Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 6, Episode 8.
“The Handmaid’s Tale” creator Bruce Miller said there was a world in which the God-awful Commander Bell (Timothy Simons) could’ve had a different climatic death that included Janine or any of the other character taking out their anger on the Gilead official.
“It was so delicious, ” Miller told TheWrap of Bell’s death, as he responded to if the writing team ever considered having Janine (Madeline Brewer) end her abuser’s life instead of June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss).
“It was kind of this — you know what it’s like when you have something you really want to do that makes sense, and you really want to do it, and then you’re like, ‘Everybody wants [to]’. You want it to be ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ where 25 people get a chance to stab them, because it makes sense,” Miller explained making a reference to iconic scene from “Death on the Orient Express,” during which Edward Ratchett (Johnny Depp) is stabbed by every passenger on the train.
“When you’re in a show like this, no one wants to up their body count at this point — they just want to get out,” Miller added. “So I think that that was really interesting. But I do love the fact that you were like, ‘Did you ever?’ Because, yes, absolutely, because it’s such as you said, it was very satisfying.”
In Episode 8, titled “Exodus,” just as it’s about to close out, June still has some unfinished business: It’s time to kill Commander Bell and free Janine from his brutal imprisonment. Still sedated from Serena’s wedding cake, a sleeping Bell is awakened by a phone call informing him of the ongoing handmaid rebellion. Right behind him is a cool, calm and collected June, who after a brief introduction, stabs him right in the eye. As she watches Bell collapse onto the ground and take his last gasps for air, Janine appears, with joy and shock running over her face.
Brewer told TheWrap that she was happy the writers chose June to kill Bell, as the act wouldn’t have fit Janine’s character.
“I felt that they acknowledged Janine’s spirit by not having her be the one to kill him, because that’s not Janine. If it was, she would have done it by then. I think that’s something that June knows about Janine,” Brewer said. “I was really grateful that they didn’t [write her killing him.] It would have just changed the character entirely. It wouldn’t have been true. It wouldn’t have been honest to to who I’ve been playing for five full seasons.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 6 is streaming on Hulu.
