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Though he was never inside Gilead, Luke (O. T. Fagbenle) has been through the wringer on
The Handmaid’s Tale. After being separated from his wife and daughter for years, he learned that June (Elisabeth Moss) was alive but had been forced into sexual servitude by the regime. She had also begun a new relationship with Nick (Max Minghella) and had his baby. Despite June telling Luke last season that he should move on with his life and not feel guilty, he never gave up the hope of reuniting with her.
In last week’s episode, Luke’s hope finally paid off after June crossed the border into Canada. But their reunion, though joyful, was also complex. For one thing, June doesn’t have Hannah, and is wracked with guilt because of it. For another, June is deeply traumatized in ways that have fundamentally changed who she is, and despite his best efforts, Luke is out of his depth. By the end of the episode, after a deeply troubling sex scene in which Gilead’s psychological impact on June becomes clear, June and Luke’s future looks uncertain. That’s taken even further in this week’s episode, as Luke watches June recount, in detail, the horrors she experienced in Gilead.