The Handmaid's Tale Kills Three Major Characters In Last Episode Before Series Finale — Read Recap
Well, here's something I didn't expect, going into the second-to-last The Handmaid's Tale ever: Commander Joseph Lawrence's death hits me far harder than Nick's does. Huh.
I blame Angela. Seeing irascible old coots soften when in the presence of cherubic little nuggets gets me every time. His ease with her harkens back to when he kept the transport kids quiet by reading to them in the cellar a few seasons back. God, what a great, frustrating, entertaining and ultimately heroic character.
Read on for the highlights of — and to find out what other majors character bite it — in "Execution." And when you're done, make sure to check out my chat with the actor who plays one of the recently departed.
I GOT A LIST OF NAMES AND YOURS IS IN RED, UNDERLINED | Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" bumps on the soundtrack as the handmaids and Aunt Phoebe march through town to meet up with the Mayday trucks. I don't care that the music is so on the nose it could be a pair of sunglasses: IT'S BADASS, AND WE'VE GOT COMMANDERS TO KILL. (Speaking of Swift, we recently asked Handmaid's Tale star/executive producer/director Elisabeth Moss a crucial question: Was the pop star in the episode?See what she said.) As vehicles carrying guardians chase them, June yells for the ladies to run. Then some of the bombs that Mayday placed go off right as the guardians' cars drive by.
Janine is surprised to learn that Moira and June are planning to stay in Gilead, though their truck will take everyone else past the border. Janine announces that she's staying, as well, because "Charlotte's still here, just like Hannah." We learn that Aunt Phoebe's name is actually Ava. It's all fun and "Go live your lives" speeches until they stop at the place they're supposed to pick up some other handmaids and no one is there. Suddenly an Eye rips open the door and hauls everyone out, demanding that June Osborne announce her presence. He pulls another handmaid out of the group and is about to have her shot when June steps up. She's quickly carted off while the others, who have good reason to be extremely afraid, watch. "I love you," June says as she's pulled away.
The Lawrences are hiding out at home when Serena comes knocking. Naomi can't understand why the new Mrs. Wharton left her husband "on your wedding night?!" but Serena's got bigger problems. "I just saw a handmaid kill a wife in front of me," she reports. She adds that there are bombs, and they have to leave for New Bethlehem, but he says they can't go. She intuits that he's got inside information, and asks what's happening. "Rebellion," he says.
WHARTON WANTS REVENGE | The next morning, we get a casualty update from (of all people) Naomi: The handmaids took out 37 commanders. Oh, and she called High Commander Wharton, who's waiting for her in the Lawrences' entryway. He asks her to forgive him for speaking sharply to her the night before, and tries to placate her by suggesting that they try for a child on their own: "No handmaid, no ceremony, just us." He also wants her to join the other wives and children at a secure location outside of Boston, but she refuses. He asks her, then, to stay put at the Lawrences' while he deals with "those ungodly women here" and then flies to Washington, D.C. that evening.
He also tells her that June used their wedding as an opportunity to arm the handmaids and drug the commanders, which truly stymies Serena: "I thought that we were friends," she breathes. He is condescending and patronizing in the most Wharton way possible as he reassures Serena that June will be taken care of, then he leaves.
THE INTERROGATION | Wharton goes to talk with June, who is being held in a cage. He lets her out, and her first question is whether Serena was the one who exposed her. He says no, and she should've had more patience with Serena's ideas for handmaid-related reforms. "Yeah, that's the thing about state-sanctioned rape: Patience is not an option," she says flatly.
Wharton hates her; the feeling is mutual. He spouts a lot of holy babble at her, and she calls him out. "Frauds, all of you," she says. "It's never been about piety. It's always been about power." He mocks her for feeling powerful, but she doesn't take the bait. "This is the beginning of the end," she whispers.
He's all, yeah, you're going to die — wanna get good with God? She's like, if anyone needs mercy, it's you: You killed a lot of women at Jezebel's. "Their blood is on your hands," she says. But before he goes, she wants him to know that "my God, Serena's God, is a god of love. And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. Choose love. Be the man that she believes you can be." Wharton's like, nah, and walks away.
'MAKE SOME MORE PICTURES FOR ME' | As Naomi and Angela prepare to be taken to the secure location, a subdued Lawrence makes me love him (more) as he double-checks that his wife has packed the little girl's art supplies. He also gives her a book to read their daughter before bed, and exhorts Naomi to feed the smart little kiddo's hungry brain. Then Angela comes downstairs and Lawrence hugs and kisses her goodbye, telling her he loves her. "Make some more pictures for me," he calls, choked up, as she leaves. "Lots of colors." GAH. Damn you, Bradley Whitford, for making me care about this man.
He lets Serena know that he's going to meet up with the surviving commanders to figure out what's next. She's incensed that he can just go along with things as they were. "June is going to die," she says, on the verge of tears. "I wouldn't be here, Noah wouldn't be here if it were not for her." An equally verklempt Lawrence sincerely asks if they can pray for her, and once Serena gets over her shock (remember that Book of Mormon scene earlier this season?!), they do.
'DON'T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN!' | In the middle of town, June is marched out on an elevated platform that has a [checks notes] f—kton of gallows on it. Aunt Phoebe is standing under one, the noose already looped loosely around her neck. A large crowd of econopeople has gathered to watch Wharton lead a mass killing of the handmaids involved in the Red (Center-related) Wedding.
He spouts a lot of Scripture, then Aunt Lydia is marched out on stage next to June. Next, Moira, Janine and all of the other handmaids are brought up from the truck where they're being held. "We gather to bear witness and condemn these apostates, these detestable cowards who murdered God's most noble servants," Wharton bellows. He lowers his voice to blame Lydia, and offers her a chance to atone to God before she is killed. She does start to pray aloud, asking the Man Upstairs to have mercy on "my precious girls... for they have been prisoners of wicked, GODLESS MEN!" Too little, too late, my friend — but at least June looks surprised/appreciative as Lydia is manhandled into a noose of her own.
As Wharton continues to blather at June, Luke, Rita and a bunch of others move from the back of the crowd to the front. They've got weapons. June whispers to Wharton that she wants to atone for her transgressions, and because this is a narrative he can understand/expected, he gives her the chance to speak. June apologizes for failing her friends. She prays that God protects "your humble servants. Let them know their lives are worthy, and their hopes, their dreams mean something. For they are good people" — and here's where she drops the timid supplicant act — "who have too long been OPPRESSED BY EVIL and those who have disgraced your name." The executioners move toward her, placing the rope over her head. "Rise up!" she continues. "Fight for your freedom! Don't let the bastards grind you downnnnnnnnnn!" Then, as she pulls at the binding around her throat, she's hauled up into the air and hanged.
SHOWTIME | The moment is a catalyst for Mayday, which begins its assault with grenades launched at the Gilead vehicles near the platform. Snipers on nearby roofs start to take out the guardians. Luke wields an automatic weapon, and he kills anyone impeding Mayday's fight. Moira and the other handmaids work to free each other from the ropes and fastenings that bind their hands. And Rita shoots and kills the man operating the crane that hanged June, reversing the mechanism so that she falls to the platform.
As the handmaids spill into the crowd, using their knives at will, Phoebe gets hold of a gun and a billy club and uses both as though she's been professionally trained. Luke makes it to the stage and ascertains that his wife is still alive, though gasping and dazed. As she stares up at the sky, American military jets scream into the picture and drop bombs on key Gilead targets. U-S-A! U-S-A!
Speaking of the U.S., Serena is shocked when American soldiers storm into Lawrence's home, followed quickly by Mark Tuello. He demands to know where Lawrence has gone, then he not-roughly-but-also-not-gently grabs her arm to move her out to "someplace safe."
WHERE'S NICK? | Rose wakes Nick, who's fallen asleep at his desk, to tell him something is wrong with the baby. So he's at the hospital when Mayday strikes. Everything turns out OK with Rose and their unborn child, and he reports that her father got away safely. "You need to end this brazen assault," she tells him. "End her." She blames her complications on the sedatives June and Mayday put in the cake. "You need to show your allegiance to Gilead and God and me, and our son," she says. And while I know Rose is just as much a brainwashed victim of the system as everyone else, man, I hate her in this moment. And always.
SERENA SINGS | Tuello and Mayday use The Boston Globe building as their headquarters, and that's where June heads once she's changed clothes. Pretty much everyone is surprised to see her, but all June wants to know is what their next step is. We learn that Phoebe/Ava is actually a CIA agent, which explains the ease with which she wielded her weapons. She and Tuello are trying to find the extremist commanders who survived and "finish the job" before they do something violent in retribution. And while Lawrence may know where those men are, Tuello can't reach him. So their best bet is Serena, who's in protective custody nearby.
June finds her former mistress and Noah in a church's sanctuary; she's surprised that Serena is happy that she's alive. "I need to know where the commanders are who survived," June says, and Serena lies that she doesn't know where they're meeting. June looks at her with disdain, noting that she'd actually believed that Serena wanted the freedoms she'd talked about earlier in the season. "You're asking me to put a target on my husband's back," Serena says, but June counters that that husband tried to kill her earlier that day: "Is that the kind of father you want for your son?" When June starts talking about how God trusts them to raise their kids in a "world filled with love" and how the commanders want a world "filled with grief and more suffering," it's over. Serena's eyes fill with tears as she gives up the commanders' flight plan that evening, which Lawrence told her earlier. June thanks her and leaves.
LAWRENCE DOES THE RIGHT THING | The soldiers Tuello left stationed at Commander Lawrence's bring him to the Globe, where he reports that the commanders — including Wharton — are planning to bomb Boston. Tuello and June want him to place an altitude-triggered bomb on board the plane the commanders will ride that evening. "I'm an economist. I'm not James Bond," he protests. "If we let them get away, it's over. They win for sure," Tuello says starkly. Oh, and if he's going to do it, he has to go RIGHT NOW before the other commanders arrive. When Lawrence hesitates, June says she'll go with him. "Let's see this through together," she adds, and just like that, the plan is set.
At the hangar, June tells Lawrence that "courage looks good on you," and he jokes "I'll try to not f—k this up." Then he takes the briefcase and approaches the plane... just as the cars carrying the other commanders pull up. June ducks down behind her car as Wharton and the other idiots show up. They board the plane, but Lawrence hesitates. "Are you with us, Commander?" Wharton wonders, paused at the steps. "After you," Lawrence says, having made his decision.
Just before stepping into the aircraft, he peers back into the darkness where June is hiding and places his hand on his chest, a farewell.
THE FINAL PASSENGER | But WAIT. After Lawrence boards, one more commander drives up: It's Nick! He doesn't see June, who is Having Feelings of All Kinds while crouched next to the sedan. And he pauses at the top of the jet's steps as if he sense something, but then moves on and enters the plane while June silently cries, in shock, in the corner of the hangar.
"Guess you decided to join the winners," Nick says as he sits down next to Lawrence. "What about all of your plans?" Lawrence is on the verge of losing his stuff, but he merely says, "Someone better than I will have to see them through." As the plane begins to taxi, Nick quietly asks, "Is she all right?" and Lawrence knows exactly whom he means. "Can't keep a good woman down," he says. Nick adds that June told him several times to "give this all up," and Lawrence responds, "You should've listened to her."
June walks out of the hangar to watch the plane take flight. When the explosion comes, we see the light reflected on her face, and then fiery pieces of the wreckage start to fall to the earth.
Now it's your turn. Did you expect Nick and Lawrence to die before the end of the series? Hit the comments with all of your episode-related thoughts!