In “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Season 5, Episode 6, Nick dramatically kills someone. Who did he kill? And what does this mean?
Nick has a fair share of deaths on his hands, and he’s just added one more to the count. We saw in the promo that he would shoot someone, though we weren’t sure who that would be, and it had to be linked somehow to whoever Janine and others were looking at alongside him on a wall in the scene.
We knew what would happen when Aunt Lydia learned about Esther’s death. And it did after Commander Putnam let things slip in a conversation with Janine during the wake, and it was the same day that Esther poisoned herself and Janine. We should have seen this coming.
Lydia found out that Esther is three weeks pregnant. The timing lines up with the wake, and Lydia realizes what had happened. She just needed to find out if it was Esther’s choice or not, and it wasn’t, and Putnam raped her.
Nick kills Commander Putnam in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5, Episode 6
Lydia told Commander Lawrence about the crime, much to his lack of sympathy. He is often enigmatic and even a little bit ruthless. Is he somehow making me tell him this because it’s part of some convoluted plan? I can’t figure out Lawrence at all.
In the end, Putnam was accused of raping a Handmaid. He denies the act, saying that he thought the girl would have been assigned to him instead of being given to another Commander. It would have been fine had she been given to him and not someone else, but she wasn’t. The Commanders had a secret meeting late at night where they agreed that Putnam should die for his crimes because, in Gilead, rape is punishable by death.
It’s very publically done, and it was done to make a point. While I would like to feel something for his wife, Naomi, she’s not someone you’d want as a friend. She doesn’t care about anyone but herself, so it’s hard to feel sympathy for her position. All she cares about now is that she’s a widow, and nobody wants her in Gilead. Has it just opened up someone for Lawrence to marry?
