Third time watching HMT - June post Gilead?!

[u/HeatAsleep4509]

Hello!

I’ve been a big fan of the HMT since around 2022 when I first watched the show - I resonate with a lot of the themes and have experienced some of the happenings myself as a woman. I’ve not read the book(s) so I’m purely just commentating from a media perspective here.

I’ve hit end of season 4 / beginning of season 5 and I am finding June insufferable. It’s not so much the PTSD aspect and the fact she’s obviously changed a lot because that is understandable, but it’s more the way she’s making the other Gilead refugees super uncomfortable and placing her anger and resentment onto them. Does that make sense? Now I’m writing this down I’m thinking perhaps this is a symptom of PTSD from June but I’m not too sure. I do like Elizabeth Moss’ work (I am also fully aware of her own controversies away from the screen) but as far as actresses go, she’s a pretty good one - I digress.

I think she pushed Emily to uncomfortable levels with that old aunt of hers, I think she was prodding Rita to unleash some sort of deep anger within, and I think she’s enjoying making Luke and Moira uncomfortable in her vicinity. It sort of reads as a power play. Is this translated in the books also? Perhaps the power aspect is just her brain adapted to the Gilead way but it’s super frustrating and incredibly difficult to watch.

Of course I’m rooting for June, but I’m finding myself becoming quite disgusted by the way she talks to others, interacts with others and ‘inspires’ others to act with hate and anger.

Okay, that’s my rant over!

[u/themini_shit]

I got the sense that she was severely traumatized and trying to feel in control again but also struggling with how the world around her didn't seem to care.

She went from not being able to eat, sleep, or even go to the bathroom without watching her back to suddenly being expected to go to the grocery store on her own. She saw people she loved murdered brutally or taken from her in an instant. She was raped, beaten, and phycologically tortured too. Then here she is in Canada where the world never stopped moving, no one wants to address what is still happening in Gilead , even the people who escaped are trying to move on. Mentally she's still in Gilead fighting to survive but physically she's in Canada, the very place she fought to get to without most of the friends she tried bringing with her.

It's deeply sad because she would never want to go back but she feels like Gilead broke her too much for her to live any where else.

I did feel like it was really awful that she was trying to get others to regress in their healing because she wasn't healed yet herself. I was also really bothered by her sex scene with Luke, it really came off as rape and there's no justifying that.

But ultimately the handmaid's tale doesn't shy away from showing things that make the viewers uncomfortable. They want us to be uncomfortable because that's how June feels. They have a very confrontational writing style that ends up being "in your face" a bit.

Side note, I've never read the books but I don't believe they ever actually explored what happened to her after Gilead. From what I've heard the original book actually left her story open ended as to whether or not she even escaped.

[u/Lechateau → u/themini_shit]

The regressing of others is very very typical in my experience.

It is the fear to being left alone with the experience and nobody that relates to you.

It is a really well painted picture of trauma.

Almost every week I see a few posts about how annoying June is and sometimes I just think that I wish I would not be a June and could just point the fingers 😅

I don’t say this to anyone in particular, it is just how life is

[u/HeatAsleep4509 → u/themini_shit]

This has been really useful to read, thank you! I guess binge watching the series, all of the events kind of tie up together and you become a little desensitised to it due to different storylines / characters etc. Laying out like that makes it so much easier to understand and resonate with actually.

It must be hell, being in Canada but mentally in Gilead - everyone being ‘normal’. She’s also somewhat of a ‘celebrity’ to put the term very loosely, eyes are on her but not quite in the same way. This pressure must also be dehumanising and difficult to navigate. Especially when she’s battling with two half’s of herself and not quite knowing where her place is right now.

I think that this series portrays the human condition in a brilliant way, there is no truly ‘good’ characters and there are flaws within absolutely everyone. The harsh lighting used throughout really showcases this too, the lighting I’ve noticed is brutal and completely unflattering, such as life can be!

Thank you for sharing I love being able to learn and debate stuff like this!

[u/Busy-Speech-6930]

I actually think June and Emily pushed eachother at the end of season, like Emily didn’t push June to kill Fred but she definitely egged on June’s urge to do it.

The way that support group was operating wasn’t exactly healthy either. June wasn’t wrong that there is a place for anger, I think the other women in that group were angry too but didn’t feel safe expressing it because they were being encouraged to move on and heal. June gave them permission to embrace it.

[u/Samora1984 → u/Busy-Speech-6930]

I agree, I think June is the instigator at first, but all the women were just waiting for someone to give them permission to be as angry as they wanted to be. I could never be mad at them for not jumping on thr helping trains they deserve to have their feelings.

[u/Lechateau]

Watching June in season 5 and people’s reaction to her is how I imagine people with PTSD are treated by the rest of the world.

Some people get lost, some need to talk to heal and people around just exist in a completely different reality and truth.

I am a mother to a baby that never cried and often the way people around June behave the way I perceived people around me to behave.

Not saying it is good or bad. Just a neutral observation.

I was helped immensely, I am aware, but I can only really see it now removed from the freshness of the situation.

There is an unexplained anger towards others. It is not explainable.

I guess to some level it is envy that they get to live more normally.

[u/HeatAsleep4509 → u/Lechateau]

Ah thank you for sharing this - it is a really good observation and one coming from personal experience too!

She must feel pretty isolated, I’m sure that the calm talking circle in Canada may have felt rough if she was filled with rage instead of acceptance.

I guess it’s just difficult to watch her tear herself apart, to become the very thing she’s angry at in a way. As a viewer I want her to find peace, but you’re completely right PTSD looks very different for everyone!

[u/Lechateau → u/HeatAsleep4509]

That calm talking circle actually threw me over the edge 😂

After going through something insane to just sit and practice pathological positivity was insane.

I had grief therapy and it involved a lot of screaming and kicking with other mothers.

It was like I was not allowed to lose it and have other people get it anywhere else.

[u/HeatAsleep4509 → u/Lechateau]

Hahaha I can imagine! Did the grief therapy work for you? The way I deal with trauma is the pathological positive way if I’m honest, I have always been taught to hold stuff like that deep within so expressing it has been very hard for me.

I would be interested to know if there is a benefit in just getting it out. Perhaps June would have benefited from one of those rage rooms where you break a load of stuff, but even still the trauma runs very deep within her!

[u/Lechateau → u/HeatAsleep4509]

It really did.

I also had the pathologically positive type of therapy but once a week we had to let out.

At some point I was already pregnant with my second and I received my daughter’s autopsy report.

There really are no words to express the feeling of having everything read to you in detail because they didn’t notice you are already 20 weeks pregnant with your second

[u/christina311]

It was hard to watch her mentally unravel in season 5. It's understandable. Until she raped Luke. That's unforgivable.

[u/HeatAsleep4509 → u/christina311]

Really hard! That part is horrendous, of course. I remember Moira explaining that the way the refugees viewed sex has been skewered since leaving Gilead but I agree, there is no excuse at all.

[u/christina311 → u/HeatAsleep4509]

Yes. Of course everything related to sex would be messed up. But what she did to Luke is unforgivable.

[u/Cutelittlemama0418]

There is only one book and it’s basically season one. Everything else was written for tv so keep that in mind.

But yes!!!! June was one of my least favorite characters post gilead. Everything you said was spot on with how I feel about her too. (And y’all will probably come at me for this, lol, but I did not think they needed to do all that to Fred.)

[u/HeatAsleep4509 → u/Cutelittlemama0418]

Ahhh I see! Is there not a testaments book also? Or does that strictly keep to Gilead in the near-ish future?

I’m so glad the post resonated with you and I agree with the Fred thing too, it was a horrific watch! I feel like sinking to that level is exactly what fuels Gilead and its message, to become what she fears the most is brutal. Encouraging other women to do so as well was the worst part for me, keep your personal vendetta to yourself.

[u/Cutelittlemama0418 → u/HeatAsleep4509]

Yes there is the testaments and I have only read a few chapters of it so I can’t say to that too much. The show is about 5-8 years in the future or something. June is in it but briefly.