8 catch-up points for The Handmaid’s Tale

It has been three years since we were last trapped in Gilead, where building a better world “never means better for everyone.” And it certainly doesn’t mean a better world for women. 

Whether you’ve lost the plot, went peace-out after Season 1, or are starting to wonder what you saw on the news versuss what you’ve seen in the show, we’ve prepared a handy eight-point catch-up guide to help you. The final point summarises where the characters were at the end of Season 5.

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1. What and where is Gilead

The Republic of Gilead is a totalitarian dictatorship that uses altered Christian scriptures, appeals to traditionalism, and fear of the so-called fertility crisis to strip women of all civil rights. Following a military coup, its territory takes up most of the United States, with a core in the former eastern states. Areas held by rebels and the US former government include Texas, Florida, the Gulf Coast states; western California, Oregon, Washington state, the north-western states along the Canadian border, northern Michigan, and rebel enclaves in New England and parts of New York state. 

The world’s major countries and economies (aside from Russia) regard Gilead as a terrorist state and are tightening trade sanctions. Canada, formerly the US’s largest trading partner, is suffering a severe economic impact, making them vulnerable to propaganda from Gilead, which is stoking growing hate for refugees.

2. Who rules Gilead?

Straight, Gilead-sect Christian men enjoy all basic human rights regardless of their social status. All of Giliead’s men hold power over women, and many are living out their wildest fantasies of having their pick of women to subjugate, use and humiliate.

Commanders of the Faithful (aka Commanders): The dictatorship’s top one percent of men decide the laws, punishments and political strategies to expand Gilead’s borders. Their status is marked by a gold star on their suits. But while the elite Commanders are referred to as High Commanders, the identity of the head of the High Commanders remains a mystery. Commanders have their pick of women as possessions – Handmaids to impregnate, trophy Wives to show off, Marthas to tend their houses, and Daughters to raise. Each month the Commander and his wife are required to perform The Ceremony, in which the Commander rapes a Handmaid, while the Wife ceremonially restrains her, with the goal of impregnating the Handmaid. The Eyes spy on Commanders’ households to ensure that they keep to Gildead’s rules. 

Sons: The Commanders and their (possessive) Wives raise kidnapped or adopted children. The Sons, who wear light blue clothes, are groomed to become future Commanders. 

Angels: Gilead’s elite uniformed guards protect and police key institutions including the Rachel and Leah Centres. They are the second-highest ranking men in Gilead.

Guardians of the Faith: These are the soldiers and uniformed police who also act as chauffeurs and bodyguards to the Commanders.

Eyes of God (aka Eyes): These are Gilead’s secret police, who’re permitted to work outside of the law.

Economen: These are ordinary straight men who retain all their human rights and freedoms and suffer few discriminations based on their gender or marital status. 

3. What’s up with women in Gilead?

Women are stripped of civil rights and freedoms in Gilead, including the right to bodily autonomy, choice of partner, an education, chosen careers, property, financial freedom, and a fair trial. They are divided into groups with strict limitations and are unlikely to be able to move upward in the hierarchy, but live under the threat of being moved down it. Their status can be recognised at a glance by their uniforms, so men never have to think about how they should treat a woman. 

Wives: The highest-ranking women are married to high-ranking men and wear blue, green and teal dresses (unless they’re widowed, in which case they wear black). Wives can give limited commands to Aunts and Guardians. Wives can be stripped of their position and forced into other roles, including Handmaid. 

Daughters: The adopted or kidnapped girls raised by the Commanders and their Wives wear light pink or purple clothes, changing to spring green once they reach the age that Gilead considers to be marriable. The unmarried Daughters of Wives wear white. 

Aunts: The only group of women who’re permitted to read and write are the older women who wear brown and are in charge of training and overseeing three other groups of women: Marthas, Handmaids and Daughters. They can give commands to Guardians, and torture Handmaids into compliance.

Marthas: The infertile women who have to do all the household chores wear grey or green dresses with veils. 

Handmaids: The most heavily restricted of all women, the Handmaids are enslaved fertile women who are deemed rebellious or “sinful” and are raped and impregnated to produce children. They wear full-body covering red cloaks and white bonnets. Handmaids’ names are taken from them along with everything else, and they are renamed with the surname of the man authorised to rape them, using the suffix “Of” in front of his first name. Like Offred (Of Fred).

Jezebels: Enslaved, forcibly sterilised, and sex trafficked women are restricted to brothels called Jezebel Houses that service the Commanders and their guests until they’re deemed to be no longer attractive. They wear outfits that men have sexualised, including schoolgirl uniforms. 

Econowives: The wives of lower-ranking men are allowed to raise their own children if they prove fertile. Their grey dresses with multicolour stripes indicate that they perform triple duty in their households as Wives, Handmaids and Marthas.

Unwomen: Women who are considered unfit for any of these roles are stripped of all human rights, detained without trial and executed, or banished to the labour camp Colonies. 

4. Groups and organisations

Sons of Jacob: Men who were the architects of all of Gilead’s philosophy and systems.  Around 14 September 2014, the Sons of Jacob attacked Washington DC, assassinating the President of the United States and bombing the White House, causing mass civilian deaths. The attack was later blamed on terrorist groups, allowing the secret Sons of Jacob who were already inside the political structure to leverage national grief and panic to institute martial law and a state of emergency. They organised a coup that gave them totalitarian power in the US, leveraging rigid Christian fanaticism, misogyny, and fear of plunging fertility rates to justify their actions and underpin their new world order. In the current timeline, they are looking for a foothold in neighbouring countries like Canada to expand their “mission”. 

The Committee: The Sons of Jacob’s inner circle became the governors of Gillead following the coup. Founding members of the Sons of Jacob include Fred Waterford, Andrew Pryce, Warren Putnam, Commander Guthrie, Aunt Vidala, Nick Blaine, Colby, Harris, and tradwife activist Serena Joy (until the “leopards ate her face”).

The Colonies: Prison labour camps in heavily polluted areas of the US, contaminated by both industrial and nuclear waste. Only one quarter of the enslaved labourers in the Colonies are men, with many of those being sent to the Colonies as “gender traitors” for being gay. Labour is enforced by Guardians and Aunts, who execute anyone who refuses, or is unable, to work.

The Magdalene Colony: Forced agricultural labour camps in the Colonies where rebellious Handmaids are sent as enslaved labour. They are still raped every month in The Ceremony.

The Rachel and Leah Centre (aka The Red Centre): An institute for indoctrinating Handmaids to submit to enslavement, strict modesty laws, and their restricted social status. This is where the Aunts torture the Handmaids into submission.

The High Criminal Court of Gilead: The organisation responsible for the trial and sentencing of high-ranking men.

5. Resistance groups

The US Government-in-Exile: Located in Anchorage, Alaska, the remnants of the old US government continue to support rebel factions who’re reclaiming territory from Gilead in ongoing violent clashes. 

Nighthawks: A Chicago-based resistance group targeting the Guardians.

Mayday: An underground resistance group fighting back within Gilead.

The Femaleroad: An “underground railroad” of rebels helping women to flee Gilead.

Radio Free America: An anti-Gilead broadcaster defying Gilead’s strict press and internet bans. 

The Marthas Network: An informal “gossip” network used by Marthas to coordinate resistance cells. They use coded messages to avoid detection.

6. Just Gilead things

Salvaged: Executed. The Aunts control women’s public executions. Women are hanged using rope, which the Handmaids are forced to pull on together. Women are not allowed to attend male “salvagings”. The bodies of men executed for the Gilead crimes like gender treachery (non-straight sexual orientation) or following any faith other than Gilead-sanctioned Christianity, are hung up from the Wall.

The Wall: A tall brick wall in Gilead where the bodies of those executed are hung to teach the public a lesson.

Particicution: Ordinary men convicted of crimes that endanger Handmaids’s fertility or pregnancies, including rape, are sentenced to Particicution, in which a group of Handmaids chase them down and tear them to shreds or batter them to death with their bare hands. 

The Common Mercy of the State: Death by hanging

Redemption: Female genital mutilation including clitoridectomy.

Gender traitor: LGBTQIA+ men and women 

Prayvaganzas: Mass prayer meetings at group weddings and in celebration of the forced birthing of children.

“Under his eye”: A greeting used to remind people that they’re all being spied on.

“Blessed be the fruit”: Used when greeting Handmaids to reinforce their status as breeding vessels.

“May the Lord open”: The return greeting to “blessed be the fruit”.

7. What’s up with June and Serena

One of the most successful methods that Gilead has for disempowering women is by pitting them against one another. June’s first role as a Handmaid was in Serena’s household and there has been an exchange of cruelties ever since, depending on who has had the upper hand. In Season 4, June testified against Fred and Serena during their trial at the International Criminal Court (Season 4, episode 8 gives a solid summary of everything June has been through in Gilead up to that point), and she was livid when Serena claimed to have been innocent, despite actively helping to engineer the system that stripped women of their rights in Gilead, and collaborating in the rape of Handmaids. 

The two have a grudging respect for each other’s intelligence, overshadowed by hatred and resentment. Serena sees June as a disruptive element and a killer, and considers her to be inferior, and June sees Serena as a crocodile-tear crying gender traitor who is not sorry for anything she has done; she’s just sorry that it is affecting her.

During Season 5, Serena helped June and Luke to escape Commander Wheeler’s guards because she herself was heavily pregnant and desperate to keep her son, who’d been promised to the Wheelers. June delivered Serena’s baby in No Man’s Land and convinced her to return to Canada for medical treatment, but Serena was arrested for entering Canada illegally and Commander Lawrence negotiated her release her into the Wheelers’ custody so that she could feed baby Noah for them. 

8. Where is everyone as of the Season 5 finale?

June Osborne the Handmaid (Elisabeth Moss):  Every season, June will come close to escaping Gilead, but she will then undo everyone’s efforts and endanger them so she can return for a daughter. After finally escaping Gilead for Canada with the NGO who were performing relief work after the bombing of Chicago, June couldn’t leave the past behind. Hannah (Jordana Blake), June’s daughter with Luke, is being held captive in Gilead. She was renamed Agnes MacKenzie and placed with High Commander Mackenzie (Jason Butler Harner) and his Wife. In Season 5, Hannah was considered old enough to attend a Wives School, so Luke and June are desperate to save her. After a vehicle with a Gilead bumper sticker ran June over in the street in Season 5, and Luke beat the driver to death, though, June fled Canada aboard a refugee train headed west with her daughter (with Nick), Nichole. June has personally murdered several Commanders.

Luke Bankole the refugee (O-T Fagbenle): June’s second husband and Hannah’s father originally escaped to Canada with Handmaid trainee Erin (Erin Way) in Season 1. He was arrested for murder in Toronto at the end of Season 5.

Serena Joy Waterford the Wife (Yvonne Strahovski): After being relegated to the role of Wife, Serena took out her bitterness on other women, especially Handmaids like June, as her only expression of the power she wanted and destroyed other women’s freedom to gain.She regards June’s daughter Nichole as her own and wound up pregnant in prison in Canada in Season 4 while trying to get her back. After Fred’s death, the High Commanders sent her to establish a Gilead Cultural Center in Toronto in Season 5. But after giving birth, she fled Canada on a refugee train headed west with her son Noah to avoid having to surrender him. 

Fred Waterford the Commander (Joseph Fiennes): He was beaten to death by Handmaids at the end of Season 4, and buried in a lavish state funeral. June led the Particicution of Fred in No Man’s Land after brokering a deal with Commander Lawrence and Agent Tuello, and sent Fred’s wedding ring and ring finger to Serena as a message. 

Agent Mark Tuello (Sam Jaeger): A representative of the US Government-in-Exile, Mark tried to turn Serena Joy against Gilead in Season 2 and 3. He lured the Waterfords across the Canadian border, then had them arrested for war crimes and human rights violations, and used access to Nichole to manipulate Serena. Mark got on June’s bad side when he promised Fred immunity in exchange for information of Gilead’s power structure, but gained back points when he and Commander Lawrence agreed to hand over Fred to June, along with 22 women who were captured while working with the resistance. Late in Season 5, Mark convinced Nick to be his mole in Gilead. 

Nick Blaine the Guardian and Eye-turned Commander (Max Minghella): Commander Fred’s former driver became June’s secret lover in Gilead and the father of her daughter Nichole/Holly after Serena ordered him to impregnate June because Fred had proved infertile. He was promoted to Commander in Season 3. At the end of Season 5, Nick was arrested for publicly attacking Commander Lawrence for sending a Sons of Jacob supporter to assassinate June. 

Joseph Lawrence the Commander (Bradley Whitford): The architect of Gilead’s economy and its punishment Colonies, he was the second man to use June as a Handmaid, but he only did so when forced to. His beloved pre-Gilead Wife Eleanor (Julie Dretzin) grew to hate him for becoming a war criminal and rapist, and her suicide undermined his academic arrogance about Gilead. He has secretly been aiding June and Nick in weakening Gilead, including facilitating the Mayday mission to evacuate 86 children. But he has also callously forced June to betray some of her allies and killed them in front of her. In Season 5, he proposed the island of New Bethlehem as a way of luring refugees back to Gilead by promising them more relaxed rules to live under. But June told him that she’d watched Eleanor die of an overdose because it was his Wife’s only way of escaping him. He married the widowed Mrs Naomi Putnam (Ever Carradine) at the end of Season 5 after her husband, Commander Putnam (Stephen Kunken), was executed for raping and impregnating the Handmaid Esther before she was officially assigned to him. 

Lydia Clements the Aunt (Ann Dowd): This former judge and school teacher is the sadistic torturer and enforcer of Gilead’s laws. Lydia is in charge of indoctrinating the Handmaids and overseeing the Commanders’ and Wives’ compliance with The Ceremony. She is a true believer in Gilead’s righteous mission and seemed genuinely shocked when Justine told her just how hated she is during Season 5. 

Moira Strand the Handmaid-turned-Jezebel-turned refugee (Samira Wiley): June’s former best friend was taken to the Jezebel brothel while trying to escape the Red Centre, and fled after killing one of the clients. In Season 1, she finally made it to Canada, where she moved in with Luke and has dedicated her time to protesting Gilead, collecting evidence against the regime, and volunteering as an aid worker for the Refugee Aid Foundation of Canada. In Season 5, Emily and Moira were arrested for assaulting Canada’s Immigration Minister for collaborating with Gilead and deporting refugees, but they were later released.

Binge The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4-5 on Showmax now. Steam new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 now on Showmax.