Season 4, episode 6 of The Handmaid's Tale shows June secure her freedom from Gilead, but its events are bad news for fans that want to see her end up with Nick. A hefty chunk of plot progression has been packed into the season so far, but Nick (Max Minghella) and June (Elisabeth Moss) haven't seen much of each other. Nick, who also answers to "Commander Blaine," has seemingly been trying to keep the treasonous woman he loves off of the wall from afar.
The two have been a semi-secret item since season 1. And their genuine connection has given them both a reason to keep trudging forward, as well as a way for June to periodically reclaim her sexuality on her own . They even have a daughter together, which allowed June to conceive a child with a man she actually loved. The couple has become a component of the show that fans root for, and many of them want to see June end up with Nick instead of Luke. But it isn't looking like those viewers are going to get their wish, since June makes a chaotic escape to Canada in episode 6 and reunites with Luke.
Still, it's cathartic for viewers to watch Luke lovingly accept his wife back after she was guiltily ruminating on whether he could forgive her for not being able to get their daughter, Hannah, out of the country. The episode makes it clear that having children was always of great importance within their relationship, and the loss of their daughter is a potent one. But it seems as though the two will be leaning on each other to mourn her, though she's still alive one country over. Things certainly won't go right back to normal; too much has happened and too much time has elapsed. Most likely, June and Luke will try to rebuild their home as much as they can and raise Nichole, the one child of June's that they can still have in their lives, together. And though that's hopeful for June and Luke as a couple, it takes the idea of June and Nick off of the table.
Nick is still back in Gilead. And not only that, but he's also still deeply embedded in the country's government. He's serving a deployment as a Commander and is even a member of the Council that seems to run the show regarding laws and punishments, military strategy, and the overall way Gilead operates. And Nick himself seems to oversee at least some of those military operations, as he was tasked with the aerial bombings on known insurgent areas earlier in the season. Though it was immensely difficult for June to find a way out of Gilead, for Nick, it seems next to impossible.
Since the beginning of their on-and-off-again relationship at the very beginning of The Handmaid's Tale, the future has never appeared overly hopeful as far as Nick and June ending up together. What people truly want for their own lives isn't a concern to the higher-ups of Gilead; life there is about doing your duty to serve a "greater good." And the molds for June and Nick's paths have never been set up to truly intersect. After episode 6, with June seeming to embrace freedom in Canada with Luke by her side, it looks even less likely that her relationship with Nick will ever stay intact outside of Gilead's borders.