For citizens in the fictional nation of Gilead—and many in the real-life present-day United States—Canada has long been a beacon of hope and refuge. In Season 5 of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, that security is deteriorating.
"We painstakingly built the sanctuary of Canada," executive producer Warren Littlefield told Newsweek about the meaning the country has held over the past four seasons. "Health care for all, a sane immigration policy—it's a wonderful place. And though our characters are there...I think it's really important for the power of our narrative structure as well as what the real world looks like, the far right has invaded everywhere throughout the globe [and] as precious and wonderful as Canada is, it was appropriate for that to emerge."
Season 4 of the drama based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel—originally dubbed a futuristic, dystopian narrative and now not so far-fetched-seeming—saw handmaid June (Elisabeth Moss) finally making it out of oppressive, draconian Gilead and into the safe haven of Toronto, where she reunited with her husband, Luke (O-T Fagbenle), best friend Moira (Samira Wiley) and daughter Nicole. Her rapist and captor Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) was dead by her own hand, and his wife, the arguably equally culpable Serena Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski), was in International Criminal Court custody. Things were, relatively speaking, looking up.
Season 5 reminds us almost immediately that nowhere is safe from tyranny, as a Serena-idolizing, Gilead-loving faction reveals itself in the Great White North.
Amanda Brugel, who plays Rita, a housekeeper who was also enslaved by the Waterfords and has made it to Toronto, echoed the destabilizing impact of realizing that nowhere in the world is safe.
"As the only Canadian on the show, it was incredibly triggering," she told Newsweek. "There's something [this season] that's similar to the 'Freedom Convoy' that we had. I'm 45 years old and I've lived here my whole life; it's the first time I've seen such disdain and the using and manipulation of the Canadian flag to represent something else besides Canada, to represent a specific agenda, and to have that woven into the show was difficult to see."
The self-professed "Freedom Convoy" was a weeklong drive of Canadian truckers that culminated in Ottawa, Ontario, the nation's capital, earlier this year to protest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's vaccine mandates in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many truckers displayed the Canadian flag on their vehicles.
"The 'Freedom Convoy' is nothing but a vehicle for the far right," the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, a nonprofit that monitors hate groups, said on its website at the time, Newsweek previously reported. "They say it is about truckers...but if you look at its organizers and promoters, you'll find Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, and incitements to violence."
Said Brugel about filming, "A lot of the background performers were Canadian and it was hard for them to be part of this convoy. There are people that support it and agree with it, it's just not the Canada I recognize. To have it in my life and my television show was uncomfortable."
Sam Jaeger, who plays a U.S. government representative in Canada on the show, told Newsweek "there's an energy that's percolating," both on-screen and off.
"Our show has always been relevant, but it feels like it resonates. My character, Mark Tuello, is grasping for what he believes is left of America. In many ways, he wants to restore America back to what it was, and I understand that," he said. "There are people who are afraid of change and afraid to truly embrace that change is a good thing, that progress matters, that we can evolve as human beings as a culture, as a society. Our show does a great job of shining light on that, and it's a very hopeful show, and it's a very provocative show and never more so."
The fifth season of The Handmaid's Tale premieres on September 14 with two episodes. It was recently reported that the sixth season will be the series' last, but that creator and showrunner Bruce Miller is developing a follow-up for Hulu based on Atwood's 2019 novel The Testaments.
"This doesn't feel like the end, does it?" Miller teased to Newsweek before the announcement. Added Littlefield, "Our journey's not done."
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