Hi Sid,
You will learn more about bendy bones later in the course, but yes, those handles are separate bones.
The default way of Blender handling b-bone handles is 'automatic'. Which just means it will use whatever bone it is connected to.
But you can also make it use other bone as a handle, which is much more flexible in rigging (sorry for the unintentional pun there).
Bendy bones are powerful and fun. You'll get a chance to play with them later.