WARNING: Spoilers for The Handmaid's Tale season 5, episode 5 and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.At the end of Luke and June find themselves captured, but this twist marks June's first steps toward genuinely ing the resistance against Gilead and setting up her future as told in The Testaments. June's flirtation with Mayday during her time in Gilead never led to her fully ing the resistance — while she wants to bring down Gilead, her own priorities have taken precedence over any larger goal. That has primarily centered on the rescuing of Hannah, and the resistance can't afford to focus on saving one child when they are trying to bring down an entire regime. June being at odds with Mayday has left her to work on her own, but that may be changing.
After escaping from Gilead and entering Canada, June has become more open in her efforts to subvert Gilead in testifying against Fred Waterford before murdering him after his release. She is also introduced, via Moira, to the Mayday resistance base on the border of No Man's Land. It is here where she re-enters Gilead in search of information on Hannah and where she eventually gets captured. She hasn't ed the resistance outright, but June has taken the steps to officially being part of Mayday and taking down Gilead on a larger scale.
With June and Luke captured by Gilead forces, it's not going to be easy for them to escape. Whatever happens to them will only embolden June, especially if Luke gets hurt in the process. Mayday's role in The Handmaid's Tale season 5 is only becoming more prominent and June will be spurred on by her time in Gilead to the point where she may have no choice but to the resistance. She's quickly running out of options when it comes to taking revenge on the regime — Serena is protected, and the U.S. government is pretty much useless in fighting the nation due to bureaucratic nonsense. June ing Mayday in earnest could see her step into a new role, and it will most certainly set up her future in The Testaments.
June's Testaments Future Explained
Not much is known about June's time after the end of Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale. Some information is gleaned from the sequel novel The Testaments, but even then, June's activities working for Mayday remain mysterious. The novel does, however, reveal that she ultimately ends up under the protection of the Canadian government, living happily with both of her daughters. What happens in between is largely open to interpretation, with June's time in the resistance forcing her to go into hiding and leaving behind baby Nichole with other Mayday operatives.
If Hulu's adaptation of The Testaments chooses to explore this period in June's life, it will have to take some liberties with the source material. June will also need a reason beyond what she has right now, and The Handmaid's Tale hints that could involve the death of Luke. While Luke is alive at the end of the Testaments book, the Handmaid's Tale show has not been afraid to divert from the source material, and the same could be true of the sequel's adaptation. June and Luke are just beginning to reconcile, so it would make sense to see him die in order to set up June's Testaments future in the sequel series. Even if Luke doesn't die, his and June's time in Gilead in season 5 will be instrumental in setting up the final season of The Handmaid's Tale, sending June down a path that she almost doesn't come back from.
New episodes of The Handmaid's Tale premiere Wednesdays on Hulu.