So, this is it. After six seasons and 66 episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, June Osborne’s extraordinary, death-defying saga has reached its close. Well, for now, at least. Her story is far from over, but we'll get to that.
What would happen to the protagonist, who miraculously managed to escape Gilead, with a little help from her friends, old and new, only to journey straight back into the belly of the beast in the name of rebellion?
And would she be reunited with her firstborn, Hannah, and successfully free her from the shackles of the regime?
Some of those questions were answered by Atwood’s follow-up novel The Testaments, which is also being given the TV treatment – although that will naturally deviate from the source material also – while Nick’s betrayal of June in episode 6 and his death in the penultimate episode made her choice significantly more straightforward – although there are still question marks over whether her and Luke’s relationship can withstand the weight of their combined trauma.
Read on for a full rundown of where the finale left all of the major players.
June
With the city's Commanders firmly out of the way, courtesy of Lawrence's sacrifice, the regime had begun evacuating and, in the end, it only took 19 days to take it back.
But, as she noted, that was just the beginning. Other cities, then states, still needed to be toppled, Colorado being one, where Hannah had been living with the Mackenzies, that is until a number of the western district commanders had been promoted, meaning she's now based in DC, which is 2,000 miles closer.
"I'm not safe, and neither are you, and they are never going to stop coming for us," she said. "And even when we're gone, they're going to come for our children and our grandchildren.
"Fighting may not get us everything, but we don't have a choice because not fighting is what got us Gilead in the first place. And Gilead doesn't need to be beaten, it needs to be broken."
"It's not a very good story," she said. "There is so much violence and fear and loss."
"No, it's about never giving up," she responded. "This is the story for people who may never find their babies, who will never give up trying. Write it for your daughters, June. Tell them who their mother was."
In the drama's final moments, she went back to the Waterford house and entered her old room, where 'Nolite te Bastardes Carborundorum', don't let the b**tards grind you down, had been graffitied on the wall in white paint.
"For these young women, growing up in Gilead is all they have ever known, having no tangible memories of the outside world prior to their indoctrination into this life," reads the official synopsis.
The Testaments adaptation will, you think, also make reference to June – and possibly even give us a glimpse of her (we’re not buying Elisabeth Moss’s word that she won’t feature).
But before the final credits rolled on The Handmaid's Tale rolled, June pulled out a tape recorder and began to tell her story. The truth will set you, and the world, free.
Luke and Moira
But it's not clear if they'll ever see one another again. And even if they do reunite, it can never truly be as it was.
And like Holly, Luke also encouraged June to write a book about her life in Gilead.
"They're all worth remembering."
She had been living as a Martha under the roof of a Commander friend in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which is a "hotspot for the rebellion".
She also told June that she was still able to keep in touch with her family, who were as solid a unit as they'd even been, despite the distance between them, in turn giving June hope that her family could do the same.
Serena
"You're all I need, you're all I ever wanted," she said while holding him tightly.
But she carries June's forgiveness (for real this time) with her after expressing her shame for the pain she had inflicted upon her during their emotional final farewell.
Janine and Aunt Lydia
In the middle of the night, June travelled to the regime's new border, with Mark, where Janine was dumped by two Guardians.
But while Janine's story ends there, as previously mentioned Aunt Lydia will return to our screens in The Testaments, which picks up 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale in the book, but actor Ann Dowd has said it will be "four to five years" in the show.
"But I think that what she does, what this season brings her to, is the idea that... what happens to someone who enjoys control when they realise they have nothing? They don’t just fold under. What happens as we move forward and as we move into The Testaments is she tries to get more control.
How does The Handmaid’s Tale book end?
Atwood’s book ends on a somewhat ambiguous note.
But later that night, before she can unleash whatever punishment she might have had planned on her Handmaid, Nick arrives, and he’s not alone.
"And so I step up, into the darkness within; or else the light."
We learn that she recorded part of what happened to her onto tapes, which were discovered on the edges of Gilead, which has long since fallen, near the Canadian border, and have since been written up into 'The Handmaid’s Tale'.
The Handmaid's Tale airs on Hulu in the US and Channel 4 in the UK.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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