In the season 4 finale of The Handmaid's Tale, June has a few Gilead flashbacks, but what's the timeline and meaning behind them? The episode picks back up after June has learned that Fred and Serena are set to walk away from their heinous crimes, relatively scot-free, since Fred has become a valuable, Gilead-related intelligence asset for the Canadian government. As time goes on, many of June's attempts at moving forward and seeking justice and closure are beginning to seem futile.

It's infuriating to watch as it seems like the Waterfords will attain the comfortable, conventional home and family life that they've always wanted. Despite everything that's happened between them, Serena even decides to give Fred another chance in order to fulfill (in her eyes) the image of what a family is, which is what she's always craved more than anything. Neither of them shows much more than the occasional hint of remorse for their pasts. Even then, it took them being flipped into a defensive position to feel that way.

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Fred's severely distorted view of past events is showcased when June visits him. He attempts to have a genuine conversation with her about how he misses who she was when she answered to "Offred" and how he believes they had a genuine, romantic connection at certain times in the past. This is when, for the first time outside of Gilead, June begins manipulating Fred, once again playing into his twisted attachment to her. To lure him into a false sense of security, she pretends to have felt a spark between them, as well, saying she misses "Offred" too. This tactic was one she had to master in order to survive and make the best of her situation earlier on The Handmaid's Tale. She's done it countless times, and the recurring flashback of her and Fred dancing at Jezebel's is a perfect parallel to that. The episode opens with June's bitterly sarcastic monologue over the scene (that must have been from one of her and Fred's trips to the city in season 1) when she says, "It has to look like love. That's what he needs. Pretend you like it. Pretend you love it. Pretend you want him."

June and Fred in Handmaid's Tale season 4 finale

Just like at the Waterford home, when she was at Jezebel's with him, June not only had to respect and be friendly toward Fred, but she also had to be physically and sexually intimate with him. The other flashbacks in the Handmaid's Tale episode show June back in the Waterford home, slowly trailing down a hallway, and then kneeling on a pillow waiting for The Ceremony to begin, as she had been forced to do so many times. Both scenes encapsulate June's past feelings of utter helplessness, which have recently resurfaced, about being forced to comply with others' wishes and give up her autonomy and human rights.

But, of course, the conniving look in June's eyes as she stares viewers down over Fred's shoulder in the flashback from Jezebel's also connects that past helplessness to a cathartic sense of revenge that's finally unleashed when she and other ex-Handmaids brutally kill Fred in No Man's Land. The flashbacks dive into June's painful past, but they also show how the tables have turned. She no longer has to play into what Fred wants because, as she says in her monologue, her "life depends on it." That chapter of her life is over, and she's survived. She finally gets her chance to see Fred Waterford as scared as she was time and time again over the course of The Handmaid's Tale.

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