‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: O-T Fagbenle on the Season 4 Finale, Reuniting With Hannah & More
Q&A
If you’re not quite sure what the future holds for June (Elisabeth Moss) and Luke (O-T Fagbenle) after she came back from killing Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 finale, you’re not the only one.
“I think the writers have very cleverly left a lot of that ambiguous,” the star, up for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (along with his costars Max Minghella and Bradley Whitford), tells TV Insider. Those nominations are just three of 21 the Hulu drama received this year. Among the others: Outstanding Drama Series, Moss for Outstanding Lead Actress, and Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, Yvonne Strahovski, and Samira Wiley for Outstanding Supporting Actress.
“The makers of Handmaid’s took a big risk this year and moved some of the fundamentals of the show. The audience has really responded so well to their bravery and the excellence,” Fagbenle says. “Really my hats are off to the writers and producers of the show who managed to find a way to keep the heart of the show but reinvent the husk of it.”
The star offers his take on the end of Season 4 and what he thinks would mean the end of the series.
What was your reaction to that emotional ending of the season for June and Luke?
O-T Fagbenle: Any time you’re opposite Elisabeth Moss, the moon does not shine by its own light. Elisabeth is so bright, I just feel like I have to reflect some of her excellence and I’ll be alright. It’s an honor to work opposite her.
How do you think Luke will react? She seems to expect him to kick her out.
I think people have assumed that (A) Luke knows what she’s done, (B) she is going to confess, or (C) get caught. I think the writers have very cleverly left a lot of that ambiguous, and so I think there are many more options than whether or not Luke kicks her out.
Sophie Giraud/Hulu
It seems like she assumes he knows what she did.
Maybe. When I was shooting the scene, I know she’s come back and she’s got blood on her — I have no idea [what happened] — and she thinks she’s going to go someplace. Has she been cutting herself? Has she cut somebody else? Has she hurt somebody? What Luke does know is the woman he married is so fundamentally different from the woman in front of him but the specifics of it, I’m going to find out from the writers next year what they’ve decided Luke has figured out.
I’m really hoping for a family reunion with Hannah [Jordana Blake].
I’ll say this: I feel like that’s the end of the show. I feel like to want for that is to want for the end of the drama, and I think as long as that reunion is unresolved, we’ll have more episodes of Handmaid’s. But I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong many times before.
Sophie Giraud/Hulu
When I spoke with [showrunner] Bruce Miller, he said getting Hannah back is a long process.
But also, those creatively sadistic creatives we have making the show, I don’t think they’re going to give us a happy ending where Luke and Hannah and June walk off into the sunset and build a new house in the Maldives. I think there’s probably more blood and torture on the horizon.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Season 5, TBA, Hulu
The 73rd Emmy Awards, Sunday, September 19, 8/7c, CBS
