The sixth season of The Handmaid’s Tale has seen Nick Blaine (portrayed by Max Minghella) adjusting to life in New Bethlehem with his wife Rose (Carey Cox), under the watchful eye of his father-in-law, Commander Wharton (Josh Charles). Rose has so far been a silent and obedient wife, yearning for her husband’s attention and hoping he will forget about June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) and their daughter Nichole.
However, as Rose remains largely unnoticed in the first three episodes of the new season, fans are suspecting something amiss about her pregnancy and her father, Commander Wharton. In a Reddit thread, one viewer queried: “What do you guys think about Rose? ? ? I feel like there’s been so much emphasis on Nick becoming a dad again, but not loving her like he does June. Rose being used as a point to prove pregnancy to the foreign diplomats. But nothing else.”
“I just get the feeling something ominous is going to happen? ? Either she’s going to do something, or something is going to happen to her. She feels like a character who’s been inserted and isn’t really doing much apart from being silent, cheated on and pregnant.”
Another fan concurred, responding: “I was thinking the baby isn’t nicks or they are faking the pregnancy and she will “loose” the baby or it is nicks baby but something will happen to rose and the baby.”
Other viewers have continued to theorize about the baby’s true parentage: “I don’t think the baby is his, I think its much darker than that. Especially given what often happens in very religious families.”
Fans are concerned Rose will play a role in Nick’s downfall (Image: Hulu)
Some theorists speculate that the child will play a crucial role in leading to Nick’s downfall, highlighting a particular exchange from episode three.
“I feel like she might get Nick killed. In EP 3 of S6, she gave her father a quick but sly look when he mentioned Nick was absent and Commander Lawrence stepped in to provide an excuse for him. Serena seemingly caught on as she quickly asked Wharton to walk her and Noah home,” one concerned fan remarked.
With the episodes being released on a weekly schedule, fans are poised with bated breath to see if this spells doom for Nick.
Elisabeth Moss shared she isn’t ready to say goodbye to the series (Image: Hulu)
Meanwhile, the series’ lead actress Elisabeth Moss has voiced her reluctance to part ways with the show, expressing: “There’s been a very few periods of my life in the last nine years that I have not been working on this show. It hasn’t hit me at all yet that I’m not playing her (June Osborne) anymore.”
Elisabeth also reflected on the honor she feels portraying June and how the series has inspired viewers to stand against oppression: “I feel like we feel so proud and so honoured that people have taken this show as a symbol of resistance and using that (handmaid) costume as a symbol of resistance and being able to use this show to encourage themselves to fight for what they believe in,” she concluded.
“It was the biggest season we’ve ever done, more locations, more cast, more story, more sets, just everything we did was bigger.”
