Entertainment

The New 'Handmaid's Tale' Season 2 Trailer Is So Intense, It's Going To Stress You TF Out

by Tolly Wright

There's just under a month until fans get new episodes of The Handmaid's Tale from Hulu. And what better way to pass the time than a new Handmaid's Tale Season 2 trailer? On Wednesday, March 28, Hulu shared more footage from the upcoming season on Facebook — and you should probably be sitting down to watch it. Everything about the video is intense.

The second season of The Handmaid's Tale picks up where the original 1985 Margaret Atwood novel ended its narrative — with Offred aka June (Elisabeth Moss) in the back of a car heading to either a terrible fate or freedom. The trailer makes it clear that Offred did indeed get away from the Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) with the help of Nick (Max Minghella), their driver and her unborn baby's possible father.

Still, June isn't exactly celebrating her daring escape just yet. "Is this what freedom looks like?" She asks in the beginning moments of the trailer, "What will happen when I get out? There probably is no out. Gilead is within you."

Things aren't looking promising for the other characters struggling to survive in the dystopian future, either. Violence, danger, and dread permeates nearly every shot of the 98-second trailer.

While June might be out from under the thumb of Gilead, she appears to still want to save her young daughter, who was taken from her when she attempted to flee to Canada when religious zealots took over America. Meanwhile, former handmaids Emily (Alexis Bledel) and Janine (Madeline Brewer) are living out their punishment in the colonies, which are areas of North America that have become polluted wasteland. Those found to be guilty of crimes in the Republic of Gilead (including homosexuality or not following the rigid rules of the society) are deemed "unwomen" and sent to the colonies to shovel toxic waste as slaves until they die.

At least they're still alive and there's still hope for them. In one scene from the trailer, it appears as though there's about to be a mass-hanging of Handmaids.

Of the former handmaids, only Moira (Samira Wiley) seems to have a somewhat hopeful life. At the end of last season, she escaped to Canada, where, in the trailer she can be seen protesting with a poster and making out with another woman. Though, it's doubtful she's forgotten the trauma she underwent, first while training to be a handmaid and later as a "Jezebel" — a prostitute used by the the commanders.

Hulu

Not that viewers would be rooting for them, but even the commander and Serena seem like that might be in trouble this season. "We can’t explain this away," Serena tells her husband. "They will say we are part of the resistance." He meanwhile blames her for June's departure, claiming that it is Serena's fault for not being kinder to the Handmaid. In another moment we see Waterford putting a gun to a man's head in the woods. There's also a scene where it looks like Serena is leading a protest, but, based on the clothes she and the others around her are wearing, it seems like it could be a flashback to when she was a conservative activist arguing for the formation of Gilead.

There are a few other moments that are incredibly eerie that don't give too much away, like a flash of two pairs of legs with weights sinking. There are also a lot of women standing around in ritual-like circles, both handmaids and wives, that seems somehow ominous.

The second season of the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning series returns to Hulu on April 25.