The original post: /r/television by /u/Expensive_Nail627 on 2025-07-29 02:35:58+00:00.
I am frankly shocked by how many have accepted the simple narrative that is being sold that Nick was through-and-through a man of Gilead. The scenes and dialogue to support this do not exist in the show. Not for the entire series, apart from like 2? nonsensical scenes in 609. The episode where our heroine watches the man who loved her without expectation, saved her life (many times?), fathered her child, helped her escape (twice?), risked his life anytime she called and killed for her… walk to his death. The episode where she had ample opportunity to save his life in return, just once, but chooses not to because he “betrayed her” and led a “violent and dishonest life.” That was the moment I lost respect for June.
This apparent betrayal was meant to shock us as it did June. And it did. Because in what world would Nick cower at a fist slammed on the table by the father-in-law he doesn’t even like, and then sabotage June’s plans in a weak “okay I’ll tell you everything!” kind-of attitude? Remember when Nick held Fred at gunpoint (twice) and pistol-whipped him in order for June to escape AND seek vengeance?
June herself lead a violent life and betrayed and killed people. I never thought twice about the things she did because most of the time she had np choice. But doesn’t that sound familiar? We see Nick do this once when his (and June’s and Mayday’s and the Jezebels’) life was at risk. June uses this as a catalyst to send him to his death and as a shield to keep her from feeling guilty or mournful. This is dumb and hypocritical.
Both June and Nick were victims of Gilead. June had it worse than Nick. Janine had it worse than June. But we don’t see Janine partaking in acts of violence like June. And Janine got her daughter back in the end (which…like…ok? Thanks Naomi and Lydia I guess?..random as shit). June didn’t. Nick did not establish Gilead and its laws (cue the fan fav Lawerence and the redeemed she-devil Serena for that). He was sucked in before Gilead was Gilead, as thousands of other people were, had nothing else going for him, and adapted. I’m not sure what else he could’ve done. Said no and gone to Canada? Why didn’t June and Luke flee to Canada way sooner? None of them knew what was coming until it was too late.
Nick did not seek promotions in Gilead. They were brought on by higher-ups, sometimes out of a means of control and sometimes because “it was his due”, and what choice did he have to refuse? Every time we see Nick, he is miserable. He is thinking back on the things he has done. The only time we see him genuinely smile is when he is with June or Nichole. Nick did not have power in Gilead. He is mocked in season 6 as being a “puppy” and a “boy scout.” The only time we see him have some form of decision-making ability is in relation to the frontlines in Chicago. It’s not like Nick said “I want to go to Chicago” and then the other commanders were like “yessir!”… He was sent there. And even then we do not know the full extent of his command there. We never fucking see it, but my guess is he was not singlehandedly calling all the shots. Remember when Commander Putnam was the one that ordered the bombing of Chicago, and Nick tried to stop it, saying there were innocent people there?
Nick did not leave Gilead because, as Lawrence himself said and as the show has proven many times (in fact it was a major plot line throughout the show…), you can’t just waltz in and out of Gilead. Plus, early on Nick wouldn’t have had any protections or help and would’ve been imprisoned as a war criminal. Later on, he had obligations in Gilead to be a husband and father to a child that was going to be born in Gilead. Nichole was free and safe; this child was not and never would be, and he wanted to follow Commander Lawrence to make Gilead a better place to be for them (trusting Lawrence was a stupid decision — that man turned on anyone, including June, in the blink of an eye if it served him). Also, Nick knew once June escaped (which was not a futile effort) that she would have a husband to return to. She never made it clear to him that she would want to live as a big happy family if he happened to fight his way out of Gilead. Nick was stuck and did not have enough pull from June to make the risk worth it.
We see Nick working with the Martha network and putting himself in a position to report on the Waterfords in an attempt to clean up Gilead, even before June arrived. We see him do acts that don’t directly benefit him or June, but the other handmaids — like getting the letters out (1.5 times) and taking down corrupt commanders. We see him risk his life to save Luke and Moira. We see him get intel on Hannah for June, knowing it won’t lead anywhere but simply because it is a nice thing to do. We see him sign a deal with Tuello to provide intel. We see him reuniting families in New Bethlehem. In season 6, we finally see Nick have some courage to tell June how he really feels. To tell her he is ready to leave with her. All he gets in return is the word love used once very awkwardly — “I loved you…love”, and her thinking he deserved to die for what he had done. Which was what? Gave up some wack-ass Mayday plan when he was backed into a corner (that June put him in) so he wouldn’t end up on the wall? June always had grace in forgiving people. Even Serena and Aunt Lydia who performed incredible atrocities. Why not Nick? This is where I struggle with accepting how the show ended. TBH, I loved almost everything else. I enjoyed that the show was about the women and that no one really got a happy ending because that was the world the show lived in. But what was done to Nick doesn’t track emotionally or thematically and did not honor the shared history between June and Nick.
Nick’s story is a fucking tragedy, and I get it. I’m well aware his story pretty much had to end in death. There was no way out of Gilead for him. But he deserved a much better death than at the hands of spiteful June. And her (and the cast and crew!) shit-talking him post-mortem was not necessary. Adding salt to the wound, or perhaps further solidifying June as a selfish and reckless individual.
And hating on people upset by Nick’s ending and calling him a Nazi is not feminism. It presents as excitment about an opportunity to hop on a bandwagon that screams all men in Gilead must be oppressive, power-hungry rapists. How can you sit there and say with any certainty what you would’ve done living in a world like that? That you would’ve NEVER kept your head down and followed orders to stay alive in a totalitarian regime? That you would’ve NEVER put your own life first? That “it’s not a love story.” Why are the small acts of resistance and love that Nick gave not enough? All or nothing is not realistic.
That was the beauty of Nick’s character. He was realistic, until 609 when he sat back and nodded as his boring wife, who he didn’t love, told him to “end her” — the love of his life, who he spent 6 seasons rescuing, doing favors for, and pining after only for her to never say enough to save him in return. But he was always understanding of that because she was enslaved and he knew it. And then he sat on that plane and acted like he had it good in Gilead and made the right decision. In his last words, he still wondered if June was safe. June had overreacted and pushed him away. He had nothing else left but to get on that plane. Again, not his choice — he was stuck. And then June killed him.
Clearly this was such a powerful show, and the Nick and June storyline was compelling. It had potential to be one of my favorite all-time productions, but they fumbled Nick’s ending. It was unjustified and shallow.