'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 6 Finally Saw June and Holly Reunite – ryan

After an almost three-year wait, fans finally got to catch back up with June (Elisabeth Moss), Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), and the others in Season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale as they work to escape the clutches of Gilead and bring others to safety, too. Hulu served fans well by dropping the first three episodes of the 10-episode final season at once, shaping the story for the next phase of June’s journey.

The first episode picked up right where things left off in Season 5: June is on a train to Vancouver with Baby Nichole when she spots Serena on the same train with baby Noah. The events take a turn as June winds up in Alaska. But who she meets there is a shock no one saw coming, and that undoubtedly left fans in tears.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Release Date: 2017 – 2025-00-00
Network: Hulu

Cast

Elisabeth Moss

June Osborne / Offred / Ofjoseph

Who Did June Find in Alaska in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’?

As tensions rise on the train once others figure out Serena’s real identity, the situation gets even more complicated when June learns from Moira (Samira Wiley) that the train will not, in fact, be stopping in Vancouver. That city has taken in too many refugees and cannot accept any more. Where are they headed? She has no idea. But all she can hope for is that it’s somewhere safe. And right now, all her body can think of is sleep.

Hours later, June is awakened by a man on the train who tells her she needs to get off because it’s the last stop. As she clutches Nichole, she heads off the train, where she spots a proudly flying American flag and smiles. As it turns out, she’s in Alaska. They are happy to welcome refugees from Gilead and have an entire outpost set up.

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June gets in line as instructed, waiting to be checked out and checked in. As she bends over to soothe Nichole, she starts to break down and cry. It’s unclear if this is from happiness, anger, upset, or simply being drained from everything that’s happened. It’s likely a mix of all the above, beautifully portrayed by Moss in one of her best performances.

Feet are seen walking along the grass, showing a person clearly wearing scrubs. They walk up to another worker and are given a clipboard with a list of names. Suddenly, the person drops the clipboard after seeing a name that shocks them. “June?” they cry out. “June Osborne?” June stands up and looks around, confused about who might be calling her name. They lock eyes, and it’s someone June never thought she would see again: her mother, Holly (Cherry Jones). They walk towards one another and engage in a tearful embrace. The episode ends with this moment of hope, suggesting that maybe the fight was worth it.

Where Has Holly Been All This Time?

Holly is a trained doctor who, prior to the Gilead takeover, was performing birth control procedures, including vasectomies and abortions. A staunch supporter of women’s rights, she was critical of June prior to her capture. She wanted more for her daughter professionally and thought that marrying Luke was a mistake.

After June’s capture, she didn’t know much about what had happened to her mother until she was shown a video of the Colonies by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd). She spotted her mother in one of the photos, one of the saddest scenes in The Handmaid’s Tale. She was gutted because she knew the Colonies were essentially a death sentence. The conditions the women are forced to work under, with chemical exposure and pollution, lack of nutrition, and more often lead to eventual death.

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This makes the reunion even more special because both women had no idea what had happened to the other. They both presumed one another dead. Holly revealed that she had tried desperately to find a way to contact June but was never able to. She admits that part of her was relieved every time she didn’t get an answer, only because if she had heard confirmation that June was dead, she would not have been able to handle it.

Naturally, June wanted to know how her mother survived the Colonies when most didn’t. She claimed that since she’s a doctor, she was useful. She was tasked with caring for the aunts and the guardians. But she was still a prisoner and watched her friends get killed. The escape was thanks to the U.S. army, or what was left of it. They liberated her colony six months prior, and she was sent to Alaska, where she has been working ever since. Each day, she hoped she might see June come by, and that wish was finally granted.

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Though June has her mother back, she decides at the end of Episode 2, “Exile,” that she needs to go back. It’s because she learns from Mark Tuello (Sam Jaeger) why Luke (O-T Fagbenle) and Moira (Samira Wiley) haven’t been answering her phone calls for months: they have joined Mayday and plan to fight back against Gilead and New Bethlehem.

As a loving mother, Holly begs June not to go but eventually understands that her daughter will do what she needs to do to bring her family back together. So, she pleads with June, as a grandmother, to at least leave Nichole in her care.

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Holly promises to take good care of her granddaughter and that they will all reunite in the end. June eventually relents, realizing she can’t accomplish what she needs to do with a toddler in tow. She tells her mother that Nichole’s name is actually Holly, named after her. She gave Nichole this name when she was born. However, when Serena and Commander Fred (Joseph Fiennes) took the baby in as their own, they renamed her. To June, however, she was always Holly.

This warms Holly’s heart. Despite the friction, it’s clear there’s a lot of love between mother and daughter, even if there are still fractures from their time together before. None of that seems to matter anymore, though. June was never able to live up to her mother’s expectations of her. But seeing how much June has fought and how much she is willing to continue to fight, Holly may finally realize that the trivial things she argued about were just that. June turned out just fine, and she’s stronger than her mother realized. Stream The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.