June’s fight to rescue her daughter, Hannah, and to stop Gilead once and for all, continues.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” has returned to Hulu, with the first three episodes of its sixth and final season now available to stream. It’s been a few years since viewers last saw June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss); the finale of Season 5 aired on Nov. 9, 2022. On the show, both Gilead and Canada — where Gilead refugees typically escape to — have both changed significantly over the previous seasons of the Emmy-winning drama.

In Gilead, Commander Joseph Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) is hard at work trying to establish New Bethlehem. It’s a place isolated from the rest of Gilead and reserved for fugitives and traitors, so that those who have fled the country can return and find safety and protection. Lawrence intends for New Bethlehem to operate differently from the rest of Gilead. It’s also, crucially, a tactic to stymie the trend of people trying to leave, and to fix Gilead’s image on the international stage.

That safe haven could also be an alternative to the normal escape route people take out of Gilead. In Canada, the anti-refugee and anti-American climate has been escalating. The country, which first warmly welcomed Americans, has turned cold toward them, as some Canadians take to the streets to protest against them. Americans are now taking westbound trains and trying to relocate beyond Canada.