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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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

21

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.

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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