The Handmaid’s Tale took a huge risk blowing up June and Nick’s relationship ahead of the series finale — but where do they go from here?
During the Tuesday, April 29, episode of the hit Hulu series, June (Elisabeth Moss) reunited with Nick (Max Minghella) after once again getting stuck in Gilead. But when Nick was caught leaving Jezebel’s by Commander Bell (Timothy Simons) — while running an errand for June — Commander Wharton (Josh Charles) forced him to confess.
Nick didn’t give June up, but he did expose her plan to assassinate as many commanders as possible at Jezebel’s.
While Nick initially planned to spend the night with June at his vacant home, Wharton’s decision to stay back for the night caused even more complications. Luckily, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) took June in as they argued about whether New Bethlehem will really be better than Gilead.
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In the morning, Nick came to pick up June, but they couldn’t get away before Wharton came to visit his fiancée, Serena. June — who stayed at Serena’s (Yvonne Strahovski) for the night — was hiding with Nick in a closet when she overheard Wharton reveal that he closed down Jezebel’s thanks to a tip about a planned rebellion. He even namechecks Nick as the helpful informant. Nick’s decision to sell out June’s plan put Janine (Madeline Brewer) and the rest of the Jezebels at risk — and it caused Nick and June’s future to be called into question.
Coshowrunners Yahlin Chang and Eric Tuchman broke down for Us Weekly what the shocking twist meant for June and Nick going forward — and why it had to happen.
“It was time for June to take a very honest and hard look at who Nick is and what their relationship is really about,” Tuchman exclusively told Us during the joint interview. “We’ve seen Nick in a pressure cooker situation all season. The walls are really closing in on him. He has two worlds [where he is] one foot in each world — and it was time for him to make a decision.”
Nick’s choice of “self-preservation” might have been “shocking” for June — but not for the audience.
“We are very aware that people feel deeply connected to Nick and very invested in the June and Nick relationship because there’s so much chemistry between them. He has done wonderful things for June over the course of the series. He’s saved her many times,” Tuchman acknowledged. “But that’s only part of his day. The other vast majority of his time is spent as a Gilead commander. And he rose from a driver to commander — so he must have been doing something to contribute to that ascent.”
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Tuchman noted that June can no longer “willfully” ignore the other side of Nick, teasing, “Now she has to really confront who he is since he has revealed his character — his true character — at the end of this episode.”
Based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in a dystopian future where the U.S. government was overthrown. The new regime gives men all the power and forces women into subservience. Women are even forcefully assigned to men for the sole purpose of bearing children amid declining birth rates. The first season took inspiration from Atwood’s book but has since explored its own storytelling.
The storytelling freedom has allowed the show to explore an ongoing romance between June and Nick. But while the fictional couple has found ways to be brought back together, Hulu’s hit series isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions about their possible future together. (It is important to note that Nick didn’t die in Atwood’s version of the story, but his future on the show remains unclear.)
“Nick has had many opportunities to leave and to leave with June. He’s been in Canada and he has made the choice time and time again to go back to Gilead and to double down on Gilead,” Chang noted. “We felt like it was important to show that that has been his character all along — that he hasn’t left. He has talked about how before there was Gilead, he was nothing.”
Chang specifically pointed to those flashback scenes where Nick spoke to June about his past.
“He says to June, ‘Before Gilead, you wouldn’t have even noticed me. I would’ve been nothing. I would’ve been your Uber driver.’ He would’ve been the guy who was delivering her coffee. So Gilead is really what made him who he was,” Chang told Us. “He was a lost soul before then, and now he’s a big deal. So he has invested in this system that has promoted him.”
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The Handmaid’s Tale intentionally left “a lot” offscreen when it came to Nick’s Gilead side.
“June hasn’t seen it. But for the last five seasons, he has made the choice to stay in Gilead and to climb the ranks of Gilead,” Chang continued. “We felt like, [as] storytellers, we would be dishonest if we didn’t incorporate those choices that he’s already made into showing what he is like and what his character’s really like.”
Chang admitted that she is “very sympathetic” to Nick, adding, “The decision that he had to make [came] as the walls were closing in, and he really didn’t have a choice. He does have a baby on the way and a wife and a family to protect. He was really, really torn. It wasn’t just pure selfishness. He made a decision that a lot of people would make, which is that he has to protect his family and his baby. He can’t do that if he’s dead.”
She continued: “Nick was spiraling, and he couldn’t see a way out. Being a double agent is very psychologically corrosive, and it makes people go crazy living this double life. The pressure just got to be too much. So for the people who would be upset, he’s not turning into a villain at all. He’s being human. He’s being very, very human, and there is a strong self-preservation instinct and a strong protective instinct that we all wrestle with.”
New episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale are released Tuesdays on Hulu.
