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It’s been nearly three years since Elisabeth Moss’s June boarded a train with baby Nichole and walked straight into an awkward encounter with Serena Joy in the season five finale. That cliffhanger finally got its long-awaited follow-up a few weeks later, whenThe Handmaid’s Tale returned to UK screens for the start of its sixth and final season. Here’s how you can watch the latest episode, but beware: spoilers ahead.
Episode one threw June and Serena back together under tense circumstances as they fled Canada, with episode two seeing June settling into life at a refugee camp in Alaska, and Serena finding unexpected sanctuary in a women-only settlement. In episode three, we saw June struggling to save the ones she loves.
This final season is beginning to set up The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s Booker-prize-winning sequel to the original novel. However, the UK release trails a few weeks behind the US, where viewers are already eight episodes deep.
But that episode lag could come with some major spoilers. A clip of the most recent episode in the US has gone viral as it debuts ‘Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)’, a song from Taylor Swift’s hotly anticipated re-release of her album Reputation.
If that’s got you ready to catch up, here’s how and when you can watch episode four in the UK.
Where to watch ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in the UK
A few hours ago, we saw a sneak peek at a needle drop that will be sure to please any Swifties; a new snippet of ‘Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)’ by Taylor Swift will feature in the opening scenes of episode nine of The Handmaid’s Tale.
However, the UK schedule is weeks behind the US, so fans of the show should steer clear – there are more than a few spoilers in the clip.
British fans will have to wait a while for that scene; episode nine won’t air for weeks. In the UK, episode four will stream on Amazon Prime Video at 9pm on Saturday, 24 May. It airs on Channel 4 at the same time, albeit with adverts.
If you want to watch The Handmaid’s Tale without the ads, you’ll need an Amazon Prime subscription. A regular membership costs £9.99 per month. But if you haven’t been an Amazon Prime member in the last 12 months, you can also sign up for a 30-day free trial, which gives you all the perks of a Prime membership, including free next-day delivery. On top of that, Amazon Prime Video has seasons one to five in its back catalogue if you want to catch up before the season premiere.
If you’re not a Prime subscriber but still want to watch the show without adverts, you can sign up for Channel 4+. It costs £3.99 per month or £39.99 annually. Like Amazon Prime, Channel 4+ also offers all of the previous seasons of the show.
How to watch ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in the US
The Handmaid’s Tale is airing exclusively on US streaming service Hulu, which is not available in the UK and can only be accessed with the help of a trusted VPN. Hulu has already aired seven episodes in the show’s 10-episode season run.
A subscription to Hulu costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, while a Hulu subscription without the ads costs $18.99 per month.
What is The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 about?
Without giving away any spoilers for viewers in the UK, Hulu’s official synopsis for the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale states that June’s “unyielding spirit and determination pull her back into the fight to take down Gilead. Luke and Moira join the resistance. Serena tries to reform Gilead while Commander Lawrence and Aunt Lydia reckon with what they have wrought, and Nick faces challenging tests of character. This final chapter of June's journey highlights the importance of hope, courage, solidarity, and resilience in the pursuit of justice and freedom.”
In the trailer, we also see June pulling together an army of handmaids to rebel against Gilead. “For years we've been afraid of them,” says June in the trailer. “Now it's time for them to be afraid of us. This is the beginning of the end.”
Season six’s showrunner Yahlin Chang also revealed in an interview with TV Insider that the upcoming adaptation of The Testaments will also be teased in the sixth season. “There will be cliffhangers for The Testaments,” she said. “Any fans that are left wanting more are going to get more in The Testaments, which will be great for them. But [The Handmaid’s Tale] does conclude – in some very satisfying ways – many of the storylines, but not every single one.”
Want to stream while travelling abroad? Take a look at our round-up of the best VPNs
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