Hulu’s official synopsis for the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale states that June’s “unyielding spirit and determination pull her back into the fight to take down Gilead. Luke and Moira join the resistance. Serena tries to reform Gilead while Commander Lawrence and Aunt Lydia reckon with what they have wrought, and Nick faces challenging tests of character. This final chapter of June’s journey highlights the importance of hope, courage, solidarity, and resilience in the pursuit of justice and freedom.”
In the trailer, we also see June pulling together an army of handmaids to rebel against Gilead. “For years we’ve been afraid of them,” says June in the trailer. “Now it’s time for them to be afraid of us. This is the beginning of the end.”
Season six’s showrunner Yahlin Chang also revealed in an interview with TV Insider that the upcoming adaptation of The Testaments will also be teased in the sixth season. “There will be cliffhangers for The Testaments,” she said. “Any fans that are left wanting more are going to get more in The Testaments, which will be great for them. But [The Handmaid’s Tale] does conclude – in some very satisfying ways – many of the storylines, but not every single one.”
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