The Handmaid’s Tale Book Sequel May Spoil Whether June Ends Up With Nick or Luke in the Finale
The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t really a romance, though it feels like every dystopian show has a romance. There’s something about the end of the world that brings out the feelings, what can we say? The show, based on the best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood, has just returned to Hulu for its sixth and final season, and June, its main character, has had two clear love interests throughout the course of the show’s run—Luke and Nick.
It’s complicated with both, honestly. Luke is June’s husband before the events of the show even start and the father of her oldest daughter, Hannah. Nick, meanwhile, is a Guardian June meets while she is trapped in Gilead as a Handmaid. The two start a romantic relationship together and have a daughter, Nichole. He helps June escape and is a key figure in the rebellion. Later, when June escapes, she reunites with Luke, but their relationship is, of course, complicated by her experiences in Gilead.
This isn’t just YA dystopia; after all, this is a show about a totalitarian society that treats women as property and forces them into sexual servitude. So romance isn’t exactly at the top of the list of priorities for anyone, much less June. In fact, with the show returning for its sixth and final season, June is focused on escaping with her baby and on finding her oldest daughter, Hannah. But with the end so close, fans are wondering, who will June end up with in The Handmaid’s Tale, Nick or Luke?
Does June end up with Nick or Luke in The Handmaid’s Tale?
In The Handmaid’s Tale book, June doesn’t actually end up with either of them. In fact, the book ends pretty ambiguously, with June being taken away, and without us actually knowing what happened to her. Instead, the book’s epilogue jumps ahead to 2195 and reveals that the main narrative of the novel is a transcription of audio tapes discovered long after the fall of Gilead that are being presented in an academic setting. These tapes contain June’s account of her time in Gilead.
The sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, which will also be adapted into a series on Hulu, gives more insight into the question of June’s romantic life. The book is narrated by Aunt Lydia, a character we already know from the show, Agnes, a young woman living in Gilead, and Daisy, a young woman living in Canada. Ultimately, the reveal is that the woman we know as Agnes is really grown-up Hannah, June’s daughter with Luke, and the woman we know as Daisy is really grown-up Nichole, June’s daughter with Nick.
So, basically, The Testaments is really a direct sequel to June’s story from The Handmaid’s Tale, one that reunites her with her daughters and reunites those daughters with their respective fathers, too. The book also confirms that June, alongside Nick, became a Mayday operative in Canada after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, living undercover. It doesn’t go as far as confirming a relationship between the two happened after the events of the book, but it does make it easier to read between the lines for Nick and June, considering all we know of their relationship. At least it makes it obvious Nick and June are a way safer bet than June and Luke, that’s for sure.
