Nick Was Never the Good Guy: The Handmaid’s Tale and the Danger of Looking Away
"Hmm He hesitates at the top of that staircase... but he doesn’t turn around." — Eric Tuchman, Executive Producer
We need to talk about Nick.
After last night’s Handmaid’s Tale episode — Season 6, Episode 9, Execution — I saw the usual reactions circulating online. Fans mourning Nick’s choices. Justifying them. Hoping he’ll be redeemed. That he still might run to June, to freedom, to the light.
But if you’ve been watching closely, you know: that ship didn’t just sail. It was never real. Not the way we hoped. Not the way June wanted to believe.
What these last few episodes have done — with deliberate, cutting precision — is strip the romance away. June finally saw Nick clearly. And so did we.
The Illusion of the “Good Man”
Nick has always been a master of ambiguity. Silent. Brooding. Strategic. A man who played both sides with just enough sincerity to make you believe he had a soul too bruised to act, but just present enough to convince June — and us — that he was with her.
But love is not resistance. And choosing a woman in secret doesn’t mean you’re fighting for her in public.
What Nick did, over and over again, was stay — in Gilead. In power. In silence.
He kept climbing. He became a commander. An architect of the very world that June has bled and burned to escape. And still, many fans root for him. Because he “loves her.”
But here’s the truth: Nick loved June in a way that cost him nothing. June loved Nick in a way that nearly cost her everything.
Taking Off the Rose-Colored Glasses
The show wanted us to believe in Nick. But more importantly, it wanted us to wake up when June did.
His final act of betrayal isn’t dramatic — it’s quiet. He boards a plane. He makes a choice. He aligns, once and for all, with Gilead. It is, as executive producer Eric Tuchman said, the moment Nick stops walking the tightrope. He chooses a side.
And it isn’t hers.
That’s what makes this episode so devastating. June doesn’t yell. She doesn’t scream. She doesn’t even speak. She just watches. The expression on her face — devastation edged with clarity — is the moment every woman recognizes: when the man you believed was different proves that he isn’t.
He’s not your savior. He’s not misunderstood. He’s not fighting for you in secret.
He’s just another man who had a choice — and chose power.
Why It Matters
It’s easy to root for Nick because we’re trained to believe in men like him. Men who whisper softness in private but do nothing in public. Men who “hate what’s happening” but continue to benefit from it. Men who love the women harmed by the systems they uphold — and think that love is enough.
But The Handmaid’s Tale has always been about more than personal betrayal. It’s about complicity. About the stories we tell ourselves to survive. About the lies we cling to in order to protect the ones we think love us.
What the show did with Nick was subtle and brutal and brilliant. It let us fall for him — and then it made us look again.
Closing Thought
Nick Blaine wasn’t a good guy in a bad system. He was a man who chose the bad system every time.
And just because he loved June didn’t make him good.
That’s the lesson June finally learned. And maybe now, the rest of us will too.