Critic’s Score: 4.25 / 5.0
4.25
At first of The Handmaid’s Story Season 6 Episode 6, June and Moira survived hiding within the trunk of Joseph’s automobile, however after they crawled out into the world once more, it was clear nothing was as protected because it appeared, not even with Joseph on the wheel.
Regardless of trusting him so many occasions earlier than, June isn’t naïve sufficient to really feel cozy in his presence now. And he or she’s proper to hesitate. Joseph remains to be damaged by Eleanor’s loss of life, nonetheless shocked by the cruelty he overheard from the opposite Commanders, together with plans to hold him on the wall.
Now isn’t the time for both of them to be second-guessing alliances. If something, it’s the right time to double down and consider in one another’s causes.
Moira thinks June is reckless for sharing their plan with Joseph. However actually? It felt like a calculated danger. June is aware of Joseph’s guilt remains to be uncooked, and dangling the potential for destroying Gilead’s worst monsters was music to his battered soul.
There was only one drawback: the essential paperwork they’d left behind at Jezebel’s.
Nick to the Rescue… Or So It Appeared
With Joseph caught, who higher to name than Nick? The person who has all the time — all the time — had June’s again. The person who cleaned up his personal messes when obligatory, even when it meant placing a bullet in Toby.
Nick swiftly retrieves the paperwork, exchanging coded phrases with Janine within the hallway proper underneath Commander Bell’s nostril. It’s a silent, practiced dance between two survivors.
When Nick returns to June, he’s fraying on the edges.
Nonetheless stoic, nonetheless composed, however extra weak than we’ve seen in a very long time. He asks her to stick with him by means of the evening, promising he can smuggle her out at daybreak.
What follows is likely one of the most tender scenes in Handmaid’s Story historical past — a callback to how they fell in love. In Nick’s storage house, in the dead of night, they think about a world with out Gilead, dreaming a few first date that by no means was.
Nick tells her that earlier than Gilead, he would have been invisible — simply the man bagging groceries. However June reassures him: she would have observed. He’s courageous. Sort. Good-looking. Unmissable.
It’s a quiet, aching second — the type you maintain onto, particularly in a world the place hope is so fleeting.
Aunt Lydia’s Empty Cookies and Janine’s Breaking Level
In the meantime, Aunt Lydia continues to chase redemption in her personal twisted means, providing oatmeal raisin cookies and empty guarantees to Janine.
She shared her newest thought about Handmaids retiring as being pregnant attendants. Freedom in identify solely. Janine, who has nothing left however her anger and readability, calls it what it’s: a pipe dream.
If Lydia actually needed to assist, she’d reunite her with Charlotte. However Lydia can’t — or gained’t.
And no candy, home made deal with can erase the fact that Lydia helped rip Janine’s daughter away from her within the first place.
Janine’s fury is sharp and deserved. She’s trapped in a nightmare she by no means agreed to, and the one factor left inside her energy is refusing to let Gilead promote her a prettier cage.
Bother Knocking at Nick’s Door
Again at Nick’s home, Gabriel is ready and isn’t there for a pleasant chat.
Rigidity crackles instantly. Gabriel obtained a name about Nick, about his “go to” to Jezebel’s, and about Toby.
The implication is obvious: Nick’s loyalty is underneath suspicion. And Gabriel, along with his anxious steepled fingers and false concern, calls for full honesty to “save” Nick from the wall.
Nick’s worry is palpable. He provides June a easy, chilling instruction: if I don’t come again in 5 minutes, run to Serena’s.
It’s the primary actual crack in Nick’s armor. And the primary warning shot that one thing horrible is about to occur.
June and Serena: Two Sides of a Damaged Mirror
Within the pouring rain, June seems at Serena’s doorstep — drenched, determined, and improvising.
She spins a narrative: she requested Nick to run away together with her to Alaska, however he refused. Serena was the one one she may belief.
Serena buys it, possibly as a result of she needs to. Perhaps as a result of June as soon as saved her life.
Their dialog, like all the time, crackles with stress and bizarre affection. Serena reveals she’s marrying Gabriel. Not Fred 2.0, she insists. A greater man. A person who constructed her a library and guarantees to reform Gilead.
June can’t assist however problem her. Simply because girls can learn doesn’t imply they’re free. It’s only a higher, shinier model of the identical previous cage — one which works higher for Serena.
The 2 girls circle one another like previous foes, previous buddies. There’s remorse. Resentment. And that unavoidable fact: they’re trapped in the identical cycle, whether or not they prefer it or not.
Nick’s Shattering Betrayal
The following morning, the awkwardness deepens when Serena summons Rita for an intimate reunion with June, bringing the previous dynamic between Handmaid, Martha, and Spouse painfully again into focus.
June asks Rita for assist, however Rita properly refuses. She has a household now. She gained’t danger them for an additional rise up.
In the meantime, Joseph teaches Angela (Charlotte) chess, providing her a glimpse of a distinct future — one Naomi is determined to stomp out.
After which it occurs.
Nick arrives at Serena’s. He tells June they need to run away to Paris. He begs her. She is shocked, honored, shocked once more. Perhaps there’s hope.
Then there’s a knock on the door. It’s Gabriel.
Nick and June scramble into the pantry to cover. They hear Gabriel’s voice. He has excellent news: he shut down Jezebel’s.
And it’s due to Nick as a result of it was he who instructed Gabriel all the things — Mayday’s plans, the names, the plot to kill the Commanders.
Nick betrayed them. He betrayed June.
June can barely breathe in that pantry, pressed towards the person she thought she may all the time belief. She’s not alone. I can scarcely breathe, both.
The place Do We Go From Right here?
It’s a devastating reveal — one which redefines all the things. The title of the episode nailed it. It’s a shock that no person needed.
Did Nick don’t have any different selection? Was this the one solution to save June? Was he making an attempt to chop a deal that will allow them to escape collectively?
Or did worry win? Did survival win?
The results are staggering. The place does this depart Janine? Moira? The remainder of Mayday? How lengthy earlier than the partitions shut in round everybody June cares about?
Belief is a fragile forex in The Handmaid’s Story. And now, it has been shattered within the worst attainable means.
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