Anna Green
The following contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale S6E9, “Execution” (written by Eric Tuchman and directed by Elisabeth Moss)
Here it is: the penultimate episode of the season… And what an episode. It felt to me as though all of the drama had appeared at once, as though all of my emotions were building up to this, and the final scenes did that feeling justice.
The episode opening is stunning. I loved the sequence with Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.” It’s very powerful and very fitting to the theme of pop music in the show. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I imagine there are also a lot of young women who will particularly appreciate the use of this song. It may be my favourite episode opening so far for its triumphant and righteous feeling. All I could focus on was the line in the song, “all I think about is karma.”
The music lines up perfectly with the Handmaids’ experience and what we are seeing on screen. As Serena flees with Noah we hear an upbeat, “I got smarter in the nick of time.” The song choice was perfect for these opening moments.
After this montage, we cut to a scene of Serena hurrying away with Noah. She sees a Handmaid stabbing a wife to death, and we can hear mayhem and bombs in the background. It’s a truly feral moment, and one I’m glad Serena was thrown into the thick of. It feels very vindicating to be able to finally watch the Handmaids on the other side of violence. I wondered if Serena would get far enough in time, but of course she does, and delivers herself safely to Joseph’s house.
As this continues, our rebel Handmaids are in a truck, hoping to collect more Handmaids and get back over to Canada. June properly introduces herself to the Aunt who has been helping them, and she tells them her real name is Amy, “nice to officially meet you.” It’s quite a sweet moment, but June infuriates me only seconds later by telling everyone she will stay in Gilead to continue fighting. I entirely understand and support this choice—I think it is noble and honourable—but at the same time I want her to choose herself and her family. I fear the reality is she will soon be caught for the final time. It is so frustrating as a viewer to keep watching June travel back into the war zone from safety, although of course it is necessary for the continuation of the plot.
Just as I had the thought that June was sure to be caught again, things go wrong. Once again, June sacrifices herself to save the life of another Handmaid, and she is led away separately from the rest of the group. My heart broke for Janine in particular, as she is captured once again. The fate of these girls seems very gloomy at this point, and there is such a relentless hopelessness by this point in the series. To watch the women continually suffer and stay stoic is simultaneously very touching and very upsetting.
The next scene has a nice foreshadowing, as Joseph says to his wife amid the carnage, “go back to sleep,” and she responds with, “I’ve been sleeping like a dead woman.” Regardless of Naomi’s eventual fate, which is not yet revealed, I love the dark tone that her comment sparks, and the sense of dread I felt as she spoke those words. I am forever hopeful that Angela (Charlotte) will find her way back to Janine, and I am not particularly bothered whether Naomi makes it out dead or alive. I think she is one of the more two-dimensional wives, although it is really only Serena that I have seen to have real character. This feels very believable to me, as those women who are obedient are those most likely to have become wives in the first place. It makes sense. I have said it before, but Serena is set apart by her intelligence and her genuine will to do her twisted version of “good.”
We rejoin our characters the morning after the fateful wedding, and Serena is confronted by Wharton at Joseph’s house. She tells him his insistence on a Handmaid broke their wedding vows, and he tells her that they must go further into Gilead to be safe. She refuses, and does not budge, even when he promises her a life of natural conception and attempts to regain her trust. She, for once, does not fall back into her old way of life. She stays with Joseph.
Nonetheless, she still seems to feel a sense of betrayal/abandonment when he leaves to travel to DC and meet with the other commanders. He tells her is is going to “plan a response,” and she doesn’t seem to give that the support that I think a Serena of the past may have done. She does not champion or support his aims, but instead she rejects him coldly.
I wonder if, more so than having a change of heart, Serena has just given up.
Before he leaves, he tells her she doesn’t need to worry about June anymore, and that “God’s justice will be served.” This is something that makes her deeply uncomfortable, and me uncomfortable as a viewer. We see her thoughts and understand them, although they don’t really make sense. There is a mixture of grief and desperation and gratitude and fear. She tells Wharton that June and herself were friends, but he only speaks to her as though she is a victim of a wicked witch and not one herself. Serena is sombre at the end of this scene, and truly seems to feel betrayed by June.
Wharton visits June, who tells him the country he has created is a “horror show run by men who are twisting [God’s] words.” He does not take kindly to this and brushes her off as if she is vermin. I am not sure why June thinks there is any good to come with pleading with a man like Wharton. I think it is more likely that he gets off on her pain than that he will even exercise a scrap of sympathy. June quite futilely tells him as he leaves, “be the man that she believes you can be.”
Meanwhile, Joseph is packing up his wife and daughter, Angela, to travel somewhere safer. He very sweetly looks out for Angela, and reminds Naomi to make sure she has packed her craft things. He tells Naomi to make sure she learns, because there is nothing else in the world that she wants more. I think Lawrence is genuinely invested in Angela’s future, and I think each day he is more regretful of the things Gilead has done, and the monster he helped to create. Deep down, I am sure he knows they would have managed with or without his help, but there is palpable guilt in many of his scenes this series. I wonder if this will be the last time he sees Angela, as there is something in his face as she walks away that tugged my heartstrings. He shouts after Angela, “Make some more pictures for me, lots of colours!” Left alone in the house, save for Noah, Joseph and Serena pray for June, with Serena speaking out about how she nor Noah would be alive without June.
The climax of the episode comes next, with the scene we all saw in the trailer—the Handmaids in the gallows. We see June taken up first, then Aunt Lydia, surprisingly, meets June’s eye, and nods acknowledgement and acceptance in a way that is slightly theatrical. Wharton invites Aunt Lydia to say a few words and to repent before she is executed. She speaks her new truth, “dear God, forgive me {…} and forgive them, my precious girls, for they have been prisoners of wicked, godless men!” The way she raises her voice at the end of this sentence is triumphant, and she is then put into a noose.
The next part, however, I struggled with. As June is preparing for death, she begins to speak up. We see Rita and Luke in the crowd, and we know something is brewing, but it baffles me why they wait until June is wrenched into the sky before they let loose their grenades and their knives. The street erupts into carnage as June screams, “Don’t let the bastards grind you down” and is launched into the sky.
Nevertheless, I was pleased with what came next—Janine lifting her head free, Moira making sure June is dropped down, Aunt Phoebe (who we later learn is CIA and works with Tuello, which makes sense for this scene) becoming a warrior and taking out several men… But we don’t see what happens to Janine after she is ushered away by a Guard, alongside Aunt Lydia. I wonder if we will ever know.
While this is happening, Nick is with Rose in hospital. Nick chose this life, although he could have left at any point. At this point, I have no sympathy for his character, and when we see his lack of reaction to Rose asking him to make sure June dies for harming their unborn son, I feel that I am no longer invested in him. He seems to have reached the end of the road with his fight and his goodness, and has accepted and chosen his life as a Commander.
In Canada, Joe is with Tuello and June plotting the bombing of a large group of important Commanders, including Wharton. He is given another brilliant one liner when they initially ask him to help them and he says, “I’m an economist, my comfort zone is miniscule.” I love the writing of his lines, there is always something in there that makes me smile despite the dire situations we see.
Things take a dire turn later on, and when the plan goes awry Joseph ends up staying on the plane with the bomb, instead of simply leaving it there and making a run for it. He makes the choice to board the plane, knowing he will die a martyr. I think this choice will solidify him as a fan favourite, and a hero, although of course it is also karma.
I didn’t expect Nick’s appearance (although perhaps I should have). As June watched him get on the plane at the last minute, it seemed from her face that her pain is raw again for the first time in a long time. After everything she has been through, I think this is something that cuts freshly and deeply into her heart. Knowing Nick will die thinking she hated him is terrible, but she knows whose side she is on and she lets him board the plane. There is a heartstopping moment where I think he will turn and see her, I can almost feel her will him through the screen, but he continues up the steps…
Nick walks up to sit beside Joseph on the plane, and tells him, “you decided to join the winners,” in a first glimpse of his true post-Gilead self. This for me cements that I no longer feel for his character, and in fact quite dislike him. I felt awful seeing him get on that plane, but somehow watching him explode all I felt was satisfaction. That is a feat of writing, really, considering that one season ago I would have been devastated to learn of his death.
I am excited to see what our finale will bring.
