‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Episode Recap: Does June Make It to Canada?
Season 4 episode 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale, “Vows,” premiered on Hulu on May 19. The episode picks up where the previous episode, titled “Chicago,” left off. After Chicago is bombed, Moira Strand (Samira Wiley) finds June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) in the aftermath. In “Vows,” Moira becomes determined to get June to Canada no matter the cost.
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for season 4 episode 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale.]
Moira tries to convince June to leave Gilead in the new episode of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
“Vows” begins with a flashback of June and Moira living together before Gilead. The two drink mimosas and spend a lazy morning reading the newspaper.
The flashback cuts off and viewers return to Chicago, where Moira frantically tries to get a stunned June to recognize her. June ignores her and continues to call out for Janine (Madeline Brewer).
Moira convinces June to come with her to the medical tent in the hopes that Janine will be there. As they ride in the back of a truck to the medical tent, June recognizes Moira and the two best friends cling to each other.
Back at the camp, Moira’s girlfriend Oona (Zawe Ashton) hears that bombs may be dropped again, and she decides the best thing to do is leave. Moira begs Oona to let her take June with them, but Oona refuses because that would put future missions in jeopardy.
Against Oona’s wishes, Moira decides to sneak June onto the boat herself, and at first, June does not want to leave her daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake) and Janine behind. Moira brings up June and Nick’s (Max Minghella) daughter Nichole being in Canada, and this convinces June to leave with her.
June is almost recaptured by Gilead
The two make a run for it, and Moira hides June in a room on the boat. Oona apologizes to Moira for not being able to help June, and she tells Moira that Gilead officials will be arriving shortly for an inspection check.
Moira admits that she brought June onboard as a stowaway, and Oona calls for a team meeting to decide what to do. Some vote to give June up to Gilead forces so they can continue aid missions, while others want to try and sneak June to Canada.
June volunteers to lie and say she snuck onboard on her own, but as Gilead officials approach the boat Oona changes her mind and has a fake ID made up for June.
When a Guardian questions June’s identity and why she has a bruise on her face, June looks as if she is going to give herself away. Before she can, Moira makes up a lie that she got knocked down in the commotion.
Oona breaks up with Moira for endangering their mission, and Moira then finds June trying to take a lifeboat back to Gilead. Moira threatens to go with June, and the two have an emotional discussion where June reveals she is terrified to face Luke (O-T Fagbenle) without Hannah.
June and Luke reunite in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
In between the present-day scenes of June and Moira on the boat, there are flashbacks of June, Moira, and Luke. June decides to move in with Luke, and Moira shares her displeasure about the relationship because Luke cheated on his ex-wife.
When June voices her concerns that Luke will leave her if she can’t get pregnant, he tells her, “Then I’ll just love whoever you turn out to be.”
Given that June is a different person compared to who she was before Gilead, this could be interpreted in two ways. Either it is a sign Luke will love June for who she is now, or it is dark foreshadowing that Luke and June’s marriage won’t survive the changes Gilead brought.
Only time will tell, and the episode ends with an emotional embrace between June and Luke on Canadian soil.
New episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale premiere every Wednesday on Hulu.
