June Osborne has finally escaped to Canada in The Handmaid’s Tale season 4, but exactly how long was she trapped in Gilead? From her original capture and separation from Luke and Hannah, to now being reunited with her husband and her second baby, Nicole, June has had a long and painful road to freedom.

At the start of The Handmaid’s Tale June had been in Gilead for three years, and within a few months of being at her new posting as “Offred,” she became pregnant with Nick’s baby. By the time Nichole was born, towards to the end of The Handmaid’s Tale season 2, June had been in Gilead for four years. The passing of time was felt most keenly through June’s occasional sightings of and reunions with Hannah, who was around five years old when she was taken away from her birth parents.

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In The Handmaid’s Tale‘s latest episode, “Home,” June is reunited with baby Nichole after making the painful decision to let Emily take her baby to Canada while June herself stayed behind. Nichole is now a year old, which means that June had been in Gilead for five years before she finally escaped in The Handmaid’s Tale season 4.

Gilead itself has its roots in the President’s Day Massacre, a terrorist attack on the White House and Capitol building by the Sons of Jacob, which led to martial law being implemented. A newspaper clipping regarding the President’s Day Massacre showed that it took place on September 15, 2014. The downfall happened fairly quickly after that; Hannah was already in school when the attack took place, and flashbacks set in the following months showed women’s rights being stripped away and protests met with lethal violence. By the time June and Luke attempted to run, it was already too late.

Even though Gilead has only existed for a few years, it has completely changed the landscape of the country formerly known as the United States of America, through the use of military might and brutal violence against its people. However, the relatively short timeline also highlights that Gilead is still a fledgling nation, and that makes it vulnerable. With June now out of Gilead and preparing to testify against the Waterfords, and Gilead’s economy struggling due to trade sanctions, perhaps there is hope that the dystopian nation could be dismantled almost as quickly as it was created. Based on everything we’ve seen so far, though, Gilead is unlikely to go down without a fight.

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