‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Boss Explains Nick’s ‘Winners’ Line in Final Moments
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 Episode 9, “Execution.”]
The Handmaid’s Tale delivered an explosive end for Nick (Max Minghella) and Commander Lawrence (Bradley Whitford) in the penultimate episode of the series. June’s former lover was killed when an altitude-triggered bomb went off on the plane carrying the last surviving commanders from Boston, a bomb planted by Lawrence in what became a suicide mission. June (Elisabeth Moss) and Lawrence didn’t expect Nick to be on that plane, but stopping him from boarding would mean losing their last chance to kill Wharton (Josh Charles) and the other commanders. Nick smiled at Lawrence on the plane as he said, “Guess you decided to join the winners.” His death, and this “join the winners” line in particular, has had The Handmaid’s Tale fans talking since the episode came out on May 20. Here, The Handmaid’s Tale executive producer/former showrunner Bruce Miller explains what that line means to TV Insider.
Earlier in the episode, Nick’s pregnant wife Rose (Carey Cox) urged him to take his place as a powerful commander being led by her father, Wharton. Rose wanted Nick to defend their family after June and the Handmaids killed the majority of the city’s commanders and some of their wives. Having been rejected by June after the Jezebel’s massacre in Episode 7, Nick decided there was nothing left for him to do but side with Gilead. It’s a serious moral issue that Nick would align himself with this authoritarian regime.
Miller is the creator of The Handmaid’s Tale series and served as its showrunner through Season 5. Yahlin Chang and Eric Tuchman took over as co-showrunners for the final season as Miller pivoted to creating The Testaments spinoff that’s currently filming in Toronto. Miller was still creatively involved in the final season and wrote next week’s Handmaid’s Tale series finale.
Miller says that the “join the winners” line was indicative of Nick’s true good nature. Siding with Gilead, according to Miller, was an act of protection for his wife and unborn son.
“He’s willingly choosing [to side with Gilead], but think of what he said. He didn’t say, ‘We chose the right side,'” Miller explains to TV Insider. “He needed to be on the winning side because he can’t be on the losing side in Gilead because that means you’re gone and you can’t help anybody.”
Disney / Steve Wilkie
Nick isn’t choosing Gilead as a sudden endorsement of its beliefs and practices, Miller says, but rather a belief that there’s no beating this regime; it’s better to protect yourself by moving with it rather than against.
“What he really means is, ‘We picked the winning side,’ which is good [to Nick] because on the losing side, there’s 36 of them [commanders] dead already back in Gilead,” Miller explains. “He liked to stay out of trouble, and this seemed to be the only way he could possibly stay out of trouble in the long run.”
Miller agrees that Nick “absolutely” made the wrong decision, and he paid for it with his life. The producer explains Nick’s morality and decisions in more detail.
“For Nick, I really felt like he’s such a good man that once he got married and his wife got pregnant, I felt like it was kind of inevitable. He had to try to build a life in Gilead,” Miller says. “He was being the person we all believe he is in a wonderful way, which is he was a devoted boyfriend and lover to June to a huge extent. The things she loved about him and his devotion to her are the same things he felt towards, ‘OK, now I’ve committed to this woman, I’m going to have a child, and June would beat me up if — she’d be so disappointed if I didn’t take care of my child.’ So for me, it felt like a sad but inevitable step that is like, it’s one thing when you’re alone and living over the garage, but when you get married and when you have a child, you have to make a choice about the environment you’re going to raise them in.”
Disney / Steve Wilkie
“By making that choice, he was on a slope that he desperately didn’t want to be on, but he could see ahead,” Miller continues. “He really got sadder and sadder about the inevitability of having to really do something in this regime that he really felt like he had done his service and he didn’t have to do it. As you move along in the story, what I tried to do with both of those guys [Nick and Lawrence] is think about what they would do next. Not what the story would do to them, but do what they would be trying to do. And I think that Nick is trying always to stay out of trouble. He does terribly this season, but he’s constantly trying to get out of conflict, trying to run away.”
“He likes to run away. We all do. When we first met him, he had a lot more time to have a very rich fantasy life and a very empty real life,” Miller concludes. “His fantasy life came to life with June for a while, and now he has very little time for a fantasy life, and his real life is really complicated, and he spends all this time thinking about how to keep himself safe for his family. It’s changed him in a way with his priorities that he has to think about that more than he can think about himself. So it’s very sad, but I do think it was inevitable for him if he’s going to be a standup guy, that he would be a standup guy for his on-the-way son.”
Nick’s death “was heartbreaking for me,” Miller notes, going on to praise Minghella’s performance throughout the course of the series.
Playing Nick is “such a hard thing to do well,” Miller says. “And [Minghella’s] a writer and a director and a producer of his own projects, and he’s such a thoughtful, gentle, precise actor. He never oversteps any way. It’s wonderful. He’s really, really great. And it’s a difficult character to play because almost all the time you don’t see [Nick], he’s doing horrible things. So how do you play that character? You play someone who is — you’re only seeing him when he’s absolutely at his most wonderfully ecstatic. And so it’s a really interesting thing. And Max and his eyebrows have done excellent work.”
Find out what happens after this successful attack on Boston’s last commanders in The Handmaid’s Tale series finale.
The Handmaid’s Tale, Series Finale, Tuesday, May 27, Hulu
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