The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 Episode 4 Struggles to Draw a Line in the Sand Between Gilead and a Free Society

June is struggling sharing the spotlight with Luke and Moira on The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 Episode 4, but not because she wants it all to herself.

Instead, she’s rattled that they kept their plans from her for so long and concerned they may not fully understand what they’re getting themselves into by staging a multi-pronged attack.

But June will have to open her arms and let them in. 

Luke has taken control of a plan of attack that includes bombing a comms tower, an ammunition warehouse, and a federal building.

It’s changed him. His whole demeanor changed, from his posture to the cadence of his voice. Sure, he’s a different man than the one we met during The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1, but he’s even more significantly changed than the man who welcomed June to Canada in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4. 

This is not only the first time we’ve seen him in a position of strength, but the first time that June seemed out of place and out of sorts in such a situation. 

The news of their deportation didn’t land as June expected, either. He usually is eager to return to civilian life, but not this time.

He wants to fight this time, but June doesn’t know how to handle it.

She doesn’t trust him to come out the other side like her. What’s too dangerous for him isn’t too risky for her. Though she tries playing it like she wants to return to Alaska to build a life with him, we all know that will only be as long as the whim suits her.

The plan is that sharpshooters will kill all the commanders they can at Jezebels, and then bombs will go off. But June rains on that parade. They won’t get past the first step. 

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June floats what she used in the past, not realizing that everything is taste-tested now. What about the women? They will be collateral damage. 

She’s doing everything possible to steer those she loves away from danger, and you can feel the desperation in her actions.

When Moira volunteers to warn the women at Jezabel’s and keep her eyes on the penthouse, June still doesn’t like it. Yet Moira is the only Jezebel here and knows the place like the back of her hand.

June is fearful for Moira, warning her away from the mission and pushing their return to a normal life — together. 

But Moira can’t live June’s life anymore. She has to live her own. She’s been following June’s lead long enough. It’s her time to act. Still, they’re both taken aback when Janine’s picture comes through the fax machine. 

There is more than one new character with a familiar face this season. Resistance coordinator Ellen 

is played by Athena Karkanis. You might remember her as Grace on Manifest, a character who inspired our own Jasmine Blu to write an opinion piece that spoke for viewers everywhere.

June offers herself to Ellen in place of Moira. June can handle herself, knows Gilead like the back of her hand, and has to protect Janine. Janine’s like a little sister to her, and the idea of her being caught in the crossfire doesn’t sit well.

June reminds Ellen that she has a commander on the inside, while Moira would be on her own. 

Moira and Luke don’t take June’s actions well. Part of June’s behavior comes from feeling disrespected that they kept this from her for months. The irony that she can’t recognize that their actions are similar to her own in the past is lost on her.

Luke calls her reaction infantilizing. Moira says she’s going regardless, offended that June thinks so little of them as to believe they will not make it out alive.

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June and Moira fought side by side for a long time, and it’s frustrating that June can’t remember that. And for Luke, June continually using Nick as her get-out-of-jail free card has to sting. 

As much as she loves and wants to protect them, she forgets they’ve been caught up in this Gileadean nightmare just like her. Their experiences may differ, but their lives have been irrevocably changed nonetheless.

When Luke reiterates that this is his chance to fight for Hannah, I can’t tell if his strength and passion annoy her or turn her on. Maybe it’s a little of both.

Luke wants them to fight together toward a common goal as a change of pace. June is trying to spare him the painful realization that no matter how hard they fight, Hannah may be just beyond their grasp. 

They will never be a normal family again until their whole family is reunited. They’re broken and possibly beyond saving, but Luke has already been on the receiving end of one dream: June has returned to him. 

He calls them two lunatics going into Gilead on a wing and a prayer, but she’s more pragmatic. Even if everything goes according to plan, there’s a chance it will not get them any closer to their daughter. 

As they prepare to upend things in Gilead, the Commanders are still commanding. Instead of seeing things in Gilead, we’re mostly attuned to New Bethlehem.

Our focus has been on Joseph, who is honored during a strange Sons of Jacob ceremony, seemingly to become a high commander, and Gabriel, whose admiration for Serena Joy takes another step forward.

Nick is always on the periphery, tying these two worlds together. 

Joseph is playing a part, one that he both believes in and distrusts. It doesn’t seem he will ever accept remarrying, despite how Naomi tries to become a wife in more than title only.

He even told Angela his wife would be very impressed; his “real” wife. Other commanders get their power from their virility, Naomi asserts, but Joseph is looking to the New Bethlehem reforms as a blueprint for Gilead to be his gateway.

And by all accounts, it appears to be working. Buses full of people are arriving daily to reconnect with loved ones, including Rita, who puts her future in Nick’s hands. It may take a couple of years to get her whole family out of Gilead, but she’s willing to wait.

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Serena Joy is the ambassador, welcoming new arrivals with tears in her eyes.

She’s enjoying Gabriel’s attention, which he admits he would have liked to lavish on her years ago, when he coveted Fred’s wife from across a dance floor.

Gabriel sets himself apart from the other commanders by telling Serena that he never felt comfortable being served by Marthas, and his daughter Rose learned to serve from him.

But what good is New Bethlehem anyway?

Joseph is pushing reforms, Gabriel flirtatiously admits he had no affinity for being served, and Nick plays community protector, but they’re still in lockstep with the others.

Sure, Gabriel gladly steers his son-in-law away from a night he won’t enjoy at Jezebel’s, a party to celebrate Joseph’s achievement, but it’s only a temporary diversion.

The commanders generally enjoy Gilead and what it offers them. They like their virile power. As long as there is a Jezebel’s and a commander willing to utilize what it offers, New Bethlehem will mean nothing.

They’ve already said that there is a cap on the number of people they can help. So what about the others? They just close the doors to New Bethlehem, and what? Nobody seems willing to talk about what happens then.

What happens when they run out of space, the buses stop coming, and there is no forward movement with reforms for the rest of Gilead?

Because mark my words, you don’t offer that kind of unprecedented power to men and then snatch it away like forbidden fruit.

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There are more Commander Bells out there than there are Nicks, or even Josephs or Gabriels. Serena Joy can only do so much. And there will always be a resistance ready to burn it all down.

The fact remains that we know this story won’t be finished with The Handmaid’s Tale. The Testaments is coming, bringing with it a new faction on the rise, those who have been on the inside and have grown weary of pain and broken promises.

Aunt Lydia, who stepped out of the darkness to interrupt Serena and Gabriel’s dance will be a part of that force. So what becomes of her here? She can keep pushing; she’s seemingly safe.

But we don’t know how the others will fare. This is their story, and they’re more than likely to go down fighting. Whether for New Bethlehem or an old US-style freedom remains to be seen.

What is apparent is that while the middle ground of New Bethlehem might offer excellent healthcare and limited agency for women, it’s not the answer to a country’s worth of displaced families trying to get back to normal, and it probably never will be.

What did you think of “Promotion”?

Can anything change as long as commanders placate each other, allowing them to gobble up women’s rights and use them as playthings?

Grade the episode in our poll below and share your thoughts about the season so far. Would you believe we’re over a third of the way through The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 already?

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