“My name is Nick Blaine, I’m from Michigan.”
Religious extremism and indoctrination, a character analysis:
I found this picture on Reddit. In this episode, the camera shows each section of Mark’s whiteboard very briefly: there’s one on Fred, one on Serena and one on Nick. Only Nick’s says “possible ally?”, and it gives some insight on his involvement with Gilead, if you can read the shitty handwriting.
I would do ANYTHING to be able to read Nick’s comment on that FB post, because no matter what it was, Tuello saw it, and still saw Nick as a potential ally and still calls him “an honorable man”.
There’s also a March On Congress poster from 2011, what’s Nick’s involvement with that? It was clearly a religious march, possible early signs of Gilead’s propaganda.
There’s also a news article “Rebellion in the Midwest”, where Michigan is. Did Nick lose his brother and father then? I wish we could tell the date of when the article came out.
But what I want you guys to pay attention to, is the logo in that Sons of Jacob poster. A cross with 4 bars to the left.
Now look at the symbol below, on the window of the job center “A worthy path” where Nick had an interview with Pryce. It’s clearly a deviation from the cross in the Sons of Jacob poster, with a candle and its flame in the middle of the extended hand. In the Bible, candles represent light, guidance and the presence of God.
You see the symbols’ resemblance, right?
When you think of the founding members of SOJ, we have Waterford, Guthrie, Pryce and then Lawrence as the economist. It’s safe to say Pryce was a mastermind manipulator, using young men’s weaknesses to get them to pledge allegiance to Gilead, and my head canon is that he built THE system to entrap men like Nick into serving Gilead. Just like Guthrie built the Handmaid’s system and Lawrence founded the colonies.
During their meeting, Nick told Pryce about his brother, and his dad. He gave Pryce a window into his life and Pryce saw the desperation, the sadness, the wit even, to make an ideal puppet out of Nick. He knew just how to get him: “maybe there will be a job in there for you.”
It’s predatory, and when you take in the religious motive and symbolism, it makes it all seem like a masterfully crafted plan, because it is.
So Nick got involved, recruited even. The general consensus was that he was 19 in 2012. Do you know how incredibly stupid my brother was at 19? How gullible and influençable?
I know. Because at 19, my brother went to pray at the local temple ONCE, and came back a different person. He came home and demanded I, his 13 year old little sister, covered my hair, started praying, stopped listening to music or I’d go to hell.
My mother intervened and talked sense into him, but I have been around enough young, lost men without a father figure to see them fall into the traps of religious extremism. Cousins I grew up playing soccer with would not be in the same room as me if my hair was uncovered, or would refuse to talk to any woman that was not their mother or sister.
This is another way the show failed in my eyes, because Margaret Atwood herself said that no one but the men at the top is safe from Gilead. No one but the Sons of Jacob themselves, is safe.
There was a perfect opportunity at exploring the endoctrinement of the young men who fell into the traps of Gilead.
Just one Nick or Isaac centered episode could have given more insight, more substance to how men became tools for the system.
They could have mirrored it by showing the consequences of not adhering to the system, the consequences of not complying. They could have showed what was at stake before and how so many men were now the driving force that tortured women and ripped their children away from them. How they felt, what they believed in.
What were they planning to do with Luke, after shooting him then putting him at the back of an ambulance after being captured in the forest? Were they going to try and make him a guardian? What happened to the men who got captured but who were not willing to comply? What ties did the guards and drivers have to their commanders? Were they contracts signed, allegiances pledged, blood pacts drawn?
I know it’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and ultimately we have the tale of June as the main protagonist, but the message of this book and this show could have been so much more impactful had they developed some of these storylines, especially Nick’s.
I had the wrong assumption that Nick was a red pilled incel who got roped into an evil machine, but that does not actually fit his character. Incels have a deeply rooted hatred for women, and Nick does not have an ounce of misogyny in him.
I believe Nick was aware of the machine crushing down the country and weighed his chances. What real choice did he have? What would happen if he decided not to attend those meetings, not to drive those commanders? Would putting his head down and keeping his mouth shut be enough to survive and keep his family alive?
Nick Blaine is one of the most misunderstood characters in The Handmaid’s Tale, but one held at the highest standard. He is a survivalist, with no real allegiance to anyone or anything but the people he truly loves: June and Holly. He was used by everyone he encountered: Pryce, Fred, Serena, June, Tuello, Lawrence, even Rita. Not a single person asked him what he wanted out of this, what he wished for, what he needed.
He was a simple pawn, in an evil game of chess, steered in any direction, as long as it benefited the player.
So June let him get on that plane, because he was her last piece to use, and she had to, needed to win. He was collateral damage to her, and she was everything he’s ever wanted.
