JFK’s funeral influenced Fred Waterford’s grandiose burial scenes in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Fred Waterford was laid to rest in Gilead in episode two of season five of “The Handmaid’s Tale” titled “Ballet.” The lavish scenario was inspired by John F. Kennedy’s 1963 burial, showrunner Bruce Miller told Insider in an interview with executive producer Warren Littlefield before the debut.

Miller stated that they borrowed the idea of a public march from the funeral procession for John F. Kennedy. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Serena Joy Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski) sported identical black attire and veils. But the parallels extend beyond the fundamentals.

Miller acknowledged that the riderless horse seen in the burial sequences was a reference to the riderless horse that became an iconic component of the funeral procession for President John F. Kennedy. According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the horse at the former president’s funeral, named Black Jack, carried a saber and reversed boots in the stirrups of his empty saddle as symbols of a “fallen warrior.”

At the funeral procession for John F. Kennedy, a riderless horse named Black Jack represented a fallen warrior.

Jim McNamara / The Washington Post, sourced from Getty Images

“I enjoyed the fact that the first lady walked alone for the most part. Not with anybody, “Miller stated while referencing Onassis. “Nobody is accompanying her. And that made it feel so open and raw that she was a lonely, despondent woman who was not soothed by anyone.”

In footage from Kennedy’s funeral, Onassis is shown walking alone or holding the hands of her children. Similarly, on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Serena Joy was walking alone with her child while pregnant and unable to grip onto anything.

Littlefield also noted that the November weather in Washington, D.C. and Gilead on the day Serena Joy came from Canada to bury her husband was comparable.

On the day of filming, according to the executive producer, “the world was cold and gray.” They heightened that impact and the snowflakes in the scenes, but the atmosphere is evocative of the rain on the day the US president resigned.

Yvonne Strahovski, Max Minghella, and Bradley Whitford.

Sophie Giraud/Hulu

“Ballet” refers to the fact that June (Elisabeth Moss) and Luke (O. T. Fagbenle) were on a date at the ballet while Gilead is honoring Fred. Miller stated that he and the episode’s director, Moss, did not intend to juxtaposition the burial with a ballet; they simply considered where June and Serena would naturally be on their journeys.

June did not anticipate seeing Serena insulting her on national television by accepting roses from her daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake).

Miller told Insider that he never writes Serena and June’s relationship “in stone” since in the Margaret Atwood novel that inspired the series, their relationship is never what a reader may expect.

“Let the characters chat a bit before you tell them what they’re going to do,” he advised, emphasizing that he writes “spare” scripts and lets the players dictate his next step.

On Wednesdays, new episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” are released.