'The Handmaid's Tale': How June's Heartbreak Could Fuel Her Final Stand - And Bring Down Gilead

Elle

14 hours ago

This article contains discussion around episode 7, season six of The Handmaid's Tale.
In episode 7 of The Handmaid's Tale's final season, the emotional fallout isn't just explosive and gut-wrenching; it has an air of finality, suggesting there is no going back. June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) has suffered through pain, loss, and unimaginable trauma, but it's the heartbreak that the one sliver of hope inside Gilead, Nick (Max Minghella), would also let her down that feels personal, intimate, and deeply human.
The episode opens in the aftermath of Nick's devastating decision to reveal Mayday's plot to attack the commanders at Jezebel's. For June, it's a betrayal that shatters not only their connection, but the illusion she'd clung to: that Nick could still be on her side. This was a man she trusted with her life and, more heartbreakingly, her love. But now, everything she thought she knew has been ripped away.
When she realises he gave up those women, including she believes her friend Janine, to save himself, she knows she will never win. He will never choose her, no matter what he says or indeed feels. The realisation that he would give her up, too, means she can never look at him the same way. In earlier seasons, their relationship had offered a rare glimmer of hope and softness amidst cruelty, but now it's exposed for what it really was: a trauma bond, born of survival, not love. And June knows she's done surviving. It's time to fight. What makes this moment so significant is that it's not just a romantic break-up; it's a personal reckoning, it is the clarity June needs to bring Gilead to its knees.
June, finally, lets go of a version of herself that needed Nick. The June who clung to him was the one trapped, abused, and voiceless. But that's not who she is anymore. She's crossed into something fiercer. With her daughter, Nicole, safe in America and her mother alive, she believes her main purpose is to not only bring back Hannah but also destroy Gilead. And it is this belief that allows her to think clearly and become unstoppable.
Meanwhile, there's a parallel unravelling with Luke (O-T Fagbenle). When June tells him she was the one who told Nick the plan, it isn't just about operational fallout. It's a silent confession of something much bigger: that she loved Nick enough to trust him, and that love came at the cost of their own fractured marriage. It isn't clear if their relationship can survive this, but for now, the focus has to be on fighting back. Luke has a new fire that means he can't think emotionally if he wants to play his part in the demise of Gilead.
Now Nick has chosen his side, he's no longer straddling the line between protector and oppressor; he knows June will never count on him again. There will be no family reunion, he has not only lost June but, any possibility of seeing Nicole again. It's clear he isn't comfortable with the decision, yet he is in too deep, he has made his bed and it's time to lie in it. 'This is Gilead. You can only count on yourself,' he tells Rita (Amanda Brugel), but really, he was telling himself. This line encapsulates the truth of the regime and the personal devastation that comes from trying to survive within it.
One of my favourite moments in the episode is the brief but brilliant exchange grounded in modern-day relatability. Moira tries to console June, who is brokenhearted over Nick's betrayal and tries to tell her that these feelings are normal. She quips that Nick is 'Rihanna hot,' as if it's an excuse for why June fell for Nick and trusted him. June deadpans, 'No one's as hot as Rihanna,' is a reminder that The Handmaid's Tale is not some distant dystopia. It's our world, tilted just a few degrees. And in that slant, everything familiar becomes terrifyingly possible.
Meanwhile, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), too, is facing the consequences of re-entry into a system she once helped build. Returning to Gilead, or its supposed moderate, New Bethlehem, she hopes for reform. But the wives' cold indifference makes it clear: Gilead's power structure serves them just fine. They've no interest in changing a system that benefits them, even if it costs others everything.
Serena, having seen the world beyond the walls, can no longer pretend she hasn't. And once your eyes have been opened, there's no unseeing. Yet, the allure of power is too much. Whereas June uses her pain to stay focused, Serena hides behind her doubts and decides to double down with a wedding extravaganza, all in the attempt to prove her power. Has she changed at all? That is left to be seen. Maybe just like Nick, the idea of power and stability feels safer than fighting for what you believe in.
Even Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford), a man who's spent years rationalising his position, starts to crumble under the weight of his own guilt and through fear that he will be brought down from the inside. He knows he has lost all respect from the commanders now, he understands that they won't change or adapt his moderate views. For him, the game is over, so he has a choice: beat them or join them?
It becomes clear that Gilead cannot be fixed from within; it must be dismantled from the outside. He crosses the line to help Mayday and the American army. There's no going back for him now, but with the power slipping through his fingers, what choice did he have anyway? I'm still on the fence that his switching of sides is his path of redemption and not just fear for himself.
Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), long one of the most complex figures in the show, also reaches a critical tipping point. At first relieved by Janine's survival, Lydia then confronts the horror of what 'being saved' really means, continued sexual slavery. Her faith, once her armour, begins to collapse under the weight of brutal reality. She can't unknow the damage she's done. Whether redemption is possible is unclear, but the first step — seeing the truth — has begun
There's a powerful full-circle moment when June and Moira (Samira Wiley), preparing for another covert strike, sit in the Red House and quietly pray. It's an act soaked in irony. For a woman like June, someone who's seen religion wielded as a weapon, to turn to prayer might seem absurd. But perhaps that's the point. When the stakes are life and death, even disbelief can waver. Maybe there are 'no atheists in foxholes', after all.
This episode is June's rebirth. Her pain, heartbreak, betrayal and guilt become the crucible that sharpens her purpose. Love, loss, and even faith are stripped down to their rawest forms, leaving behind only what's real. She no longer carries hope for personal happiness. She carries a new fire and she's ready to use it.
In the end, The Handmaid's Tale reminds us that the real revolutions aren't born from ideology. They're born from heartbreak. And in June's final, steely resolve, we witness a truth that transcends fiction: sometimes, you have to lose everything to gain the courage to fight for something bigger than yourself.
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