Diksha Sundriyal
The sixth season of Hulu’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ intensifies the fight against Gilead, as June, once again, finds herself in the heat of it. She tried to escape this whole routine and wished to spend time building a life with her family. But Luke’s desire to fight against the regime that took his wife and daughter from him and the revelation that Janine is one of the Jezebels now leads her to jump back into the fray. However, she soon lands back in the same problems that she had seemingly escaped when she left Gilead behind. SPOILERS AHEAD.
June and Janine Reunite in a Conflicting Moment
While June had wanted to fight Gilead, she knew it was a vicious cycle that she didn’t want to be stuck in. But then, Mayday plans to hit the commanders in Jezebel’s, and Janine turns out to be there. June cannot leave her friend be, so she joins Moira and Luke in the trial run, one week after which, they are to strike the place. The women are dropped into Jezebel’s as Marthas. With their faces covered, they have a better chance of moving around, and they take full advantage of that. They also meet Janine, who immediately recognises June and asks her to meet at a later time in a different room. At the same time, Commander Bell enters with others and tries to play with June, whom he believes to be Martha. But Commander Lawrence shows up and stops things from getting any further.
Later, Janine gets Lawrence to take her to his room, which Bell doesn’t like. She shows him a peephole through which he can listen to everything the others are talking about. It turns out to be a highly informative thing for him as he discovers that the Commanders are not exactly happy with New Bethlehem and its progressive ways. They plan to axe the whole thing in the coming months as they want to take Gilead back to the basics and are not happy with whatever Lawrence is trying to do. Moreover, Bell seems to be so done with him that he wants to send Lawrence to the Wall when the whole thing is dealt with.
While Lawrence is busy discovering shocking information about himself, Janine sneaks out to meet June and Moira. They tell her about Mayday’s plan to kill the commanders and destroy the place. Janine is happy to hear that, but she also immediately realises what she needs to do. All the women need to be made aware of this oncoming danger. However, to Moira’s shock, June asks Janine to go with them. However, she refuses to leave the other women behind and decides to stay to prepare them for Mayday’s plan.
June and Moira Have a Decisive Confrontation
When June asks Janine to leave with them, she doesn’t consider the fact that her absence would be noted, which would put the whole place on high alert, which, in turn, would ruin Mayday’s entire plan. All she thinks about is her friend stuck in this brothel where she is raped and abused by the commanders. Moira, however, sees this conflict, and she confronts June about her selfishness, which almost cost them everything they’d worked for. This leads her to unload all her pent-up anger against her friend and her increasingly self-centered thoughts, where all she seems to think about is herself. June empathises with Moira and apologises for not seeing things more clearly and not understanding what Moira has been going through so far.
The confrontation opens the door for reconciliation, and by the end, they are both back to the semblance of normalcy that had always existed between them. As they decide to leave, a Guardian shows up in the room. He threatens both of them and tries to rape Moira, which is when June attacks him, and together, the women strangle the man to death. While they have saved themselves, they have also invited more trouble. First, they have a dead Guardian, whose absence will be duly noted. The second problem is that before Janine left, she gave a stack of letters to June from the women at Jezebels for their loved ones outside the country. When the Guardian entered the room, he put those letters inside the room’s safe, whose password is not known to June or Moira. This means that anyone who opens the safe next will find those letters.
Tackling the more important things at hand, they decide to get rid of the body. The only logical place is the furnace, where they dump the dead Guardian, knowing that, most likely, he won’t be found. However, while they are busy with this, Luke arrives at the gate to pick them up. When he is intercepted by a Guardian and told to come back the next day, he tries to buy time for June and Moira, but that makes the Guardian even more suspicious. Meanwhile, the women realise that they are stuck and cannot leave the way they came. So, they try to find a different route, which is when they notice Lawrence leaving the building. Despite Moira’s inhibitions, June shows up in front of his car and asks for his help. He puts both of them in the trunk and shuts it before June can make any requests.
Nick’s Mistake Comes Back to Haunt Him
In a previous episode, Nick shot down two Guardians while helping rescue Luke and Moira. This shooting incident does not go unnoticed, and Wharton asks Nick about this lapse in security. He also reveals that one of the Guardians has survived and will soon reveal the identity of the shooter. This leads Nick to visit the wounded Guardian in the hospital. Even though the man doesn’t seem to be in his right mind, Nick cannot take any risks, so he kills the man. Meanwhile, Wharton is busy wooing Serena. Following their last meeting, he seems to have made up his mind about her. When she makes it clear that she cannot be just a wife anymore, he assures her that he will never stop her from using her talents like Fred did. Rather, he will continue to support her in all her endeavors. To prove his words, he reveals the model of the library where both boys and girls will be allowed to come and study.
Ultimately, Serena accepts his proposal, which is for the better, especially considering her plan to bring the Handmaids to New Bethlehem. In the last episode, after Aunt Lydia found Serena dancing with Wharton in the middle of the road, she is not trying to find a way to free Janine and other women like her. Both women accept that they never thought about what would happen to the Handmaids when they’d run their course. However, it is no time to dwell on the past, and Serena proposes a plan to get the women to New Bethlehem under a new program she is trying to get approved. With Wharton by her side, it will be a much easier task for her. Or, so it seems for now. Considering that the other commanders are already planning to have New Bethlehem demolished eventually, it would be interesting to see where Wharton stands in all this.
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