Why That Betrayal on <i>The Handmaid’s Tale</i> Had to Happen
Spoilers below.
Nick and June fans were just hit with a devastating blow, thanks to a shocking twist on The Handmaid’s Tale this week. In season 6, episode 6, just when it seems like the couple are making progress with Mayday, Nick (Max Minghella) reveals her plans to his father-in-law, Commander Wharton. June’s (Elisabeth Moss) dreams of a revolution, and her trust, are completely crushed. Why would Nick do such a thing?
“It was time for June to take a very honest and hard look at who Nick is and what their relationship is really about,” co-showrunner Eric Tuchman told Us Weekly. “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.”
While fans are “very invested” in June and Nick’s relationship, and he’s “saved her many times,” Tuchman explained that “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.”
As co-showrunner Yahlin Chang put it, Nick “has invested in this system that has promoted him.”
While the betrayal might come as a painful surprise, especially to June, there were signs.
“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 told Us Weekly. “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 added, “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.”
Minghella has also weighed in on the twist. “I’m conscious of the fact that it’s probably gonna be pretty divisive,” he told TVLine. However, he didn’t expect for Nick to be a hero.
“I don’t have an investment, really, in him being heroic,” he explained. “I have an investment in him being interesting and complex. So, I thought that the season is full of complexity for the character.”
He similarly told TV Insider, “And even though I’m not going to defend his decision at all, nor do I expect anybody in the audience to sympathize with it, it was important to me that, at least in the moment, it felt like there was no escape and that he didn’t have a choice. Sometimes people don’t think clearly under pressure.”
As for Nick’s relationship to Commandor Wharton, he added, “[Nick] is scared of him, but I think that he hasn’t had a strong male role model before. And obviously, it’s a very skewed one, but I think it just gives him some sense of security.”
With only a few more episodes left before The Handmaid’s Tale’s series finale, how will June respond to this heartbreaking loss? Chang gave Us Weekly a hint for what’s next: Now, June “has to really confront who [Nick] is since he has revealed his character—his true character—at the end of this episode.”
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