Above The Garage - Last episode
Another great episode ! Last one but not least :
"(...) And for me, that line,the winning line was just like for me it was made to put that nail in the coffin in his villainization. (...) But for me it was just like : oh he chose Gilead for whatever reason, whether Rose told him, whether he lost June, it was just still completely out of character. You had since season 3 when you made him a commander to SHOW what you said. There were a lot things he did that we didn't show you. It doesn't work that way because what you showed me was always a conflict. What you showed me, there was always a dislike. There was always " I'm uncomfortable". (...). Obviously in the books, Nick was Mayday. And I know the show deviated obviously from the book, but if they were going to deviate so much, they could have just given Hannah at the end of the fucking episode, which is what most people wanted, and just change the Testaments. If you were going to deviate, deviate completely. (...) But when you made him a commander un season 3, if this is a route that you were going to take, you should have planted that seed then. You can't plant that seed after episode 7. Not even after episode 7, because even if I analyze what you gave me in season 6, Nick is still Nick until he says that line. It's all about the line. And it's like, oh that's who he always was. He was always selfish. How can you tell me that he was selfish if every time that we saw him, he was doing something for June ? I understand that people wanted him to join the good guys, but didn't we just talk about did Lawrence really joined the good guys ? Did Serena really joined the good guys ? Like that's not how it works in real life. And everything that we do see Nick doing, even the things that aren't for June, there are a lot of quiet examples of him doing good with his situation, doing good in his position, like froms where he's standing, from where he's trapped, he's still trying to do these small acts of goodness, kindness, of making a small difference for people. (...)"
" (...) Well especially because they do show a contrast with Nick through the season of you know him not wanting innocent people to die. They said that multiple times throughout this season and I think in previous seasons. And it's just shows a real good example of a real person, a human being, not a hero, not a superhero, but a real person trying to do these things that he can do from his position to help. And that's what we've seen. We haven't seen him doing horrendous things with his own agency, like looking for power. He hasn't made the choice to do these things in a malicious way. And like, there was a quote from Yalin Chang recently where she said : ' He has done some bad things and we haven't shown them, so it was convenient to forget '. So we're forgetting what they never showed us ? How does that make any sense ? (...) I think we could have fill in the blanks, which is what they're trying to tell us. Like, the same way that you're telling me that he was doing bad things, he could have been doing good things. Except that you decided in episode 9 to make sure that he chose Gilead. And it's like, you could have shown him to me making plans, going to Jezebel's. You could have given me something. Because all of the things that you've given me in past seasons have a history, have a reason, we've seen it. There's an interpretation for it, not a justification. Because no one's saying that he's innocent. Just like Lawrence, just like Serena, just like Aunt Lydia, he has blood on his hands. But to expect me to equate him or see him as any other commander just because he made on mistake, and not give him the grace that you gave every other character is just insane to me. Like I understand the shock value. I understand they can't write for every fan base, but you could have landed it in a better way. Like if you wanted to make him bad, make him bad. If you wanted to kill him, it still would have hurt because obviously we're here because he's one of our favorite characters, but give him a REAL death that goes to his character and what you showed us for 5.5 seasons.
" (...) It's not just the you joined the winners line, but then also topping this with episode 10's line of June where she said to Serena that he reaped what he sowed. Which is what Nick told Fred when he delivered him to her in the last episode of season 4. He got rid of another cruel commander, after Guthrie and after Putnam and after Cushing, he helped take down all those really cruel men, rapists and stuff, people who like were responsible for handmaid's system and things like this. So you're putting this person who did nothing but help June survive, which she actually said in season 3 on her tape to Luke that he helped her survive, which is a truth, because he was NEVER cruel to her or any other woman. He had the utmost respect for everyone. For Rita, for Serena, for Rose, for Beth, for the marthas he talked to in season 4. And he was a commander, like he had more power than them in that situation, but they were like treating him like one of them. He tried to get informations on Hannah and stuff like this. He's proudly reuniting families in New Bethlehem because this is what he told to his father in law, Wharton, that he already got 26 families reunited. And this is something he's proud of. This is like good things he can do from where he's at. He knows that he's still trapped in Gilead and he knows that he's done things and he's regretting them. (...)
" (...) To piggyback on that episode 10, there's not only that line, there's also ' he led a violent and dishonest life ' which was also those two lines for me ruined the whole experience cuz it was like completely out of left field. Like who, what, who are you talking like did you forget that you ate Fred's face ? We saw you literally eating Fred's face and you're saying that Nick led a dishonest and violent life and then on top of that, it's Serena, the one that tells her if he had a choice, he would have chosen you. So the show is telling me that Nick never had a choice. Even though people say he had choices, apparently he didn't have choices. And then in episode 10, the same show that in an interview told me that all the commanders were bad, are telling me that Emily's commander is a good commander. So what is the message ?
"(...) When Holly called him a nazi and this got explored again when Luke says the same after he gave away the plan of Mayday. So if you want to introduce these kind of words or whatever to describe a person like please apply them correctly to every single one who does fit this description which is also Lawrence because he has power within the system. This is also Serena because she has some kind of power. Which is Lydia, every guardian, every commander, every person who has some kind of power within Gilead.(...) But you cannot bring in these big words and then just apply it to one single soul who made mistakes, of course, who is obviously also part of the system. But they're measuring Nick's morality on a different scale from every other character. It's not fair that he gets a different treatment also by June. (...) The fact that she was able to forgive those three characters we mentioned like Lawrence, Serena and Lydia in particular, that it makes sense for her character that she's okay redeeming them by her forgiveness in a way but not granting the same to Nick who actually helped her so many times for 5.5 seasons.
"(...) I think that's also a good place to point out that Nick never does any of this, any of the things that he does for her with any personnal gain also with no assumption that he's going to get credit for it or he doesn't even tell her about it. He does all of that without ever asking for or expecting credit for any of it. I mean, he literally cleans up June and Moira's crime scene. Never mentions it to June. I've got a tooth in my pocket from your mess. And that's just a trail of his history of doing things for her (...). The one time he decides to be a little selfish, he gets fucked up over by the whole season. (...) And the fact she didn't give Nick, the one person who helped her, that grace is for me like mind-blowing. Because it's like, even if he killed puppies, drank virgin blood, collected body parts that we never saw and that we forgot because we never saw, he didn't do any of that to her. To her, he was her constant. Even outside of Gilead because he didn't look for her when she left. She looked for him because she needed help. Because he told her I'm here to do what I can. So she always went to him because she knew she could trust him. The show not given the opportunity to just resolve that even if he ended up dying. Obviously they were not going to end up together. We love Nick and June. It was a beautiful romance, but we were not expecting a romcom out of this. I know that's what people say a lot on social media. I don't like romance but the way that this was carved was beautifully done. It's not just about the chemistry between the actors, it's just about the whole story. And to be reduce to somebody that just wanted Nick and June and Prince Charming in Paris is really frustrating because the show has a lot of themes, but the show also gave us a love story. The love story was part of June's life and it was part of the book as well. (...)
"(...) This is also why I like Nick's character a lot because I always felt that he was just one more victim of the system. This is why he was a driver at the beginning. He was clearly also not following the teachings. He was not believing in them. He thought it was cruel that was happening. But he was all alone. And this is what those systems do. They seperate people from each other.
"(...) And there is a part in the book that discusses that the Handmaids and the Marthas didn't even trust each other. And it just reminded me of Nick saying that to Rita in episode 7 of this final season when he tells her that she shouldn't trust anybody in Gilead and that they were scared of each other before. (...) It seemed cruel for him to say that to her, but actually I though it was really relatable because he was right. They were like two people in this household who didn't know each other and didn't know if they were resistants, didn't know if they were true believers, didn't know if they were part of the Eye. They were trying to survive under a system that propagates mistrust. That's what it wants is for people not to trust each other. That's how they prevent you from coming together against them. And this is the attention how Margaret Atwood wrote the book. (...) and Nick was kind of a representative of the everyday guy who just is facing the system every single time and like not just him of course but like every other person as well except for the higherups. (...)
" (...) That's another thing that really connects us to Nick at this point. I do think that June has become a little bit unrelatable in the sense that they are elevating her as a hero too much. Because she's supposed to be any of us. She was a blank page. She was just a random victim of the system. She was a mother like some of us are or like in general she was just a normal woman with a job. And she got thrown into this system and needed to navigate it. It's great to see people in that position fighting because it makes you feel like you can make a difference. But when it becomes so centered on her godlike status within the show, it becomes really hard to continue putting yourself in her shoes. It becomes so far outside of the realm of reality that most of us are live in that it stops feeling inspiring to watch someone like that. (...) And she made many mistakes obviously because she's human, she's not a hero. She's supposed to make mistakes and every decision you make is going to have a consequence. People are gonna die in systems like these. So obviously, we're going to root for her because we want her to win. We just want to see them winning. And for so many seasons, we saw her not winning. And it was harsh, it was bleak. So I did expect to see this winning aspect but I expected for it to be more realistic in terms of what the show had been given us for so long.
" (...) * About the end of season 4 and Fred's death * - and to show the allyship that Nick has with her in facilitating that for her. And understanding. And not questioning because again it might not even be worth saying anymore but for me one of the things that drew me to his character was the fact that he's not an overbearing man and even though he masks his emotions I do feel that even though in his backstory he didn't have control of his emotions, Gilead made him have to like kind of hide that part but I still saw someone that was in tune with his emotions even though if he was pushing them aside and we see this season those emotions, when he's talking to June, how he's feel trapped. I thought that was something really nice to explore until we got to episode 9. Because even when he's telling her ' we're human, that's what we do. We try to survive.' it's a reality. That's what most people do. People don't sacrifice themselves for Mayday or for the greater good. That is not realistic. If it were, the world wouldn't be what it is. People try to survive. Especially when people that you love are at risk because of it. (...) "
" They're measuring Nick's morality on a different scale from every other character."
Nothing else to say ! They said it better that I ever could. #JusticeForNickBlaine
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