The Handmaid's Tale season 4, episode 7 is a messy and emotional look at June beginning to reclaim her old life, but it also features quite a few Gilead flashback scenes from other points in the series - and each one has its own meaning. Since 2017, the darkly funny, yet disturbing, dystopian drama has followed June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) and many of her family and friends as they navigate an era where the United States has been converted to Gilead, a nation with violent and extremist versions of Christian values.
The show centers around the lives of its titular women, a role June finds herself in within the new, patriarchal regime. Infertility is a major concern in the world, so Gilead collects the nation's fertile women and assigns them to the houses of Commanders (male, power-holding officer types) to be routinely raped for procreative purposes. Against their will, they're literally birthing the nation's next generation. Given The Handmaid's Tale's subject matter, a great deal of what takes place in the plot orbits around physical and sexual violence, misogynistic oppression, and general trauma. The story follows June as she repeatedly tries to escape and/or rebel against the country that's holding her captive.
In The Handmaid's Tale season 4, episode 7, "Home", June is finally free from Gilead, and returns to what she now knows to be her new life. She's safe, seeking asylum in Canada while reuniting with Luke, Moira, Nichole, Emily, and Rita. But when she prematurely pushes herself into braving a trip to the local supermarket, her re-acclimation is harder than expected. While she's briefly separated from Moira and Luke while shopping, she's understandably catapulted into a series of traumatic flashbacks to painful, yet key, moments during her time in Gilead.
Seeing Alma's Face In The Next Grocery Aisle - Season 3
The first flashback hits while June is perusing the potato chips; for a split second, she thinks she sees part of Alma's face in the next aisle over. Obviously, Alma is dead at this point and June has already escaped Gilead. But the grocery store was always a sort of meeting place for the handmaids, one where they could swap minor amounts of information and get larger messages out to others. June, Alma, and other treasonous handmaids and Marthas used the store to do a good deal of conspiring about the eventual, successful plot to get 86 children out of Gilead in season 3.
June's "Wings" In Washington D.C. - Season 3
This scene is from season 3, episode 6, "Household". June is in Washington D.C. with the Waterfords as they try to convince Canada to let them take Nichole back to Gilead. While filming a video featuring the three of them praying for her return, there are multiple shots of June with a winged statue directly behind her. The frame is set up to appear as if June herself has wings on her back. It's a clear nod to her role as the show's heroine, an "angel" of hope for those oppressed in Gilead. From the very beginning of The Handmaid's Tale, it's clear that she'll be the one to spearhead a vital resistance movement to fight back against the country's dystopian reign.
Alma And Briana Being Hit By The Train - Season 4
This scene is from season 4, episode 3, "The Crossing". As June, Janine, Alma, and Briana make one final escape (this time from the back of a car with Aunt Lydia), the latter two handmaids are hit by an oncoming train. June and Janine make it away, but they watch as the two close friends die right in front of their eyes--a fate they'd rather be subject to instead of continued sexual servitude. It's a powerful scene for multiple reasons.
For one, it captures how handmaids feel about their lives in Gilead; they'd rather die than endure another day of it. It's also yet another traumatic moment where handmaids are forced to watch their friends die and not even get the chance to mourn the loss. And, as Janine brings up later in the following episode, there's a sense of guilt for June interwoven within the event as well. She's been the resistance's figurehead and leader for a great deal of the show, inspiring others to fight back and take chances as well. But, had some of her plans not been carried out or gone as they did, certain people might have different fates or still be alive.
Hannah Being Taken - Season 1
This scene is part of The Handmaid's Tale's opening sequence from the pilot, "Offred." It shows June, Luke, and Hannah trying to escape from the former United States as Gilead is taking full control of the reigns. Hannah is ripped away by Eyes as a horrified June thrashes and fights back in vain. The opening sequence sets the tone in relation to being separated from one's children against their will. It's something that June and other handmaids battle with all of the time, making the loss of their old lives all the more potent. And, after this moment, June never stops; she tenaciously fights to get Hannah back all the way into season 4.
Saying Goodbye To Janine In Chicago - Season 4
One scene takes place in The Handmaid's Tale season 4, episode 5, "Chicago." It's when June is leaving the camp within the aforementioned city. Originally, Janine decided to stay, though she changes her mind and catches up with June later on. The goodbye is a tender and melancholic moment between the two friends who have been through so much adversity and suffering together. The moment also reinforces a common theme within the show: being constantly forced to part with people you care about within Gilead's borders. Whether the parting is one with a conventional "goodbye" or a death, connecting with people is dangerous while in the country. Human connection can be what gets you through it all, but the loss of it can be corrosive as well.
June Being Tortured By Aunt Lydia And Aunt Elizabeth - Season 1
Interestingly, this flashback is actually from another flashback in season 1, episode 4, "Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum." Viewers are walked through what Gilead's initial takeover looked like and how that manifested in rounding up American citizens for different roles. While training to be handmaids, June and Moira rough up Aunt Elizabeth (one of Aunt Lydia's associates), steal her clothes, and try to escape while pretending to be another aunt and handmaid walking around the city. Of course, June doesn't make it out, and she's given a nasty punishment: being strapped down and having the bottoms of her bare feet repeatedly whipped.
The scene symbolizes June's many different attempts at escaping Gilead, which she only had a successful try at very recently in the series. Time and time again, she fights back and tries to assert what little power she can scrape together given the circumstances. But, for the most part, her attempts end up being letdowns. She's repeatedly recaptured and punished in ways that are even worse than her original role as a handmaid.
June Receiving Her Ear Tracker - Season 1
This flashback is from season 1, episode 10. The scene is its own flashback to when June received her painfully-applied ear tracker from Aunt Lydia during her handmaid training. It's the beginning of her life as property, affixed with technology that has a purpose akin to branding cattle or putting a chip in a pet. It's also one of her first experiences in Gilead - of which there will be many - where something drastic is done to her body that she doesn't consent to.
Serena Waterford Screaming At June - Season 1
As the episode's title implies - season 1, episode 3, "Late" - the flashback centers around the idea of June possibly being pregnant. Her period is a few days late, and Serena starts treating her with disingenuous warmness and human decency when she thinks that her handmaid is carrying "her" child. She acts like a completely different person than the one she had been thus far - that is, until June finally gets her period and has to reveal that she's not actually pregnant. Serena channels her disappointment and rage by dragging her up to her room before throwing her to the floor and screaming in her face, "You will stay here and you will not leave this room! Do you understand me? DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"
This scene encapsulates not only the nature of June's time as a handmaid (one of servitude where she must accept any treatment bestowed upon her), but also the more emotionally toxic relationship she was forced to endure with Serena. Serena, like Gilead, never truly cared about June - only the children she could hypothetically bear. She would treat her like an actual human being with feelings when it directly correlated with her own interests. But when the tables inevitably turn and there was no need to continue acting that way, her true colors always bled through.
June Seeing Hannah From Afar - Season 1
Another scene was taken from The Handmaid's Tale's season 1 finale. Worried for the safety of "her" child within June's womb, Serena takes June on a surprise trip to see Hannah from afar. June is locked in the car, screaming and pounding on the window as she watches Serena sit with her daughter on the steps of a home. After showing that she can get to Hannah if she wants and June is powerless to even briefly visit her daughter, Serena imparts this threat-riddled sentiment: "As long as my baby is safe, so is yours."
It's yet another well-chosen scene with immense symbolism. The entire series revolves around the idea of not only being unimaginably exploited and abused, but also living to live with the second blow of having one's children plucked away and not being able to do anything about it. Throughout the show, June knows that Hannah is alive and (hopefully) well in Gilead. She's somewhat nearby, but always out of reach. And, as a mother, June simply has to bear the pain while trudging forward despite it; there's no other alternative.
Graphic Assault Scene - Season 2
The final flashback takes place in season 2, episode 10, "The Last Ceremony". June is at the end of her pregnancy with Nichole, and Fred and Serena are growing impatient waiting for the baby to be born. The couple decides on attempting to help nature along using "the most natural way," which is really just reimplementing Gilead's ritualistic rape. June had been successfully avoiding the "ceremonies" during her pregnancy, but quickly realizes the Waterfords have a different plan for her. And, though all of the show's assault scenes are graphic and disturbing, there's an extra, heinous layer to it as June is violently held down despite her protesting, thrashing, and fear for her baby's safety in utero.
Though horrifying, this flashback is another solid choice for representing the lingering scars left within June's psyche and subsequent life due to her time in Gilead on The Handmaid's Tale. It conveys the tone of daily life for handmaids - one where your body is treated as if it belongs to someone else.