#the handmaid's tale

[jackytaylor]

The Handmaid’s Tale S1E1 // S6E10

[just-b-yourself]

The Handmaid's Tale 4x9

-Keep yourself safe. Try and be happy.

Nick sees his daughter for the very last time...💔

[newfan96]

I was talking to a casual THT fan...

I think I see part of the problem.

She liked the show. She has watched each episode exactly once, as it was released. She has not read the books. She realized in the beginning of Season 6 that she remembered nothing about season 5, but wasn't going to rewatch.

When I asked her about Nick, she basically said what she heard on the Inside the Episode - he finally made his choice, we didn't really know what he was doing all along.

She asked what I thought and i talked about how the love story was so well done and important to the feel of the whole show. "What love story?" she said.

SHE MISSED THE WHOLE THING.

As I thought about it, so much of the points of connection between Nick and June are non-verbal. Honestly I learned about a lot of them from YouTube videos, starting after season 3. (I already liked them as a couple, but had also missed a lot). Casual viewers who watched the show while scrolling on their phones missed this whole thing!

#truly watching different shows #your number of rewatches matters #one screen at a time

[alexandrarosa]

The “I liked Fahrenheit 451 and The Handmaid's Tale and I want to read more dystopian novels and I want them to be written by women” books:

I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

[vampirecorleone]

"Now I'm awake to the world. I was asleep before. That's how we let it happen. When they slaughtered Congress, we didn't wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the Constitution, we didn't wake up then either. They said it would be temporary. Nothing changes instantaneously. In a gradually heating bathtub, you'd be boiled to death before you knew it." Cinematography Appreciation - The Handmaid's Tale (2017)

[boycottthetestaments]

📌 Let’s be clear — this isn’t thoughtful writing. It’s retroactive justification.

Bruce Miller’s recent transcript from his interview on YouTube, revealed that there was no clear arc planned for Nick Blaine. His ending wasn’t earned. It wasn’t intentional. And Bruce contradicts himself in nearly every breath. Here’s the breakdown:

🔹 1. “We didn’t plan it.”

“I don’t think there was any big decision about what to do with Nick.”

→ Translation: They wrote him into a corner and called it depth.

🔹 2. “It’s a violent world.”

“We didn’t think about ‘I need to kill these characters’… it was such a violent world…”

→ Translation: The world did it, not the writers! Blame Gilead, not our lazy arc decisions!

🔹 3. “He made his choice when he got married.”

“He would never leave his pregnant wife… that was the choice.”

→ Translation: They’re pretending Nick never struggled. That he never risked anything. That his loyalty to June was meaningless.

🔹 4. “He chose the winning side.”

“He didn’t say ‘my side.’ He said ‘the winning side’… because the winning side means safe.”

→ Translation: They want to strip him of agency while also calling him a coward.

🔹 5. “He’s intimate with June, Lawrence, Rose…”

→ Translation: They’re confusing emotional complexity with narrative incoherence. Nick’s intimacy with June is not the same as his political dealings with Lawrence or his performative marriage to Rose. This is gaslighting.

🔹 6. “He has a loving moral core.”

“That’s the man June fell in love with… that’s who he is.”

→ So then why didn’t the writing reflect that?

📣 This isn’t interpretation. It’s contradiction.

Bruce Miller talks like he’s trying to sound profound, but it all falls apart under scrutiny. The writing didn’t reflect what he’s claiming now. And fans aren’t confused, we’re just not buying the spin.

🧠 Nick Blaine’s arc wasn’t confusing. It was rewritten. There was clear guidance from Margaret Atwood and everyone, except for Nick, ended where their story begins in The Testaments.

Bruce Miller is a Fucking Liar!!

[watasemasaru]

lawrence getting on that plane in an act of selflessness while nick got that plane in an act of selfishness

[sparkbirdmusic]

Can you explain what a neopuritan is? I noticed you tagged a few posts with it, and I looked it up, but it didn’t explain it very well /genq

oh! I’d say neo-Puritanism describes how some people’s views today (that’s the neo part) reflect the values of historical Puritans, like strict morals, abstinence, and self-restraint around pleasure and things considered indulgent

I’m trying looking it up and you’re so right, the stuff I’m finding isn’t explaining it very well, and it seems some people are using it to mean the exact opposite of what I was taught it meant in queer/feminist studies classes. I would describe the society depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale as an example of a specifically neo-Puritan dystopia

so when I’ve tagged things “neopuritan nonsense,” I’ve meant they seem to be advocating for chastity (but I’m also joking because the things I can remember using it for were signs for loose bananas and loose livestock)

[iwasbored777]

Their dynamic is always so funny to me, and Serena being delusional all the time even with her character development 😭

[embermc]

I’m actually screaming and clawing at my enclosure over how people managed to literally make THE HANDMAID’S TALE centered on their favorite MAN. Or how people managed to make all of their fan content regarding a politically-themed dystopian story about women’s rights center exclusively on the romantic subplot 😭😭

Nick was never supposed to be a good guy!! That was intentional!! He was meant to show how even the ‘nice’ men in patriarchal systems will ultimately still choose the power and security offered to them by the patriarchy over protecting the rights of women. He only ever ‘rebelled’ because he loved June, not because he ever cared about the rights of women in Gilead. Somebody save media literacy because we cannot do the “the hunger games is actually about the Katniss love triangle!!” thing all over again

[jackytaylor]

The Handmaid’s Tale — S6E9: Execution

[just-b-wilde]

The Handmaid’s Tale Timeline

Thanks everyone for your comments. I’m going to dig a little deeper into the data.

So what do we know or suspect?

• June was born in 1983. She mentions her age (34) in episode 2x02.

• Luke was born in 1980, mentioned in 1x06.

• According to fan wiki, Nick was born in 1990, but this was never confirmed in the show.

• Janine was born on September 30, 1992 — this is written on her file in 4x08.

• Hannah was born in 2009, according to June’s documentation. In 5x03, it’s mentioned that Hannah is 12 years old.

• Nichole/Holly was born in 2017, according to June’s records.

• Angela/Charlotte was born at the beginning of Season 1 and is still very little at the end of that season when June finds out she’s pregnant. We can assume Angela is about a year older than Holly, born in 2016.

• Caleb’s birth date is unknown, but in Season 3 it’s mentioned that he died four years ago, already as a child of Gilead. It’s also said it’s been five years since the women became Handmaids (3x10).

• When June gets to Canada, it’s mentioned that she had spent seven years in Gilead.

• June returns to Canada and Serena finds out she’s pregnant in Season 4.

• Noah is born at the end of Season 5 and still appears very young at the end of Season 6. Nick tells June in Season 5 that Rose is pregnant, and in Season 6 she still hasn’t given birth — so the time gap is less than nine months.

What does this suggest?

• Hannah was five years old when she was taken from her family. By the end of the series, she would be 13.

• Holly should be 5 years old by the end of the series, and Angela should be 6. However, Holly definitely doesn’t look like a five-year-old in Season 6.

• Gilead apparently came into existence around 2014, and June stayed there until 2021.

• At the beginning of the story, June had already spent two years in her first placement.

• Season 1 takes place in 2016. Season 2 in 2017.

• Season 3 would be in 2019, so she could have stayed with Lawrence for around two years.

• By Season 4, it should already be 2021, when June arrives in Canada. But that feels like too long a period for how much story space is actually covered.

• Seasons 5 and 6 appear to take place between 2021/2022.

• By the end of the story, June should be 39 years old, Nick 32, and Janine 30.

What definitely doesn't fit in the story?

• In 6x07, a date (26/11/2024) is visible in Nick’s car — but in the context of the story, it couldn’t possibly be 2024. It’s most likely just the actual filming date.

• In 4x08, June says she came to the Waterfords in 2017 — but that doesn’t make sense, as that’s also the year when Holly was supposed to be born.

• And as I mentioned, Holly doesn't match her supposed age in the story at all.

[just-b-yourself]

"He reaped what he sowed. He lived a violent & dishonest life"

" He’s so deep underground he needs a breathing tube.” - Margaret Atwood

Each and every one of those scenes represent a moment where Nick fought against Gilead, in his own way. By becoming an eye after the suicide of the Handmaid at the Waterford's. By denouncing the actions of commander Guthrie. By working underground with Mayday, supplying the women trapped in Jezebel's. He got the letters out of Gilead, giving credit to Luke. He killed Putnam. Pointed a gun on Fred's head to allow June and Holly / Nichole to escape. Helped Serena against Cushing. Delivered Fred to June. Organised with Mayday the first attempt of June's escape. Collected informations about Hannah for June. Punched Lawrence in the face in front of every other commanders. Made a deal with Tuello to keep June and his daughter safe. Killed two guardians to save Luke and Moira. And so much more...

So, would a true believer, a nazi, a villain have done any of that ? Nick was smart, smarter than most. He knew that in order to survive, he had to keep a low profile. He fought in the shadows. But fought nevertheless. He just didn't expect to be betrayed by the woman he loved, the woman he tried so hard to save for so many years... She had a choice. And she made it.

[elaynetrakand]

“June MURDERED Nick by not stopping him from getting on that plane!!!”

[capykate]

It would seem impossible to get any angrier, but each time these writers hit a new low.

Mark and Serena are now our reference to Casablanca. Meanwhile Nick, whose last name is FUCK LIKE A CASABLANCA CHARACTER, fuck off

"Deadline’s It Starts on the Page (Drama) features standout drama series scripts in 2025 Emmy contention." - if THIS is an standout script, Hollywood is fucked

🤡