The Handmaid’s Tale is pulling out all the stops — especially when it comes to Aunt Lydia’s story line — ahead of the series finale.
During the Tuesday, May 13, episode of the hit Hulu series, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) realized that June (Elisabeth Moss) was back in Gilead for the revolution. But instead of turning June’s and the other handmaid’s seeking retribution in, Aunt Lydia stepped aside to allow them to complete their revenge mission.
Dowd, 69, exclusively told Us Weekly that Aunt Lydia’s decision surprised even her.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what to expect. She has become more gentle, let’s say. She’s a softer human being,” Dowd shared about her character’s evolution. “Because she has come to love in a real way — [Madeline Brewer‘s] Janine and the girls. So the wall that keeps her, it crumbles over six episodes.”
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Dowd recalled having to see the situation from her character’s perspective, adding, “The fact that they had the nerve to do what they did — all of them participating and listening to June. She is a criminal. It takes Aunt Lydia back to the very beginning in the way she dealt with her. Then June does what she does, which is put the reality right in front of her.”
While reflecting on Aunt Lydia’s arc, Dowd credited her bond with Janine. “She’s where she is,” she continued. “Because she loves Janine as her daughter, she’s there and she’s present.
Dowd admitted that Aunt Lydia’s journey wouldn’t get easier in the final two episodes, saying, “She was quite literally brought to her knees. What happens when you’re there? You have to begin again. There’s no going back. She lets them go. She understands what she’s done. She can’t bear it. I’m sure she’s begging for forgiveness. She’s not going to deny anything. When it comes to what she’s done, she would do it again.”
Coshowrunners Yahlin Chang and Eric Tuchman also weighed in on how Aunt Lydia’s arc is preparing her for The Handmaid’s Tale spinoff The Testaments.
“Her decision in episode 8 is really a natural progression from the journey she’s been on from the very beginning of the show. But especially that is heated up with her realizing more and more how horrible these commanders are. So when June says, ‘You’ve learned things you can’t unlearn, you’ve seen things you can’t unsee.’ That’s what she is referring to,” Chang told Us in April. “Lydia really believed was a true believer. But she started to understand that these commanders are incredibly toxic — the best examples of toxic male behavior. So that decision to let them go, she’s really just broken down again.”
Chang added: “So in that moment, she can’t see what to do other than let them go. She does it out of love for Janine. She just goes over to Janine and says, ‘I’m sorry I hurt you.’”
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Tuchman elaborated on how Aunt Lydia’s story is just getting started.
“We’ve chipped away at Lydia’s unbelievable denial about the truth of Gilead and her willful blindness,” he teased. “But moving forward, now we know she’s made that decision to liberate the Handmaids. She’s aligned with them in the eyes of Gilead. She has betrayed her duties to Gilead, so I can’t spoil what happens with her, but she’s on very shaky ground moving forward.”
It remains unclear where Lydia’s story goes from here.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen to Lydia now. She can be blamed for the massacre that took place when the Handmaids took out all those commanders,” he noted. “So that’s what we’ll see. But she’s now on a path that she can’t stray from. She’s made a very strong decision that she’ll need to account for.”
New episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale are released Tuesdays on Hulu.
