[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 Episode 9, “Execution.”]
The Handmaid’s Story delivered an explosive finish for Nick (Max Minghella) and Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) within the penultimate episode of the collection. June’s former lover was killed when an altitude-triggered bomb went off on the aircraft carrying the final surviving commanders from Boston, a bomb planted by Lawrence in what turned a suicide mission. June (Elisabeth Moss) and Lawrence didn’t anticipate Nick to be on that aircraft, however stopping him from boarding would imply shedding their final probability to kill Wharton (Josh Charles) and the opposite commanders. Nick smiled at Lawrence on the aircraft as he mentioned, “Guess you determined to hitch the winners.” His loss of life, and this “be a part of the winners” line specifically, has had The Handmaid’s Story followers speaking for the reason that episode got here out on Could 20. Right here, The Handmaid’s Story govt producer/former showrunner Bruce Miller explains what that line means to TV Insider.
Earlier within the episode, Nick’s pregnant spouse Rose (Carey Cox) urged him to take his place as a robust commander being led by her father, Wharton. Rose wished Nick to defend their household after June and the Handmaids killed the vast majority of town’s commanders and a few of their wives. Having been rejected by June after the Jezebel’s bloodbath in Episode 7, Nick determined there was nothing left for him to do however aspect with Gilead. It’s a severe ethical difficulty that Nick would align himself with this authoritarian regime.
Miller is the creator of The Handmaid’s Story collection and served as its showrunner by means of Season 5. Yahlin Chang and Eric Tuchman took over as co-showrunners for the ultimate season as Miller pivoted to creating The Testaments spinoff that’s presently filming in Toronto. Miller was nonetheless creatively concerned within the ultimate season and wrote subsequent week’s Handmaid’s Story collection finale.
Miller says that the “profitable aspect” line was indicative of Nick’s true good nature. Siding with Gilead, in response to Miller, was an act of safety for his spouse and unborn son.
Disney / Steve Wilkie
“He’s willingly selecting [to side with Gilead], however consider what he mentioned. He didn’t say, ‘We selected the appropriate aspect,’” Miller explains to TV Insider. “He wanted to be on the profitable aspect as a result of he can’t be on the shedding aspect in Gilead as a result of meaning you’re gone and you may’t assist anyone.”
Nick isn’t selecting Gilead as a sudden endorsement of its beliefs and practices, Miller says, however relatively a perception that there’s no beating this regime; it’s higher to guard your self by transferring with it relatively than towards.
“What he actually means is, ‘We picked the profitable aspect,’ which is nice [to Nick] as a result of on the shedding aspect, there’s 36 of them [commanders] useless already again in Gilead,” Miller explains. “He favored to remain out of hassle, and this appeared to be the one manner he might presumably keep out of hassle in the long term.”
Miller agrees that Nick “completely” made the fallacious choice, and he paid for it along with his life. The producer explains Nick’s morality and selections in additional element.
“For Nick, I actually felt like he’s such a very good man that when he obtained married and his spouse obtained pregnant, I felt prefer it was form of inevitable. He needed to attempt to construct a life in Gilead,” Miller says. “He was being the particular person all of us imagine he’s in a beautiful manner, which is he was a loyal boyfriend and lover to June to an enormous extent. The issues she liked about him and his devotion to her are the identical issues he felt in the direction of, ‘OK, now I’ve dedicated to this lady, I’m going to have a toddler, and June would beat me up if — she’d be so disenchanted if I didn’t maintain my little one.’ So for me, it felt like a tragic however inevitable step that’s like, it’s one factor while you’re alone and residing over the storage, however while you get married and when you’ve got a toddler, you’ve got to choose in regards to the atmosphere you’re going to lift them in.”
Disney / Steve Wilkie
“By making that alternative, he was on a slope that he desperately didn’t wish to be on, however he might see forward,” Miller continues. “He actually obtained sadder and sadder in regards to the inevitability of getting to actually do one thing on this regime that he actually felt like he had performed his service and he didn’t should do it. As you progress alongside within the story, what I attempted to do with each of these guys [Nick and Lawrence] is consider what they might do subsequent. Not what the story would do to them, however do what they might be making an attempt to do. And I feel that Nick is making an attempt at all times to remain out of hassle. He does terribly this season, however he’s consistently making an attempt to get out of battle, making an attempt to run away.”
“He likes to run away. All of us do. After we first met him, he had much more time to have a really wealthy fantasy life and a really empty actual life,” Miller concludes. “His fantasy life got here to life with June for some time, and now he has little or no time for a fantasy life, and his actual life is de facto difficult, and he spends all this time serious about maintain himself protected for his household. It’s modified him in a manner along with his priorities that he has to consider that greater than he can take into consideration himself. So it’s very unhappy, however I do assume it was inevitable for him if he’s going to be a standup man, that he can be a standup man for his on-the-way son.”
Nick’s loss of life “was heartbreaking for me,” Miller notes, happening to reward Minghella’s efficiency all through the course of the collection.
Enjoying Nick is “such a tough factor to do effectively,” Miller says. “And [Minghella’s] a author and a director and a producer of his personal initiatives, and he’s such a considerate, light, exact actor. He by no means oversteps anyway. It’s fantastic. He’s actually, actually nice. And it’s a troublesome character to play as a result of virtually on a regular basis you don’t see [Nick], he’s doing horrible issues. So how do you play that character? You play somebody who’s — you’re solely seeing him when he’s completely at his most splendidly ecstatic. And so it’s a very attention-grabbing factor. And Max and his eyebrows have performed glorious work.”
Discover out what occurs after this profitable assault on Boston’s final commanders in The Handmaid’s Story collection finale.
The Handmaid’s Story, Collection Finale, Tuesday, Could 27, Hulu