Yahoo News Meet Nick's mysterious new wife in a script page from The Handmaid's Tale season 5 premiere
Praise be: The Handmaid's Tale season 5 is almost here.
The new season, which premieres Sept. 14 on Hulu, picks up immediately after the events of the season 4 finale, which saw Elisabeth Moss' June finally exact her revenge on the Waterfords by making a deal with Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) and Nick (Max Minghella) to give them Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) in exchange for the release of 22 women of the resistance. Instead of taking him back to Gilead and letting him stand trial, though, Commander Lawrence and Nick give Fred to June at the border, and she and her fellow handmaids serve their own kind of justice and savagely beat him to death.
Like in past seasons, the new episodes will continue to explore "how someone deals with trauma," says showrunner Bruce Miller, but thanks to June's actions, it will really shine a light on the relationship between her and Fred's widow, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski). "We have a dynamic between June and Serena that's amazing, and for this season, I think it's much more about the definition of what it means to be a mother and what it means to be a woman than it is about other overarching themes," Miller tells EW. "I think it's very, very interesting the relationship between those two women, which is not a friendship, but it's a very close dynamic relationship that is fascinating to me."
Of course, June and Serena aren't the only ones affected by Fred's death. In a telling scene in the premiere, Nick returns home from his exchange with June at the border, and for the first time, we're introduced to his new wife, Rose (Carey Cox), who was only hinted at last season. Right off the bat, it's clear she's very different than Nick's first wife, Eden (Sydney Sweeney). She's a bit older, for starters, and she walks with a severe limp due to her congenital hip dysplasia, something that's seen as highly unusual for Gilead.
"Rose is the daughter of a very prominent commander, and when she was born, there was very little hope. And he brought her home and did absolutely everything he could do to keep her alive," Miller explains. Though he doesn't provide further details on this commander, Miller says Rose is "very, very, very special to him" and he's happy that she has married an "up and comer" such as Nick. "He's seen that his daughter seems genuinely happy, which I don't think she would have been in any other marriages."
Here, Miller annotates the subtext-rich first scene between Rose and Nick.
HULU
1. This scene introduces the audience to a marriage — what is it like? What is she like?
2. Keep it simple.
3. Try to make the tension clear to the reader.
4. Spare — I try not to tell the actors a lot — I give them room, space.
5. Dynamic — He offers, she refuses, he accepts.
6. Bible verse accurate (I believe) — shows Rose has honest faith.
7. Is this a "normal" Gilead marriage?
The dialogue and accompanying context are kept spare here on purpose, Miller says. "I think that I tried very hard to introduce her in a way that kind of gave the audience a little bit of sense of who she was without explaining too much, that at least they're honest with each other, and they seem to respect each other." The scene continues, below.
HULU
1. Embarrassing honesty w/low stakes — they are comfortable.
2. The pivot emotionally.
3. Nick knows his Bible.
4. The dialogue can be obtuse — I try to clarify where necessary.
5. Short sentences or phrases are easier for me to read.
6. Avoid directing for the director, or gaffing for the gaffer.
By the end of the scene, it's clear that Nick has been honest with his wife about how he helped June, which might seem like a surprising choice given his past marriage. "When we started to think of [Rose's] backstory, we were trying to think of who might end up being very interesting with Nick, who might he be able to have some semblance of a relationship with. When he was with his previous wife, Eden, he couldn't even have any relationship because they couldn't be honest with each other. So we didn't want to do that again," Miller says.
The Handmaid's Tale debuts the first two episodes of season 5 on Sept. 14, with episodes streaming weekly after that.
Make sure to check out EW's Fall TV Preview cover story — as well as all of our 2022 Fall TV Preview content, releasing over 22 days through Sept. 29.
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