Ouch. The implication is clear: Luke doesn’t know what it’s like to have a child taken away from him. How could he? If he had endured even one millionth of what June has been through, he would never have inflicted the same pain on anyone, even if that ‘anyone’ was their worst enemy.

“Just let me protect you sometimes, please,” he replies, sounding utterly defeated.

“The thing is, I don’t need your protection. I don’t need it,” she says. “Hannah does.”

“You are offering us nothing”

Luke isn’t the only one who hates the idea of New Bethlehem; the woefully inept Mark Tuello (Sam Jaeger) pops by to inform her that it’s a terrible idea, too.

“Lawrence’s goal is to kill off America, once and for all. You’re a get for them,” he says, pointing out that, if June joins forces with Lawrence, she will be lending her tacit support to Gilead. That she will spark something of a “domino” effect on all those refugees who feel as if they have nowhere to go. That she will drive hundreds of men, women and children back into the clutches of their former captors.

Even if Diet Gilead does uphold its promise to respect the bodily autonomy of these individuals (and do we really think it will?), Tuello adds, the same cannot be said of all those Handmaids still enslaved in the OG Gilead. And so, if June publicly declares that one is fine, she will be simultaneously lending her approval (and her approval means a lot to people, considering she is now upheld as a symbol of the resistance) to all of those ceremonial rapes, mutilations, particutions, and more, too.

Tuello goes on to claim that the US is working on “something big,” some sort of military action against Gilead, but he’s unable to share the top secret details of the operation. “It’s classified,” he bluffs.

“Lawrence is offering us Hannah,” replies June. “You are offering us nothing.”

“Gilead’s gonna Gilead”

June returns to “the architect of Gilead” and tells him that she’s up for the New Bethlehem idea. There’s a catch, though: he has to promise that Hannah won’t be married off like the rest of Gilead’s child brides.

Lawrence shrugs, exuding major “whaddaya gonna do?” energy as he does so, and then proceeds to try and bluff his way through an “arranged marriage isn’t so bad” bit.

“Gilead’s gonna Gilead,” he quips.

Big mistake, Lawrence. Big. Huge.

Handmaid’s Tale season 5 episode 8 recap: why June needs to be very afraid of [SPOILER]