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With only one episode remaining in the series, The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9 provides an emotionally intense and action-packed story that puts several long-simmering character threads at a breaking point.
As the second-to-last episode of Hulu's award-winning dystopian drama, the episode not only brings back major players such as June, Moira, and Serena, but adds a few surprising guest stars who disrupt the state of Gilead in surprising ways.
In the aftermath of a violent insurrection, the episode lays the groundwork for a fatal showdown between rebels and Gilead's strongest Commanders.
And though the last blast might be what viewers recall most, the cast of characters, old and new, provides the episode with its emotional resonance and dramatic richness.
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The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9 features main characters like June, Nick, Serena, and Commander Lawrence, along with guest stars D'Arcy Carden as Aunt Phoebe and Ever Carradine as Naomi Putnam.
Who appeared in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9?
Elisabeth Moss once again heads the central cast of The Handmaid's Tale season 6 episode 9 as June Osborne. She carries the episode on her shoulders, bringing to life a woman caught between vengeance and survival.
She is supported by Samira Wiley as Moira, who operates behind the scenes to aid Mayday efforts from Canada, and Madeline Brewer as Janine, still rebellious despite all she went through.
Nick Blaine, played by Max Minghella, has a heavy presence in the episode, as does Commander Joseph Lawrence, portrayed with subtle gravitas by Bradley Whitford in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9.
Ann Dowd’s Aunt Lydia continues to struggle with her loyalty to Gilead’s structure versus her growing empathy for the Handmaids, while Yvonne Strahovski’s Serena Joy plays a crucial strategic role that ultimately helps set the explosive events of the episode into motion.
The episode also returns O-T Fagbenle to series regular status as Luke. The Good Place actress D'Arcy Carden appears as faux-Aunt Phoebe in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9 and Ever Carradine also returns as Naomi Putnam.
What happens in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9?
The episode continues shortly from the gory wedding aftermath of Commander Wharton and Serena, where the Handmaids had staged a fatal surprise attack.
Taking advantage of the turmoil, June, Phoebe, and a band of Handmaids try to make a break for the Gileadean frontier.
Their escape is foiled, and they are taken into custody. With their own executions hanging over them, Mayday comes forward to stage the boldest portion of their plan: taking out the rest of the Gilead leadership in a single strike in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9.
At the center of this scheme is Commander Lawrence, who offers to detonate a bomb on an airplane to fly Gilead's highest-ranking Commanders, including Wharton, to Washington, D.C.
Since he was supposed to get off the plane prior to departure, his fellow Commanders show up too early, and he is left behind on the plane.
Instead of triggering suspicion and failure, Lawrence gives his life for the success of the mission in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9.
Nick boards the plane at the last possible moment, as requested by Wharton. Unaware, he's heading into a killing zone.
June observes in the distance as the plane takes off, quite aware that the bomb is on board.
Her quiet despair reinforces one of the show's core themes: that individual loss is typically the cost of revolution in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9.
When the plane goes up in a spectacular explosion mid-air in one of the show's most striking images, the destinies of Lawrence, Nick, Wharton, and the other Commanders are sealed.
Although no bodies appear, the blazing wreckage offers little doubt. The plan by the resistance has succeeded, but at a steep personal price.
June has not just lost two men she once trusted implicitly, but Gilead itself is now bereft of many of its highest leaders in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9.
In the meantime, Wharton's betrayal by Serena is shown to be a masterstroke.
Persuading herself that Wharton poses a threat to her son, Serena unknowingly feeds information to the Americans, in effect sanctioning her husband's murder.
Her decision signals a value shift of epic proportions, one that would alter her position in the series' last installment.
Interested viewers can watch The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 episode 9 on Hulu.
