SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the first three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6.
Even after June (Elisabeth Moss) escaped across the border to Canada, Nick (Max Minghella) has continued to do whatever he can to keep her safe from Gilead — but that has not come without great cost to his own reputation in the authoritarian country.
The first three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale‘s sixth and final season put that on full display as Nick tries to repair the damage he’s done to his relationship with his Wife and assuage the concerns of her father, High Commander Wharton (Joshua Charles), who has come from Washington, D.C., to check in on his daughter. That is, until June comes asking for his help extricating Luke (OT Fagbenle) and Moira (Samira Wiley) from Gilead after a Mayday mission gone wrong.
“The show is brilliant at creating conflict. I think that’s one of those conflicts for this character that is ever present. It really messes him up,” Minghella tells Deadline of Nick’s tendency to repeatedly risk his life for June. “He’s a very sensitive guy. I think it really wears on him…June has offered him a connection that he doesn’t really have anywhere else.”
Since being reunited with Luke in Canada, June has sought to rekindle their relationship, however difficult that has been to do. In Episode 603, though, she admits to Nick that he still has her heart. As Moss put it: “She loves him now, and that’s it.”
“I do not think she wants a blended family with Luke and Nick. I don’t think she wants them in the same room,” laughed Moss.
The scene from the third episode marks a rare face-to-face moment between Luke and Nick, which undoubtedly puts June in quite an awkward situation.
“She also loves Luke, and there is so much there that is beautiful and but they need to rebuild their relationship, Luke and June, and they do,” Moss continued. “I think this season, I do think there’s a lot of rebuilding that happens. Undeniably, though, she’s never going to be able to forget Nick, and she’s never going to be able to not love him, and that makes good television. I mean, if she just was able to be like, ‘I’m so sorry. I feel like we’re not in a good place, and we should move on,’ and be really healthy about it, that’d be super boring.”
Season 6 is shaping up to be the time when Nick’s loyalties are truly tested, as he faces pressure from Commander Wharton to commit to his life in Gilead. And, for the first time, he sees himself in Gilead leadership through this new character, which could spell disaster for any fans out there hoping that Nick might ever be liberated alongside June.
It certainly doesn’t help that, of the two, Nick has always been more pragmatic about the realities of their relationship.
“I think he’s always actually been very respectful of [June and Luke’s] relationship and very compassionate toward Luke and June, and as always, I think, acknowledged that she has another life, and that’s complicated,” Minghella said. “I don’t think he’s ever been naive about that. So he’s also in a much less complicated position. I would imagine that Luke has a much more complicated relationship towards Nick, emotionally.”
As with everything regarding The Handmaid’s Tale, don’t expect a resolution to come easy. In fact, creator Bruce Miller teases that audiences might very well be fed up with Nick by the end of this season but, with any luck, the writers have been able to thread that needle to keep Nick in the hearts of both June and the viewers.
“You don’t want June to ever take off her love glasses about anybody…So you want to always have your audience and your main character be on Team Nick, even if it’s like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m still on Team Nick,’” Miller tells Deadline. “I think being on Team Nick means wishing and wishing and wishing that Nick made better choices.”
The first three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 are now streaming on Hulu. New episodes drop on Tuesdays.