'The Handmaid's Tale' Showrunner Gives Fans Hope About June After The Season 2 Finale

The Handmaid's Tale Season 2's most timely episode this season was Episode 10 when June got to meet with her daughter Hannah for the first time since being captured by Gilead and forced into handmaid service. It aired the same week the border crisis came to a head, where children were being separated from their migrant families. Hannah's cries of how she waited and her mother never came to get her rang painfully close to home. Will June save Hannah from Gilead before it's too late? Warning: Spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale's Season 2 finale follow.

At this point, Hannah has been raised in Gilead by a wealthy family for somewhere around 4 years. But this doesn't mean she's forgotten her real mother or her real father. But she's also smart enough to not say anything after seeing June to her adopted family. She also recognizes her mother, who is heavily pregnant, will not be allowed to keep this baby any more than she could keep Hannah.

Hannah may be in luckier circumstances than most, adopted by a family with the money to cater to her needs. She's well fed and well dressed. Maybe most importantly, beyond her wealthy parents, she has a Martha and a Chauffeur in the house who clearly care for her well being.

But as Eden's fate reminded everyone, this is not a world that forgives the mistakes made by girls, and which does not arm them with an education. Serena Joy's pleas to change that on behalf of her daughter (Offred's second born) only got her dragged off and mutilated.

This is why Offred got Holly (or Nicole, if you prefer) out of Gilead. But Offred did not leave herself. One reason for this, according to showrunner Bruce Miller, is Hannah's still there.

Once we started to feel the kind of deep vein of regret that Offred was feeling, or June was feeling at the prospect of leaving Hannah behind and how it was tearing her apart... after she saw her. And after she kinda was faced with the idea of, I am gonna be able to get one child to safety, and now I just have to decide what to do myself.

In his view, Offred cannot leave without Hannah.

I don't think it's a choice about whether you're gonna stay behind to try to rescue either your child, I think it's a need to, I wouldn't be able to leave one of my children behind. So, I think it wasn't, when we got to it, it felt very natural to the character. It is an impossible choice but we are faced with those all the time, so it is interesting to see what she does.

Is getting Hannah out the endgame? Would her escape with June to Canada be the possible happy ending the show is working towards? Miller didn't say. But when asked how much of the show they've plotted out, he admits he doesn't have a firm notion of how long the series will go.

We wanna have an idea of possible endings... And so I don't know how long we will go. But what I want is when the shows ends you can put it in a box and put it on your shelf next to the book and it is a good, solid, well thought out, well told companion piece. And so I don't want it certainly to live beyond the time where it feels relevant and well done because I think that would be a disservice to Margaret's world and Margaret's book.

Viewers will have to wait to see if Hannah gets out anytime soon next year. The Handmaid's Tale Season 3 is slated for 2019.