The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 ending explained: Who is Aunt Phoebe?

The Handmaid
The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 (Image Via Hulu)

The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 delivers a high-tension installment as the series moves toward its long-anticipated finale. Picking up in the immediate aftermath of Mayday’s failed mission at Jezebel’s, the episode begins with June still grappling with Nick’s betrayal and the violent consequences that followed.

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While Commander Wharton entrenches, setting his nuptials to Serena Joy with Gilead's troops confident, The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 pivots towards a new period of resistance, one that's driven by trauma, tactics, and an unforeseen new supporter.

While Mayday hurries to recreate, June and Moira start building groundwork for a second, even more audacious plan to attack Gilead from the inside. The botched Jezebel's mission might have been costly to the resistance, but The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 shows June is not ready to give up.

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This is when Aunt Phoebe is introduced, a covert Mayday ally posing as an Aunt inside Gilead to help June and Moira plan their attack on Serena Joy’s wedding.

Serena Joy's wedding becomes the new target. The possibility of bringing Gilead's strongest Commanders together in one place presents a rare and risky chance.


Aunt Lydia's suspicions and June's psalm in The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7

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Aunt Lydia plays a pivotal role in The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7, torn between her loyalty to Gilead and her still-persistent motherly instincts. She comes into Jezebel's to encounter the carnage of a bloodbath, visibly disturbed at the women dying, but equally disturbed by the violence endorsed by her regime. But her loyalty holds, most notably as she still keeps close tabs on what Handmaids and other Aunts are doing.

Her curiosity is aroused when she sees Aunt Phoebe leaving a corridor where June and Moira had recently had a clandestine meeting. Although Phoebe dodges Lydia's questioning, the incident does not go unnoticed.

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Lydia looks through an adjacent window, obviously unconvinced, but is later summoned to Washington, D.C., to monitor the preparations for the wedding. With Lydia taken out of the immediate vicinity, the resistance finds much-needed breathing space.

In one of The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7's quieter but most impactful scenes, June and Moira sit and discuss their mission. When Moira asks June for something positive, June recites rewritten lines from Psalm 23.

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Her rendition juxtaposes biblical phrasing with a raw cry for courage, concluding with a strongly human plea for the power to vanquish their enemies. It's a moment that captures the series' years-long struggle between faith and anger, and is June's complete transformation from victim to revolutionary leader.


Who is Aunt Phoebe in The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7?

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One of the fresh and enigmatic characters added to The Handmaid's Tale season 6, episode 7, Aunt Phoebe, portrayed by D'Arcy Carden, makes it almost immediately clear that she is an essential component of the continuing scheme.

Her unexpected arrival prompts questions, particularly as she is entrenched in Gilead's setup yet secretly working with the resistance.

Whether she was inserted into the system by Mayday or converted from within is still unclear, but The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 heavily implies that she's a double agent. Her role as an Aunt allows her access, trust, and authority, making her a highly valuable asset.

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With Aunt Lydia gone, Phoebe has to oversee the Handmaids until Serena Joy's wedding, placing her in an even more important position to assist June's scheme.

Even with her clandestine operations, Phoebe remains calm under the microscope, particularly in her strained confrontation with Aunt Lydia. In The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7, she becomes the quiet pipeline through which June and Moira start transferring weapons, planning roles, and preparing for their next attack.

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What are June's plans for Serena Joy's wedding in The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7?

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One of the most crucial breakthroughs in The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 is June's recognition that Serena Joy's forthcoming wedding provides a new strategic advantage.

Encouraged by Commander Lawrence, who works behind the scenes to facilitate her activities while working out his place within Gilead, June realizes that she has the opportunity to bring the fight directly to the regime leadership.

The strategy? Utilize the Handmaids. They are made practically invisible to the Commanders by their status, and thus make perfect tools of surprise. June and Moira start making secret weapons, tucking knives in cloth, and planning how they will be divided among the women at the wedding.

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The bombs from Jezebel's ill-fated plot are still planted, so that a bigger assault, maybe one that is planned with American troops, is still in the works.

The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 reveals Gilead's cockiness as what ultimately does them in. Redeploying all the guards to assist at the ceremony and Boston sitting there without adequate security presents a ready-to-exploit target for the final, massive operation.

As much as Janine will be stuck on that day for attending a wedding without while still captive with Commander Bell, the overall objective supersedes everything else. June realizes this is their last chance, and with Aunt Phoebe inside, they could finally cause irreparable harm.

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Interested viewers can watch The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 7 on Hulu.

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Edited by Bharath S
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