History Characters / TheHandmaidsTaleTVShow

* [[spoiler: IChooseToStay: He could flee to the comfort of Canada and barter for immunity but he decides to honor Eleanor by staying back in Gilead.]]

* HoistByHerOwnPetard: Congrats, Serena, you've successfully helped bring about the social change you wanted. Women are now forced to live by the rules you wanted them to follow - they can't read, they can't write, they can't work outside the home, and they are completely subservient to their husbands. Except, guess what, Serena? ''That includes you.'' You have to give up your career, you have nothing to do except prepare for a baby that might never come, and the very same men you helped put into power don't have an ounce of respect for you. Oh, and this whole thing [[AwfulWeddedLife has cost you]] your once-happy relationship with your husband. [[LaserGuidedKarma Have fun!]]

* SecretKeeper: There are issues with whether she's mentally competent enough to not blurt anything, thus why Lawrence often keeps her away from visitors like Aunt Lydia. But she's wary about the rebellion operations in her husband's household. Later on, when her medication runs out, this is averted in full display when she nearly blurts out June's plan to Mrs. Putnam and Mrs. Winslow, but the two wives appear to be oblivious to what is happening. [[spoiler: This liability ultimately is what makes June not help Eleanor when she is in the middle of an overdose.]]

June and Nick's daughter, conceived and born in Gilead. She now resides with Luke and Moira after Emily was able to smuggle her across the border.

* MeaningfulRename: June names her Holly upon her birth, but when Serena claims her for herself, she is given the name Nichole. As a nod to Serena allowing Holly to escape, June tells Emily (who is taking her to Canada) to call her Nichole as well. Even with Luke knowing her real name and parentage later on, both Luke and Moira continue to call the baby Nichole.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Variation. She doesn't do anything, given that she is a baby. But her very existence is what drives the plot in Season 3 where High Commander Winslow wants to use her as a tool to force Canada to deport all Gilead refugees.

* SecretKeeper: There are issues with whether she's mentally competent enough to not blurt anything, thus why Lawrence often keeps her away from visitors like Aunt Lydia. But she's wary about the rebellion operations in her husband's household. Later on, when her medication runs out, this is averted in full display when she nearly blurts out June's plan to Mrs. Putnam and Mrs. Winslow, but the two wives appear to be oblivious to what is happening. [[spoiler: This liability ultimately is what makes June not help Eleanor when she is in the middle of an overdose.]]

[[folder:Eden Blaine (nee Spencer)]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/handmaids_tale_eden.png]]
->'''Played By''': Sydney Sweeney

A 15-year-old Econowife (forcibly) assigned to Nick.

* AMillionIsAStatistic: Does not care about the women captured in Chicago and prefers to send them to the Colonies where he thinks they would be useful, knowing full well that these women will die in the Colonies.

* SecretKeeper: There's some tension with whether she's mentally competent enough to not blurt anything, thus why Lawrence often keeps her away from visitors like Aunt Lydia. But she's wary about the rebellion operations in her husband's household.

-->'''Moira''': ''"I am who I am and I have sinned plenty, but you are the gender traitor."''

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:Delivers one to Fred with a gun in his face in the episode ''Liars''.
-->''"Commander Waterford, you have now crossed into Canada. We are arresting you for war crimes and crimes of aggression in violation of international human rights treaties and international law."'']]

A young commander introduced in Season 3, and is a member of the War Council for Gilead. Has a pregnant handmaid in Natalie.

* ActionGirl: She graduates into one of these in Season 3, being an ActionSurvivor before this. [[spoiler:She finally has enough of Gilead and gets into a brutal fight with High Commander Winslow when he tries to rape her and is substantially more physically imposing than she is. Not only does she manage to get a number of good hits on him, she manages to kill him.]] By the end of the episode, Joseph gives her a gun, trusting her to be able to use it.

[[folder:Hannah Bankole]]

[[folder:Eden]]

* ChekhovsGunman: While he's first introduced trying to woo Serena into defecting to the Loyalist side, [[spoiler:he eventually delivers the instrument of Fred's downfall to Serena: The cell phone she uses to arrange his arrest.]]

* LawOfInverseFertility: She so desperately wants a child. Unfortunately getting shot in the uterus makes all of that impossible, unless Mark Tuello isn't lying about technology allowing uterine reproduction.

* LaserGuidedKarma: After her husband [[spoilers: disappears]], she is distraught and fears that her many (stolen) children will be taken away from her. It's very satisfying to see her so desperate, especially after she haughtily orders June to pray for her husband.

* DotingParent: Compared to other onscreen Commanders who don't seem involved in their children's lives, he is very affectionate to his numerous (stolen) children. Even June can't help to smile at him doing at his children before it sinks in that he stolen them and hoards them.

* {{Lust}}: His FatalFlaw. He continues to rape a handmaid monthly even though he already has five children, and is shown to frequent Jezebel's. In fact, it's his [[spoiler: desire to rape June that leads to his death.]]

* RedHerring: You'd think something bigger is going to come out of his homoerotism filled cooperation with Fred, possibly leading to one of the men's undoing. [[spoiler:They go down in the same episode but in completely unrelated circumstances, Winslow killed by June in Jezebel's and Fred betrayed by Serena and arrested by Canadian's officials.]]

* ObliviouslyEvil: When asked who the five multiracial children living in their house belong to, she smiles brightly and says “Who else’s would they be?”

* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: One step forward, two steps back. [[spoiler:Serena starts Season 3 by burning down her and Fred's home and leaving Fred, accept's that Nichole has a better future in Canada, and conspires with June to gain more power and make changes to Gilead's government. Then she has one "goodbye" visit with Nichole and all of a sudden she's all-in on Gilead again, wishing she'd had June's mouth wired shut like the other D.C. Handmaids when she first joined the household.]] It’s ultimately revealed that [[spoiler:all her supposed heel turns were really a prolonged facade to get Fred to trust her enough to walk into a trap on Canadian soil, where he’s promptly arrested.]]

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: [[spoiler:By the conclusion of Season 2, she's firmly a Face. While she hasn't yet garnered the strength to leave Fred, she also realizes that Gilead is not a place for any child, let alone a little girl, to be raised, and she rebels against it, being physically maimed in the process. June commends her and comforts her for it.]]

* MamaBear: She's fiercely protective of her goddaughter, and wastes no time in reminding Serena that no matter what she (Serena) thinks, Nichole is ''not'' her mother.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler:In the Colonies, she meets a Wife who was caught having an affair after her husband had long been ignoring her in favor of their Handmaid. For a while it looks like she's formed an OddFriendship with this woman who's been newly introduced to the receiving end of the terrors she endorsed, but she's actually setting her up for a slow, painful death by poison, and then sets up the body as if crucified.]]
* MadeASlave: Used to be a college professor who taught cellular biology, now a BreedingSlave.
* MuggingTheMonster: Heroic retribution variety. The abuse Gilead heaps on her becomes this. When she gets the weird distant look, someone is likely to die very gruesomely. She crushes a guard’s head, kills a commander’s wife, and even [[spoiler: shanks Aunt Lydia and knocks her down some stairs in a very brutal fashion.]]

* PlotArmor: Maybe even thicker than June’s. Emily has killed a few guards, and suffered what’s later revealed to be a reversible mutilation. She’s sent off to the colonies, only for sheer luck to bring her back to the Handmaids before the pollution killed her. She’s able to get away with maybe poisoning a few commanders. Then she [[spoiler: shanks the head aunt, and drops her down a staircase. The aunt survives, and Emily is whisked off to Canada before Gilead can gut her.]]

** [[spoiler: This eventually saves her daughter’s life, as skin-to-skin contact and [[ThePowerOfLove motherly love]] bring Charlotte/Angela back from the brink of death.]]

* {{Lust}}: His FatalFlaw. He continues to rape a handmaid monthly even though he already has five children, and is shown to frequent Jezebel's. In fact, it's his [[spoiler: desire to sleep with June that leads to his death.]]
* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler: His death is ultimately concealed by the Marthas at Jezebels- the blood stains bleached from the carpet, the sheets and his body both thrown into an enormous incinerator. They do such a good job, Gilead's leadership believes he is secretly being held in the same prison with Fred Waterford.]]

* AssholeVictim: Becomes an extreme version of this after [[spoiler: Emily hands her a long over-due beatdown]], when Lydia starts showing signs of PTSD.

** In Season 3, the brief visit to Washington D.C. for filming the Propaganda videos, Aunt Lydia is appalled at the "silencing" of the local Handmaids. Silencing meaning having their jaws wired shut. For someone who swings a cattleprod willy-nilly, orders female genital mutilation, and has people's eyes plucked out, there are some tortures even ''she'' can't abide.

* HopeSpot: Pretty much every time she’s on the business end of a weapon.

* ChekhovsGunman: While he's first introduced trying to woo Serena into defecting to the Loyalist side, he eventually delivers the instrument of Fred's downfall to Serena: The cell phone she uses to arrange his arrest.

* WhamLine: Delivers one to Fred with a gun in his face in the episode ''Liar''.
-->''"Commander Waterford, you have now crossed into Canada. We are arresting you for war crimes and crimes of aggression in violation of international human rights treaties and international law."''

[[folder:Moira/Ruby]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: Aunt Lydia does some truly terrible things to the Handmaids and is quick to use corporal punishment to get her point across. However, when it comes to children, Lydia considers harming a child to be "the greatest sin" and is even willing to defy the laws of Gilead if it means saving or protecting a child.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: There are hints that Lydia is not without morals. [[spoiler:She is disgusted by the notion of Handmaids being trafficked to Mexico, and she later is shocked when June tells her that Fred physically abuses Serena, and promises that she will protect June's child against the Waterfords.]]