‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 4: Fans Think Nick Will Die Getting Hannah out of Gilead
June is out of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4, but she had to leave Hannah behind. With Serena Joy and Fred Waterford in prison, and June, Nichole, Moira, Rita, and Emily in Canada, Hannah and Janine are the only outliers in their close circle left to save.
Janine’s fate is still unknown after the bombing of Chicago, leaving her rescue up in the air. But now that Nick is a commander with more sway, he might have the means to get Hannah out. Will he do it? A new trailer for the remainder of season 4 hints he could. And it has prompted fan theories about what will happen if he does.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4.]
Does Hannah get out of Gilead in the book?
In season 4 episode 5, “Chicago,” Moira found June in the rubble after Gilead bombed the city. The timing was nothing short of miraculous. And the chance encounter led to June escaping to Canada in episode 6, “Vows.” At the end of the episode, June and Luke are finally reunited.
“I’m sorry I don’t have her, I’m sorry it’s just me,” is all June can say when she sees her husband for the first time in years.
Luke has been raising June and Nick’s daughter, Nichole, with Moira in Canada since season 3. Now that June is safely in Canada, she will undoubtedly begin hatching a plan to get Hannah out.
Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale novel never reveals if June gets out of Gilead. In fact, it ends where season 1 of the show ends: Offred thinking she’s pregnant with Nick’s baby (Nichole) and being swept off in a van, unsure of where it would take her. In The Handmaid’s Tale book, Hannah stays in Gilead too. But her fate is different in The Testaments, Atwood’s 2019 sequel to her 1985 novel.
Will Nick die in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 4?
The Testaments is narrated by three characters: Hannah/Agnes Jemima, Nichole/Daisy, and Aunt Lydia. The book never clearly states that Hannah and Nichole are June/Offred’s children. Atwood likes to keep things vague so readers can make their own conclusions. But through context clues and the companion TV show, it’s understood that Agnes and Daisy are half sisters and their biological mother was a Handmaid-turned-Mayday operative.
The Handmaid’s Tale has been creating its own story — with the counsel of Atwood — since season 2. It could choose not to let Hannah grow up in Gilead. Atwood told Time she intentionally wrote The Testaments in a way that wouldn’t force The Handmaid’s Tale into any narratives. And fans are hoping the show will spend the remainder of season 4 and beyond trying to get Hannah out.
That’s where Nick comes in. Nick’s allegiance to June vs. Gilead has been his main arc this season. He’s tried to keep June alive at every turn, although to him that meant keeping her in Gilead. But he’s now June’s (and possibly Canada’s) biggest ally inside Gilead’s ranks. And fans think he could die betraying Gilead to get Hannah out.
New ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ trailer hints Nick will try to save Hannah
A new trailer for the second half of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 is making fans think this will happen.
In the trailer, Luke says, “We have to find her, and bring her home.”
Nick seemingly peers down at pictures of Hannah and says, “Getting her out is impossible.”
June says, “I will never stop,” followed by a tearful, “I am her mother.”
She’s also seen being held back by Luke as she screams. Just before that, an armored Gilead car is seen driving through a snowy field. In response to the trailer, released by The Handmaid’s Tale‘s Twitter account, fans speculated June is screaming because Nick has died in front of her at the Canadian border after he gets Hannah to her and Luke.
Other fans replied to the show’s tweet theorizing Canada might be willing to trade the Waterfords for Hannah. As for the show’s Twitter account, it replied to one fan saying “Time to see where [Nick’s] allegiance lies.”
Will Nick sacrifice himself to help June? Only time will tell.
