Yvonne Strahovski teases what's coming next in final season of "The Handmaid's Tale": "It's going to be shocking"
Will the Serena Joy Waterford finally find redemption?
Actor Yvonne Strahovski carefully dangled that possibility while discussing the sixth and final season of the Emmy-winning series "The Handmaid's Tale" during an appearance Tuesday on "CBS Mornings Plus."
Strahovski, who portrays the calculating and cruel Serena, addressed widespread fan speculation about her character's potential shift to "the good side" in the final episodes.
"That's the million-dollar question in Season 4 for Serena, is about how far will she go," Strahovski said. "This season is probably the biggest shot that she has at actually understanding the consequences of her terrible actions."
The actress revealed that fans who recognize her from the show often seem intimidated.
"I feel like they're a bit afraid of me, to be honest. She's so brutal and cruel that I think most people who recognize me just kind of tiptoe around," she said.
According to Strahovski, her co-star Elizabeth Moss indicated that the final season was created with fans in mind. "We needed to give people the sort of rebellion and resistance that we've been working towards for the last few seasons. And this is the season," she explained.
"Everyone sort of bands together and contributes to the resistance. It's going to be shocking, and there are very big surprises, but it's also an incredibly moving ending," Strahovski added.
Reflecting on her character's evolution over the show's eight-year run, Strahovski described Serena's journey as "beautiful" and "complex."
"We started off with this incredibly brutal and cruel woman. It was often hard for me to wrap my head around those scenes, and being in this woman's shoes," she said. "Over the course of the series, she's become a mother, and that was the one thing that she wanted. I think that's changed her in ways, and she has allowed herself to expand her narrow-minded view and have empathy and compassion."
The new episodes of the sixth and final season of "The Handmaid's Tale" stream Tuesdays on Hulu.
