At the end of season 6 episode 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale, June faced a huge betrayal from Nick. In a recent interview, Elisabeth Moss opened up about what that betrayal meant and whose side Nick (Max Minghella) is really on.
(Spoilers for season 6 episode 6 below.)
At the end of episode 6, Nick revealed the Commander Wharton that Mayday had a plan of blowing up Jezebel and killing numerous commanders. The betrayal was not only a huge blow to the resistance, but it also might put Commander Lawrence’s life in jeopardy, and leave Janine stuck in Jezebel’s for the foreseeable future. The fallout of Nick’s choice was huge.
But many fans have argued that it wasn’t truly a betrayal. As a double agent, Nick had to do something to gain Wharton’s trust and not reveal who he truly is. Fans even bring up that June did something similar early in season 4. She endured torture and didn’t reveal the location of a group of handmaids until Hannah’s life was threatened. In a later escape attempt, June and Janine are the only ones who survived out of the group she gave up, and Janine had some issues with what happened.
But in an interview with TV Line, Elisabeth Moss talks about why Nick’s betrayal truly was a betrayal, but one that shouldn’t be surprising.
She was asked if the Paris offer was tempting for June, and Moss said it was. But she had more to say than that.
“It definitely is, especially if you’re in love with the person, which she is,” Moss said. “She does love Nick. But you don’t always fall in love with the right person. And unfortunately, Nick is in a position. Look, I could defend him as a director, as a storyteller I could defend him, I think that it’s complex. I don’t know if he has a choice in the end. Then again, you always have a choice, right? So, I do think that he is in a place where he makes the wrong decision. But I also think that there’s a way of looking at it, that other characters point out to June, that she should have seen this coming. That it’s been coming for a long time. That Nick has never quite been fully honest about whose side he’s on. And he’s never said that he was part of the resistance. He’s never said that he was going to bring down Gilead. He’s only ever said that he loves June.”
In other words, it seems like Moss is saying that Nick was never truly on her side and resisting Gilead, he simply wanted to help June because he loved her. And June’s mom pointing out earlier in the season that you can never trust an Eye seems to underline that point.
What do you think? Did Nick do what he had to do, but he’s still on their side? Or was Nick never on June’s side?
