Wednesday’s Season 5 finale of The Handmaid’s Tale revealed the answer to the question that has been lingering on fans’ minds ever since last week’s “Allegiance” dropped: Who opened fire at the crowd of refugees gathered for a vigil to the fallen U.S. soldiers? Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5 finale, “Safe.”
During the final moments of last week’s episode, viewers were left in a state of shock when shots suddenly rang out during a moment that was meant to be solemn and peaceful. Refugees, who fled Gilead for the safety of Canada only to find themselves on the receiving end of anti-refugee sentiments, had gathered to pay their respects for the U.S. troops who died during a raid on Gilead, one that ultimately failed when the U.S.’s intel proved inaccurate, leaving every soldier enlisted to aid in the raid dead. At a vigil in their honor, however, things took a tragic turn when someone who was not shown onscreen suddenly opened fire into the crowd just as June and a little girl, the daughter of a fallen soldier, began to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The episode ended before viewers could learn the gunman’s identity and before it was revealed if anyone was injured in the attack, and it wasn’t until Mark Tuello, a representative of the U.S. Government-in-Exile, knocked on June’s door at the beginning of “Safe.”
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According to Tuello, the gunman, a man named John Lannison, was apprehended. Tuello tells June that the gunman was a 56-year-old man who “works at a bakery, he has a fishing license” and was “an angry man with a gun. There are millions of them, but we have this one.” While it remains unknown if the man had ties to Gilead, a conversation between Commander Nick and Commander Lawrence earlier in the episode seemed to suggest so, with Lawrence appearing entirely unsurprised when he learns of the shooting and is told that June was present, simply replying, “the Eyes do see.” When Nick enforces the idea that June is “not a target,” Lawrence only tells him that as far as he’s aware, Gilead’s current policy is that the government “does not target expatriates for execution,” though he later adds that June “had a thousand choices” and “this is what happens in a fight. Everyone gets bloody.”
June, it turns out, has a massive target on her back, and the gunman was the least of her concerns come the Season 5 finale. Shortly after Tuello revealed the identity of the gunman, June was run down but someone in a truck right outside of her home and only saved by her husband, who ran out and pulled the driver from the vehicle, beating him unconscious and pulling away his gun before rushing to his wife’s side. June survived the attack, left bruised and beaten, and the moment, combined with his conversation with Lawrence, was enough to push Nick to begin working with Tuello, providing the U.S. government intel on the inner workings of Gilead.
All five seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale are available to stream on Hulu. The series has already been picked up for a sixth and final season, though a premiere date has yet to be announced.
