Diksha Sundriyal
Hulu’s dystopian drama, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ follows the story of June Osborne, who, like almost every other woman, is taken away from her life of freedom and thrust into a world where she is seen as nothing but a baby machine. She tries whatever she can to get herself out of this situation, and once she is out, she tries to make sure that she never has to go back again. The same, however, cannot be said about Serena Waterford. In the fifth season, she goes through a drastic arc where she begins to see the fallacies of the system she helped create. By the end of the season, she is desperate to put as much distance between herself and Gilead. However, by the third episode of the sixth season, she is back there. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Serena’s Return to Gilead is Consistent With Her Character
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ imagines a dystopian society where women have been reduced to different roles based on their utility and are not given any consideration when it comes to their fundamental rights. Shockingly, men are not the only ones who support such a world. A lot of women not only support this system but seek power for themselves within such a system, even though they realize too late that the rules they enforce for other women apply to them, too. One such woman is Serena Joy Waterford, who supported her husband during the foundational years of Gilead and even helped write some laws that stripped women of their right to live the way they wanted. Slowly, however, Serena’s views about Gilead and her role in it change, but at the end of the day, she remains the same person, which is why she returns to Gilead time and again.
It would have been easy to see Serena as some dumb woman who was manipulated by her husband into supporting a world where women are reduced to a sub-human status. However, over the course of the story, we discover that she is much smarter than her husband, and all this time, she wants power for herself and doesn’t really seem to care what happens to other women. All this time, Serena has always looked out for herself and done what’s best for her. This is why, whenever she sees the opportunity to place herself in a position of power, she gravitates towards Gilead. But in the time when she feels that she has overstayed her usefulness and sees a reduction in her own status, she runs away from it.
At the beginning of the sixth season, Serena is scared of being separated from her son. This is the only reason she runs away. Later, when Joseph Lawrence shows up and asks her to return, offering her a purpose that would elevate her status, she doesn’t bat an eye before saying yes. This time, she has the assurance that her son will not be taken away from her and given to the Wheelers. And so, once again, she closes her eyes to all the atrocities she inflicted on women like June and is right back where she started.
Serena Might Be Trying to Make Amends
When June discovers that Serena is back in Gilead, she is not surprised. Over the years, she has come to know the woman enough to know that she is an incredible opportunist, which is why, no matter what happens to others, she always comes out on top. Since their encounter on the train, she had hoped that Serena had learned her lesson, but with the ease with which she returned to the Devil she knows, it has become clear that her desire for power is stronger than any guilt she might ever feel for what she has done. However, with the character development she has been through over the course of the seasons, this move could spell new things for her.
When Joseph asks her to come back, it is for New Bethlehem, not Gilead, per se. He presents it as a bit more liberal place and promises that women will be given certain rights, like being allowed to read and write, here. Later, Serena uses this argument as one of the reasons she returned, and it could very well be that, like Joseph, she has decided to change the system from the inside. She knows that the laws are too stringent to be bent in Gilead, but New Bethlehem offers a relatively cleaner slate where she can attempt to rewrite all the bad things she helped set up in Gilead. This would also offer a chance for the refugees to find a version of Gilead they can accept and come back to, which is the entire purpose of this new place. For Serena, this could be the thing that redeems her, but her true intentions and actions remain to be seen.
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