WARNING: Contains spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale season 5 and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale season 6 is set to be the final one, but season 5 has already put in motion the stories that will see the light of day in The Testaments. Despite June (Elisabeth Moss) being relatively safer in Canada since her arrival in The Handmaid's Tale season 4, episode 6, Gilead-mandated violence managed to reach her also there. Along with Canada's growing anti-immigrant sentiment, Gilead's ability to indirectly reach June prompted her and Nichole's escape toward Hawaii in The Handmaid's Tale season 5 finale. While The Handmaid's Tale season 5 didn't reference much of what will happen in The Testaments, it offered glimpses of what'll happen.
Although not much is known about June's story in Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, escaping Canada with Nichole as she did in The Handmaid's Tale season 5, episode 8 directly set up her future. However, The Handmaid's Tale season 5's ending didn't just set up June's future as it's known from The Testaments. Hints about Aunt Lydia's story, Hannah's fate, and Nichole's future role in The Handmaid's Tale Hulu sequel were also disseminated throughout The Handmaid's Tale season 5, connecting the two TV shows in more ways than the books did. Here is every way The Handmaid's Tale season 5 has already set up its sequel, The Testaments.
June's Role In The Resistance
June wished to be part of Mayday for as long as she started to believe there was a network of people fighting back against Gilead. However, throughout The Handmaid's Tale seasons 1 through 4, June doesn't have much to rely on except for rumors about Mayday or word-of-mouth messages that let the Handmaids, Marthas, and anybody who opposed the regime organize. Although June managed to organize herself things like the Angels Flight or even the Gilead prisoner exchange that released 22 women, she never had the chance to meet well-organized Mayday cells for as long as she stayed in Gilead, even convincing Janine in The Handmaid's Tale season 4 that they had to head west to find Mayday.
Unlike previous seasons, The Handmaid's Tale season 5 not only introduced a proper Mayday cell operating in Canada, but it also confirmed the big scope of Mayday, reaching Gilead locations and abroad. The Handmaid's Tale season 5 finale ending, with June first urging Tuello to continue fighting and then running to Hawaii with Nichole, thoroughly set up June's future active participation with the resistance. Everything that happened to her in The Handmaid's Tale season 5 increased her conviction to fight Gilead, especially after her ability to influence Commander Lawrence waned. June's work with Mayday will probably lead her away from Nichole based on The Testaments' setting, effectively shaping June's future role in the resistance.
Aunt Lydia's Changing Views & Status In Gilead
Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) staunchly supported Gilead from the beginning, endearingly calling the Handmaids "my girls" and at the same time punishing them harshly when they behaved in ways she didn't deem correct. Although The Handmaid's Tale always portrayed Lydia as a complex character, there was no doubt she was on the side of the oppressors, often believing them morally in the right. Aunt Lydia's firm belief in Gilead's rules often made June and the other Handmaids' lives miserable, but The Handmaid's Tale season 5 showed her genuinely starting to understand the horrible circumstances the Handmaids found themselves in, more often than not encouraged by her.
The Handmaid's Tale season 5 effectively started Aunt Lydia's Testaments transformation, first by letting her grasp what she saw as senseless violence in Esther's attempt to poison herself and Janine and then by growing closer to Janine during her recovery. Considering how The Testaments' Aunt Lydia was always a very active Mayday operative that gave countless inside information for Hannah and Daisy/Nichole to smuggle into Canada so that it could be made known to the world, The Handmaid's Tale season 5 set up that transformation. By finally seeing the Handmaids as people, Aunt Lydia starts to care about them. The Handmaid's Tale season 5 finale's brutal abduction of Janine only cemented Aunt Lydia's rift with Gilead's values.
Hannah Not Being Able To Leave Gilead
The hope that they could be reunited with Hannah kept June and Luke going for the whole series, especially in season 5, as The Handmaid's Tale season 5 episode 8's American rescue mission to free Hannah and the others at the wives school showed. To reunite with Hannah, June even considered moving to Gilead's new settlement New Bethlehem, almost believing Commander Lawrence's promises. However, in The Handmaid's Tale season 5, episode 8's rescue mission was doomed to fail, as Hannah's Testaments story started in Gilead, making her potential escape impossible as Hannah would've always been a central player in The Testaments, without whom Gilead's fall couldn't have been possible.
The Testaments' Hannah was profoundly changed by learning that her biological mother was a Handmaid. That knowledge, coupled with her fear of becoming a wife, let her get into Ardua Hall, where she could've studied to become an Aunt. Thanks to Aunt Lydia's workings, The Testaments' Hannah brought down Gilead with the information Aunt Lydia gave her and got to know Nichole, succeeding in what June failed. Luke and June were never as close to getting Hannah back as in The Handmaid's Tale season 5, episode 8, however, that couldn't have worked, or The Testaments would've had to contain major changes from the original material.
Nichole's Future Role With Mayday After Luke's Arrest
Gilead's attempt to murder June and Luke subsequently beating up June's aggressor was surprising in The Handmaid's Tale season 5 finale, but his arrest was not only necessary but also kickstarted another future story in The Testaments. Although the growing Canadian anti-immigrant feeling could've prompted Luke and June's decision to leave, June's escape from Toronto needed to happen alone with Nichole. Only that way could Nichole's Testaments story start to be set up, as Atwood's book saw her join Mayday after her adoptive parents and Mayday operatives are murdered by Gilead.
While The Handmaid's Tale season 5 set up June's resistance future, Luke's arrest also put Nichole's Testaments storyline in motion, taking her from one of her parents and leading her toward her future with her adoptive parents in Toronto. It's unknown how June will also end up separating from Nichole, but she would likely do so only if being with her put Nichole in danger. Whatever the reason, Nichole couldn't have been found by Hannah in The Testaments were she to stay in Hawaii with June. Thus, Luke's arrest necessarily had to make June Nichole's sole carer in The Handmaid's Tale season 5, setting Nichole's Testaments story in motion 15 years ahead of its time.