'The Handmaid's Tale' Shocks Viewers With Jaw-dropping Cliffhanger Ending

By Allison Schonter

The Handmaid's Tale's current fifth season is proving to be a nerve-racking experience for viewers. After marking the death of a character earlier in the season and also showing Serena June Waterford making some surprising decisions of her own, Wednesday's new episode, "Allegiance," largely focused on the United States' raid on Gilead in an effort to bring Hannah to safety, but it was another moment at the very end of the episode that left fans in a massive state of shock. Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale Season 5, Episode 9, "Allegiance."

Picking up shortly after "Motherhood," "Allegiance" left fans in tears after the raid on Gilead failed. An effort to rescue a total of 30 young girls who had been stolen by their parents, including Hannah, all U.S. forces who attempted to raid the Wives' School where the children were being held were killed after the U.S.'s intel was wrong and Gilead anticipated the raid. To pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the raid, the episode ended with June and other American refugees in Canada attending a vigil for the late soldiers. The vigil, however, took a devastating turn when shots rang out just as a little girl began to say The Pledge of Allegiance, the end credits rolling before it could be revealed who fired the shots or if anyone was injured.

The final seconds of the episode left viewers in shock, with many wondering who opened fire. Season 5 has put a large focus on Canada's resistance of the American refugees remaining in Toronto, and it's no secret that June, a symbol of resistance against Gilead, has a target on her back, not just by the Canadians resisting the refugee presence, but also by Gilead, a society that wants to quiet any resistance. Keep scrolling to see what fans had to say about those shocking moments in the penultimate episode.

Fans left wondering if anyone was shot

"They're trying to make June the Mockingjay," tweeted one viewer.

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Some fans believe Luke was shot

"Spoiler Alerr [The Handmaid's Tale] 509," one viewer wrote. "At the end when the mass shooting happens, it appears Luke may have been shot. Moira and Rita seem ok."

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'Need to process'

"Whew a lot happened," one viewer responded to the above tweet. "Need to process & watch again."null

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Could it have been an 'anti-refugee shooting?'

"I was expecting it to happen eventually so i wasn't surprised. it felt like an anti refugee shooting to me," somebody else suggested. However, another person wrote, "I think it was an assassination attempt that can conveniently be blamed on the angry protesters."

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Was it Commander Mackenzie?

"Commander Mackenzie kind of eluded to the fact that June wasn't going to be a problem for much longer, leading me to believe it was an assassination attempt," somebody else theorized, with another person agreeing, "I wonder if MacKenzie is working with Wheeler...."

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Some believe the assassination attempt was thwarted by Commander Lawrence and Nick

"I wouldn't put it past Lawrence and Nick to have orchestrated a purposely botched assassination attempt to kill multiple birds with one stone," one person on Reddit theorized. "To appease the Gilead commanders who want June dead, and To force June and Nichole to go underground, where they'll be less visible thorns in Gilead's side and less vulnerable targets."

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