Warning! SPOILERS about The Handmaid’s Tale season 6, episode 1 ahead.

June and Serena’s reunion on the train going west quickly turned distressing in The Handmaid’s Tale season 5 ending with Serena and June on a refugee train promised them both a new beginning.

It all quickly went sideways the moment people started to realize who Serena really was. The tentative alliance established in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6, episode 1’s first moments between June and Serena was not without its problems, as June had immediately thought Serena had stolen Nichole when she couldn’t find her after waking up. However, it was nothing compared to what Serena and June had to face when everyone on the train realized Serena was Commander Waterford’s wife and Gilead’s inventor. The chaos and violence of the ordeal led June to make the unexpected choice of helping Serena again.

June Saves Serena Joy On The Train Because Of Her Baby

June Knew That Noah Would Have Suffered Too If The Mob Got To Serena

Throughout The Handmaid’s Tale season 6, episode 1, Serena seemed open to sharing the trip with June, even advocating for her to be seen by a doctor despite June’s reticence to accept her help. June wanting nothing to do with Serena made sense based on the abuse Serena subjected her to, but at the same time, it was clear June wanted Serena punished, not violently killed by an angry mob. This became even more evident in the way June pleaded with the policeman to take Serena, assuring it was her so that she would face justice and not brutal violence.

However, the most important reason motivating June to protect Serena has to be Noah. Despite all the cruelty Serena enacted against June, even the most recent reminder of having Hannah play a part in Fred’s funeral, June didn’t want Noah to be raised away from his mother. Serena and June’s relationship was incredibly tumultuous throughout The Handmaid’s Tale, but in season 5 they also showed kindness toward one another, and June, in particular, helped Serena deliver Noah, making his well-being what June wanted to preserve, something that would have been impossible had the other refugees gotten their hands on Serena.

June & Serena's Handmaid's Tale Season 6 Story Isn't What Was Expected

The Handmaid's Tale Season 5 Seemingly Set Up Serena & June's Temporary Truce

Serena and June’s moments together in season 5 all hinted at them potentially teaming up in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6, which makes their separation feel abrupt in the season’s very beginning, as they were just reunited again. In its entire run, The Handmaid’s Tale made a point to have Serena and June’s journeys toward different goals mirror one another, even pushing them into difficult situations where they might rely on one another. This created a compelling dynamic precisely because June would have preferred anybody else to find herself with in those predicaments.

June can never stay away for too long from Mayday, wanting to destroy Gilead and get Hannah back, and simultaneously Serena is still embroiled in the promotion of Gilead […] making a June and Serena reunion much likelier.

The latest developments in June and Serena’s inescapably interconnected story hint they might meet again, even if their paths brought them away from one another. After all, June can never stay away for too long from Mayday, wanting to destroy Gilead and get Hannah back, and simultaneously Serena is still embroiled in the promotion of Gilead because she created it and due to her diplomatic role. This can make a June and Serena reunion much likelier in The Handmaid’s Tale season 6, even more so in light of season 6 being the final one and needing to conclude their story.

New episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale season 6 release on Hulu every Tuesday.