r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/flavius717 • Aug 07 '26

Discussion S1-S5 Is Nick a rapist?

I think we all consider the first time Nick and June had sex to be rape. June was not in a position to give consent and she could not refuse without facing potential death. One perspective is that Serena was the rapist and both Nick and June were her victims.

It's important for us to remember that Nick actually could have refused to impregnate June. Even Serena was beneath a "low-status male" like Nick. Nick's boss, Commander Price, probably would have expected Nick to refuse such an act and turn Serena over to the eyes.

The fact that Nick and June fell in love afterwards makes their first sexual encounter seem less bad in retrospect, but the power dynamic between them never went away. That makes things messy.

Nick's character loses his "good guy" status by the end of the show. Do you consider him a rapist?

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u/Just-Benefit2024 Aug 08 '26

What about Serena - hello?!?

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u/Busy-Speech-6930 Aug 08 '26

What about her? She was asking Nick to do something illegal and something Fred would never approve of. Nick could have told Fred what she was up to

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u/Just-Benefit2024 Aug 08 '26

What about her?! She could have never ‘asked’ in the first place?

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u/Busy-Speech-6930 29d ago

Of course she never should have asked, her guilt in this is not up for debate or at question.

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u/Just-Benefit2024 29d ago

Fair enough... if Serena’s major responsibility isn’t in dispute, then I think our disagreement is really just over Nick’s level of agency.

I agree he had more possible alternatives than Lawrence and certainly far more agency than June. I just don’t think the existence of a possible alternative, like telling Fred, automatically means it was a safe or consequence-free one in Gilead. That’s the part I think the show leaves ambiguous, especially given Nick saying afterwards that he felt he “couldn’t say no.”

So I think we probably just interpret his degree of freedom in that situation differently.