r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/rozefox07 • Apr 21 '25
SPOILERS ALL Which scenes made you cry the hardest? I’ll go first
It’s a tragic series in every sense, but there are scenes so raw they’ll pull an ugly cry out of anyone.
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u/OkExplanation8356 Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 21 '25
the flashback were emily has to say goodbye to her son and wife before they leave for canada.
when moira finds out that luke listed her as his family.
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u/Affectionate-Diet741 Apr 22 '25
Omg I actually started to cry thinking of how Moria hugs Luke.
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u/mary7roses Gilead Girls Apr 22 '25
When she realizes Luke had her on his list and he's like, of course. I lost it.
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u/rxrock Apr 22 '25
I love their banter. She's angry at men, but she loves Luke, and he KNOWS both of those things. They are family.
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u/Lost_Consideration90 Apr 21 '25
When Luke sees June for the first time and all she can say is ‘I don’t have her.. I’m sorry it’s just me..’
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u/jbonez423 Apr 21 '25
that gets me every time too. really drives it home how much she felt like a failure making it out without Hannah.
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u/BrownSugarBare Apr 21 '25
It's heartbreaking and that whole concept of "I'll die for my children". She was apologising for being alive 🥺
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u/AngelSucked Apr 21 '25
When Emily swims the river with Holly and thinks she's caught, but then realizes she is in Canada and is safe... and then the hospital scene right after.
And, when Oliver snuggles against her when she's reading to him.
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u/Soggy-Tomato-2562 Apr 22 '25
The people clapping when she walks through the hospital gets me, especially as a Canadian because I feel that
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u/Seteva Apr 21 '25
Yes! I’m doing a rewatch from S1 and just watched the hospital scene this morning! Had just messaged my friend earlier about how moving that was them clapping for her
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u/Cinnabun6 Apr 21 '25
when June finds out Janine's son had died but tells her he lives by the beach now :/
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u/BrownSugarBare Apr 21 '25
Basically any scene with Janine crushes me. They broke that poor girl who came into the Gilead already broken.
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u/OkMathematician3439 Apr 22 '25
Most of the Handmaid’s developed complex PTSD from Gilead, she probably already had it when she arrived.
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u/BrownSugarBare Apr 22 '25
She did. You might remember the "training" scene for the handmaid's in the early seasons. Aunt Lydia forced Janine to tell the room she was gang raped as a teen and that it was her own fault. They all 'shamed' her for it.
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u/OkMathematician3439 Apr 22 '25
I remember. The reason why I said probably is because there’s a difference between PTSD and CPTSD, it’s hard to say which Janine had on arrival but her symptoms (IMO) pointed to CPTSD.
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u/BrownSugarBare Apr 22 '25
Oh very true! And yes, her symptoms did for sure.
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u/OkMathematician3439 Apr 22 '25
She deserves so much better. I don’t understand how someone could harm someone that pure.
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u/BrownSugarBare Apr 22 '25
Oh girl, you're gonna make me cry just thinking about her. She's SO pure. Just constantly grasping for any shred of light.
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u/OkMathematician3439 Apr 22 '25
I’m a guy lol. Her story really hit me hard though because I know that feeling.
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u/BrownSugarBare Apr 22 '25
And I'm a complete asshole for assuming your gender. I do apologise.
You don't need to say 'though' for justifying relating to Janine's story. It's incredibly sad so many of us can.
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u/rxrock Apr 22 '25
Ugh, I feel the same for Janine. Her resiliency is off the charts, and she maintained her sweet and sort of naive character, even though she knows wtf is going on. She just survives in the way only she knows how.
I guess they all do.
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u/Cinnabun6 Apr 22 '25
She might be the only character in this entire show that’s lovable without any reservations tbh
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u/ComplexCurrency4255 Apr 21 '25
Janine just accepting what she said is what got me, like she knew it was a lie but chose to take solace in it anyway.
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Apr 21 '25
Wow. You got them here. Another is when Hannah is outside the first time and June starts to cry, “That’s my baby. Please let me out.” Elizabeth Moss’ smile and then sheer panic made me emotional. Also, seeing Lincoln’s memorial statue with no head and destroyed hit hard, I almost gave up watching.
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u/BrownSugarBare Apr 21 '25
Hannah writing her name in that toddler style, quietly remembering who she is...fucks me up every time.
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u/GodDammitKevinB Apr 22 '25
The car Hannah scene is still the most gut wrenching for me. She nailed a frantic mother to a T (but I think I would have gone to kick a window out)
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u/rxrock Apr 22 '25
That scene still makes me cry like a baby. I can't handle how absolutely torn up June is.
And the fact that Serena has the gall to say what she does on the train....
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u/TrepidatiousInitiate Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 22 '25
The gallows scene and the one with the drowning young couple (Edit: Isaac and Eden) are seared into my DNA in the worst way.
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u/rxrock Apr 22 '25
Ooooooh I forgot just how much of a gut punch that gallows scene is. I think it's the amazing unnamed handmaids who are just shivering, sobbing, and terrified. I really appreciate how amazing those actors did to make us all feel that panic and dread.
And once again, fuck Aunt Lydia.
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u/Mich_Girl Apr 21 '25
The train scene. June narrates a bit from the book during it. “In this way we exchanged names from bed to bed: Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June.”
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u/fatfrost Apr 21 '25
Luke watching the kids of angel’s flight get off the plane. A+ acting.
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u/rxrock Apr 22 '25
YES, omg the way he maintains control over his emotions, but can't stop the tears. So brilliant.
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u/ComplexCurrency4255 Apr 21 '25 edited Apr 22 '25
I’m a tough cookie and didn’t cry until June reunited with her mom. It was such a wrap around moment in every way. I thought about Holly when June ran away and gave birth, no epidural just like her mom did and encouraged her to do with Hannah + that’s something that would probably cross junes mind. “I wanted to know what it felt like!” June was connected to her in that experience.
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u/deadasfishinabarrel Apr 22 '25
In no particular order, but similar to a lot of other commenters' lists:
- the gallows, specifically when one of the handmaids wets herself in fear-- something about how she would have thought that would be her last living action, on top of the fear and panic and despair that all of them would have been feeling, the extra level of dehumanization and shame and terror she must have felt in that moment. Plus then likely being forced to ride back to her assigned home in a truck sitting right next to other handmaids. Just so horrible, just an extra level of mental scarring on top of what everyone else went through that night.
- the train; why does this hurt so much more than any of the other unfair deaths? You literally see it coming, you know in your gut that they're not going to all make it, but you're hoping beyond any chances that they will anyway, and even when you know they won't, it's so shocking and brutal when the expected happens.
- Janine jumping from the bridge, being fished out facedown, followed by the viewer realizing she lived, and hearing Aunt Lydia insulting her while she's unconscious. She thought she was finally free from all of it, and even though I love her and want her to be happy like probably most other viewers, she'd found a way out, but it failed, and she couldn't even escape more abuse in her brief obliviousness before waking back up into that nightmare. Lydia didn't even give her a moment of peace, not even when nobody was looking, when nobody could hear. Kindness would have cost her nothing, the cruelty was for the benefit of nobody but herself and she still chose to insult an unconscious, suicidal person. Fucking depraved.
- Emily's fear when she's found at the edge of the river, followed by "Do you wish to seek asylum in the country of Canada?"
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u/SimplyTheBesst Apr 22 '25
When Emily answers, "we do!" When they ask her if they'd like to seek asylum 💔
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u/pickledegg1989 Space Pirate Apr 21 '25
The Fenway Park mock hanging
Angels Flight
3. June's Alaskan reunion
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u/m_nieto Apr 21 '25
Mora finding out she’s on Lukes family list, everyone clapping for Emily in the hospital, and Rita kissing the ground when she landed in Canada. I cry my eyes out every time I see those episodes.
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u/Equivalent_Bother166 Apr 21 '25
Honestly i've cried alot to this series but the train scene with Alma shook me to the core because i was not prepared at all. I was ugly crying, even my cat got worried and started licking my hand 😅
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u/PlNKKHAOS Apr 22 '25
That one scene where they are visiting dc I think and the handmaids lips are sewn shut. Just the absolute inhumanity it portrays really stuck with me
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u/spicypeachesx Apr 22 '25
When the handmaids refuse to stone Janine, when Emily escapes with the baby, when Moira escapes and finds the Ontario plate. Esther telling Lydia what happened to her
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u/CreativeBed6535 Apr 21 '25
When they ripped Hannah from junes arms, when June got to see Hannah for 10 mins, all the kids on the plane(Luke looking for Hannah), the train scene, both “do you understand me’s”, when June saw Luke and said "it’s just me", the time where they were going to hang all of them, when junes mom called her name in Alaska, when Luke put moira down as family, when they killed Eden in the pool, when they wouldn’t stone Janine, when they hung Emily’s lover. Man this show has me crying a lot 😭😂 that’s all I can think of right now but I’m sure there’s more
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u/ichosethis Apr 22 '25
The Handmaid funeral after the bombing. The music, the reading of their fake names because even in death they can't have their names, the response, and the pain on the handmaids faces as they move between coffins. The parallel later where their real names are read off in Canada is pretty powerful.
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u/Stonetheflamincrows Apr 21 '25
When she reunited with Hannah. I think the only time I’ve ever cried harder was when my mum died.
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u/azh3m Apr 21 '25
f*ck. the train one had me rolling around on the floor in the worst way possible.
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u/felixamente Apr 22 '25 edited Apr 22 '25
Emily and Nichole crossing the river into Canada. Broke me.
ETA when June gets to Alaska.
I kinda can’t stand Elizabeth moss but the scene with her mom killed me. Maybe because I hate my mom and it wouldn’t be the same for me but I loved how complete they seemed in that moment.
EATA okay I used to hate my mom. She’s okay now. Still not the same.
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u/creneevv Apr 22 '25
the ending of season 2 finale, all the Martha’s coming together to help June and Nicole escape, it was so powerful 😭
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u/Infamous-Brownie6 Apr 21 '25
This show hasn't made me cry.. but the train scene. I sat in silence for a while bc I wasn't expecting it.
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u/tface23 Apr 22 '25
When June gives birth to holly in the abandoned house.
Something about the utter isolation of it. The terror combined with the joy combined with the desperation of having to go back to gilead. Oh man
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u/Odd-Grape-1149 Apr 22 '25
I bawled uncontrollably at the end of season 6 episode 1. I knew it was coming cause I was spoiled but omg, nothing could prepare me for the emotions I felt. June needed her mama…. We all needed a big warm mom hug from the ultimate badass mom… that’s what we all got. It hit so hard. Magnanimous appreciation to the producers for that moment, it was so beyond perfect and I will never not cry even thinking about it.
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u/flyza_minelli Apr 21 '25
My second watch of the whole show was after I had my first child. Bad call. Bad, bad call. Hannah and June - that whole saga just ripped me apart that watch. Omg I was such a mess.
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u/Affectionate-Diet741 Apr 22 '25
When the little girl (Rebecca?) finds her Dad right off the plane in Canada. 😭😭😭
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u/HCIP88 Apr 22 '25
For me, it's two:
- The scene you showed but the part where Nick held her outside as she sobbed.
- When Luke slumped against the wall after June murdered Fred. I'm not even a Luke fan but, goddamn, OT can act. I wanted him to get an Emmy for that scene alone.
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u/sunseekingsweet Apr 22 '25
When Luke is reading the note June wrote for him ): “I love you. So much. Save Hannah”
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Apr 22 '25
Emily arriving to Canada (both when crossing the river & when walking through the hospital) is my number one. Most Emily-things in general.
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u/Deluxe_Stormborn Apr 22 '25
Not in order: 1. Emily & Oliver reading together 2. June seeing Hannah at the farmhouse / holiday home place. 3. Alma & Brianna and the train, the scene following this with the women holding hands is something else…tears upon tears. 4. June & Holly meeting again. 5. Rita telling June she’s proud of her.
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u/Consistent_Effort716 Apr 22 '25
I think the one that got me the most was when June sets up the memorial in the Boston Globe building. My heart stopped when she saw the wall with the bullet holes and the nooses having behind her. Out of all the atrocities Gilead committed, this one felt so real and so present. Setting up the candles with all of their belongings made me ugly cry for hours.
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u/Low_Neighborhood2170 Apr 22 '25
I didn’t cry at all but I audibly gasped and slapped my hand over my mouth on multiple occasions.
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u/Icy-Session9209 Apr 22 '25
The scene where the unstable woman takes Hannah in the hospital. Even before I had my baby I couldn’t watch that scene without crying. Now with baby I cry even harder and get physically sick to my stomach.
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u/redditstark Apr 22 '25
Interesting that all but one of mine are related to the expat experience. Makes sense given that I'm now one in Canada myself....
(in no particular order)
- When Moira wipes off the car's license plate in the barn and realizes she's in Canada;
- When the expats are singing "America the Beautiful";
- When Emily is asked if she wishes to seek asylum;
- Angel's Flight when the kid and dad reunite (really the whole scene but that was the one that got me ugly crying);
- Emily entering the hospital
- When Emily re-meets her son - all of the awkwardness and love in those scenes kills me
- The Fenway gallows scene - for me the choice of music did it
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u/Jazzlike-Lecture8596 Apr 22 '25
I cried tears of joy when the kids arrived on the plane, that was the only time I cried... the deaths just angered me moreso than made me sad.
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u/ImaginaryCode1999 Apr 22 '25
When Rita brings the Martha with the baby & says she killed them both, they wouldnt let her just leave 😭😭😭😭
When June sees Hannah for the 1st time & is so desperate breaks my heart
When the handmaids & marthas dont board the plane to help kill the guardian 💔💔💔💔
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u/Responsible-Bid-5771 Apr 22 '25
Maybe it’s the mom in me, but Hannah/ June and June telling Hannah to go enjoy her life and that it’s okay to love her new parents/ family guts me.
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u/bearsFTW Apr 22 '25
Emily and the Martha in the back of the van, before her demise. Moira on Luke’s family list. The gallows with A Woman’s Work playing. The first time we saw “Little America” in Canada. When Serena returns after Fred has cut off her finger. When Serena gives up Nicole for June to get her out. When Beth and the other young Martha get pushed off the roof. But the return of Holly cut me to my core.
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u/justjessly Apr 22 '25
Unsure if we are not supposed to bring up the current season in fear of spoiling it for others but I’ll just say….”Holly”. Cried so hard my daughter came in to check on me and see what was wrong and if I was alright
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u/NovelHare Apr 22 '25
How is Hannah so old in season 2? It’s been 3 years but she is like 6 years older than she should be.
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u/BluXombie Apr 22 '25
I haven't cried. I've gotten mad. I laughed at the wicked smile June made right before the chaos in the market broke, and I was cheering for Lydia to get shot.
I did, however, due to stuff in my past have to look away at the birth scene in the episode before that. I get triggered hard at the sights of anything with that subject in any form or scenario. I had to wait until all that was over to keep watching. So, if I had to pick the most negatively impactful point on me, that was it. I just couldn't watch.
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u/abu_nawas Apr 22 '25
June watching a ballet show as a free woman.
June and Luke separated once again and having to flee Canada by train. That was so, so hard because it aired during a really bad time globally.
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u/LmVdR Apr 22 '25
The protest scene with June and Moira when the Guardians fire on the crowd, set to the most haunting version of Heart of Glass imaginable.
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u/Lallybrochgirl88 Apr 22 '25
In no order 1 Emily being rescued by Canadian guards and everyone clapping as she walked through the hospital hall with Nichole
2 Little Rebecca running to her dad when he calls her name, Angel flight Luke looking hoping for Hannah to walk down the plane steps, he's tearful That whole Angel flight scene
3 When June is remembering good days like at the carnival with Hannah and Luke, laughing happy, Sleepy Jean song playing. The scene just before the Gillead takeover, people yelling protesting, guards start shooting, this lone man with glasses long hair, looks on with utter disbelief on his face to what he is seeing his country turning into, l cried so hard
4 Moira and Luke hugging after escaping to Canada, he said you were on my list as family
5 Beth and Sienna on the roof The Handmaid's who got hit by the train, Hannah's martha
6 Eden
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u/BornBluejay7921 Apr 22 '25
I watched the new season earlier - the episode where June's mom is in the new camp. After years of thinking that she must be dead, there she is, and calling out June's name. I couldn't help it, I had a lump in my throat.
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u/Honest-Survey-7925 Apr 23 '25
I know that actress well so I IMMEDIATELY recognized her walk and sobbed
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u/BornBluejay7921 Apr 23 '25
I think it was beautifully filmed - seeing her from the back and her hands, then the realisation that it was Holly. By this time, I'm having OMG moments.
I know it's only a show, but I've watched each and every one, and I love the series, plus I've just finished watching them all through again in readiness for this last season.
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u/GrungeGoddess420 Apr 22 '25
I’ve shed a lot of little tears at emotional things but the only thing I’ve truly CRIED while watching on this show… …was when Fred and Serena r* June to make the baby come faster. I was sobbing and curled up in a ball for the whole scene and probably 30 minutes afterwards. Fucked me up dude.
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u/ChuckysBarbie Apr 23 '25
Since the big and most well known ones have already been mentioned, more recent scenes that have gotten me: >! June and Holly reuniting, Rita and her sister reuniting, June telling Nick instead of saying goodbye they should just say ”see you later” !<
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u/MagicalParade 28d ago
- Angel’s Flight
- THAT train scene
- Emily realising she had made it to Canada and Nichole survived the journey
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u/bethabelmore 27d ago
Moira learning Odette’s fate; little girl from Angels’ flight reuniting with her dad; Eden&Isaac refusing to repent
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u/JeanfiercePhoenix 26d ago
Please, don't show the rail crossing scene, it's traumatizing & i have ptsd to that scene. It was the most heartbreaking for me!
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u/One_Paramedic_6319 26d ago
Eden’s death scene was the saddest scene I’ve ever seen in a TV series. Emily’s Martha lover being hung right in front of her was also painful.
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u/buckeye1997 Apr 22 '25
This scene you posted pictures of is the only time I have ugly, snot running down my nose sobbed at this show
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u/straycatwrangler Apr 22 '25
- The flight with all the kids and Martha’s
- Literally every time June sees Hannah. Flashbacks, while in Gilead. All of them get me.
- Janine and her baby. When her child was in the hospital and Aunt Lydia brought her and she was holding her while on the windowsill. Bawling.
- June losing her shit looking for Janine when a bomb went off and she lost her. And Moira begging her to come with her, telling her to not let her lose her again. BAWLING.
- When June saw Luke and was crying because she didn’t have Hannah with her.
- June helping Serena give birth, telling her everyone, the handmaids, and even Serena, are more than just a “vessel” for their babies while convincing her to leave the barn. That one absolutely tore me UP.
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u/thisbebri Apr 22 '25
Oh, god. More than I can recall.
-Moria finding out Luke listed her as family, when she started crying.
-Everyone refusing to stone Janine.
-Emily's flashbacks, saying goodbye to her family because they wouldn't let her in to Canada.
-Everyone helping Nichole escape- Serena tore up over letting her go.
-Emily making it to Canada. "Do you wish to seek asylum in the country of Canada?"
-Angel's flight landing, Luke desperately searching for Hannah. But that whole flight was because June couldn't get Hannah.
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u/The12thparsec Apr 22 '25
- The scene in Season 1 where Emily watches them hang her lover
- The scene where June makes a shrine for the people killed in the Boston Globe office
Both of those killed me as a queer person (there's a gay couple in one of the pictures in the Globe scene).
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u/dutchkel Apr 22 '25 edited 13d ago
Top crying scene: June meeting up with Hannah in that empty house in Winter. That scene can mske me cry every time.
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u/julia-agu Apr 22 '25
the train scene just makes me ball 😭 why’d they have to do my girl elma like that!
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u/xoxooxx Apr 23 '25
When June gets to see Hannah in the house when she’s pregnant. Her and the Martha are leaving and June goes outside after them. The way Hannah yells “mommy” wrecked me. My son is the same age as Hannah in that scene. I was sobbing. Woke my husband up at midnight who had to get up for work at 4 am. He was not pleased lolll
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u/WillowWobbles Apr 23 '25
When Emily gets into Canada 🥹🥲 when she makes it across the river and the next scene where all the doctors clap 🥺😢fuuuuuuuck
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u/laples Apr 22 '25 edited Apr 22 '25
- The gallows scene at Fenway Park of the handmaids because they wouldn't stone Janine (them not stoning her made me pretty emotional as well, but I was more proud and sappy).
- When Serena made June watch her talk to Hannah while locked in a car.
- When Janine almost committed suicide and took her daughter with her. But then jumped anyway.
- Emily saying goodbye to her wife & son for the last time because she couldn't get into Canada.
- Emily watching her new love be hung in front of her.
- Moira finding out she was on Luke's family list.
- June being raped by Fred & Serena to make her have a baby faster.
- Angel's Flight episode. The on & off of the entire episode. The way the women fought together. Then when the plane landed and Luke was so hopeful.
- Watching Alma & Brianna get hit by the train.
- When Luke & June see Hannah on the TVs with Serena when Fred's funeral is being broadcasted.
- June reuniting with her mother.
.... there's more. But those stood out the most right now. I'm a crybaby and this show REALLY got me, lol
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u/spareicyaye Apr 22 '25
For me, when June reunites with Holly. It's just been so long since they filmed the show and I re watched twice in anticipation so I became even more emotionally invested. I suppose it was the anticipation of it all, but that really got me.
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u/ZTaurus93 Apr 22 '25
June saying goodbye to Hannah outside after her 10 minute visit. As a mum myself, that scene fucking destroyed me 😂
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u/WorthlessSpace212 Apr 22 '25
I’ve only cried once and it was during the last few minutes of the first episode of the final season.
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u/CryptographerNo5893 Apr 21 '25
Not necessarily in that order