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The Handmaid's Tale Season 3 Will End on Another Shocking Cliffhanger

Oh good, more anxiety is just what this show needed

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Lindsay MacDonald

Remember that sinking feeling in your gut when the Handmaid's Tale Season 2 cliffhanger left you wondering what the heck was even happening in Gilead and whether June (Elisabeth Moss) was free or still hopelessly trapped inside her dystopian world? Expect to feel that again very soon when The Handmaid's Tale closes the door on Season 3.

Executive producer Warren Littlefield spoke to reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour earlier this week about where the show is headed now that June and the rebellion of Marthas have reached the home-stretch, for better or worse. Regardless of whether they pull off the child-heist, it sounds like we're going to be left reeling after the season finale.

"What we're seeing is that June no longer considers herself an other," Littlefield said of June's slow build up to outright rebellion this season. "She may still wear the robe of a handmaid, but she's asserting herself. What you'll see between now and the end of the season is her being less obedient to authority, being more assertive, and she co-opts Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) into her vision and her plan and that's just starting to unfold, but it's a snowball rolling down a mountain. It's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and she's going to be a force to be reckoned with. I think [...] it's a tipping point and a turning point in that relationship, and it's unexpected. I'm excited about what we're about to present."

As for what we can expect from the finale in particular, Littlefield had no qualms about revealing that it's another nail-biter ending in a cliffhanger.

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"I hope you'll feel shocked at what we accomplish and where we leave our key characters," Littlefield said. "I think it's quite a cliffhanger that we'll leave you with. And I feel quite confident that if we had a 40 percent leap from Year 2 to Year 3, I'm looking forward to what that leap will be in Year 4."

Littlefield is, of course, referring to Hulu's analytics for The Handmaid's Tale that boast a 40 percent increase in viewership from Season 2 to Season 3. What else do you expect when you leave an audience with their hearts in their throats season after season?

New episodes of The Handmaid's Tale release Wednesdays on Hulu.

Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale

Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale

Sophie Giraud, Hulu