What happened to Nick? The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 just changed everything  

In season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale, Nick's character is seen going through some extraordinary changes. In the episode titled Execution, Nick Blaine, played by Max Minghella, makes a choice that transforms his character arc magnificently.

He is shown as a complex figure who is caught between personal desires and the oppressive regime of Gilead. But in episode 6 of the season, when he betrays June and Mayday's resistance and reveals their assassination plan to his father-in-law, it marks a significant turning point. This betrayal not only damages Nick's relationship with June but also throws the resistance into chaos.

Later in the season, Nick dies in a plane bomb executed by June to kill the head of Gilead. Read on to know what happened with Nick all this while in season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Here is how season 6 changes everything for Nick in The Handmaid's Tale

Nick has always been a very morally grey character who doesn't know whose side he should be on. He is simply onto survival and acts accordingly. The actor in an interview with The Daily Beast Obsessed explains how most of his character's actions are panic-stricken in The Handmaid’s Tale. Minghella said,

“As somebody who plays Nick, I believe a lot of decisions he makes in that episode specifically are panicked ones and ones made under duress and cloudy thinking.”

In episode 6, titled Execution, Commander Joseph Lawrence and June coordinate a secret operation to eliminate Gilead’s top commanders by planting a bomb on a private plane. Lawrence avoided joining them on the plane but was eventually persuaded by Wharton, whom he was unable to refuse. However, Nick was added last minute to the plane, as a turn of events. Nick was emotionally exhausted after his last betrayal of June. He perished in the bomb blast along with Lawrence, marking a tragic end to their stories.

This is how Nick's character arc comes to an end in season 6 of The Handmaid's Tale

Nick has been in love with June, which further complicates his character as an occasional rebel. Season 6, towards the end of his character, pushes him to a more definitive role. With the betrayal, he confirms he is not the ally people thought he was, but when he gets on the plane with Lawrence, he seems to be trying to make amends, though it is too late.

Nick has been a man of empathy and love, particularly for June in The Handmaid’s Tale. On the other hand, he’s a cog in Gilead’s brutal machinery, elevated to power by his willingness to play the game. He loved June but couldn't leave Gilead. His love was real, but his fear was even more overpowering.

The last conversation between Nick and Lawrence in The Handmaid's Tale further gives closure to Nick's arc, that he is contemplating how "June was right all along." She told him to give it up and think of a life outside the system. Lawrence's reply to this is crushing as he says,

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"You should've listened to her."

There is no anger as the time Nick is realizing all of this; it is already very late, and Lawrence knew it.

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