‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: A Deleted Scene Showed Fred and Luke Praying for June Together
In The Handmaid’s Tale, many characters had a deep hatred for Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes), one of the show’s primary antagonists. Luke Bankole (O-T Fagbenle) hated Fred for keeping his wife June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) captive as a Handmaid, and he confronted Fred multiple times throughout the series. In an interview with Metro.co.uk, Fagbenle revealed that in a deleted scene from season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale, Luke actually went to Fred for help.
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale.]
Luke and Fred prayed together in a deleted scene in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
In season 4 episode 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale, “The Crossing,” June is captured by Gilead and tortured to give up the location of other escaped Handmaids. Because Luke is in Canada, he does not know what to do to help her. At the start of the fourth season, both Fred and his wife Serena Joy Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski) are being held in Canada for crimes they committed in Gilead.
Moss made her directorial debut with “The Crossing,” and Fagbenle told Metro.co.uk that the first scene of his that Moss directed was the deleted scene with Fiennes.
“The first scene I was directed by Lizzie was a scene with me and Joe, where I go to him and I ask him to try and intervene and find a way to save June,” Fagbenle said.
He continued, “We are in a cell together and then he asks me to sit down and pray with him, and it’s almost like we sit down and we start to pray for June’s safety, but then Luke breaks away and tells him to f**k off basically.”
Why ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ scene was deleted
In “The Crossing,” fans see Luke struggle to accept June’s choice to stay in Gilead as he fears she might be killed. Based on Fagbenle’s interview with Metro.co.uk, it sounds like Luke’s deleted scene with Fred was just as compelling as Luke’s scenes that were kept in the episode.
“Joe is so good in it and the writing is good and the directing from Lizzie is so good, and that’s an example of a scene where we played with a lot,” the actor told Metro.co.uk.
So why was the scene between Fred and Luke cut? According to Fagbenle, there was not enough time to include it.
“… they had to cut some scenes in it to have it fit,” Fagbenle said of “The Crossing.”
Some fans are happy the scene was cut
Speaking with Metro.co.uk, Fagbenle shared that he hoped The Handmaid’s Tale producers would “put it in some extra deleted scenes or something because it’s so brilliant” so that fans could see the deleted scene between Luke and Fred.
While Fagbenle thinks highly of the scene, fans of The Handmaid’s Tale shared their relief on social media that the scene was not included in the final version of the episode.
“I’m so glad this was cut – even if the acting was amazing, that just does not sound like something I want to see Luke do,” a Reddit user wrote.
One fan wrote on Reddit, “Barf, yeah good it was cut, I do not want to see Luke begging June’s rapist and tormentor for help, and as for confrontation, they already did that. It doesn’t make sense anyway, what power would Fred still possibly have in Gilead, or knowledge of what’s going on there?”
All four seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale are available to stream on Hulu.
