'The Handmaid's Tale' Fans Will Be SO Pleased With These Season 2 Spoilers About Alexis Bledel's Character

The first season of The Handmaid's Tale ended with plenty of cliffhangers. Offred's fate is unclear, and Janine and Emily are prisoners in the Colonies. But in an interview with TV Guide, showrunner Bruce Miller gave fans a few Handmaid's Tale Season 2 spoilers about Alexis Bledel's Emily — spoilers are ahead for The Handmaid's Tale Season 2. Miller hinted to TV Guide that Emily won't die in the radioactive wasteland. It looks like the character will leave the Colonies in The Handmaid's Tale — so where will Bledel's character go from there? Despite everything she's been through, Emily's not giving up just yet.

Bledel's character, originally referred to as Ofglen, has a much bigger role in the Hulu series than in Margaret Atwood's novel. In Season 1, Ofglen, whose real given name is Emily, becomes Ofsteven after being punished and forced to change houses, because she once had a relationship with a woman. Emily is also subjected to female genital mutilation, since Gilead doesn't allow same-sex relationships. She eventually steals a car and runs over a member of the Eyes, which appears to be when she's sentenced to the Colonies after being caught.

It looks like the driving spree was far from the end of Emily's story, though. In his conversation with TV Guide, Miller spoke of the character's resilience and what fans can expect from Emily in the second season.

Here's what Miller told the magazine about Emily's fate in the Colonies:

"I don't think your time in the Colonies can affect you anyway but poorly, knock down your confidence in other human beings... But for Emily, I think it really exposes some survival instincts in her that she didn't know were there. Her ability to survive, her ability to be cruel to other people who she thinks don't deserve any kindness. Also, her ability to live day-to-day and still have friendships and interactions and mark the passages of life and how even in a terrible situation she can do that."

Emily was one of the show's first members of the resistance to be shown on screen, so it makes sense that her story will be expanded in the show's second season. Plus, in season 2 of The Handmaid's Tale, viewers will get to see just what the torture of the Colonies really entails. In Atwood's novel, those who are sent there are referred to as "unwomen," with the implication that their lives are of little value to the rest of Gilead. The women are forced to clean toxic waste, and Miller didn't mince words when describing the Colonies during a PaleyFest panel on Sunday.

The showrunner's said the following description of the toxic location:

"The colonies are horrible. They're an extrapolation of how they think about women as disposable."

Miller also said at PaleyFest that he researched "everything from the Holocaust to gulags and prison labor camps in China." He wanted to see what people were like after experiencing these places, to authentically portray how Emily might feel after the experience.

The showrunner also hinted to TV Guide that Emily and Offred could reunite in the future. But we don't know how or when Emily leaves the Colonies, so that opens up plenty of questions about the show's future. Could Offred also be sent to the Colonies? Will Emily rejoin the society of Gilead, and cross paths with Offred as a handmaid once again? Could both of them escape to Canada, as Moira did?

There are plenty of questions fans will have ahead of the show's second season. But knowing that Emily does get to leave the Colonies offers at least a small bit of hope for the women's fate.