Due To Low Birth Rates In The US, Men In Power Captures Women And Force Them To Carry Their Babies

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Previously, we recaped everything that happened in The Handmaid's Tale seasons 1 to three. If you missed those videos, you can find them on our channel, and I will leave the link in the description below. Today, we are continuing with season 4. Make sure you hit that like button and subscribe before we begin.

[00:00:17]Now, let us get into it. The story opens with June badly wounded and recovering in a farmhouse after being shot. She was brought to safety by fellow handmmaids Janine, Alma, and Brianna. The farmhouse belongs to Commander Robert Keys and his young wife Esther, who is secretly allied with Mayday and has been hiding them on the farm disguised as Martha's.

[00:00:38]Esther has been keeping her elderly husband Docsel by slowly poisoning him and is completely consumed by her burning desire for revenge against Gilead. Her husband is impotent and has been bringing other men to the farm to impregnate her. When one of these men trespasses onto the property, Esther captures him and under Jun's direction takes her revenge by killing him in cold blood. A patrol car soon arrives at the farmhouse searching for the missing guardian and June realizes it is time to move on. She is escorted to a Jezebel house where she meets a contact who reveals the location of the next safe house. The place is currently filled with visiting commanders who are preparing to leave for Chicago to fight the insurgency. With Esther's help, June makes poison from plants with the intention of killing the commanders at Jezebels. But late at night, when she returns to the farmhouse, she finds it empty. A gun goes off in the darkness, killing her escort instantly. Nick emerges from the shadows and whispers that he is trying to keep June alive as he takes her prisoner. Meanwhile, in Canada, both Serena and Fred are being detained for their crimes against June [music] and are awaiting trial. They learn from Mark, a representative of the United States government in exile, about the rescue of 86 children from Gilead and the threat of war their arrival may bring. The rescued children are reunited with their families, but struggle to adapt to their new environment. Moira and Rita, both survivors of Gilead, step in to help the children through their transition. Serena goes through a health checkup and discovers she is pregnant with Fred's child. She asks Rita to visit her and reveals the pregnancy, requesting her help to care for the baby. Rita is initially moved by her sincerity and agrees, but soon realizes that Serena wants her to confirm claims that she was under duress from Fred for everything she did to June. Reluctant to lie for her, Rita instead visits Fred and tells him about the pregnancy. After June's arrest, she is confronted by Aunt Lydia and brutally tortured by the eyes over the whereabouts of the other handmmaids who have successfully [music] escaped. June does not break despite the physical torture. She is then brought to the roof where Beth and Sienna, Martha's of the Lawrence household and close friends of June, are executed in front of her in an attempt to break her spirit. Joseph, who has been cleared by the Gilead Council, pays June a visit and warns her that they will hurt her daughter Hannah if she does not reveal the handmmaid's location. June finally breaks and gives up the location of the safe house, leading to their arrest. As punishment, June and the others are sent to a Magdalene colony, a breeding colony for convicted handmaids. Aunt Lydia accompanies June and the others to the colony. And during a stop at a train crossing the escorting guardian leaves for a toilet break, leaving them unattended. Desperate to escape, June attacks Lydia and they all make a run for it, hoping to cross the tracks before the train arrives. June and Janine make it across safely, but Alma and Brianna are tragically struck by the passing train and killed. June and Janine walk for miles until they find a train headed for Chicago. June plans to join the resistance fighters while Janine follows along reluctantly. They hide inside a milk tanker on the train.

[00:03:54]During the ride, Janine confronts June about whether she gave away their location to the eyes. June admits that she did, but only because they were threatening Hannah. Janine is devastated and blames June [music] for the deaths of their friends. Sometime later, the train is raided by resistance fighters.

[00:04:11]June and Janine emerge and express their desire to join the group. Steven, the group leader, reluctantly takes them along. Back at their camp, June discovers that the group is not Mayday and that food and shelter are only provided in exchange for sex. June refuses, but Janine submits to Steven's request, allowing them to stay. Janine grows closer to Steven and sleeps with him willingly. With Janine vouching for her, June is eventually granted permission to join a trade mission to another camp. Jun soon realizes that Steven<unk>s group is too passive in their fight against Gilead and decides to join a different rebel group. Janine chooses to leave with her. Meanwhile, the commanders agree to Joseph's suggestion of a temporary ceasefire on Gilead's borders in exchange for trade revenue to help ease the country's economic crisis. However, Nick is secretly ordered to coordinate an aerial strike just before the ceasefire to destroy remaining rebel factions. He is deeply hesitant knowing that June is somewhere near the Chicago borders, but has no choice but to follow orders.

[00:05:14]Bombs rain down on Chicago as June and Janine run for their lives. June survives the bombing, but Janine is nowhere to be found. Amidst the rubble, Moira steps through the smoke and finds a shell shock June. She has volunteered for a relief aid mission in Chicago.

[00:05:30]Moira's girlfriend, Una, who is also the team leader, cuts the mission short due to the threat of additional bombings.

[00:05:37]Despite Unona's objections, Moira secretly sneaks June onto the ship in clear violation of the terms permitted by Gilead. The ship departs, leaving hundreds of desperate refugees behind, and June is consumed by guilt for leaving Hannah and so many others.

[00:05:52]Unknown to Moira, there is a port inspection before leaving Gileadian waters. The relief team reluctantly fabricates a cover story for June to prevent her from being recaptured. Una is furious with Moira for putting the entire mission at risk for one person and ends their relationship. The ship finally arrives in Canada and after seven long years, June is reunited with her husband, Luke. Mark arrives and June officially requests asylum. Luke and Moira take her home where she is reunited with Nicole, her second daughter. June struggles to adjust to life outside of Gilead and experiences intense flashbacks during a simple grocery trip. That evening, Emily and Rita are invited for dinner and they share their survival stories. June learns from Rita that Serena is pregnant [music] and after Luke has fallen asleep, she goes to confront her. Serena begs June for forgiveness, but is met with furious condemnation. June tells her that when Fred kills that baby inside her womb, she will feel only a fraction of the pain she caused them.

[00:06:53]With June now in Canada, Serena and Fred put aside their differences and unite against her. The next day, June testifies against the Waterfords at the International Criminal Court, describing in detail the atrocities they inflicted on her and demanding the maximum possible sentence for Fred. During cross-examination, Fred arrogantly interrupts and claims that Gilead's heavy-handed policies have led to a rising birth rate not seen anywhere else in the world. June storms out of the courtroom. In a support group for former handmaids, June brings along Irene, a former aunt who is seeking Emily's forgiveness. Irene was the one who outed Emily's lover in Gilead, which led to her lover's death and Emily's genital mutilation. Emily refuses to forgive her and walks away. Later, Irene takes her own life out of guilt. In the next session, Emily expresses satisfaction at Irene's death and the other members begin sharing their own violent fantasies about their Gilead abusers.

[00:07:50]Meanwhile, back in Gileia, Janine has been captured alive and returned to the care of Aunt Lydia, who has a soft spot for her. Rather than punishing her, Lydia embraces her warmly. Janine returns to the Red Center as a handmmaid, where she discovers Esther, who is now a handmmaid in training and has defiantly gone on a hunger strike.

[00:08:09]Janine encourages her to submit to Lydia's authority to avoid torture or physical mutilation, and Esther reluctantly complies. Back in Canada, June finally opens up to Luke about Hannah. Luke shows her everything he has gathered on their daughter so far and suggests setting up a private meeting with Nick, bringing Nicole along to appeal to his paternal instincts. They meet in a remote location and share a brief family reunion. Nick gives June a file on Hannah that includes recent photographs and her location in Colorado. Meanwhile, Fred and Serena are visited by Commander Warren Putnham and his wife Naomi, who hints that Serena's baby belongs to Gilead and offers to take care of it. Assuming the Waterfords will soon be imprisoned, Warren also informs Fred that Gilead will not be negotiating for their release. Feeling completely betrayed and desperate to protect his child, Fred strikes a deal with Mark, agreeing to provide topsecret information about Gilead's inner workings in exchange for immunity. When June finds out, she is furious and confronts Mark, seeing it as a complete betrayal. She is outraged that Fred might be sent to Geneva for an immunity hearing and confides in Emily that she cannot move on. She negotiates with Mark and arranges a meeting with Joseph, who proposes a prisoner swap of 22 female resistance fighters in exchange for Fred so that he can be tried in Gilead instead. Before Fred can leave for Geneva, he is arrested by Mark and traded for the women as agreed. He is brought face tof face with Lawrence and defiantly insists he only betrayed Gilead to protect his family. But then Nick, using the authority of the eyes, intercepts Fred's arrest and marches him deep into the woods where June is waiting. She uncuffs him and blows a whistle. Emily, together with a crowd of furious and vengeful former handmmaids, emerges from the shadows and chases a terrified Fred through the forest. They catch up to him and beat him to death with their bare hands.

[00:10:05]Season 5 opens with June returning home to her daughter Nicole, her husband Luke, and her best friend Moira, covered in blood. She confesses to [music] killing Fred, her former commander. June then learns that Emily, a fellow former handmmaid who took part in Fred's brutal murder, has gone back to Gilead to continue fighting and left her own family behind. June has a breakdown and despite Luke's protests, turns herself in to the authorities. [music] However, since the murder took place in no man's land and not under Canadian jurisdiction, June walks away without any charges. Serena is informed by Mark that Fred is dead and that no charges will be filed against June. She is both furious and terrified after viewing Fred's body at the morg. She walks through a canal vigil held in his memory by Canadian Gilead supporters before returning to Gilead for his funeral, where she pressures Commander Lawrence to make it an internationally broadcast event. Fred is given a grand funeral watched around the world. June and Luke watch in shock as their daughter Hannah appears on screen presenting Serena with flowers during the service. Meanwhile, Esther, a former wife who has been turned into a handmmaid, is being considered for a posting to the Putnham household. Commander Warren takes a liking to her and spends private time with her in his room. She steals some chocolates from Warren and shares them with Janine, who has been acting as her mentor at the Red Center. What Janine does not know is that Esther has poisoned the chocolates in an attempt [music] to kill them both. Esther confesses her hatred for Janine for manipulating her before they both collapse, coughing up blood. A distraught aunt, Lydia prays desperately for Janine's recovery. Sometime later, Janine comes out of her coma and with physical therapy slowly begins to walk again. On the way back to the Red Center, Aunt Lydia promises Janine she will show more compassion to the handmmaids under her care from now on.

[00:11:58]Despite her wishes to remain in Gilead, Serena is ordered by the council to serve as a diplomat in Toronto to improve Gilead's image to the international community. She reluctantly returns to Canada, is released from custody, and begins efforts to build a Gilead cultural center. June arrives at the center amid a clash between Gilead supporters and protesters, Moira being among them. When a Gilead supporter punches Moira in the face, June pulls a gun and fires a shot into the air, causing mass panic. Serena's bodyguard, Ezra, evacuates her from the building, but as they escape, Serena runs directly into June. June has the perfect opportunity to shoot her, but hesitates when she sees her baby bump and runs instead. Ezra drives Serena to the Wheeler household for refuge, where she gets to know her new Canadian host, Alanis and Ryan Wheeler, who are deeply invested in her pregnancy. to protect her baby. Serena is confined to the house with no external contact and breaks down in tears. Sometime later, June finds out from Nick that Hannah is currently attending a wife school for wives in training. June and Luke embark on a dangerous journey into no man's land to meet a friendly guardian who has more information on Hannah. After getting what they need, they spend the day hiding in an abandoned bowling alley before the guardian leads them back to Canada at night. Unfortunately, he steps on a landmine, triggering an explosion that alerts other guardians to their location. Luke and June make a run for the border, but are caught before they can cross. The Guardians are acting on orders from Commander Ryan, who informs Serena that June has been captured.

[00:13:34]Serena pleads to witness her execution to get closure for Fred's death. Back in Gilead, Warren and Lawrence discuss the future of the country. Lawrence wants to build a modern liberal settlement on an island called New Bethlehem, where Gilead refugees are granted amnesty and reunited with their loved ones as a way of improving diplomatic relations with the rest of the world. Warren is strongly opposed and ridicules the plan.

[00:13:59]Meanwhile, Lydia is shocked to discover that Esther is pregnant and learns that Warren violated her during their private session before her posting to the Putnhams. After Lydia reports the incident to Lawrence, Warren is arrested and publicly executed by Nick in front of his wife Naomi. The next morning, Luke is dropped off near the border while June is taken to meet Ezra and Serena. June is stunned to see her there. Serena requests to execute June herself and asks Ezra for the gun. But instead of pulling the trigger, Serena shoots Ezra and orders June at gunpoint to drive through no man's land. Mid drive, Serena goes into labor and starts experiencing contractions. They crash the car and take refuge in an abandoned barn where Serena's contractions intensify. Despite everything between them, June cannot bring herself to leave a pregnant woman to die and stays to help Serena deliver her baby. Serena names her newborn son Noah. When Serena begins to develop a fever, June insists she go to a hospital in Canada. Serena refuses at first, claiming she has served her purpose as a vessel, but eventually they arrive at a hospital where both she and Noah receive medical attention. June calls Moira, who sends Luke to pick her up. On their way out, immigration officers called by Luke arrest Serena for entering the country illegally and inform her that Noah will be placed with child protection services. Serena cries hysterically and begs June for help. Anti-refugee sentiment continues to escalate in Canada and June's family faces constant harassment from protesters. With Warren dead, Lawrence's plan for New Bethlehem moves forward smoothly. He invites June to relocate there with the promise that Hannah will be brought to New Bethlehem once she is married. Although June seriously considers the offer, Luke rejects it completely. Mark tries to discourage June from returning to Gilead, warning that as a symbol of the resistance, others will follow her back.

[00:15:54]Then a mysterious envelope arrives containing a video of Hannah in wife school. Mark uses the footage to track her location and informs June they will conduct a military raid to rescue her.

[00:16:05]June is overjoyed, but Gilead anticipates the attack and shoots down all three planes with their anti-aircraft systems. Lawrence calls June, claiming the attack was in self-defense and once again asks her to join New Bethlehem. Furious, she refuses and reveals that she watched his late wife overdose on sleeping pills and did nothing to stop it. To get more reliable intelligence, June meets with Nick and tries to convince him to defect from Gilead in exchange for immunity in Canada. Despite his love for June, Nick declines because his wife Rose is pregnant. June is genuinely happy for him, but sad to lose him. Meanwhile, Serena is in immigration detention, pumping breast milk for the Wheelers, who are now Noah's legal foster family.

[00:16:49]Lawrence tells Serena he can get her released, but only if she agrees to stay with the Wheelers. She is released into their custody, but Alanis treats her with contempt, admonishes her for being a bad mother, and takes over all other duties of caring for Noah. One night, Serena requests to appear with Noah at the reopening of the Gilead Cultural Center to recruit more Canadians to join Gilead. Ryan agrees much to Atlantis's outrage. At the center, Serena excuses herself to feed Noah privately and uses the opportunity to escape through the back exit. Back in Gilead, Lawrence asks Naomi to be his new wife to strengthen [music] his position of power. She is initially hesitant to marry her late husband's killer, but accepts to maintain her status. Commander McKenzie, Hannah's adoptive father, brings up June to Lawrence and states it is time to deal with that problem. One morning while June is walking down the road, a truck with a Gilead bumper sticker knocks her down and runs over her arm.

[00:17:47]Luke intervenes and beats the driver nearly to death. June is rushed to the hospital. Nick finds out about the attack and finally accepts Mark's offer to spy for them in order to protect June. Blaming Lawrence for the attack, Nick punches him at his wedding and is immediately arrested. Rose visits him in jail and tells him she is done with him after realizing he is still in love with June and walks away. Meanwhile, Janine, who is long overdue for her posting, is assigned to Lawrence and Naomi.

[00:18:16]Delighted at the chance to spend more time with her daughter Janine tries to get along with Naomi. But when she hears from Aartha that June was injured in a targeted attack, she loses her temper and lashes out at Naomi. As a result, Janine is removed from her posting and arrested by the eyes. Back in Canada, the driver who attacked June has died from his injuries. Rita informs Luke that police will soon issue a warrant for his arrest. June, Luke, and Nicole book flights to leave the country immediately. Mark arrives and tells them the police will be waiting at the airport and offers them new travel documents for a train to Vancouver instead. At the train station, police are seen patrolling the boarding area looking for Luke. Luke tells June she has to get on the train. He draws the attention of the police and gets himself arrested so June and Nicole can board safely. June is devastated to leave him behind. On the train, she hears the cries of another baby and makes eye contact with Serena and Noah, who by pure coincidence are on the same train heading west.

[00:19:22]Season 6. June and Serena find themselves on the same train heading west, but the other passengers recognize Serena and intend to harm her and her child. June helps Serena get off the train just in time to avoid the angry crowd. June eventually makes her way to Alaska and settles in a small town where she makes a shocking discovery. She meets her mother, who she had believed was dead. Meanwhile, Mark informs Moira that their department is being disbanded and they will no longer be able to actively fight against Gilead. They will however continue to cooperate with Mayday. Mark also helps Luke get out of prison and both he and Moira join Mayday. Back in Gilead, Nick is released from jail because his wife's father is a powerful commander named Wharton who intends to stay in New Bethlehem for a while and sort out the ongoing chaos.

[00:20:10]Two months pass and June tries to reach her husband, but he has not responded for some time. She leaves Nicole with her mother and returns to Canada. Mark informs her that Moira and Luke have gone on a mission to no man's land, but are stuck there. The only way to rescue them is to contact Nick. Together, they manage to find Moira and Luke. But in order to get everyone out, Nick has to kill two young guards. Lawrence continues trying to convince the other commanders that New Bethlehem must be allowed to grow. But to grow, it needs people willing to settle there. He learns that Serena and her baby are sheltering in a monastery somewhere in Canada. He visits her, gives her assurances of safety, and eventually convinces her to move to New Bethlehem, believing that together they can fix Gilead from within. Serena arrives and is reunited with her former Marthurita, who has come to be reunited with her sister. Soon, Lawrence is promoted and is required to visit a local brothel with fellow commanders. There he encounters Janine and has to pretend they are together. He also discovers that the other commanders are planning to remove him at the first opportunity.

[00:21:19]They want to shut down New Bethlehem and force all the women who move there to become handmmaids and Martha's. Mayday begins planning to assassinate Gilead's most powerful commanders. Their plan involves sneaking into a brothel where former handmaids are forced to work.

[00:21:34]June and Moira volunteer to scout the situation and inform the women there about the plan. They sneak inside and find Janine, who has been working there for some time. They explain the plan to her, but when Janine leaves, a guard suddenly appears. Jun and Moira have no choice but to kill him and hide the body. But the alarm sounds anyway, and the only person who can get them out is Lawrence. Surprisingly, he helps them escape and hides them in his home in New Bethlehem. Lawrence tells them that his days in power are numbered. So June and Moira share Mayday's assassination plan with him. If they succeed, Lawrence will gain enough political power to transform Gilead from within. He eventually gets Moira safely out of Gilead, but June stays behind because the handmaid's letters were accidentally left in the brothel. If they are found, the entire assassination plan will fail. June contacts Nick again and has no choice but to tell him about the plot. He helps her retrieve the letters and plans to keep her at his house until morning. But Commander Wharton is there, so June has no choice but to hide at Serena's house instead. Serena is surprised to find her there, but allows her to stay the night.

[00:22:45]Commander Wharton begins to suspect that Nick is hiding something and offers to forgive him everything if he tells the truth. Nick tells him that he conducted his own investigation and discovered an assassination attempt was being planned at the brothel. Wharton orders the place to be destroyed. The guards kill all the women there, leaving only Janine alive, who is taken to the home of a dangerous commander. The next morning, when June discovers what happened, she realizes it was Nick who gave them up. She confronts him and demands to know why. Nick tells her that everything he has ever done has been for her and that he does not care about the others. He then drives her to the border and they say their final goodbye. Commander Wharton begins showing interest in Serena. He allows a library to be opened in New Bethlehem where even women can enter and eventually ask Serena to marry him, presenting himself as a reasonable and modern man. Serena agrees and preparations for the wedding begin. The other commander's wives treat her with contempt. And when Wharton finds out, he makes changes to the ceremony to demonstrate his power. He plans to invite Gilead's most powerful commanders as well as all the handmmaids living in Boston to the wedding. Lawrence finds out and immediately informs Mayday, who develops a new plan to eliminate their enemies. June and Moira infiltrate the Red Center and distribute knives to all the women there. They are aided by a spy named Ava, who has been working undercover as an ant for years. During the wedding, the weapons are passed to the handmaids who arrived with the commanders. Rita bakes the wedding cake and slips a powerful sleeping pill into it. Everyone who eats the cake goes home and falls into a deep sleep. At that moment, the handmmaids draw their weapons and kill their tormentors. June slips into the house where Janine is being held by the dangerous commander, kills him, and frees her friend.

[00:24:37]Meanwhile, Aunt Lydia arrives at the red center and immediately senses something is wrong. She discovers the handmmaids are preparing to leave and calls for a guard. June steps forward and convinces Lydia to let the women go. In that moment, Lydia finally repents, truly understanding for the first time the suffering she has condemned her charges to. The handmmaids leave the Red Center and board the vehicles, waiting to take them out of Gilead. Shortly after the wedding, Serena learns that Wharton has decided to bring a handmmaid into their home to have more children. Shocked and betrayed because she believed he was different, she takes Noah and runs.

[00:25:14]Outside, she witnesses handmmaids killing their commanders throughout the city. She takes refuge at Lawrence's house. Meanwhile, June, Moira, and the handmaids are making their way to the trucks where Mayday is supposed to pick them up. But suddenly, the vehicles are stopped and guards capture all the women. The next day, June is about to be publicly executed along with the other guilty handmmaids and Aunt Lydia. It is made into a grand spectacle, but the commanders did not anticipate Mayday's arrival. June delivers her final speech from the execution platform and it moves the watching crowd to rise up. The women are rescued and the United States army enters Boston. A full-scale war breaks out across the city, but all of it will be meaningless if Gilead's high commanders manage to escape. June discovers that Serena knows where they are and convinces her to share the information. That evening, all of Gilead's most powerful commanders plan to flee the city on a private plane. The military approaches Lawrence and asks him to help plant a bomb on the aircraft that will detonate on takeoff. Lawrence and June make it to the airport together, but everything does not go according to plan. Lawrence realizes that if he boards the plane, he will not be able to get off in time. He understands what he has to do and gets on board. June also spots Nick boarding the plane, but hesitates to warn him.

[00:26:35]The plane takes off and explodes in the sky. With the high commanders dead, the military quickly recaptures Boston and Gilead begins to collapse as the United States takes back city after city. In the aftermath, Naomi returns Janine's baby to her with Aunt Lydia's help. June finally finds it in her heart to forgive Serena, and Mark arranges for her to be sent to a refugee center. June is also reunited with Emily, who has spent the last 7 months fighting alongside Mayday.

[00:27:04]June and Luke come to the painful realization that despite everything they have been through, they can no longer be together. They part ways on good terms.

[00:27:12]Soon after, June returns to the ruined Waterford house. She has finally decided to write a book about everything she survived. And with that, the story of the Handmaid's Tale comes to an end.

[00:27:23]Thank you so much for watching WCAP. If you enjoyed this recap, make sure you like this video, subscribe to the channel, and turn on notifications so you never miss our next video. See you in the next