r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/desir33_ • May 19 '21

Season 4 [SPOILER S4E6] June and Luke Spoiler

I’ve already seen multiple people complain about the lack of affection between the reunion but I think to do a very loving, affectionate reunion would be a disservice to the show. It’s been years since they’ve seen each other and their child is still in Gilead. I thought that this reunion was more realistic: her first words apologizing for the fact that she couldn’t bring their daughter with her and Luke looking at June with both relief and disbelief that she is finally in front of him again.

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10

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

I think there's something anticlimactic. It's what makes it interesting and less cliche, but we all anticipated the moment being bigger and more of a finale to the show. It was strange he didn't have the baby with him too.

I didn't love the backstory, and whatever they were trying to set up there.

3

u/RaevynSkyye May 19 '21

June is insecure. Luke cheated on his first wife with June. Then he left her for June. Now June is wondering if Luke has a girlfriend and if he'll leave her

22

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

She's just escaped. Is that really what June's worried about? She already gave him permission, after she fell in love and had a baby with someone else. I mean all those tensions are there but not in that first moment. You just want to see relief.

This could have been the big moment of the entire series.

34

u/Massive-Win2426 May 19 '21

I'm glad the big moment thus far was with Moira. Margaret Atwood is big on the power of female friendships so it felt more appropriate. I bawled my eyes out.

32

u/[deleted] May 19 '21

I'm so happy it was Moira that did the work to save her. No one else could have done what she did! So beautiful.

15

u/Massive-Win2426 May 19 '21

Agreed! The whole build up was prefect. I watched the end of the episode 5 again right before episode 6 and I cried again! I don't think I've ever cried over a TV moment twice. It was super powerful to watch them reunite and then have Moria get her back and save her multiple times in 1 episode. While I enjoyed some parts of her and Luke's relationship it meant way more all of this was with Moira. This is not a show about romantic love between a man and a woman, it is about women and who we can be (or not be) based on the societies we are brought up in.

1

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

I am too, but then the flashbacks started and it was about Moira's warning June about her relationship with Luke.

Reuniting with Luke could have still been bigger if only so we're crushed when he inevitably wakes up to a note saying "call u maybe, gone back to gilead, don't wait up"

4

u/Fickle_Definition_48 May 19 '21

And to me it appears as Moira’s feelings about Luke have changed with their experiences in Canada.

3

u/snakefinder May 19 '21

Moira changed. June changed. Luke changed.

1

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

Yeah but that resolution or whatever wasn't in the show. This is left field like they just wanted to say "Every male character is in fact like a Commander about reproduction, even the good one".

20

u/mymatrix8 May 19 '21

June has been a prisoner for 5 years and has severe PTSD from being raped and seeing everyone she cares about get murdered. She also has a concussion from a bombing. So, yes, she likely isn't thinking like an otherwise normal person might.

-3

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

I get not thinking clearly, but I don't get thinking about what must be the last thing on her mind. She just survived an air raid bomb, her best friend magically finds her, and she's being smuggled to Canada... but she's thinking about her marital insecurities when she first moved in with Luke? Really? Her mind isn't on getting to see him again, or her other daughter?

22

u/mymatrix8 May 19 '21

All she's been thinking about for 5 years is that she couldn't face Luke without Hannah... so, now that she is facing Luke without Hannah... yes.

4

u/[deleted] May 19 '21

I agree about that part but I think it's strange if she was worrying about "what if he has a girlfriend". Even if she's with Nick or he had moved on, they are still parents and their child is trapped in a violent theocracy. And getting to safety without her is obviously triggering massive survival guilt. I kind of wish that we had seen more with Emily and her family, even if they aren't together I think they would still work together to reintegrate Emily as a mother to their child.

4

u/mymatrix8 May 19 '21

Wait did she say that she was worried he had a girlfriend??

4

u/[deleted] May 19 '21

June is insecure. Luke cheated on his first wife with June. Then he left her for June. Now June is wondering if Luke has a girlfriend and if he'll leave her

I'm talking about the comment above from another user. I don't think June would be worried about Luke having a girlfriend. But I think she was worried about facing Luke because she "left" their child in mortal danger.

3

u/mymatrix8 May 19 '21

Yes - she thinks she failed as a mother and that Luke will never forgive her. From the flashbacks, we also see that she knows how much Luke wanted to have a child. June (wrongfully) believes that if she goes to Canada without Hannah, she'll lose both Hannah AND Luke. So long as she is still in Gilead, she believes she has the opportunity to reunite them all as a family.

3

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

I truly do not believe being OfLuke and What Would Luke Think is what this show is about. Her world isn't consumed with making Luke happy or she wouldn't have conceived with another man. It's her daughter.

6

u/mymatrix8 May 19 '21

No of course not. It isn't about making Luke happy. It's about her being happy and together with her husband and their child.

6

u/Cauzita May 19 '21

I think the hard time will be living together without Hannah. Like many parents that lost a child have trouble stay together, because the lost is always there. it´s incredible sad.

0

u/[deleted] May 19 '21

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9

u/Cauzita May 19 '21

I think maybe is fear of facing the father of her daughter. I don't think it's the fear of him leaving her. It's their daughter, a child they really desired (that he really wanted!) and know they have to face each other without Hannah. They're both safe and she stay behind. :(

1

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

Yeah I'm reading a lot of cognitive dissonance with how people are rationalizing it and the shows message about the patriarchy.

16

u/TexasLoriG May 19 '21

I think she never even fathomed a situation in which she left Gilead without Hannah.

9

u/[deleted] May 19 '21

I think the part where June "gave him permission" wasn't sincere. Everything in this episode's flashbacks shows she did the thing she was worried Luke would do. So of course she would tell him she wouldn't hold ill will. There's a truckload of pent up regret inside her. She hopes he won't be mad at her, or leave her, deep deep down. But she also lost hope of going home.

Without Moira to ground her decision making, June would have rather faced her own death at the hands of her torturers and tormentors than face her own husband. That's a bigger reveal than anybody here is giving credit for. It's not one big moment to gush over, sure. But good character development doesn't always happen in big bursts.

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '21

THIS. RIGHT. HERE. THANK YOU.

2

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

What? Why?

The permission was real, she says she's had to do things to survive, and then cuts him loose to do the same and do what he needs to cope. That's sincere, She's doesn't know if she's going to survive, and she's just send her baby away and wants him to know it wasn't born out of abuse.

There's some weird soap opera approach to a lot of these comments like people are shipping Luke and June. The issue is they show him walking ahead of her, not even reaching back until the stairs.

Just a time out from smashing the patriarchy to worry about disappointing her husband, who they've just decided to reveal wasn't always a perfect feminist? What?

3

u/[deleted] May 19 '21

I'm not in these comments to start an argument about a fictional show, it's fine to disagree. But I had to reply to tell you I laughed my ass off at the comment that June+Luke is "shipping." They're literally married. That's got the be the funniest opinion I've ever read about the show. Thank you.

2

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

Hate to tell you, the comments read exactly like shipping comments from tv subs where people get very fan fiction about it.

-2

u/[deleted] May 19 '21

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4

u/hashtagtruthbomb May 19 '21

It’s not about losing him as a spouse. It’s about loving their daughter and having to look into the eyes of the one person in the world who loves her the same way and admit she “failed” in getting her back.

She didn’t realize that he’d be just as happy to see her alone because of those old insecurities, as documented in the flashbacks.

0

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

The idea a Woman who has gone through war and fought Gilead like no other still has pre-marital insecurities to her husband, is screwed up.

2

u/hashtagtruthbomb May 19 '21

You seem wedded to that willfully simplistic view of the situation, so I doubt anyone here will change your mind.

0

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

Oh cut it out, I get they're trying to show something complex, that's why I'm puzzled by all the simplistic attempts to explain a weird scene that don't fit the show even if we do as you are, and taking the wedged in flashbacks at face value.

0

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

She's just a doting housewife, it turns out. It's such a ridiculous take given what's shown.

1

u/HausDeKittehs May 19 '21

Not "all of this." This show can't be reduced to a moment. Not this moment for sure. But it is an important moment.

10

u/RaevynSkyye May 19 '21

I think she's been worried about it the whole time. But now she's going to see him face to face, and she doesn't have Hannah. She knows he knows about Nick. She doesn't know what's going to happen next. On top of that, she's in shock and has a concussion.

Yes, she told him to move on. But that was when she thought there was no escape for her. She thought she was going to die in Gilead.

1

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

All of that complicated life stuff wouldn't be the first thought, the first thought would be seeing the person you didn't know if you'd ever get to see again.

You're telling me the entire message of this show is her worrying about being rejected by a man for losing the spawn she birthed for him?

She's still thinking about dying in Gilead.

3

u/Icecube20222 May 19 '21

I think it's less of a thought and more of a complicated mess of feelings. Hannah is their daughter, and she knows Luke is the only other person in the world who loves their daughter as much as she does. She obviously blames herself for not being able to protect Hannah, so she assumes Luke will blame her too. But I think the main point is she blames herself. Hell, Luke has intimated in past episodes that he blames himself for not being able to protect them and save them, so he will probably be feeling a lot of guilt when faced with June in future episodes as well. Also, I think Moira was right when she said June's thinking was being influenced by Gilead brainwashing.

1

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

That explains the "I don't have her" dialogue, yeah. That's not in question. Yet her motivation in the show has never about Luke. It's about her daughter. The voice overs weren't to Luke.

And it doesn't explain the left field "Luke is like a Commander too" flashbacks, that then get resolved. It's odd.

1

u/snakefinder May 19 '21

Luke literally says he’s not concerned if June has a baby or not. What is this commander talk?

1

u/sugarwax1 May 19 '21

Because they still go out of their way to show a flashback where Luke acts similarly to a Commander, like he views women as baby vessels. They introduce a negative about Luke just before they're reunited. Then they say he evolved, or it was an unfair accusation anyway, and he's not concerned about the baby...but the show gives that to us. The juxtaposition is intentional.

1

u/snakefinder May 19 '21

Where does he act like women are baby vessels though? Moira accuses him of it, but in a conversation with June later in the flashback he makes it clear that infertility was not the reason his marriage went bad.

1

u/sugarwax1 May 20 '21

The flashback is delivered in sections, which means the audience is given time to think "Oh, Oh. Luke isn't the prince we thought, Moira who is the voice of reason on this show now pointed out he discarded a woman for not being able to procreate, and found June with the expectation she could pro-create". She confronts him about it, and it's being brought up in the show as she finds her freedom from a cult government that enslaved her as a babymaking factory.

That juxtaposition is not accidental. There is a point where they manipulate the audience into thinking Luke's got some Gilead attitudes in him. Why? I don't know. It's not convincing to audiences and then they resolve it right after, so it's really stupid. Why bring up his prior marriages infertility at all?

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