Who Serena Ends Up With in The Handmaid’s Tale: A Relationship Overview
In The Handmaid’s Tale, Serena Joy Waterford’s major romantic and emotional relationships are principally with Commander Fred Waterford,Ofglen (Ethan), and later Nick Blaine, while her eventual fate and sense of closure depend heavily on context (series vs novel). In the TV series, Serena evolves from enforcing the theocratic patriarchy alongside Fred to confronting loss, moral reckoning, and uneasy cooperation with former adversaries, including Offred and even Fred under shifting power structures. Across seasons, her key attachments center on Fred as husband and commander, on Nick as a volatile, ambiguous partner, and on Ofglen/Ethan as a symbol of hidden rebellion and fleeting trust.
In Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, Serena Joy’s arc emphasizes complicity and isolation, culminating in an ambiguous aftermath that reflects institutional collapse rather than a neat romantic finish. This article clarifies who Serena aligns with, how those connections evolve, and what her resolution looks like across canon materials.
Season 1–2: Serena and Commander Fred Waterford — Partnership in Power
At the outset, Serena Joy and Commander Fred Waterford present as a united power couple architecting Gilead’s ideology. Their marriage is both personal and political, blending wifely duty with performative statecraft. Within this framework, Fred is Serena’s primary partner in governance, yet their relationship is fraught with tension, ideological rivalry, and suppressed desires. While Fred wields institutional authority, Serena navigates limited agency, leveraging her past influence and cultivated alliances.
As the first two seasons unfold, their interactions oscillate between collaboration and friction, especially as resistance grows and the violence of the regime becomes undeniable. Notably, this phase establishes the foundation for Serena’s later reckonings, as her identity as a willing collaborator comes under strain.
Key Context: The Commander–Wife Dynamic
- Institutional control: Marriage doubles as governance, blending legal, sexual, and symbolic authority.
- Ideological alignment and divergence: Shared theocratic beliefs mask personal ambitions and fault lines.
- Public performance vs private doubt: Their front for Gilead masks fractures evident to viewers and, increasingly, to Serena herself.
Season 3–5: Shifting Alliances — Nick, Resistance, and Fred’s Fall
Midway through the series, Serena’s connections expand notably to include Nick Blaine, the Eyes operative turned ambiguous ally. Their relationship evolves from wary cooperation to a charged, sometimes intimate partnership colored by mutual pragmatism and underlying vulnerability. Meanwhile, her bond with Fred undergoes a pronounced rupture following his loss of status, imprisonment, and moments of direct confrontation over his and her own crimes. The ascendant resistance, including former allies like Ofglen (whose real name is revealed to be Emily), complicates Serena’s worldview by centering the human toll of the regime she helped design.
Across these seasons, Serena oscillates between attempts at redemption, moments of cruelty, and instances of fearful self-preservation. Her entanglement with Nick is marked by shifting trust, while her interactions with Fred transition from complicit harmony to open conflict and, in later seasons, a grudging, situational truce born of shared vulnerability.
Notable Turning Points in Serena’s Key Relationships
| Character | Relationship Phase | Outcome or Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Commander Fred Waterford | Collaborative architect (Seasons 1–2) | Ideological partner, later antagonist after loss of power |
| Nick Blaine | Volatile alliance, moments of intimacy (Seasons 3–5) | Shifting trust; ambiguous loyalty and shared vulnerability |
| Ofglen (Emily) / Resistance | Hidden rebellion, brief trust (Season 3–4) | Confrontation with systemic harm she enabled |
| June Osborne (Offred) | Conflict to uneasy coexistence (Seasons 4–5) | Moral reckoning and situational cooperation |
The Handmaid’s Tale Novel: Serena Joy’s Arc and Its Ending
In the novel, Serena Joy’s story does not conclude with romantic partnership in the conventional sense. Post-Gilead, she is largely stripped of influence, grappling with isolation, lost status, and an ambiguous future. The regime’s collapse leaves her without the structures that once defined her identity, and the narrative deliberately avoids providing a tidy romantic resolution. Instead, her ending underscores the personal costs of the ideology she promoted, offering a reflection on complicity rather than reconciliation or romance.
Recap of Key Relationships and Outcomes
Across both series and novel, Serena’s most consistent bond remains with Fred in the institutional context of Gilead, while her connections with Nick, Ofglen, and Offred reveal the shifting terrain of trust, guilt, and survival. The treatment of her romantic trajectory highlights a core distinction: the series expands her interpersonal dynamics for dramatic television, whereas the novel emphasizes her ideological solitude in a post-Gilead world.
- Fred Waterford: Primary partner in power; relationship fractures and transforms across the series.
- Nick Blaine: Volatile, intimate alliance marked by pragmatism and vulnerability.
- Ofglen/Emily and the Resistance: From hidden rebellion to painful acknowledgment of harm caused.
- Offred/June: Conflict to uneasy coexistence, reflecting Serena’s moral recalibration.
Contextual Clarifications and Common Questions
Viewers and readers often conflate Serena’s loyalties across adaptations, so clarifying her role helps anchor expectations. In neither the TV series nor the novel does Serena settle into a stable, redemptive romance. Instead, her connections serve as vehicles for exploring power, guilt, and the aftermath of institutional violence. Any certainty about her “ending with” a particular person must acknowledge the distinction between narrative presence and emotional resolution.