Episode 6 - "Love Letter"
To say the recent bust up of Nick and June was seismic would be completely underselling it. From the beginning these 2 were no ordinary tv couple and this break up has a litany of facets to it, making it far more complex than most. I’ll be honest the mechanics that were employed by these writers left me vacillating between nauseous and enraged ever since it occurred. For those lining up to criticize the emotional investment in this romance, stay with me. I’m not arguing whether or not associated issues of fascism and patriarchal power are legitimate, my beef is HOW and WHEN these were made, why the fuck it wasn’t done earlier and WHY they dressed this character and connection up as something completely different.
These last few weeks have been a flood of what I can only term “damage control” in the press due to the episodes of The Handmaids Tale regarding Nick and Junes break up. Clearly the writers underestimated the audiences attachment to the couple and complexities involved in breaking them up. They clearly underestimated the brutal response that they would receive at trying to villainise one of their fan favourites in the final hours, and they deeply underestimated the anger which would be levelled not at the character but at themselves for it. Years of experience should have told them that sudden changes / reveals in beloved characters, in the final hours are received poorly. This type of character change was similarly lambasted in GOT, and for some strange reason they had not learnt. These writers also misjudged greatly the intricacies of this romance, and the consequences of the mechanics that they used to bring it to a close.
The writers and show runners bear full culpability for the audiences devotion to these two and the ensuing tsunami of disappointment at their break up. They bear the entirety of the blame for the damage that has been done and the anger they have received. They used every possible mechanic to construct an exquisite and epic love story, fanned the flames of it’s popularity right up until the last possible moment, dragged it out for ratings and then ended it in possibly the most callous way I’ve ever seen. They cast the participants as star crossed lovers separated by the regime for 5 years and then tried to swiftly rewrite the underlying mechanics of their relationship entirely in the final season. They used the slaughter of vulnerable women as an excuse to sever a relationship with a brutal finality, under the guise that it was a statement about soft fascism. By placing the murder of these women at such a quintessential moment in the series history, they lost all hope that any constructive dialogue would be undertaken about these women’s sacrifice for patriarchal power. They stole away its space as viewers became fixated on the seismic occurrence between the two after years of waiting. How could the writers be so shortsighted? We’d been told that this relationship would be brought to a “satisfying conclusion” during the course of this season, is this what they meant? I was horrified.
In the following weeks writers then had the audacity to act surprised that audiences would feel angry and betrayed by a needlessly drawn out love triangle and the accompanying press that had baited them for years. What the fuck did they think was going to happen?
These people either knew what they were doing for years, or they entered into this season having changed course radically. No matter which way you slice it, the method of this take down, made them look either incompetent, ignorant, cruel or all of the above. I think about the pages and pages of romantically laced PR released by writers and show runners to actively encourage the belief in this union and I feel physically ill that they would actually construct something so emotionally manipulative.
Lines of dialogue used by characters during the final analysis of this relationship, contained references to the fact that they’d reduced the character of Nick and Nick and June’s relationship to one of simple necessity, lust and physical attraction. This was after years of firmly establishing a loving, emotional connection with a fully fleshed out character. It turned the writers exercise in “enlightenment” about soft fascism, into a pointed thinly veiled accusation of superficiality. Fans of the two who were ENCOURAGED to believe in the genuine nature of both this character and their relationship, were now being accused in the most underhanded manner, of being nothing but pathetic “fan girls”.
For years writers had delivered Nick and June’s love story as one of “love between the barricades”, but they were now suddenly stating that both the protagonist and the audience were blind to soft fascism as long as it came in attractive packaging. It was the equivalent of luring the audience with a genuinely beautiful love story and then accusing them of condoning fascism, simply because they had been naive enough to BELIEVE them and become entangled in it. The fact is, you don’t get to package something up like a Hallmark greeting card, and criticise your audience for appreciating it, when you decide you want to rebrand the whole thing. It is little wonder that audiences were seething with indignant rage.
From season 1 we’d been told that Blaine had forsaken his own happiness to care for his family, was loyal and caring and was manipulated and targeted for this regime. We’d been told repeatedly in the press that he was a “good man” riddled with regret. A Blaine that was made to perform heinous acts (often at June’s behest or for her benefit), surveilled and entrapped. A Blaine that had endangered his own life to help others, a man who had to sneak around for the chance to HOLD HIS OWN CHILD…… and I was now being asked to believe that this same man had full autonomy all along. Writers had constantly labeled Blaine the only “Good man in Gilead” with Tuello calling him an “honorable man” in the final moments of season 5. NOW I was being asked to accept that he’d actually been an ambitious ladder climbing fascist the entire time, refusing to leave, dripping in Nazi war spoils.
A free man does not have to marry a child bride while the woman he loves watches on. That's just not a fucking thing.
I always enjoyed Blaine as the noir drenched assassin, slipping into no mans land covertly to visit Osborne, trade intel and slaughter the odd foe. But this weak, pathetic, greedy, dutiful yes man was just a sad shadow of his former ambiguous complexity. After seasons and seasons of building him to be nuanced, writers reduced him to nothing more than a 2 dimensional, egomaniacal, self indulgent, spoilt brat and claimed he’d just been keeping it well hidden all along. Fucking please.
The sudden twisting of Blaine’s acts of sacrifice into one’s of selfishness defy belief. Suddenly everything he’s ever done has been simply to possess her…..including helping her escape….twice….and that file about Hannah….which he never thought he’d give to her in person. I mean at least make this shit believable. Instead of the “good man” we’d been led to believe Blaine was for the last 5 seasons, I was now being asked to believe that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to save his own skin. Worse still, the writers actually thought it would be believable that Osborne had the right to judge him for the death of any innocents on the path to survival. Excuse me?
In season 2 June demanded Blaine sleep with his 15 year old child bride, because “I can’t lose you”. While Eden had given consent, she was a minor and technically this constituted rape at Osborne's behest, for the sake of keeping Blaine alive. In season 4 when Osborn poisoned a swathe of commanders at a Jezebels, she was well aware, from former experience that Gilead would clean house. She did it anyway. She handed over the handmaids to ensure Hannahs safety, even though the idea that a High commanders daughter would actually be sacrificed was utterly ludicrous. The audacity of Osborne now stomping her feet self righteously, forsaking Blaine after previously ordering him to rape and murder for her, was absolutely unbelievable.
June has more blood on her hands than most and quite often the casualties of her personal war are innocents. The multitude of Marthas and Jezebels killed in the course of Osborne's crusades caused a Martha to warn Blaine in season 4 “you’re better off without her, everyone who helps her ends up on the fucking wall”. He’s ignored repeated warnings not to get sucked into cyclone Osborne and doubtless he’ll end up paying the price.
In season 2 Blaine recited Corinthians to Osborn as a reassurance that he loved her, in season 4 he recited The Armor of God to her to give her fortitude as she underwent torture. At the end of episode 7 Osborn recited Psalm 23 as a pointed message about having the fortitude to kill Blaine. It’s just one in a swathe of examples of how writers have made a swift about face in this character relationship, and I for one will not sit idly by and have it fed to me as though it was some sort of pre determined natural progression.
I remain unconvinced that Blaine would have ever chosen Gilead above June, and I’m basing that opinion on years and years of plot lines, character information, and press releases that were FED TO ME by the writers. I am not alone. I also don’t believe that spilling the beans to Wharton about Mayday’s plot when cornered and terrified, constitutes making a free autonomous choice about loyalties. Um no. That’s like saying that coercive control equals full autonomy, and that's just not a thing I’m afraid.
Nick Blaine is by nature a planner and honestly, I’m a bit fucking sus about the whole thing given that Blaine had passports and papers all good to go for he and Osborne to leave permanently……call me crazy but fleeing the country doesn’t really scream loyalist. He also dropped everything on the one day he was meant to get up and perform for Gilead, in 6 03 to come running to her. The fact was he chose her, and ultimately she’d chosen him too, they were a breath away from leaving, but yet again Gilead fucked them.
June returned to Luke after the horrific incident in episode 7, having had her autonomy in the decision between these two men completely stripped from her by a mans actions. Once again nothing more than an archaic love triangle. In episode 6 she was a breath away from dumping said hubby and running off with Nick, and any “Team Luke” fans should actually be pretty pissed off, that the best that these writers could serve them was some paltry left overs after everything with Nick went sideways. It was also all a bit distasteful and pathetic that she practically crawled back to him in the same episode, after an ugly and humiliating confrontation. In front of a room full of strangers Luke had yelled at her for being “in love with a Nazi”. Ironically not several episodes prior Luke had called Nick “bro” and hugged the man for saving him. Now he was actually berating his wife for trusting and loving a man who had cared for and ensured her survival for years. I was stunned by the hypocrisy and quite frankly I was just utterly confused as to what the writers message was. Was he a fascist or not?
The majority of the audience have not viewed this marriage as a realistically sustainable nor healthy bond for years. Despite the writers efforts to reconnect them, most audience members have viewed their efforts as less like rebuilding and more like constant attempts to resuscitate. The fact that Luke and June had failed to discuss June still being in love with Nick for years, did nothing to testify to the health of communication in their marriage.
These writers seem to be confused between what exactly they are trying to depict; a thinly veiled reflection of reality or a fictional scenario, because in the real world the chances of June and Luke’s marriage being intact, statistically are absolutely fucking zero. You combine the loss of a child, separation for nearly a decade, the love for another partner and deep trauma, and the math is clear. In reality Nick would not be running to and fro across the border either, he’d have been discovered and shot by Gilead for being a traitor years ago. Luke and June’s marriage is a rampant fantasy legitimised as somehow an actual reality, if it has merit, then so too does the scenario where Nick and June get to run away to Hawaii, and that’s been painted as a complete daydream.
In the end if the writers intention is that June be alone, I’ve no doubt it will be framed as her “finding the strength to stand alone”, but given that these two relationships are being whittled down to such pathetic options, it’s hardly a “feminist” outcome to give her little recourse.
After the disaster with Nick it seemed unbelievable that the actual Architect of Gilead was then paraded out to scold her for her poor judgment. Ironically he seemed pretty buddy buddy with the person who’d admitted involvement in the death of his beloved Eleanor (oops there’s another body Osborne). June composed herself and joined forces with THE most complicit individual in the construction of Gilead, responsible for the murder and enslavement of millions of women, happily rearranging her plans without hesitation. This not only put a gaping hole in the protagonists (and writers) reasoning for cutting ties with Blaine, but also proved his point entirely and almost immediately, about her not giving a shit about the dirty side of patriarchal power, as long as it served her purposes.
Meanwhile Mayday and Luke, not 15 minutes earlier, having unleashed scorn on Osborn for being stupid enough to trust a commander, allowed Lawrence to calmly stroll into their camp and were now gathered around detailing their next super secret mission to him. The SAME commander that had foiled their attempt to retrieve Hannah in season 5 and told June point blank that he wasn’t giving her daughter back. The SAME commander who had told Blaine that it was okey dokey if they took pot shots at her. This was a fucking joke right?
Osborn seemed happy to selectively kill commanders leaving Lawrence as the last man standing, but what did she think Lawrence was going to do with New Bethlehem? Was she actually naive enough to think that he wouldn’t go straight back to his old world building ways? Did Holly’s words “They’re all like that!” just apply to Nick when scolding her naivety about the nature of commanders? Exactly how selective was this messaging to audiences going to be? This character arc of Blaine’s feels personal, and how could it not when he seems to be being held up to an entirely different moral standard than all the others in the room? I couldn’t help but suspect that the entire thing was simply a manipulation to correct previous character construction, while disposing of a contender in a love triangle of their own making, who was persisting to dog the writers.
If the characters relationships weren’t consistent, why on earth would I believe that character constructs were? Particularly when all of a sudden out of the blue the writers were claiming the right to cite character information that they’d neglected to mention for years. If the character construct of Blaine, a central character in the protagonists life, wasn’t consistent, who’s to say any of the others were? Why would audiences accept these schizophrenic maneuverings as cannon? I watched as the audiences disbelief rippled outwards, calling into question all of the characters and their plot lines and inevitably causing the 4th wall to crumble. Suddenly they wanted answers, and as well they might.
What’s to say that Naomi wasn’t about to suddenly sprout horns and start running around her parlour room giggling manically? Perhaps Serena could start inviting June and Rita over for scones and tea…..oh hang on. Apparently Luke came out of jail magically transformed from essentially a bookworm to a wannabe revolutionary. Certainly it’s very valid that he actively wants to be involved in the retrieval of his daughter but the fact is for the last 5 seasons the man never dipped toe over the border. He had to be extricated from his house in Canada under threat of arrest, still refusing to take the impending threat from Gilead seriously even after his wife was run over right outside the front door. Now suddenly he’s tinkering with explosives, something he has no experience with and shown absolutely no aptitude for. I would have bought it if they’d just given him a chart, a map or some authority to delegate because by nature he’s clearly a very capable strategist. It would have also gone a long way to establishing him as an individual with some inner strength, instead of merely June’s shadow.
Now here we have Nick vaulting from dark guardian to a self interested traitor lurking under the protagonists nose…despite all evidence to the contrary….for 5 long seasons. Yep, sounds legit.
Minghella recently gave an interview stating that now he felt as though he’d been playing his character incorrectly all along given his current transformation. It’s extremely telling that the actor themselves has been completely blindsided by last minute character developments that re alter their perception of the character they’ve inhabited for years. The character that they were given meticulous direction for throughout the last 5 seasons. The evidence of which lies in detailed scripting notes for the entire world to see. I don’t believe these writers when they say that this was always their intent to deliver this transition all along, and neither should he. I don’t know how emotionally invested he was in this character but I do know that if you feel that after years of effort and work, you should have done your job differently, it must fucking hurt. I’ll say this right now, this won’t be any failing on his part. If they planned it and didn’t entirely fill him in on character aspects, then it’s on them, if they changed his character in the final hours, then it’s on them. A large portion of the audience seem to feel betrayed and I wouldn’t blame Minghella for feeling the same. Like any actor would, he’s dutifully towed the line about what “a bold and interesting choice” this all was, I think that’s being incredibly kind, which seems on brand.
A self confessed romantic, he stated that he’d always viewed the romance as a source of light but now he viewed it under a more nihilistic lens. This really was the most polite way I’ve ever heard anyone say that something beautiful had been turned it into a smoking fucking wreck. The image of Blaine and Osborne holding their child together at the end of season 2 and in 4 09 will be burned forever into my psyche. The shot of them standing in that golden window naming their daughter, dreaming of a better life, is forever suspended in amber. And I’ll be fucked if I let them snatch it back, all the while mocking me for ever believing any of it was real. Not on my watch. If they wanted me to see a weak willed, duplicitous, monster, then they shouldn’t have draped him in loyalty, love, righteous justice and yearning for years. They built him over 5 seasons, and now they want to hastily reconstruct him over 10 short episodes? Well it’s too late. These writers should have known better than to simply think they could rewrite history and get away with it. Personally I’m not surprised that fans circled the writers like a bunch of vicious handmaids at a Salvaging.
I’m not debating whether or not Nick has benefited from patriarchal power. He has, that’s just a fact. You’re a man in Gilead, you benefit, it’s a patriarchal society…..and so is ours….which is kind of the point. See the difference here is merely in degrees, and we’re having a mirror mashed into our faces. Just a shame that they failed to truly establish that image of him in earlier seasons, in fact they made pains to edit out parts of his persona and instead constructed a portrait of the dark, romantic protector. Now they’re wondering why people are confused.
The fact was that he’d moved well beyond his role as merely a driver and an eye, a simple cog in the wheel, and was now acting as the hand that turned it. He’d been a commander for years, yet writers continued to label him as “a good man in Gilead”, insinuating that he was the exception to the rule. Now in the final season they wanted to undo this entire image, giving the majority of the audience whiplash. They wanted to backtrack and say “we know we called him a Good man in Gilead for FIVE SEASONS, but here’s all this other shit we forgot to tell you about”. It’s just not good enough. Suddenly the writers were screaming phrases like “Nazi” and “fascist” about a character they themselves had painted as extremely benevolent throughout the years, opening fans of the duo to online “Pro fascism” criticism, when they’d simply been following the writers own cues about the character for years. What the actual fuck?
This relationship has established itself as a thematically timeless love story, over 5 seasons and now they expected audiences to detach from that in the space of 4 short episodes. In the process they have also in effect poisoned this entire, beautiful love story that they worked so hard to construct right down through the seasons, making rewatches excruciating if not impossible. They were like a port in the storm and with this one act, they took it all away leaving nothing but death, darkness, betrayal and PTSD.
I also sensed that writers would not be content with the brutal severing of this relationship, they were seeking to convince audiences that Blaine’s love for June had never actually been genuine. Instead it had been a selfish desire to posses her, much like Fred’s. Blaine stood up and declared in episode 6 08 at Serena’s wedding that Rose’s child was his “mine own child first and forever”, effectively relinquishing his parentage over Holly. I was disgusted. These writers would not be content until the last vestiges of this union were dead. This cold severing of any parental bond served the writers as a "deal breaker" for the relationship. With Blaine now having disowned his own child, writers would be guaranteed that the audience saw him as a monster and easily hop on board with the protagonist trying to kill the father of her child, whom she’d loved for years. This will of course be presented to the audience as “a final test of strength” but it’s not, it’s a disturbing depiction of domestic violence being justified under the guise of righteous justice.
At the beginning of the season the writers and show runners had claimed this season was “for the fans” but they knew full well that at least 80% were invested in this character and duo and THAT is entirely on them. I don’t know how they convinced themselves that the majority of fans would want to see these two broken up because they couldn’t have been clearer about it for years and years. Fans have also been begging for Blaine to be moved underground for years as well and I seriously doubt that’s ever going to happen. So no, it’s not for the fans, it’s for the writers. The writers who’d fucked up and decided at the last minute to try and fix their mistake. It’s for the writers, so they could console themselves in the last few short episodes that they did their duty of pointing out the soft fascist in the room after feeding their audience the very opposite of it for years. It’s for the writers so hell bent on covering up their mistake that they want to erase it entirely by rewriting history. I have no doubt that they thought they were being “edgey” and clever by having the two pitted against one another this season, but let’s face it, it has simply served to highlight some serious fundamental shortcomings.
This is not a “love letter”, this is not even the apology they owe their audience for this incredible campaign to gaslight them, this is more like a finger in the mail. I'm a pragmatist so I actually never expected the two of them to end up together, but neither did I expect this absolute annihilation of their relationship and ridiculous character assassination in the eleventh hour.
