rose to stardom with “Euphoria,” she had a small but very memorable role in season 2 of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Her character was Eden, introduced as a young, somewhat-naive girl turned into a child bride. Although originally seeming like a true believer in Gilead, the horrendous patriarchal society that main character June is focused on rebelling against, Eden quickly becomes disillusioned when she realizes her new husband will never love her.
She soon falls in love with a young man called Isaac, and decides to have an affair with him rather than settle in a loveless marriage. The young couple is caught and subsequently executed by the state, in what is perhaps the most depressing sequence in an already bleak second season of the series.
Sweeney gave her thoughts on Eden’s storyline in a 2018 interview with Refinery29. She explained how, because this was the first season that went beyond the original book the show was based on, she didn’t know what would happen to Eden going in:
“I knew she was going to have an ending. I wasn’t exactly sure how it was going to end. There was [the idea of], ‘Oh, she could end up running away.’ They weren’t quite sure what direction they were going in. I just knew there was going to be an ending. When I read episode 12 I was completely shocked. … I was screaming at the page [while] reading.”
