'The Handmaid's Tale' Teases Major Gilead Rescue in Newest Episode

A major rescue operation is underway that may change the course of The Handmaid's Tale and Gilead. Over the course of the past several seasons, multiple characters have fled the totalitarian society to seek refuge across the border in Canada, and just as Commander Lawrence seeks to welcome some of those refugees back into the fold of Gilead through his New Bethlehem initiative, it seems that one key character is about to leave Gilead for good. Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale Season 5, Episode 8, "Motherland."

While June has been a driving force in the uprising against Gilead, perhaps no character has proven more pivotal to the show's storyline than Hannah, June and Luke's daughter. It is Hannah that has driven June to relentlessly resist Gilead, and after spending years attempting to reunite with her oldest daughter, it seems June's wish may just come true. After Season 5 of The Handmaid's Tale opened with the heartbreaking reveal that Hannah has been moved to a school for wives in training, "Motherland" continued to document June's efforts to bring her daughter to the safety of Gilead. So desperate to shield her daughter from the atrocities of Gilead, June even considers moving back to Gilead to reunite with her. That plan is swept off the table, though, when she receives a disc with footage of Hannah on it that proves to be crucial to saving her. It turns out that the disc has metadata on it that can be used to track down the Wife School where she has been moved. That simple disc leads to the call June has been waiting for, with Tuello telling her later in the episode, "We found Hannah. We have a plan."

As the episode ended with a shot of Hannah planting a flower at her school and looking up at the sky, viewers flocked to social media to react. Keep scrolling to see what fans had to say about the pivotal moment and the possibility of Hannah's rescue and reunion with her parents in Canada.