‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: O-T Fagbenle Says Nick Will Interfere With June and Luke’s Relationship
If season 4 episode 7 of The Handmaid’s Tale, titled “Home,” is any inclination, June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) and Luke Bankole (O-T Fagbenle) have a long way to go to repair their marriage after years of being physically separated.
Going forward, June and Luke will not only have to process their own trauma, but they will also have to deal with the fact that June fell in love with Nick Blaine (Max Minghella) while she was in Gilead. According to Fagbenle, Nick’s presence will be a disruption to June and Luke’s already fragile relationship.
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for season 4 episode 7 of The Handmaid’s Tale.]
June fell in love with Nick in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
As The Handmaid’s Tale progresses, an emphasis has been placed on the increasingly intense love triangle between June, Nick, and Luke. The first season saw June and Nick’s relationship build as she tried her best to hang on to her memory of Luke.
In the second season, June came to terms with her feelings for Nick and admitted she loved him after the birth of their daughter, Nichole. After Nichole escaped Gilead with Emily Malek (Alexis Bledel), Luke took it upon himself to raise her along with June’s best friend, Moira Strand (Samira Wiley).
While June and Nick were separated throughout most of the third season due to Nick’s promotion to Commander, their love has only solidified. In season 4 episode 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale, “The Crossing,” the two professed their love for each other after a passionate farewell kiss.
Flash forward a few weeks, and June has managed to escape to Canada thanks to Moira. She reunites with Luke and Nichole. One might think that June would leave Nick and Gilead behind, but The Handmaid’s Tale hints that won’t be possible.
Nick will return in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
While Luke has chosen to look over the fact that Nichole is a love child between June and Nick, Nichole is a direct reminder to June of her Gilead lover.
After Luke refers to Nichole as his daughter he shares with June in “Home,” June privately tells Nichole that while Luke and Moira are raising her, she and Nick are her parents and love her.
Given how June longingly stares into the distance after telling Nichole her “first daddy” loves her, it is apparent that part of June’s heart is still in Gilead.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fagbenle shared that going forward, Luke and June’s relationship will be “tested” by Nick and the fact their daughter Hannah (Jordana Blake) is still in Gilead.
“He struggles a lot with how to best be there for his partner, who was clearly traumatized, and his desperation to know more about their daughter, and to start that search again,” said Fagbenle.
He continued, “His desperation to connect with June has some successes, and quite a few failures, and their relationship is really tested. Also, Nick.”
Fagbenle then revealed that Nick will physically return in The Handmaid’s Tale and find himself in the middle of June and Luke’s relationship.
“Yeah, absolutely. Don’t worry, Nick fans. Nick rears his tricky little face into our business,” Fagbenle teased.
Will June and Luke have a happy ending?
Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale might be tempted to believe that June and Luke’s love can conquer all, but speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Fagbenle was not confident in the couple’s chances.
“I’ve come to think that the writers of The Handmaid’s Tale aren’t overly enamored by happy endings,” he said. “So I think at this point, I have dreams of an ambivalent ending, but I don’t know. Luke definitely holds a candle in the wind for that type of ending, though.”
New episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale premiere every Wednesday on Hulu.
