THE HANDMAID'S TALE, Season 6, Episode 7, SHATTERED

THE HANDMAID’S TALE, Season 6, Episode 7, SHATTERED

Written By:

Rich Cross

Luke and June argue in Shattered, the seventh episode of the sixth and final series of The Handmaid's Tale

Rejoining the action straight after the devastating conclusion to Surprise, seventh episode Shattered begins with June continuing to stare in disbelief at Commander Nick as the pair hide from discovery in a closet in Serena’s New Bethlehem home. Throughout the events of Shattered, many others, on both sides of the Gilead battlelines, find their remaining certainties smashed.

Nick’s betrayal of Mayday’s plans about the attack on Commanders at Jezebel’s is an irrevocable moment in their tortured relationship. He has spilled the full story of the assassination plot to his father and Serena’s partner, Commander Wharton. Wharton’s response is swift and merciless, delivering retribution that is appalling in its savagery. Despite everything that’s gone before, director Daina Reid makes Gilead’s payback feel truly shocking, despite its brevity. It also heightens the sense that the series’ endgame is at last in motion, as options narrow and the gloves come off.

As Nick drives her back towards the border, June is consumed with rage and disbelief. The two of them exchange accusations about each other’s moral relativism. June spurns all of Nick’s attempts to justify his behaviour, eventually demanding he stop the car so she can walk on alone. Although the pair have been through complex break-ups before, Nick’s culpability in the disaster at Jezebel’s wrecks their relationship in a way that simply cannot be repaired. When Nick demands that she accept that she still has feelings for him, June keeps walking, in silence – their connection severed.

Commander Nick is not the only one to feel their life is unravelling. Aunt Lydia is horrified by the aftermath of the events at Jezebel’s, but soon discovers that Janine has been reassigned as a Handmaid at the personal request of the misogynistic sociopath Commander Bell. She later visits the Bell residence and is refused access to Janine, who Bell says is not ready for a public appearance. As Lydia leaves, she sees a bruised and battered Janine at an upstairs window. It’s a harrowing moment. While it’s Janine who’s suffering the vindictive physical abuse, it’s also a moment of psychological torture for Aunt Lydia as more of the foundations of her worldview crumble in front of her eyes.

When news of the calamity at Jezebel’s reaches their camp, Mayday’s guerrillas are understandably outraged. Those who look at Commander Nick without June’s smitten-kitten doe eyes would recognise a ruthless Gilead enforcer who never earned the right to be trusted. While June is shunned as a result, her minimal punishment stretches the limits of real-world credibility.

June has effectively collaborated with Mayday’s enemies and voluntarily shared intelligence of the most sensitive kind, with devastating consequences. During wartime, known collaborators whose actions harm their own side and aid the enemy can expect to face summary justice harsher than a hard stare. June does suffer tougher repercussions in her personal life. An incredulous, outraged Luke challenges June to justify the idea that they should remain a couple. He alleges that only their shared love for their daughter Hannah has kept them together through adversity and separation. In response to her protests, Luke charges that she should have made different life choices and avoided falling in love with “a fucking Nazi”. It’s hard to disagree.

Serena’s bridal shower becomes an excruciating occasion, as the Commanders’ wives in attendance take the opportunity to pour scorn on Serena’s interest in greater autonomy, literacy and dignity for Gilead’s women. Director Reid frames the gathering of wives as a courtroom of accusers, whose superficial observance of social niceties disguises their underlying vindictiveness. Commander Lawrence is acutely aware that his hardline colleagues are planning his execution and the cancellation of the New Bethlehem reforms. Adding to the renewed assertion of orthodoxy, the Gilead wives make clear that they also consider Serena’s ideas as heresy. All of this allows the showrunners to reinforce the idea that Gilead will not countenance any softening of its absolutism: a commitment that rules out any potential for compromise, and locks in the need for a final reckoning.

In response to their collective disdain, Serena and Commander Wharton agree to host a large, lavish wedding as a symbol of the new order as well as of their union. June is on the verge of returning to Alaska, to be with her mother and baby Nichole, when Lawrence and former ambassador Tuello arrive to discuss an audacious new attack plan, which will be the trigger for a wider invasion of the territory. It’s a prospect as thrilling as it is overdue. News of Janine’s survival is the clincher that convinces June to come on board again.

At the Red Center, Lawrence plans to send the ever-suspicious Aunt Lydia far from the upcoming action – but she is resistant, and overly inquisitive. With the help of undercover agent Aunt Phoebe, June and Moira arrive back in Gilead and are secured in hiding, with the encouragement, “let the revolution begin”. On the eve of the wedding, Moira and June steel themselves for the day ahead. Asked to offer some inspiring words of leadership, June recites a Christian psalm – enhanced by the addition of some choice new words, which dispense entirely with the idea of turning the other cheek. Shattered builds the sense of inevitability as Katherine Collins’ punchy script rips away the remaining restraints holding back the resistance. If all now goes to plan, Gilead won’t see them coming.