Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Handmaid’s Tale season 4, episode 7, “Home.” 

June reconnects with Luke in The Handmaid’s Tale season 4, episode 7, but makes some surprising choices – both positive and negative – in a lie about Hannah and with a love scene between the reunited couple. After years inside Gilead, June has finally escaped and made it into Canada, thanks to her own efforts and the help of Moira and many others. That alone represents a big step forward for the character, but it’s clear that it’s only part of the battle.

The Handmaid’s Tale season 4, episode 7, “Home,” charts exactly what that titular word means for June. It’s about her struggle to accept Canada as a home when her eldest daughter isn’t in it. It tackles how difficult it is to re-enter society, removed from the totalitarian regime of Gilead and given a taste of what freedom is truly like for the first time in years. There is a sense of power and happiness within that, but also fear and tragedy as well, all of which is highlighted by June’s interactions with Luke.

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As June begins her life in Canada, and after a lengthy sleep, it offers her and Luke the chance to properly catch-up and talk about the biggest thing, or rather person, missing: Hannah. While Luke expresses regret about not being able to save her, June tells Luke about how she saw her daughter, and told her how much her parents loved her. It’s a touching, if sorrowful, memory, but it omits a key part. While that meeting with Hannah did happen, June leaves out seeing her daughter again after that, which happened earlier in season 4. On that occasion, Hannah was scared of June and seemingly didn’t know who she was. It was heartbreaking for June, and it’s clear that she keeps this from Luke to spare him, because it’s the kind of reveal that would crush him.

At the same time, the lie is about June’s own trauma, something she is trying to come to terms with in The Handmaid’s Tale season 4, episode 7. When she speaks with Luke at the beginning, so much of what she experienced is still bottled up; her rage, her sadness, her guilt, her fear, over Hannah, herself, and so many others. Bit by bit, “Home” starts to unravel that, but there’s a constant sense that part of June cannot accept being in Canada, and that it’s going to be a difficult transition (and understandably so). The lie to Luke is also a lie to herself, a reassurance that she did the right thing and can move on, when she knows it isn’t so simple.

That feeds into June’s showdown with Serena Joy. It’s a powerful, explosive moment that flips their entire relationship on its head, with years of anger and torment streaming out of her. It’s pure catharsis for June, and well-deserved for both characters, but it feeds into a more questionable scene. After that, fuelled from the adrenaline, June goes home and has sex with a half-asleep Luke, using him and covering his mouth when he started to protest. Following on from her dominance over Serena, June seemingly needs to continue that, in a moment that essentially boils down to her raping Luke. It’s certainly a complicated scene, with Luke seemingly wanting June herself to wait more than anything, but the visual and vocal cues all suggest that this is non-consensual, whether that’s completely intended or not.

Either way, it’s something The Handmaid’s Tale has a duty to explore further and properly address. As Moira notes, Gilead leaves people “f**ked up” when it comes to sex, but that doesn’t excuse what June did. It does, however, fit with how she seemingly views herself – so much of her monologue to Serena feels like June expressing what she thinks, but is unable to say, about herself, and that manifests outward in an act of both power and pleasure, designed to further cover-up those feelings. The Handmaid’s Tale season 4, episode 7 is book-ended by the lies June tells – to Luke and to herself – which will define her future in Canada, her ability to overcome the trauma caused by Gilead, and their own relationship. It’s powerful and painful, but it’s the truth of it, and how June and Luke deal with that, which will matter the most.

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James Hunt
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James is Screen Rant’s Movies Lead Editor, having started out as a writer for the site back in 2019. A Sports Journalism graduate, James quickly realized that supporting Sunderland AFC was painful enough without writing about it, and so decided to talk a load of rubbish about movies and TV instead. Formerly the TV editor at WhatCulture, he has a particular love of Star Wars (The Last Jedi was great), Game of Thrones (season 8 was good), and Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling…never mind) – y’know, all that really niche, nerdy stuff. Spending most of his days editing articles about or writing on movies and shows, James likes to really get away from work and unwind by, er, watching movies and shows. He’s fuelled by pint-sized cups of tea, peanut butter, more tea, and a quiet, constant anger (like the Hulk, only not green, or strong, or big).

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