The Handmaid's Tale S01E07 "The Other Side" Recap

The story of Luke's journey after he was separated from June and Lucy is shown. After he sent them into the woods, he took a gun out from the trunk of the car and scrambles to try to load the chamber with bullets. Armed Gileadan guards in black vans drive up and shoot him once in the abdomen. He is loaded into an ambulance but it crashes off the road and flips upside down. He is spared from further injury due to his being strapped to a gurney. He frees himself and runs away with some supplies from the ambulance to treat his injury as well as a gun from one of the guards that was riding in it as well.

In a flashback to before they were chased down by guards, Luke and June met with a man, Mr. Whitford, who was supposed to help them escape. Whitford was a friend of June's mother. The three of them need to cram in and hide in the trunk while Whitford drive them out to a remote cabin in the woods where they are hiding out until Whitford can get them their visas to escape to Canada. A hunter visits them to bring the warning that Whitford has been caught and hanged by guards but he offers to help them get over the border.

Luke finds an abandoned home to take shelter in and passes out from his injuries. A group of resistance members who have all been classified as "undesirables" according to Gilead find him on their way to Canada. They initially don't trust him, believing him to be a Gilead guard. But when they see his injuries they agree he is on their side and bring him onto their bus. The group includes a Roman Catholic nun (Christine), a handmaid who escaped captivity, a gay man (Peter), and a daughter of a US army soldier (Lilah). Luke doesn't want to be part of the resistance but when they reach the next stop, one of the other survivors, Zoe, shows him some hanged locals that the Gileadan guards strung up from the rather of the church ceiling. They were punished for resisting Gilead. Luke is horrified and nauseated but once he regains his bearings he decides to join the resistance. They prepare to board a boat but Gileadan guards arrive and begin shooting at the party, killing several members. Luke and the mute blonde woman are able to survive and escape.

Three years later, they are both living safely in "Little America," a haven located in Toronto, Ontario. In the administrative office, countless missing person flyers are posted. Luke comes in to meet with a supervisor, bringing along a folder of information to help the cause. The woman asks him if he knows a woman named June Osborne. Luke identifies her as his wife. The woman hands him an envelope containing the message from June. It's the small slip of paper that reads "I love you so much. Save Hannah." The woman says the message was retrieved three weeks ago by one of their contacts in the Mexican government. Luke is overcome to learn that June is seemingly still alive and asks for a moment alone to deal with the emotions of this revelation.

The Handmaid's Tale is available for streaming on Hulu.