‘The Handmaid’s Tale’s EPs Explain Why it Was Time for June to Escape Gilead

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 Episode 6 “Vows” ends with the unthinkable: June (Elisabeth Moss) finally escapes Gilead. After running into Moira (Samira Wiley) on the war torn streets of Chicago, June finds herself snuck out of Gilead on an NGO ship. Her rescue puts the entire humanitarian organization’s future in peril — and precipitates a break between Moira and girlfriend Oona (Zawe Ashton) — but it means that our girl is finally able to leave Gilead. After reuniting with Luke (O-T Fagbenle) on board the docked ship, a trepidatious June finally steps on Canadian soil.

June is suddenly free.

The moment is simultaneously sudden and overdue. For the last four years, Handmaid’s Tale fans have watched June come close to freedom, only to let it slip away. June’s daughters have been the weights tying her to Gilead. Baby Nichole might be in Canada with Luke, but Hannah is still stuck in the world of handmaids, wives, and Marthas. June repeatedly tries to wrestle out of Moira’s grasp in this week’s episode to go back for Hannah. She even tearfully apologies to Luke for making it to Canada without their daughter.

Nevertheless, June’s arrival in Canada brings with it a wave of cathartic relief. It also alters the future shape of The Handmaid’s Tale. Going forward, the show will have to address June’s trauma and the need for justice.

So why was Season 4 Episode 6 the perfect time for The Handmaid’s Tale to finally spirit June out of Gilead? Why did the show wait so long? And why did the actual moment happen in the middle of a season, far away from the narrative rise of a Season Finale?

Decider spoke with The Handmaid’s Tale‘s showrunner Bruce Miller and executive producer Warren Littlefield to understand why now was the time for June to leave Gilead.

“You know, I think we followed June into this position,” Miller told Decider, explaining that the choice was less about plotting the story and more about traveling through the story with June. “I think our biggest decision this year was not something we aimed for. But in fact, just naturally what seemed to occur next in June’s Handmaid’s Tale.”

“But we certainly didn’t dig in our heels against it and I think that that was the biggest thing that we did,” Miller said. “We didn’t try to make it happen at a certain time in the season. We didn’t try to make it stretch or change. Maybe we just let it happen when it was going to happen. In some ways, it feels more surprising, because it isn’t in a dramatic rhythm. But it’s more the way things happen.”

“I think it’s far more unexpected that we don’t open or close the season with that pivotal move for the character,” Warren Littlefield said. “I think it’s more satisfying that [June’s escape] wasn’t artificially built into the season opener, the season finale. Boom, here it is.”

“But so much of [Season 4] is about being able to see elements that we’ve never seen before they were planted. Bruce and the writers planted that there was an uprising in Chicago. Then ultimately, Nick goes to Chicago, so we’ve been following that story, but it’s out of our view until it’s in June’s view, and in June’s quest and the cinematic year for her,” Littlefield said.

“I think the show’s always been at its best when it’s really the point of view is June’s point of view,” Miller reiterated. “I think that telling this story this way, and not really knowing where we were going — because June doesn’t know where we’re going — it’s as much a surprise to her as it is to us.”

June’s escape isn’t just a surprise for her, but clearly a moment fraught with a tumult of emotions. June’s nerves upon stepping off the boat have already signaled to the audience that although June might have been carried away from the horrors of Gilead, those horrors haven’t left her yet.

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