Episode 609 – Execution
June faces her biggest challenge as Gilead cracks down on the rebels.
Writer: Eric Tuchman
Director: Elisabeth Moss
I never in a million years expected a Taylor Swift x Handmaid’s Tale crossover, but friends I was hootin’ and hollering over the opening montage song being Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version). What a PERFECT song choice. The shots of the Handmaids and Aunt Phoebe marching down the street in slow motion were stunning, and when those explosions went off? INCREDIBLE. I am going to choose to believe that Miss Taylor Allison Swift is a Handmaid’s Tale fan after approving the licensing. And I will continue to clown and hope for Reputation (Taylor’s Version) to drop at literally any moment. Anyway, back to the episode.
The montage is intercut with Serena running down the street with baby Noah until she hears the screams of a Wife being brutally murdered by a Handmaid. I LOVED the shot composition; so good.
Commander Lawrence hears several loud knocks at his door, and there is Serena with Noah. When Naomi learns that Serena left Gabriel, we see her signature judgment come out to play. Meanwhile at the Blaine residence, Rose feels that there is something wrong with her pregnancy and has to wake Nick from his poisonous cake-induced slumber. We learn that Moira, June, and Janine all plan to stay and fight, but the remaining Handmaids are heading towards the Canadian border. But because this is The Handmaid’s Tale, they are intercepted by a group of Guardians and rounded up against a wall. I immediately had flashbacks to episode 7 of the women at Jezebels being lined up in the showers. Thankfully, they were just searching for June, who reveals herself to save the other women. She is carted off separately from the rest of the women.
The next morning, Naomi is once again bad mouthing the Handmaids and Serena pushes back. But Naomi has already called Commander Wharton over to attempt to reconcile. Once alone, Wharton makes a last stitch attempt to save his new marriage by promising that he and Serena can try for a child on their own, without a Handmaid. He attempts to play the nice guy again, but unlike Serena, I’m not buying it. Wharton wants all the Wives and children in Boston to be taken to another secure location. Serena refuses so he decides to leave her guarded at Lawrence’s house as he plans to head to D.C. He then reveals that June had the wedding cake poisoned (leaving out Rita). Serena struggles to believe this, even saying she thought they “were friends”. A bit delulu there, aren’t we, Serena?
We find that June has been locked in a large cage when Wharton pays her a visit. We get a great exchange between the two and June gets to do one of the things I love: she reclaims her faith and pushes back against the Gilead theocracy which has bastardized Christianity and faith in God. She reclaims what it means for her and says that her God, and Serena’s God, is a loving God; not a God she needs to fear. Wharton claims that “Gilead shall endure”, but June gives a knowing smirk. She encourages Wharton to “choose love” and to be the man Serena believes he is. Fat chance.
The next scene devastated me. Naomi and Charlotte are preparing to leave for the secure location. Lawrence makes sure she has crayons, paper, and the book that he’s been reading to Charlotte. He makes sure to tell Naomi that Charlotte wants to and deserves to learn. He hugs her and gives her the sweetest goodbye: “Make some more pictures for me; lots of colors.” This feels like a more significant goodbye, and he’s asking her to go and live a big, beautiful life.
Serena is standing in front of a window and hears three bells “a death knell” as we learn in season 1. Lawrence tells Serena that he’ll be joining the other High Commanders in D.C. Serena tearfully says: “June is going to die. I wouldn’t be here…Noah wouldn’t be here if it were not for her.” Lawrence suggests that they pray for her. Oh no.
June is marched up to the gallows in Boston in front of the infamous bridge, to a noose suspended from a crane. Wharton is there to preside over the hanging, of course. There is a massive crowd of econopeople and Marthas there to witness the Salvaging. Aunt Phoebe AKA Ava is there with a noose around her neck already. Then, Aunt Lydia is brought forth by armed Guardians, followed by the remaining murderous Handmaids. Janine, Moira, and the others have their own nooses placed around their necks. Wharton says “This is your fault Aunt Lydia.”
He allows her to atone to which she says, “Dear Lord, forgive me and please forgive them, my precious girls. Have mercy for what they’ve done, for they have been prisoners OF WICKED GODLESS MEN!!” She is immediately dragged to her own noose on the gallows. As Wharton recounts June’s crimes, we see Luke and Rita arrive with other Mayday operatives disguised as econopeople. June asks to beg for God’s forgiveness and gives a drop-dead speech:
Dear Lord, I have failed you. I have failed my friends, and my family. I have failed the people of Gilead with my selfish and reckless ways. Lord, please hear my prayer now. Please, protect your humble servants. Let them know their lives are worthy…and their hopes and their dreams mean something, for they are good people…WHO HAVE TOO LONG BEEN OPPRESSED BY EVIL AND THOSE WHO HAVE DISGRACED YOUR NAME. RISE UP, FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM. DON’T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWWWWWNNNN!!!!!
They pull up her noose, and all out chaos ensues. Luke and Mayday throw bombs, shots are fired, there is hand-to-hand combat in the streets. As Guardians are killed, the Handmaids manage to escape their nooses on the gallows. June is still hanging, yards above the ground. In one of my favorite moments, Rita rolls up with a glock (HELL YEAH) and kills the driver of the crane and lets June down. Luke runs to her to make sure she’s alive. Aunt Phoebe starts killing Guardians left, right, and center, along with the liberated Handmaids. They all look up to the sound of four planes flying overhead as someone yells “Those are American planes!!” and I screamed, “MARK TUELLO CAME THROUGH!!!” Bombs rain down on the city of Boston.
At Lawrence’s, Serena is holding Noah as the entire house shakes from the bombings in the city. Suddenly, who rolls up? The American military with MARK TUELLLLLLLLLOOOOO!!!! I YELLED. He takes Serena and Noah out of the house to “someplace safe.”
At the hospital, Rose wakes up and tells Nick that she and the baby are fine. They’ve heard what’s been happening. Rose tells him he needs to end the attack and June. She learned that the sedatives in the cake may have caused the pregnancy complications and tells him that it’s June’s fault. She tells him that he needs to show his allegiance to Gilead, God, her, and their son. He thinks this over, and uhh…..I think we know where this is heading.
The American military and Mayday have gathered with the wounded econopeople and Marthas at some sort of office building. Rita and Moira are there helping out, and June checks in with Mark and Ava. We learn that Ava is CIA! They are trying to figure out how to take out the remaining Commanders before they retaliate. Mark thinks Serena knows more than she’s telling him.
June is on the case, and heads across the street to a church where Serena is being held under protective custody. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this looks like it could be the same church where Hannah was baptized? June slides into the seat next to Serena, who is floored to see June alive. They start their signature bickering session, until June focuses on the task at hand and asks where the Commanders are. Serena won’t tell her what she knows. “You’re asking me to put a target on my husband’s back.” June tears into her about the man that Wharton really is and asks if that is really who she wants to have as a father to Noah. She is clearly torn, but this has cracked into her desire to be a good mother. She finally tells June, “They’re flying to D.C. tonight, 7PM from Bedford.” June thanks her and heads out. Yvonne Strahovski deserves a freaking Emmy for this scene.
Commander Lawrence arrives to meet with Tuello and June. By the way, June’s sore throat joke absolutely sent me into oblivion. June lets them know that Serena revealed where the Commanders are headed. They tell Lawrence they need to have him leave an altitude-triggered bomb on a plane and then get off and leave. He pushes back, but June offers to be his “getaway driver.” (Oh, we are so getting Reputation, Taylor’s Version soon.) He decides to see it through with her. What could go wrong?
They arrive at the airplane hangar where June says, “Courage looks good on you Joseph.” To which he says, “I’ll try not to fuck this up.” Unexpectedly, the other Commanders arrive early to board the plane and June must crouch down and hide behind the car. Wharton asks him to board the plane and to come along with them. OH SHIT.
Right before he boards, he looks back to June and breaks my heart as he puts his hand on his heart and raises an eyebrow. Oh, Lawrence. I was a MESS.
And then, who rolls up but Nick. OH MY GOD. In a slow-motion death march, he ascends the stairs to board the plane, all while June silently watches from her hiding place. It almost looks like he is going to spot her, while she is crumbling and frozen in place. But he BOARDS THE FREAKING PLANE, and June fully falls apart.
Somehow, Lawrence is seated calmly on the flight when Nick arrives, who says, “Guess you decided to join the winners”, GROSS. I keep thinking that something will stop the plane or that they’ll get off, but we hear the engines engage to prepare for takeoff. Nick asks Lawrence if June is safe, to which he replies, “You can’t keep a bitter woman down.” Nick says that June always told him to give this all up, and Lawrence drops, “You should have listened to her.” And here we go. The plane takes off, and all of our hearts are in our throats as June watches the plane ascend higher and higher. Before we see the actual explosion, we get a close up on June’s face and see the glow from the bomb on her face and hear it go off. As shrapnel and the remains of the plane rain down, I yelled, “Oh you guys are gonna be so mad.” I’ve been seeing this as a direct mirror to Angel’s Flight, and am going to call this “Devil’s Flight.”
So, let’s talk about it. I posted several TikToks last night leading up to the episode drop and after the embargo lifted. As predicted, the Nick fans are livid. I made a video discussing this already, but for me, this story has never been about Nick and June, or who she ends up with romantically. I don’t understand the people that are so diehard for Nick and June. To me, that’s one of the least interesting aspects of the show. People are angry at the writers, but what did people expect to happen right before the series finale of this brutal dystopian show? Of course major players had to die, and shocking things needed to happen; this makes total sense. Nick was still a Commander and an Eye. He contributed to Gilead’s brutal takeover. I don’t think he deserves a redemption arc, but I know many of you will disagree.
As for being angry that he will no longer be a character in The Testaments show: the show is obviously not going to follow the book, word for word. It wouldn’t work as a tv series if that were the case. I think this episode was excellent writing by Eric Tuchman and the whole writers’ room. I even think this is one of the best episodes Elisabeth Moss has ever directed and is even in my top 5 episodes of the entire series. I know a lot of people will disagree and are refusing to watch the finale, but that’s just not where I’m at, friends.
I will receive my episode 10 screener a few hours before the series finale drops on Hulu on Tuesday at 12AM Eastern, or Monday 9PM Pacific. I will be freaking out while I can’t talk about it with a soul until the embargo lifts one hour after the episode drops. You can then head over to my TikTok profile where I will be going LIVE to discuss the series finale in detail! I hope to see you there!
