For the entire series, June has been nothing if not a rebel. After attempting to escape Gilead, she has resisted it time and time again, and now her efforts have finally borne fruit. The fact that her words prove so inspiring shows just how much of a symbol she has become to the other handmaids crushed under the system, and they prove to be her saving grace at the time she needs it most. Gilead has always placed its women in peril, but June has demonstrated herself to be not just a survivor but a true leader of a worthy cause. Watching her being forced to endure trauma after trauma under the strict rules of the system was extremely difficult, which is what makes her destroying the source of that harm feel so empowering. Despite the losses she suffered, there is no way to see the bombing plot as anything other than a completely unambiguous victory.

Yet, even after everything, there is a major caveat to that triumph. One of the biggest motivations for June, if not her guiding light, was getting her young daughter Hannah back from the men who stole her. However, in the handful of times they’ve been reunited, Hannah has become increasingly distant from her mother as she grows older under a new family. There is also an element of inevitability here, with the knowledge of the upcoming series adaptation of The Testaments, where an older Hannah has fully embraced her new name as Agnes Jemima and June is nowhere to be found. For six seasons, June has always stressed the importance of letting women pursue their own identity and maintain their autonomy, since no one can own a human. Being forced to apply those same principles to her own estranged daughter would be a crucial lesson for June, ending the series finale on a bittersweet note.

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Sets Up a Power Vacuum in Gilead

From air strikes to bombings, so many plots against Gilead have ended in total failure, but as the saying goes, rebels only need to get lucky once. Now that Mayday has finally succeeded, what is even left of Gilead to preserve, and who will fill that void? Already, Aunt Lydia seems like the most probable answer, since we know she has some grand ambitions for the state and her sense of piety has never wavered. Over the past two seasons, she has finally come to understand that the men of Gilead remain the source of the problem, and she makes that stance official upon the eve of her hanging. Now, Lydia will likely view her survival as a divine gift to take power in her own right, and an open invitation to mold whatever remains of Gilead into her own righteous vision.

There is another powerful woman who stands to benefit from her position, and that is Serena, following her second widowing. We’ve seen undertaking reforms already, but now that the men are no longer able to object, could she take those ideas nationwide? She may be sympathetic as a victim, but Serena is also dangerous as a politician, and now she has a big task on her hands. As she and Lydia will soon find out, destroying a government is one thing, but building another is a different kind of challenge entirely, so how free can they really be? Whatever this version of Gilead looks like, though, it’s at least a big improvement on what came before, and that is something June will have every right to celebrate.