The Handmaid’s Story stunned Serena with that reveal about Josh Charles‘ character Commander Wharton — nevertheless it truly isn’t meant to be a shocker.
Throughout the Tuesday, Could 13, episode of the hit Hulu collection, Serena’s (Yvonne Strahovski) honeymoon stage with Rose’s (Carey Cox) father, Commander Wharton, was very short-lived. The newlyweds left their wedding ceremony, arrived at Wharton’s dwelling and that’s the place the whole lot fell aside when he launched Serena to their handmaiden.
Serena broke down in tears as she realized Wharton was identical to the remainder of the commanders in Gilead. His dedication to the standard roles in Gilead got here as a shock to Serena — however the indicators had been all there.
“Commander Wharton, I really feel like he has been very constant all alongside. He hasn’t been pulling the wool over Serena’s eyes. He’s been very honest about how he feels,” coshowrunner Yahlin Chang completely advised Us Weekly in regards to the tense conclusion to Serena’s wedding ceremony evening. “So he’s extremely confused by Serena’s response.”
As Serena and Wharton argued about their differing views, their marriage appeared to hit an impediment they couldn’t transfer on from. Serena tried to depart together with her son — and Wharton briefly stopped her. However Serena refused to be held in opposition to her will in Wharton’s dwelling, so he finally complied as their future collectively was left up within the air.
“Josh Charles was a dream to work with and was so considerate and sensible in regards to the character. However the factor about Wharton is, I really feel like from the very starting, he’s proven who he’s,” Chang famous. “He was very honest along with his emotions for Serena and his want to have a giant household.”
Based on Chang, Wharton couldn’t have been extra clear, including, “Due to his love and lust for Serena, he was actually attempting to open his thoughts and be accommodating. He’s a really conservative man, however he did say, ‘I need you to maintain writing. I need you to do all these items.’”
The divide within the latest episode seemingly got here from a miscommunication between the fictional pair.
“He’s mature sufficient to know that’s the lady that he’s fallen in love with. Serena is a drive to be reckoned with — and that’s a part of why he was in love together with her. In his thoughts, having a giant household — particularly whenever you’re marrying a girl of a sure age with a organic clock ticking within the midst of a fertility disaster — which means having a handmaid,” Chang continued. “To him, he doesn’t perceive. He simply doesn’t perceive her response in opposition to it as a result of it’s simply so baked into the system. So if anybody was actually blind to what all of it actually meant, it was Serena.”
Chang was thrilled to see the place Serena and Wharton go from right here.
“I’ve a lot enjoyable writing villains as a result of it’s completely simply totally different to see the world from their standpoint. They’re appearing very according to their beliefs. With Serena, we wished to create the perfect man for her, somebody who was not her ex-husband,” she famous. “We wished somebody who was nonetheless genuinely God-fearing, genuinely non secular and people are all issues that Wharton is. Additionally somebody who genuinely was fantastic together with her writing and doing all her reformist political activism. He was fantastic with all that. He made himself fantastic with all that due to his love for her, which is a really real love.”
As The Handmaid’s Story involves an finish, viewers can count on to see a distinct facet to Wharton.
“We had been afraid of him as a result of he had these terrifying moments. Josh was so sensible about ladling out these terrifying moments. You solely see him crack a couple of times — and whenever you do it’s so terrifying. Josh was the one who made these decisions about when to indicate that it’s extra terrifying,” Chang advised Us. “He doesn’t crack on a regular basis. He cracks very, very hardly ever. That was the brilliance of his efficiency since you see it as soon as and then you definitely’re like, ‘That might occur at any time.’ It’s that unpredictability and his management of himself that’s so terrifying.”
Chang concluded: “With Serena, a method that we’ve wished to maintain the characters reasonable is that she’s an individual who’s taking one step ahead and two steps again. She does really feel dangerous about what she’s carried out previously. She is attempting to redeem herself however Serena goes to Serena. She nonetheless has an ego and he or she nonetheless has hubris. She nonetheless believes that she was referred to as upon by God to repair the world and to make the world in keeping with her imaginative and prescient. So she has very sturdy strengths and really sturdy flaws too.”
New episodes of The Handmaid’s Story are launched Tuesdays on Hulu.