CAUTION: This article contains spoilers for the season two finale and season three of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Towards the end of The Handmaid’s Tale season two finale, “The Word,” Emily (Alexis Bledel) and Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) square off one final time in the home of Commander Joseph Lawrence (Bradley Whitford). Or, it at least seemed “final” in the moment, because according to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Warren Littlefield revealed that everything is not as it seems. What’s more, the Fargo alum also may have spoiled some of the acclaimed show’s storyline for its upcoming third season, which Hulu ordered soon after the second season premiere.
Regarding Emily and Aunt Lydia’s confrontation, the former grabs a hidden knife and stabs the latter in the back after another round of verbal abuse. Unable to take it any longer, the Handmaid then kicks her tormentor down a flight of stars and follows her down, where she proceeds to bash the Gilead official’s face in for good measure. And it really, really seems like the infamous Aunt Lydia will be finally getting her due, but not so, says Littlefield.
“The first thing we said [to Ann] is, ‘You’re not dead, but it’s going to be a pretty brutal scene,” the executive producer told EW radio host Jessica Shaw. He noted the older actress “was completely up for it” in terms of the moment’s dramatic weight, and the massive effects it would have the story, but then he stopped himself short of divulging anything else. “Maybe that’s an enormous spoiler I just gave you.” Yeah, Littlefield, it is.
Then again, he also said they shot the scene specifically so that audiences would be left in the dark regarding Lydia’s true fate. “There were different choices of how we shot that, that could have indicated that there was absolutely nothing, no signs of life. But you do see it at the foot of the stairs, that there are signs of life. Is there great risk? Absolutely. But yeah, again, I think I may have done a big spoiler here,” he explained. “Aunt Lydia is such a powerful and important part of this world and this show. But we fear for her life, and it is absolutely life-threatening. And that’s where we leave her, in a life-threatening situation.”
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
