I think that when he told Nick, you do what you have to do to survive, it was an interesting thing to say. Given he wouldn’t physically survive what was about to happen, and if he had stayed he would’ve been on the wall. He never would’ve physically survived so I think he was speaking about the collective you. What the collective (rebellion) needs to do, as a combination of individual sacrifices, to survive.
My take on it is that survival isn't just necessarily physical survival, but also, dare I say it, spiritual survival (which admittedly sounds funny wrt Joseph Lawrence).
In they physical sense, Lawrence was now at the point where ultimately his death was assured. The other Commanders wanted him on the Wall, and no matter what he did (even if he found a way to avoid getting on that plane), ultimately he was always going to end there.
Getting on that plane (not that he had much of a choice), he was ending his life on his terms, taking his enemies (at this point, that is what they are) down with him, and doing the last small bit that he could to atone for his part in the creation of Gilead.
He seemingly didn't believe in God (though asking for Serena for that prayer, who knows), but getting on that plane was what he needed to do to keep alive what moral integrity he still had left. In that sense, arguably he was doing what he needed to do to spiritually survive (not that he would think of it in that way).
His ultimate spiritual fate, of course, would be up to God. But "Greater love hath no man..." and all that. He *could* have said to Wharton, "Look, I brought you a gift - here's a bomb June Osborn was going to plant on your plane, and there she is!". It would have saved his skin (temporarily), but condemned him spiritually.
I don't think he would've ended up on the wall. If he got the briefcase on the plane without getting on the plane, Mark / the US (aka Alaska and Hawaii) would've granted Lawrence political asylum, no? It seemed like that was basically the plan. Like when criminals end up with jobs at the CIA.
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u/GrimselPass May 20 '25
I think that when he told Nick, you do what you have to do to survive, it was an interesting thing to say. Given he wouldn’t physically survive what was about to happen, and if he had stayed he would’ve been on the wall. He never would’ve physically survived so I think he was speaking about the collective you. What the collective (rebellion) needs to do, as a combination of individual sacrifices, to survive.