I just found out The Handmaid's Tale series finale is the show's lowest-rated episode on IMDB (despite the penultimate episode's 9.1 rating)

After six seasons, Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale concluded with an explosive finale, featuring a full-circle moment for the protagonist June Osborne.

The dystopian thriller based on Margaret Atwood's novel followed June's efforts to reunite with her daughter Hannah and break free from Gilead's totalitarian regime, which forced her to become a child-bearing slave.

The series finale saw June return to the burned-out ruins of the Waterfords' House, the place that started all her misery, and record a book for her daughter. While the finale was a nice tie-up to June's story, most fans were dissatisfied by her ending as she was not reunited with her daughter.

I was expecting an open-ended conclusion because The Handmaid's Tale spin-off series The Testaments was announced, which will continue Gilead's story with Hannah. Still, the ending was dissatisfactory to most, evidenced by the 5.7 rating on IMDb. This is the lowest for the show yet.

While the show has never dipped below a 7.0 rating mark on IMDb, the series finale is the show's lowest-rated episode on IMDb ever.

More on this in our story.

It's shocking how The Handmaid's Tale series finale is the show's lowest-rated episode on IMDb

The Handmaid's Tale has received positive reviews from the audience and critics alike and almost all episodes of the series are ranked highly on IMDb.

This makes the finale rating even more shocking. Considering a show with such stature, the series finales are usually the highest-rated episodes ever. Looking back on the previous finales, the IMDb rating has never dipped below 8, which makes the 5.7 rating of the series finale feel even lower.

In addition, The Handmaid's Tale Season 6's penultimate episode sits on an IMDb rating of 9.1, the second-highest rated episode of the series, following the Season 3 finale.

The audience was all praise for the penultimate episode, which increased their anticipation about the series finale. However, it did not match their expectations, evidenced by the low ratings.

Even the lowest-rated episode of the show (in Season 3) is currently at 6.4. In the latest season, apart from the series finale, only one other episode (Episode 4) has a considerably lower rating of 6.7, which is still much better than the 5.7 of the series finale.

The Handmaid's Tale series finale failed to meet fan expectations

The main reason for the low rating for The Handmaid's Tale series finale was that it felt less like a series finale and more like an epilogue and a backdoor pilot to The Testaments.

While the fans were prepared for an indefinite ending to Gilead's regime, as it will continue with Hannah in the spin-off series, they wanted some resolution for June.

Having spent six seasons with the protagonist, the audience expected the show to reunite her with Hannah, something she had wanted since The Handmaid's Tale premiere.

Instead, she recorded her tale in a book for her daughter, which felt anticlimactic. Another parameter where the finale fell short was that the events were narrated rather than being portrayed.

While the penultimate episode showed most of the action, the finale narrated the events through June's book, which was not as exciting and intense as a series finale should be.

As Reddit user u/girlrunninginstorms rightly pointed out:

''We were given an overview by June about what was happening and I don’t think that was satisfying for viewers...Many people wanted June to find Hannah and while I didn’t expect that, I did hope they would show something along those lines instead of just saying yet again “we will find her” like they have been saying since the show started.''

The Handmaid's Tale Season 6 finale largely served as a setup for the spin-off, rather than a series finale fans were hoping for.

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Also Read: Why does Nick get arrested in The Handmaid's Tale Season 6?

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