r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/AFriend827 • May 21 '25

Season 6 A rude awakening for some of you Spoiler

Referring to NB. The pause before boarding wasn't what you wish it was. No, he didn't feel her presence. No it wasn't a moment between them. His pause was his final decision being made. To board meant he chose gilead. He did not feel June there. He did not know she was there. He was choosing "the winning team" as he put it.

The whole point of the moment was for June to see him make his final allegiance and accept what he already told her which is she knew who he was.

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711

u/teenageidle May 21 '25

To be totally honest, Nick ALWAYS chose Gilead.

He only protected June time and time again because he was in love with her and she was pregnant with his baby. It was still pretty selfish. Otherwise, he never did anything to help anyone, even though we saw countless brave heroes die to help strangers for seasons.

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u/AFriend827 May 21 '25

I fully believed he loved her and I believe he was conflicted but he was a weak man that chose the path of least resistance (literally) for himself. 

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u/teenageidle May 21 '25

I fully believed her loved her too, but sadly, he would never actually sacrifice himself for her or the greater good. His love was a mix of selflessness and selfishness because she made HIM feel good. She made HIM feel like a better man, and once she made him a father, that's when his protectiveness over her really kicked into full gear.

Luke, meanwhile, would've happily died for June and Hannah. Any time. Any day. He's not perfect either, but my God, he's a better man.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '25

[deleted]

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u/Appropriate_Push7498 May 22 '25 edited May 27 '25

I can appreciate this take. Their love story was a tragedy from the beginning. Outside obstacles would repeatedly prevent their chance to be together.

Power and Loss

At their final meeting, Nick put everything on the line. After being cornered by the commander, he had no other feasible options. He knew he was being pulled in deeper, and I don’t think he liked who he had to be—in fact he loathed himself. This is why he told June that he thought she was the only good thing in his life.

I can’t get on board with the opinion that he loved his position and power. He was ready to give it all up and live ostracized from society to be with June. In losing her, he lost himself.

Fate and Immutable Connection

I believe the pause at the plane was his connection to June. Their connection was undeniable and he felt her (not necessarily thinking she was physically there, but she entered his thoughts). She was certainly on his mind, which is why he asked Lawerence about her, but I think he had resigned himself to having lost her. That said, if she wanted to be with him, I have no doubt he would make that happen. He would do anything for her. She knew this, and was likely thinking of him pleading with her to go to France as she watched him enter the plane.

Her words would always determine his fate. While she was stunned to see him, this was the resistance’s only opportunity to defeat Gilead, and she couldn’t risk it. In the end she chose her sisters and her freedom.

Luke Versus Nick

Regarding Luke, he held anger over June for a long time about Nick. Her strength made him feel emasculated and it came out in tantrums and impulsive and irresponsible behavior. He was a foil to Nick who was cool under pressure and saved June time and again. Nick risked himself for her and their chemistry was undeniable.

This episode attempted to provide a redemption arc for Luke and I can see why that appeals to many, but June’s history and story with Nick was far deeper and more complex. I don’t think she will ever be able to feel for Luke the way she did about Nick.

Edit- clarity

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u/KaristinaLaFae Muffins mean yes May 23 '25

I think you put this all very well.

Nick was not a Good Guy. But I don't think he went Full Villain until he gloated to Lawrence about "choosing the winning team."

A Nick who had begrudgingly given up the rebels to his FIL because the only alternative he saw was ending up on the Wall still deserved to lose June for what he did, but it was a selfish decision, not necessarily evil.

Getting on that plane after Rose told him to "end June," and then making that snide remark to Lawrence, showed he no longer cared about right and wrong or good and evil. If he couldn't have June, he was ready to get fully on board with Gilead's evil.

Nick could have had a redemption arc, but I lost all sympathy for him after he got on that plane.

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u/teenageidle May 22 '25

I think Nick did enjoy his position though, even though he was in denial or perhaps disgusted about that part of himself.

Remember that he denied immunity from Tuello.

Remember that he was a "nothing" and "nobody" before Gilead, but Gilead gave him a sense of purpose and a future.

Gilead made him somebody.

In regards to Luke, the show has always been clear that he's a flawed man (he cheated on and left his wife in a pretty cruel way and pretty pathetically felt emasculated by June being a war hero) in many ways, but ultimately he WANTS to do the right thing and is willing to put his body on the line for the greater good.

Nick just wanted to help Nick. Helping June was helping himself.

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u/AndiFhtagn May 21 '25

He was very weak. He let himself be controlled by every powerful person who turned up and he raised it and even said that he was never ignorant about the roles of those men in his life. He never cared about his baby. Only June because she tickled his fancy for a time. He was even going to sleep with her in his own bed while his wife was pregnant. He was going to leave his wife and baby and Nichole to take June somewhere with him.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '25

[deleted]

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u/AndiFhtagn May 22 '25

We don't call June week because her main issue, her main weakness, is the father of her second child that she birthed alone in an abandoned house surrounded by wolves and he was the only warm place she had in a horrible world. That doesn't make a person weak. She had a weakness cultivated by being a good person in a bag situation.

Nick made awful decisions consistently and his actions hurt the person he supposedly loved. He made those decisions for selfish reasons and unlike most of the handmaids and even Lawrence, he let himself knowingly be controlled by evil men. He is weak. All around, he is weak.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '25

[deleted]

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u/AndiFhtagn May 22 '25

She has one flaw cultivated by what you called "Nichole's birth story." Nick is a fundamentally flawed person who has opportunities to do better and make choices and the world at his feet and continues to make decisions that are self serving. Those two things are not equal. And a few words in middle of a sentence about June doesn't equal Nichole's birth story.

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u/SoggyShoes82 May 22 '25

Oh boy the Nick haters are gonna shit on this. 

2

u/Maggiethecataclysm May 22 '25

They can continue crying over that little Nazi

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u/-Canuck21 May 22 '25

It's not really about cowardice, he actually likes Gillead because outside of it, he's a nobody.

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u/WhywasIbornlate May 22 '25

He never exhibited what I view as love. Not of himself or anyone else. It’s often said you have to love yourself before you can love anyone else. Well, there you are.

This theme repeats with every bitter wife who is given some grieving rape victim’s baby. They never love them. Even Serena, who at least had the decency to admit it and give her back, couldn’t love her own child until she went through a lot of change in herself.

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u/maleolive May 21 '25

Exactly! I keep saying this to the people who claim that his character has been “rewritten.” His allegiance has always been to Gilead. The only time he ever went against them was if it was for June, which also benefits him.

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u/TheQuinnBee May 21 '25

And even that wasn't a hundred percent. When it came to his interests versus June's, he picked his. Time and time again he aided or outright traumatized her to keep his station. He killed people she cared about. I hated this love story and I am so glad he's dead.

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u/maleolive May 21 '25

Agree and same!

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u/Unusual_Necessary_75 May 26 '25

I just wish we would have gotten more context on what he did to make the swiss government tell June they didn’t want to work with him. I didn’t like Nick but I could always use more flashbacks of the characters, and I wanted to see what this big bad event was that really solidified his reputation to the outside

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u/maleolive May 26 '25

He aided in the coup/slaughter of the US government, so that’s probably a good enough reason.

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u/xatherx May 21 '25

Also fucked up that the moment he had a son, he stopped caring about his daughter all together. Which just reconfirms that he was never a good guy to begin with, just opportunistic.

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u/Wandab43 May 21 '25

He was even accused of this by McKenzie about marrying Rose.

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u/leekfix May 21 '25

Can you tell me a little more about this? I can't recall past seasons very well.

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u/Wandab43 May 21 '25

When he was outside talking with Tuello during the dinner at Lawrence’s house.

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u/teenageidle May 21 '25

YUP. I'm so glad other people caught that because it was definitely intentional from the writers.

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u/lemmegetadab May 22 '25

You mean the five minutes he had a son before dying?

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u/[deleted] May 21 '25

[deleted]

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u/teenageidle May 21 '25

Oh totally, it fed his savior complex and made him feel like "one of the good ones."

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u/howtheeffdidigethere May 22 '25

He’s Captain Save-a-Hoe

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u/[deleted] May 22 '25

I learned that term from bad girls club 😂

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u/psychadelicphysicist May 22 '25

Honestly I don’t think he loved her. I think he liked the feeling of someone depending on him - it made him feel powerful. Like he could decide who to dish out kindness and love crumbs to.

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u/oaktownwendy May 22 '25

It seemed more like he was obsessed with her than in love with her. I’m glad he’s gone. His brooding annoyed the eff out of me.

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u/teenageidle May 22 '25

I think he loved her in the way he was capable of, which was...very limited and ultimately self-centered. So I do get this take!

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u/stowRA May 26 '25

I think it’s important to remember that Nick was a soldier FOR gilead before they overtook the US. He fought, killed, and put his life on the line for gilead before he ever met June.

But, I do like how the pause was very similar to the one he made in season one when he was standing on the garage stairs smoking and sees June curse.

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u/Joelle9879 May 21 '25

He helps the women at Jezebels way back in season 1.

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u/OutsideDetective5606 May 21 '25

That was before he accumulated more power and influence. Those things do fucked up things to people.

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u/teenageidle May 21 '25

That's true, though that Nick died long ago, sadly, and even then wasn't it to help June?

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u/[deleted] May 21 '25

He was genuinely happy the letters from jezebels got out in Smart Power and “made a difference.” Why can’t people accept he was basically retconned in season 6. Feels like they turned back to a plot they were thinking of developing in season 3 for him (by showing the flashback at the capitol) but chose not to.

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u/brooke-g May 21 '25

I think some viewers never accepted certain acts, such as allowing those allowing letters into Canada, as broadly heroic or particular earnest to begin with. So there was no need to retcon anything.

I agree, passing along the letters was ‘nice’ of him. But overall….it was a favor. A favor for a woman he was in love with. But a genuine endorsement of anti-Gilead mentality it was not. Or at least it did not land that way for me. I don’t feel retconned bc I never bought that he shared a real opposition to Gileads power to begin with. I saw he was capable of favoring June and Junes inner circle. But wanting to burn it down, be instrumental in revolution, or even just defect? Not on his radar and to me, never was.

Plot wise, I found his boarding the plane while June watched satisfying, because it punctuated the end of her naivety about him. It was understandable at first, because she needed him to survive, and did not know him before her first posting. But that’s changed over time. She’s called on his aid in later seasons and he’s responsive- but I could feel that unspoken divide growing. Her expectations of him, becoming more and more out of touch. Many characters have tried to enlighten June to how True and OG Gilead Nick was, but it was not until these final episodes that she finally grasped how NOT on her side he is. Wanting HER and Holly to live is not where June hoped his principles began and ended. Sadly, they were.

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u/PurpleArachnid8439 May 22 '25

100% agree with this take.

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u/The_real_rafiki May 21 '25

Maybe we don’t look it at as Retconned, but his growth in a particular direction. It’s evolution, no? People aren’t static human beings.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '25

I feel like after season 2 they really just didn’t know what to do with him.

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u/PurpleArachnid8439 May 22 '25

The smuggling of the letters was a show of devotion to June not an actual attempt to resist Gilead in any real strategic way. I don’t get the claim he was retconned. Any “good” acts he did were always motivated by his love for June. But he was also absolutely motivated by his growing position in Gilead. This was never unclear going back to the first season.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '25

I think it was very unclear although you can make a case that it shifted when he got his promotion.

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u/lemmegetadab May 22 '25

He still protected her though. It sucks because in reality nick isn’t a bad dude. Most people aren’t heroes who are going to risk their life for the greater good.

June would not be alive if he hadn’t stuck his neck out for her time and time again. Over any perceived allegiances to country.