‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: What Happens to Serena Joy Waterford?

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 has put Serena Joy Waterford front and center, and the Hulu series’ latest installment, “No Man’s Land,” proved to be a pivotal episode for the controversial character. Following her husband’s murder at the hands of former handmaids in Season 4, a widowed Serena, pregnant with her first child, has strived to maintain her ties with Gilead in Canada, and she quickly found herself unofficially filling the role of a handmaid for the Wheelers, and Wednesday’s newest episode saw Serena faced with even more highs and lows. Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5, Episode, 7, “No Man’s Land.”

Fans who tuned into “Together” watched the draw-dropping conclusion when Serena, with a gun in her hand, shot Ezra instead of June, and “No Man’s Land” picked up in the immediate aftermath of that shocking cliffhanger. Now in the throes of labor, Serena orders June to continue driving, but forbids her from bringing her to a hospital, fearing that she will wind up back with the Wheelers. With no other options, and with their vehicle winding up stuck in mud, June is given no other option but to escort Serena to an abandoned barn to give birth. In a season that has pitted June and Serena against one another, “No Man’s Land” forced them to put their differences and anger towards one another aside and work together to bring a new life into the world, with Serena eventually giving birth to a baby boy named Noah, with June even cracking a joke that he was born in a barn.

Although the episode offered a surprising pairing, ahead of Season 5, actress Yvonne Strzechowski teased to Elle that despite their differences and how Season 4 ended, there was “an opportunity for [a truce] to happen” between June and Serena, and that seemed to take place in Wednesday’s installment. While June could easily have easily walked away and left Serena in the barn, she chose to stay by her side, and while their relationship is likely far from being mended, and will likely never fully mend, their truce was strong enough for June to be adamant enough that she wasn’t going to let Serena die. With night approaching and Serena feverish, with an emotional and motivational speech in which she reflects on the birth of her own first child, Hannah, who remains in Gilead, June managed to convince Serena to leave the barn to save not only herself, but also her baby.

Unfortunately, while Serena and June may have reached that truce in “No Man’s Land,” June’s husband Luke wasn’t in on it. In the final moments of the episode, just after June brought Serena to the hospital and assured her things would be alright, the episode ended with immigration authorities and police rushing into the room and placing Serena under arrest. Tipped off by Luke, Serena is arrested for illegally crossing the border back into Canada, and with her arrest, she will no longer be able to have custody of her newborn son. New episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale drop on Hulu on Wednesdays. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for the latest streaming news!