Alexis Bledel is no longer under his eye.
Months after announcing her departure from The Handmaid's Tale ahead of season five, the series revealed how its handling her absence during the Sept. 14 premiere episode. While June (Elisabeth Moss) is left reeling from her murder of Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) along with a group of fellow ex-handmaids, she notices that Bledel's ex-handmaid Emily isn't among the killers.
But when June goes to her house, Emily's wife Sylvia (Clea DuVall) tells her that she isn't there, instead returning to Gilead to exact revenge on Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), who brutally mutilated her in season one.
"She went back to fight, I think," Sylvia reveals. "To find Aunt Lydia if she can. It's what she needed to do."
Sylvia goes on to share that Emily didn't even say goodbye to their son Oliver (Charlie Zeltzer). And after June starts to blame herself, Sylvia gets angry, telling her to "shut the f--k up," sharing that she's grateful for the time she did have with Emily.
"I don't care. She's gone," Sylvia tells her. "I don't need it to be someone's fault. Why does it matter whose fault it is? So I can hate the right person? So I can hate you? What good is that?"
In May, Bledel announced that she was leaving the Emmy-winning series, telling E! News in a statement that "after much thought, I felt I had to step away from The Handmaid's Tale at this time."
From timid handmaid to strong wife, Emily had begun to focus on her family at the end of season four while being safely ensconced in Canada. She also began to grapple with her own PTSD after having been tortured at the hands of Gilead before escaping with June's baby Nichole at the end of season one.
After Emily's wild journey, it's no surprise that her ending leaves the door open to a possible return. And showrunner Bruce Miller has indicated Emily's ride isn't over yet.
"That character was not at the end of her journey as far as we were concerned," he told Entertainment Tonight on Sept. 14, saying that the writers were "were mindful of that, from a practical standpoint, to [leave] that door open."
And there's no love lost between the two head handmaids as Moss said Bledel's absence even gives June the opportunity to consider leaving herself, something she'll grapple with over the course of the season.
"I love Alexis. I've known Alexis for years, back from our Mad Men days. So I love her very much." Moss told ET in the same interview, adding that her departure "wasn't the easiest thing in the world to handle," because "she's such a great, fantastic part of the show."
The first two episodes of The Handmaid's Tale season five are now available to stream on Hulu.