For Genevieve Angelson, blessed are the silent.
The actress, who made her Handmaid's Tale debut Sept. 28 playing Gilead-lover Alanis Wheeler, knows about that viral TikTok theory which posits that Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) will become a handmaid for the protective Wheeler family. And while she's keeping her lips sealed—noting that spoiling this plotline would be "so cruel"—Angelson said that the guess isn't out of the question.
"It's really dramatically rich to set up parallels. To beg the question of Serena, 'Do you believe in this mission so much that you would die for it, in a way?' Maybe not die for it, but if the tables were turned, do you believe enough in the bigger picture that you would take one on the chin?" she exclusively told E! News. "I think that that is a reasonable question to ask of anyone with power, with conviction behind a movement. Would you do it?"
Angelson's character made her debut in episode four of the fifth season as Serena's new hostess after Gilead's embassy—and Serena's makeshift home in Canada—is attacked. But as time has gone on, fans have noticed signs that the new living arrangement may not just be for her protection: Alanis cradles her stomach in awe when she first meets her in episode four, and the Wheelers dictate what Serena eats and drinks.
And while Angelson says she's read comments from fans calling her character a "villain" or "creepy," anything Alanis does—or will do—comes from a place of true belief that Gilead's ways will repopulate the planet.
"I think 'creepy' is deeply caring in the wrong circumstances," she explained. "The reason, I think, people would describe the way that I'm behaving towards Serena Joy as 'creepy' is because I have met someone who was chosen by God to save humanity. Because we're in the fifth season, I think people sometimes forget that the grounding premise of the show is that there is an infertility crisis internationally that is threatening the human race. We may be extinct."
Because of this, Angelson noted that Alanis most likely hasn't met a pregnant person in years; therefore, when she meets Serena, it feels like "salvation."
"There's an intensity to that that comes off in my character as really creepy," she noted. "But you can imagine, being in those circumstances, that a person would act in a way that seems unhinged. It's an unhinged reality."
As for their relationship for the rest of the season? Angelson hints that you can already see the cracks starting to form in Alanis' worship of Serena, bringing up one episode five scene in which Serena offers for Alanis to join a call with top-level Gilead commanders (which Alanis obviously refuses).
"I'm reconciling in that moment, for the first time, that there is a distance in the orders on paper and what I'm seeing in the guru practicing them," she said. "It's the first moment of dissonance for me."
Watch what happens between Mrs. Wheeler and Serena when The Handmaid's Tale airs Wednesdays on Hulu.