This post has major spoilers from Season 6, Episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Continue reading if you wish.
One of the more mysterious, but rather infuriating characters in The Handmaid’s Tale arrived to his demise at the end of this week’s episode. According to TVLine, Nick Blaine’s plane blew up because of a bomb that was placed by High Commander Lawrence to kill several Gilead leaders, resulting in his death. Lawrence and High Commander Wharton’s lives came to an abrupt end while June astoundedly watched the explosion that illuminated the Boston skies.
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Nick is played by Max Minghella, also known for The Social Network and The Internship. He began the series as the Waterfords’ driver but rose to the rank of commander throughout the six seasons. TVLine Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Roots spoke to Minghella about Nick’s last moments, and because his alter ego has been killed on-screen, he is able to share. Continue reading for Minghella’s thoughts on some of his last scenes in the series, which will end next week.
TVLine asked Minghella whether an alternate version of scene in episode nine was filmed, in which he saw June before boarding the plane. “No, we didn’t. But it’s definitely supposed to be a moment of, like sort of a slightly telepathic moment. There’s a word — I’m not smart enough to know what the word is. [Laughs] But human beings can actually sense when they’re being watched, like we actually do sort of have eyes in the back of our heads. So I think that’s all it is. It’s a sense, a presence. I thought it was a really interesting idea from Lizzie (Moss, director of the episode) to do that,” he stated via TVLine.
When asked by TVLine when he found out that Nick wouldn’t survive, he answered; “Well, you know what? Normally on The Handmaid’s Tale, I don’t have any idea what’s going to happen episode to episode. I’ve always been quite happy to be blind to it and go with the flow. This year, I happened to work on a project with Lizzie in between seasons. So we were together a lot, and just from hanging out, I ended up hearing a lot of it. So this year, I did sort of know quite a lot of the arc of the character. But it was just circumstantial — it wasn’t for any other reason.”
One final question via TVLine inquires whether Minghella thinks Nick would have chosen June if he really had a choice. “His relationship to June is the only sunshine in his life, and it’s his motive for everything. And so, I think that’s absolutely right,” he responds.
Stream the final episode of The Handmaid’s Tale May 27 on Hulu.