I fell in love with "The Handmaid's Tale" when it was set as a GCSE English text.
Yes, seriously.
And no, I don't know who thought a book about sex-slavery and emotional abuse was suitable for a 15/16 year old child, but... thanks. Because I love this book.
It fell firmly into the period of my reading life where I was very into dystopias, and it was, for me, the ultimate dystopia. It was thought provoking. It tells a story of a future where, piece by piece, freedoms were taken away from people. It shows a world where women were gradually, subtly subjugated. It tells a story that is all too familiar. A group of people decide that they are right about... well, everything. They manipulate a religious text to convince other people that they're right too. They begin to commit atrocities, "In the name of God".
The other thing that really appealed to me was the main character. In the book, she is kind of unnamed. In the TV show, she is called June.
June was one of the many who saw the world around her changing. She spends her days in the book lamenting the life she lost, and the people she lost. She hopes, and she searches for ways to escape from the reality of her present, despite being in a hopeless situation.
And, at the end of the book, we are given a moment of hope. Her fate is never confirmed, but there is a chance that she did escape from Gilead, and find freedom.
In the TV show, though, we don't have to wonder.
June Osbourne, thorughout the first couple of series of the show, gradually rises in power in Handmaid society. She falls pregnant, and that gives her some defence from the ways of Gilead. She pushes her power to the limit, and pulls back just in time to avoid being executed.
From that point on, be it her maternal instinct, or be it a growing realisation of the forces she can wield, she starts to take control. She becomes the leader of the Handmaids, in many ways, until even the official forces have to recognise her as such. She is taken to a new household, and quickly takes control there as well. She builds herself an army of allies, and she finally strikes a decisive blow against Gilead. She evacuates dozens of children out of Gilead, being severely wounded in the process. The other handmaids, her soldiers, rally around and carry her off to a place where she can heal.
From there, she changes goals again. She starts trying to be part of the rebellion, killing Commanders and running off to one of the (many) fronts where Gilead is at war. Once she gets there, she sets out to find the most extreme rebels, those that actively fight back and kill Gilead soldiers.
But... before she does, there is a disaster. Bombs fall all around her, she's injured and knocked out.
When she comes to, she is surrounded by aid workers from Canada... including an old friend of hers.
Now, I would love to be able to tell you what happens next, but... we're mid way through a series here, and that's as far as we've got up to.
So why am I writing this blog post today?
Well, because I wanted to discuss whether, from a story perspective, and from June's perspective, it is time for June to finally leave Gilead.
And yes, I know that the ending of the episode, and the fact that June has been found by a Canadian aid organisation, and one of her best friends, might suggest that June will finally be moving to Canada...
But June has, on multiple occasions, decided to stay in Gilead, rather than flee.
Why? Well, let's begin with...
The case for staying in Gilead:
1: Hannah. This, honestly, is a big one. Hannah is June's eldest child, the daughter that she raised with her husband Luke until Gilead rose and stole her away. June has met Hannah several times since the rise of Gilead, and she has cited Hannah as the reason for her staying behind when given a route out of Gilead in the past. Hannah has already appeared in season 4. When June was being tortured by Gilead, they threatened her daughter's safety if she didn't reveal the location of her fellow escaped Handmaids. Hannah is still in Gilead, and June may not want to leave her child behind.
2: Fighting the good fight. June, at this point, is a fully fledged soldier. She has a fairly impressive record at killing commanders and generally causing destabalisation. She is also fairly well known as the Handmaid who gave birth to Nicole, and therefore has the potential to be a rallying point within Gilead for others who have been torn apart from their children within Gilead. If she thinks she can fight against Gilead better within Gilead than without, this might be another reason for her to stay.
3: The writer's perspective. The Handmaid's Tale is a story about Gilead, and how people (especially women) are treated within Gilead. In order to tell that story... you kind of need some main characters to be inside Gilead, right? Well, so far, Mr and Mrs Waterford, Moira, Rita, Emily, Nicole and Luke have all managed to reach Canada. Janine is with June, and if she's still alive, is likely to also be taking a trip across the border. This leaves Aunt Lydia, Commander Lawrence, Nick and Hannah as the only main characters (that I can think of) still inside Gilead. Now, there have been some signs that we might be following Aunt Lydia's story more closely in the next few episodes, and there is certainly going to be some conflict between Nick and Lawrence, given Lawrence's part in forcing Nick to bomb a load of civilians in an area where they both suspected June might be, so there is definitely some story there to tell... A group of new handmaids have also recently arrived in the area, so we could pick up on some of their stories, but still, removing your main character from the crux of the action still seems... brave.
The case for June escaping from Gilead:
1: June deserves her freedom. I will insert a message here that I sent to the Beserker Bard, while trying to explain my point here. It may be slightly... ranty. But that's what you come here for, right?
"at this point, she has had her daughter stolen from her, been told that her husband was dead, been beaten repeatedly, been raped, been forced into a relationship with a guy who she maybe sort of fell for, was threatened with execution, fell pregnant, tried to escape, was captured (and had to see all the people who tried to help her executed or punished), was beaten some more, was threatened with execution (again), was forced into this ridiculously strange "my husband raped you, so when you have your baby I am it's mother and you'll be kicked out of the house" thing, was raped again, tried to run away again, ended up going into labour and therefore was unable to run, had a baby on her own in an abandoned house in a forest, was recaptured, was prevented from seeing her newborn baby, was raped again, tried to see her older daughter, was prevented from doing so, tried to smuggle herself, her daughter and loads of other people out of this horrific regime, succeeded in saving loads of people (but not herself or her daughter), was shot, went on the run, her life was saved with basiclaly cottage medicine, she was recaptured, she was tortured, then sent off to a place where she would be raped again, at which point she ran away (again, again, again, again... something like that), most of her remaining frineds died, she found a rebel group who took her in... as long as she "paid her way" with more sex-slavery, she refused and her only remaining friend volunteered to do it in her place, she ran away from the rebel group, and then the guy who fathered her second child, who she actually loves (in a sort of "you are literally the only person who has shown me any kindness in this dystopian world" kind of way) is put into a position where he has to drop bombs on her"
...
Does that cover it?
I think that covers it.
2: June is turning into someone that.. the audience might struggle to empathise with. Her kill count is now... quite impressive. Basically, the longer she stays in Gilead, the more... shall we say "morally ambiguous" she becomes? I mean, since she first killed that guy who tried to rape her last season, she's gone on to allow a woman to die by suicide, because it decreased the chance that her plans would be interfered with, she threatened a frightened woman with a gun, she repeatedly puts those around her in danger, she poisoned a group of commanders at a brothel, and she then tried to join a group of millitants who were responsible for the deaths of soldiers that she found lying in the street. Basically, she's incredibly traumatised, and increasingly is becoming reckless and destructive. How far are the showmakers ready to take this? It would be difficult for a lot of the audience to accept June commiting greater and greater atricities herself, no matter the justification or provocation.
3: The other main characters. So, as I mentioned previously, a lot of the main characters are now in Canada. Therefore, in order for their relationships with June to develop, she... kind of also has to be in Canada. There are definitely some characters that would have VEERY interesting reunions with her.
4: The constant escape attempts. At this point, June has gone on the run.... how many times? Once shown in flashback, her ill-fated escape with Luke and Hannah. Again, also in flashback, when she runs from the Red Centre with Moira. Once at the beginning of series two with the help of Nick. Her next attempt is foiled when she goes into labour. After that, she is offered a way out with Emily, but gives it up in order to stay with Hannah. Then she sets up the "rescue-plane", and again chooses to stay behind, partially to provide a distraction, partly to try and find Hannah. Then she goes on the run with the other handmaids, is captured, and almost immediately runs again.
That's... a lot. Frankly, it's amazing that the showrunners have managed to stop it from becoming repetetive up to this point. I'm not sure they'll want to push it much further.
5: June might be executed if she stays. At this point, despite all the many, many, MANY rules of Gilead that June has broken, she has somehow not been killed. Basically because she is fertile, or because she was pregnant at the time. At this point though, Aunt Lydia has basically pledged to kill her if she is caught, and being caught is a nearly-inevitable event if June remains in Gilead. I don't know if the makers of the show would be willing to kill off their main character, so getting her out of Gilead might be wise... (Also, in the fairly recently released "The Testaments", the sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale" novel, June is stated to be alive. It's still unclear whether the TV show is following the same storyline as the books, but if they are then June kind of has to stay alive).
So, in conclusion...
I want June to be safe, happy, and reunited with her husband and bother her children. I just don't think that that will happen at any point soon. Or at all. But, from a story perspective, I think it's time June finally escaped from her life as a Handmaid. I even think that the show might be setting up other characters (Nick and the new Handmaids) as replacements as the "voice from inside Gilead".
But one of the reasons that I love this TV show is that, somehow, they always manage to be surprising. There are more twists and turns in this series than there are in Serena Joy's knitting.
I look forward to being surprised by the next one!
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