With most long-running shows, characters often diverge from established character arcs to stretch the narrative. While I’ve enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale with its dystopian themes and horrifying relevance to current societal issues, it also falls into the character arc trap. Think of June’s multiple decisions to stay in Gilead. These read as a need to keep the plot centered there instead of legitimate character choice. When a character does this too often, the audience might question: “How many times will she escape simply to be put back into the same scenario?” How can a restrictive society that kills people for minor trespasses not kill one handmaid?
The regressive plotting against June, out of the need to stretch the show, made the season four opener a breath of fresh air. An injured June flees with a group of handmaids with help from the resistance. The show found fresh territory to tread with this character and story. However, this freedom evaporates by the end of episode two (Nightshade), and by episode three (The Crossing), June’s character arc regresses. The series returns to the tried-and-true Handmaid’s Tale formula of control through coercion and brutality. What makes The Crossing such a misstep is that it blunts June’s arc for the rest of the season. Worse, it didn’t pay off the promises made in earlier episodes.
(Some might raise a minor issue: June sees Hannah and how she recoils. Yes, this gets brought up multiple times throughout the season. But June didn’t need to be captured to achieve this scene. Instead, they could have woven it into a more coherent storyline with even more emotional stakes.)
Since The Handmaid’s Tale focuses on multiple characters, this essay will limit the scope to June. The narrative choices do her character the most disservice. Part I will recap the first three episodes and outline set-ups for potential thematic elements. Then, Part II will present a proposal for an alternate character arc that finishes near the end of episode six.
Episode one: Pigs (Character Arc start)
Season four begins immediately after the season three finale, where June lies shot in the woods after ensuring the children’s flight (dubbed Air Canada in the show) departs. What the season three finale set up is how much June will sacrifice to fight Gilead. She’ll give her life and that of her daughters, seeing as no one will free Hannah if June dies. Until the season four announcement, I’d thought they might end the series on the cliffhanger of whether June dies or escapes.
The first half of episode one shows the handmaids carrying June to safety and traveling to a safe house, with mentions that Mayday, the underground resistance June worked with in the previous season, is helping them flee. About a third of the way through the first episode, June is on the mend, the other women are settling into a free life, and they introduce Mrs. Esther Keyes, the young wife who uses the farm as a safe house. A character June connects with on a deep level because of their shared trauma and her youth.
They catch one guardian who raped Esther trespassing in the later part of the episode. Esther says she can have him arrested in the name of her husband. There is an out here that June can take. She doesn’t have to opt for revenge. But we’re already seeing a more unhinged June since being shot. The brush with death has ignited the simmering burn of vengeance. When the guard tries to escape, they string him up, and June pushes Esther to kill him. To serve the punishment he rightfully deserves, regardless of the impact on safety, is a crucial theme. We end on a shot of June in bed. Esther curls up beside her, and June calls her Banana. It is a perfect ending to solidify Esther’s role as a Hannah surrogate in this season.
Episode 2: Nightshade (arc enforced)
The choice of killing the guardian sets up the season’s inciting incident by bringing unwanted attention to the farm, with the local authorities in search of the missing guardian. Already, the consequences of past decisions are playing out. June says they must leave before the authorities return and discover the handmaidens. Word comes from a Mayday agent who wants to meet with June, perfect timing, as they will soon need to move.
June meets the Mayday agent at a Jezebel location. The Agent informs June that word of June killing the commander from season three and her Air Canada stunt is spreading among the resistance. People are “slashing tires, cutting power lines. Someone blew up a checkpoint.” (Important details for the rewrite). The Agent’s speech read as another setup scene for the season. June has been getting closer to Mayday, and her reputation is growing. There is resistance. I’d expect the season to follow the burgeoning of these seeds of revolt within Gilead.
In the same conversation, the Agent tells June that the commanders at the estate are heading to Chicago, a battleground between Gilead and the resistance. Again, June confronts the choice of fleeing (safety for her and the handmaids) or revenge. And again, she chooses the more dangerous path of vengeance.
When she returns to the farm, Esther reveals she is poisoning her husband to keep him docile. Together, they make enough to wipe out the commanders. June leaves and tells everyone to get ready. She goes to Jezebels, poisons the men, and falls into a trap laid by Nick upon returning to the farm. The episode fades to black.
Episode 3: The Crossing (Character arc lost)
This episode features June’s torture (something we’ve seen a lot in prior seasons) by a new nasty Gilead commander whom you love to hate. He kills some characters from previous seasons (just for the hell of it), and Lawrence shows up to make a deal (like a round of the greatest hits). June refuses to give them anything until the ultimate pressure point, Hannah, finally breaks her into giving up the handmaid’s location. Once captured, along with June, they’re sent to a breeding colony when a train crossing stops the van. The group attacks Aunt Lydia to mount an escape and a guard guns down two while another two are hit by the oncoming train. June and Janine escape. Fade to black.
After The Crossing, there are a couple of episodes in which Janine and June make their way to Chicago, fall in with a group of survivors, and then Gilead bombs Chicago. By the end of episode six, June escapes to Canada. When June sets foot onto Canadian soil, the moment of triumph should have been triumphant, but it fell flat, mainly because of the wishy-washy character arc of her journey during the season.
What happened? Why did the show writers free Jane only to imprison and then free her again in the span of an episode? How does this help deepen the internal arc of vengeance? Why scrape the entire set-up between Esther and June? I still can’t answer these questions in a stratifying way. It felt like a season with a writer’s strike or COVID shutdowns. A season where the showrunners made choices due to outside circumstances. But the disappointment with the seasons start hinges on the ineffective use of set-up and payoff.
A broken character arc
A foundational narrative technique is the rule of three: present a theme or idea, repeat the presentation to solidify it, and then pay it off. The scene of Esther climbing into bed, saying she loves June, and June calling her Banana read as a MASSIVE setup. June is calling Esther the nickname of her daughter. What a large hanging lantern. June, making poison and admiring Esther’s courage, solidifies the setup. But then, with June’s capture, she doesn’t see Esther again. Why introduce and build out this relationship at all? A setup that doesn’t pay off can turn away a portion of the audience because it doesn’t satisfy this classic narrative structure.
Some can argue the lack of resolution with Esther was subversion. Set up a premise: June will take Esther under her wing. Then the show says, nope, that’s not what will happen. Are you surprised? Yes, but not satisfied. The subversion doesn’t continue June’s arc established in the season opener, and worse, they regress by sending her back into a situation we’ve seen before, i.e., torture, control, no escape, we’ll kill your daughter, etc. How much more can they take from June? It squanders the set-up of the whole season. June is cracked by everything she’s experienced. She’s unhinged. What might she do now? If she joined the resistance, took Esther under her wing, and fought back. That’s a premise with a lot of meat on the bone.
The theme of vengeance reemerges in the second half of the season. However, June’s fractured character arc released too much tension, forcing excess narrative time to rebuild for the season finale instead of continuing forward.