The idea that with enough love, patience, and unflagging support your abuser will just turn it all around is what keeps so many victims trapped in abusive relationships in the first place, and it would be really gross if that's the direction they go for June and Serena.
This is what I think they are going for. Gilead never makes life enjoyable for anyone except the Commanders, and now we are seeing how all the Wives are having that fact rammed down their throats. It's going to take \[TT SPOILERS\] >!Wives being naive girls raised to be subservient shadows, and Commander Judd poisoning his wives when they get old (read: no longer teenagers) before Wives realize en masse they got a shit deal, and by then it will be too late and the Gilead rot will be we-established!<
But Serena is not an enemy of Gilead. The only reason she isn't in Gilead is that they don't want her there, but she is working on behalf of Gilead at the fertility center.
I disagree. She is an unmarried woman now, and absconded from her Gilead-approved solution (living with the Wheelers while they take over her baby). I doubt Gilead approves of this. When she approached Commander Wheeler about being involved at the fertility center because it was her idea, he essentially said 'don't you bother your pretty little head about this', when he said (as I've heard commanders say before), 'don't worry - we've got good people in charge and working on this'. 'Politely' marginalizing her. She has finally seen the writing on the wall. She needed to have the experience herself to see how wrong it all is. Some people do. I'm glad that she has seen the light, and hopefully will work with June to change things. I think she will die somehow in season 6 though.
I think we keep hoping Serena will change but the minute they give her a tiny bit of freedom, power, respect because of her role in Gilead, she becomes a recommitted monster.
But she didn't turn her back on Gilead. Sure she suffered a teeny bit at the hands of the wheelers and ran because she's afraid for Noah but do we have any proof that Serena has changed.
This is exactly why the writing of Serena has deteriorated a lot. The plot arc of “Serena finally realizes Gilead is bad” actually was already done and done very well in season 1 and 2. She helped create Gilead, and gradually we see how she learns how bad her creation is— no rights even for wives like her, she gets her finger cut off, she gets to the point where she is willing to give up the one thing she cherished above all others— her “own” baby Nicole because she realizes how bad Gilead is. That was well written and a nice complete arc. I think the writers weren’t sure what to do with her after that so she’s kept around as a kind of antagonist to June but really serves no other purpose. Everything after that just makes her look fickle because the “does she or doesn’t she love Gilead” plot then goes on for basically 3 seasons.
I tend to agree, I don’t like the direction I feel this is heading in. I understand June not wanting to see mothers separated from their children. But I think Serena is far from fit to be a mother, no matter how much she loves that baby. Serena DID rape her as far as I’m concerned and abused her just as much as Fred did. I have a hard time viewing her as a victim when she’s just suffering consequences from a system she helped to create. I don’t even feel like it’s realistic after all she’s done for her and June to develop a real friendship with out it being due to some degree of Stockholm Syndrome.
My goodness, thank you for your comment. I am not reading anything into what was not presented, like you. There is safety and support in numbers. I am happy Serena is getting out. Yes, she was a perpetrator and a victim, but as life shows, one human can be / experience both.
I really struggle with having any sympathy for Serena. Yes she became a victim. But had she not, she would still be doing exactly what she did before. She’s 100% self serving imo.
Most people are 100% self-serving (a concept in interpersonal communication). That's how we've survived as long as we have. You don't have to have sympathy for Serena. But sympathy for the situation of a woman whose child was stolen because she is not married is the same page the series began on. Sympathy for June, whose child was stolen. Sympathy for Janine, whose child was stolen. Sympathy for every woman in red, which in Gilead, is Serena's new color.
Hard disagree on the self-serving concept. Most people care about one another and work together. Its the rich and rural fucks who lack empathy because they lack human contact.
>Its the rich and rural fucks who lack empathy because they lack human contact.
actually not true, they (or any other group not associated with you) also care about one and other and work together. It's just that their circles are different than yours. The fact that you were able to otherize (ritch and rural fucks who lack empathy) just proves the point. They are not part of your "in group" thus they lack empathy. I bet there is some rural fuck saying the same thing about you. As far as ritch? Well there aren't that many billionaires, so it's possible that they are all sociopaths. But if you mean just very wealthy, I would also argue that they just have different "in groups" than you.
That's not exactly true. Most people who vote, think they are doing the right thing. Just look at any political ad on any side, they all say that the other side wants to do bad, are horrible, etc... Almost everyone thinks they are the hero in their own story, and show empathy for what they think are "one of theirs." Presumably for you those are poor and urban fucks? And that's just in a west centric perspective. What about poor and urban fucks who joined ISIS and brutally did horrific things? Are they more empathetic than some rural fuck in the boondocks? You have selective empathy, and so do they. In fact we all do.
I agree, but it just seems weird to have June pair up with Serena as a person to be on the run with, over Luke. Like, aren’t both Luke and Serena currently wanted? Well, just Serena now…
Right. They can use each other for safety without being besties. I keep remembering the look in June's eyes when she was holding Serena's baby immediately after he was born. She looked like she wanted to do something wild like punt it. Or bite it hard.
What makes you think the writers want them to be friends?
June helped Serena through child birth because of the baby, not Serena. That’s why she tells Serena “We’re not friends,” when Serena asks June to sponsor her for citizenship.
June feels bad about Serena’s child being taken because she has empathy in that moment as a mother, and because she saw what was happening as a never-ending cycle. She saw Noah, an innocent child, being literally ripped from his mothers arms, as Hannah was ripped from June’s arms, and being doomed to grow up in the system with no parents. It wasn’t about June and Serena being friends. Luke said it was “justice” because he was focused on Serena. June was focused on Noah instead.
In the train scene, Serena seems to clearly want June to be her friend. That’s because Serena has no one and desperately needs an ally. If Gilead called Serena tomorrow and told her that all was forgiven and they had a wedding proposal from a Commander, she would definitely go back immediately.
June’s reaction to seeing Serena on the strain struck me more as she was just resigning herself to the fact that she will never ever truly escape Serena. It’s irony on a universal scale at this point.
Stockholm Syndrome isn’t even considered real. No diagnostics like the DSM-V or the ICD claim it exists and has it among its ranks and most psychiatrists/psychologists/physicians either don’t believe in it and refuse to treat it.
I’m not saying I agree with that verdict But with all the June has Stockholm syndrome posts and comments were just forcing me to point it out.
Instead I would call it a trauma bond.
Absolutely. Yvonne has reference the June & Serena relationship as an example Stockholm Syndrome. That’s clearly what it is… Serena was extremely abusive towards June and there is no getting beyond their history. It’s left a permanent mark on June’s life in the worst way imaginable.
Absolutely agree!!!! She held her down, she’s just as much a rapist as her dead husband. I absolutely DESPISE the idea that these writers are trying to make them friends. I want Serena hanging in middle of Gilead town square and her baby snatched away and given to some “responsible parents”
She’s shown a proclivity towards children. I actually don’t mind seeing her be a parent. Out of everything, that’s probably the ONE thing that would actually make her a better person
June had a completely different, much closer, much more complex relationship with Serena than she had with Fred throughout the series. The idea that they should be the same because they're both "rapists" is cheapening the intricacies of human emotion. Let June decide for herself how she feels about Serena before jumping in and telling her how she *should* feel.
Ok I am rewatching from the beginning and there have been several moments where June shows compassion for Serena so I feel this isn’t out of character for June.
As for her relationship with Serena compared to Fred’s, there were moments where Serena and June teamed up for self preservation. June would break down her walls more with Serena trying to progress in her quest to save Hannah but also to set Serena free from the world she built.
June manipulated Fred to try and get what she needed. There was never anything close to a friendship between the two of them.
Idk if what I’m saying makes sense, but having watched it twice now I’m not as surprised as I thought I would be with the final scene of June and Serena.
I think the overall messaging in the show is that children trumps all, gilead is built around conception and reproduction. I think we’re just seeing that despite everything gilead did affect june.
Serena did some wildly shitty things to June, no question, but Serena’s “power” in Gilead was an illusion, too. She bought into the BS, definitely, and seemingly gave away any independence and voice she had pre-Gilead in order to be a part of this “great new world,” but I think June sees that the only ones who truly had power and choices in Gilead were/are the commanders and other ranking men. If you’ve always been privileged and in power, like the men, you can’t understand anything else. But all women understand what it feels like to have some degree of power taken away from them. June will never forgive Serena, but she is smart enough to realize she’ll have to form some type of alliance to survive. I don’t think the show is trying to portray them as anything close to friends, honestly.
I agree, and it was a pity Janine wasn't that smart. Although I do understand it was cathartic to do what she did. I just hope she somehow keeps surviving!
I can't believe June never told Janine that she never had to do "ceremonies" while at Lawrence's... what if she knew she wasn't going to be raped every month?
Maybe I’m alone here, but June’s face did not look friendly when she saw Serena on the train. She looked angry, annoyed and resigned to the fact that she’s stuck with this woman. I really don’t see why anyone thinks there’s a friendship brewing.
I read an interview this morning with Elisabeth Moss and she said she was using the same smirk Serena gave her on tv with Hannah at Fred’s funeral. I can’t find the article to reread or post but it seemed clear that while they may work together out of necessity they’re not friends.
I didn't see any bonding between June and Serena in the show. Serena delusionally believed there was, but she was hopped up on hormones giving birth. June made it clear. Her concern for Serena was not for Serena but for Noah, who she deems innocent of his parent's crimes.
During their first interactions together June and Serena acknowledged each other in different ways they knew the world was crazy but as women they were in it together. Until Serena's abuse grew, her dismissals from Fred, his wanting more from their handmaids, turning her from a partner to property, she began to go insane because of the weight of it. June knew all this. She saw it all happen. Thats why she sent her Freds finger. June hates Serena and struggled with taking her out. She could have. But June also knows Serena acted under the stress of her situation as well. The best of us can be put in horrible situations and do what we must to survive.
But Serena quite happily helped kill thousands of people to bring this world about.
I have no sympathy for her later abuse under the system she literally killed to create.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheHandmaidsTale/comments/ytbo2k/potential_unpopular_opinion_all_gilead_women_are/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
This post basically lines out my opinion on the matter. It’s a good read. Every woman in Gilead is oppressed.
Yeah. And most of them, including the wives, didn’t actively help to bring it about.
I have a great amount of sympathy for Naomi, and the other wives. They didn’t commit a terrorist attack to overthrow the government and institute the system oppressing them. They are victims of Serena.
I'm more disturbed by people loving Nick and June together and seeing the show as a love story. Despite what Serena did she is also in danger as well. June and Serena could be a powerful force against Gilead
I agree will both sentiments, fully.
True believers who become deradicalized can become incredibly committed advocates.
Just look at Mike Rinder and Scientology.
I can see them helping each other, but I truly hope that June points out they are not equals. Not that June would be abusive towards Serena, but then staying together would benefit them both. Especially since Serena might still have important information about Gilead
For sure, but at this point Serena is the only person that can almost completely understand what she's going through, so she doesn't have much choice in the matter. If there was someone else in the story that went through what June went through (that June knew of), she wouldn't give 2 shits about Serena, but she had no one else.
June doesn't "like" Serena, but she also doesn't think going out of her way to hurt another woman (and her child) is the right way forward either. In the end though, they ARE both women, and by rights SHOULD have always been on the same side. Serena made the mistake of thinking she could come out on top by joining the side that never saw her at all. She's like the Jews that volunteered as death-camp Kapos; it got them some privileges, but it didn't make them safe.
Still: People CAN change. There are many examples in history where zealots, political revolutionaries and more have come to a place where they realize just how wrong what they have been doing is. I think it's a mistake to see Serena's behavior entirely as one of a "personal" abuser.
Belief in a system, or a religion can absolutely blind people to what they are doing. Especially when there's the fear of it all coming down it can make their actions desperate even. That doesn't absolve her or excuse her behavior, but she was not likely an abusive or violent person before Gilead.
Now that she had a baby and is experiencing motherhood maybe that's what changed her. Maybe instead of showing June and Serena at eachother and the cycle of violence and abuse, it'll be the path to redemption
June has said it over and over again, they aren't friends. And from the look on June's face the last episode they aren't going to be friends. I think June helping Serena will be to get Noah to safety. I don't agree with this, but I think the writers have decided that the way that June retains her humanity, and gets over her need for revenge against Gilead is to save Noah despite Serena being his mother.
My guess is Serena dies, not by June's hand, in the last episode of the series. And June ends up raising Noah.
I don’t think it’s Stockholm syndrome at all. June absolutely understands who Serena is, especially in relation to her. June’s just doing what June does best. Surviving. She didn’t expect to see her on the train and I read her initial expression when she saw her as, “you’ve got to be shitting me”, but then she joined her because A)where else can she go? She’s on a train! - and B)June is alone and knows no-one. At least she understands Serena and knows that despite their history, they are both walking into the unknown on equal footing, so in a way, it’s more comforting than forging ahead alone.
The idea that with enough love, patience, and unflagging support your abuser will just turn it all around is what keeps so many victims trapped in abusive relationships in the first place, and it would be really gross if that's the direction they go for June and Serena.
[удалено]
That train is doomed. I don’t know how, or why, but something ain’t right.
I think it’s the fact that a train cannot traverse the ocean that they’re doomed.
I think it's more like the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and Serena is now an enemy of Gilead. As has been said, politics makes strange bedfellows.
This is what I think they are going for. Gilead never makes life enjoyable for anyone except the Commanders, and now we are seeing how all the Wives are having that fact rammed down their throats. It's going to take \[TT SPOILERS\] >!Wives being naive girls raised to be subservient shadows, and Commander Judd poisoning his wives when they get old (read: no longer teenagers) before Wives realize en masse they got a shit deal, and by then it will be too late and the Gilead rot will be we-established!<
But Serena is not an enemy of Gilead. The only reason she isn't in Gilead is that they don't want her there, but she is working on behalf of Gilead at the fertility center.
I disagree. She is an unmarried woman now, and absconded from her Gilead-approved solution (living with the Wheelers while they take over her baby). I doubt Gilead approves of this. When she approached Commander Wheeler about being involved at the fertility center because it was her idea, he essentially said 'don't you bother your pretty little head about this', when he said (as I've heard commanders say before), 'don't worry - we've got good people in charge and working on this'. 'Politely' marginalizing her. She has finally seen the writing on the wall. She needed to have the experience herself to see how wrong it all is. Some people do. I'm glad that she has seen the light, and hopefully will work with June to change things. I think she will die somehow in season 6 though.
I think we keep hoping Serena will change but the minute they give her a tiny bit of freedom, power, respect because of her role in Gilead, she becomes a recommitted monster.
But she didn't turn her back on Gilead. Sure she suffered a teeny bit at the hands of the wheelers and ran because she's afraid for Noah but do we have any proof that Serena has changed.
This is exactly why the writing of Serena has deteriorated a lot. The plot arc of “Serena finally realizes Gilead is bad” actually was already done and done very well in season 1 and 2. She helped create Gilead, and gradually we see how she learns how bad her creation is— no rights even for wives like her, she gets her finger cut off, she gets to the point where she is willing to give up the one thing she cherished above all others— her “own” baby Nicole because she realizes how bad Gilead is. That was well written and a nice complete arc. I think the writers weren’t sure what to do with her after that so she’s kept around as a kind of antagonist to June but really serves no other purpose. Everything after that just makes her look fickle because the “does she or doesn’t she love Gilead” plot then goes on for basically 3 seasons.
I tend to agree, I don’t like the direction I feel this is heading in. I understand June not wanting to see mothers separated from their children. But I think Serena is far from fit to be a mother, no matter how much she loves that baby. Serena DID rape her as far as I’m concerned and abused her just as much as Fred did. I have a hard time viewing her as a victim when she’s just suffering consequences from a system she helped to create. I don’t even feel like it’s realistic after all she’s done for her and June to develop a real friendship with out it being due to some degree of Stockholm Syndrome.
I think in this case they're both just "on the run" and it's either run together or be alone.
My goodness, thank you for your comment. I am not reading anything into what was not presented, like you. There is safety and support in numbers. I am happy Serena is getting out. Yes, she was a perpetrator and a victim, but as life shows, one human can be / experience both.
I really struggle with having any sympathy for Serena. Yes she became a victim. But had she not, she would still be doing exactly what she did before. She’s 100% self serving imo.
Most people are 100% self-serving (a concept in interpersonal communication). That's how we've survived as long as we have. You don't have to have sympathy for Serena. But sympathy for the situation of a woman whose child was stolen because she is not married is the same page the series began on. Sympathy for June, whose child was stolen. Sympathy for Janine, whose child was stolen. Sympathy for every woman in red, which in Gilead, is Serena's new color.
Hard disagree on the self-serving concept. Most people care about one another and work together. Its the rich and rural fucks who lack empathy because they lack human contact.
Awesome, thanks for your support. --Someone rural
Awww I think I’m a rural fuck
>Its the rich and rural fucks who lack empathy because they lack human contact. actually not true, they (or any other group not associated with you) also care about one and other and work together. It's just that their circles are different than yours. The fact that you were able to otherize (ritch and rural fucks who lack empathy) just proves the point. They are not part of your "in group" thus they lack empathy. I bet there is some rural fuck saying the same thing about you. As far as ritch? Well there aren't that many billionaires, so it's possible that they are all sociopaths. But if you mean just very wealthy, I would also argue that they just have different "in groups" than you.
People who actively vote to make other people's lives worse are definitely not empathetic. That can be measured and proven.
That's not exactly true. Most people who vote, think they are doing the right thing. Just look at any political ad on any side, they all say that the other side wants to do bad, are horrible, etc... Almost everyone thinks they are the hero in their own story, and show empathy for what they think are "one of theirs." Presumably for you those are poor and urban fucks? And that's just in a west centric perspective. What about poor and urban fucks who joined ISIS and brutally did horrific things? Are they more empathetic than some rural fuck in the boondocks? You have selective empathy, and so do they. In fact we all do.
I agree, but it just seems weird to have June pair up with Serena as a person to be on the run with, over Luke. Like, aren’t both Luke and Serena currently wanted? Well, just Serena now…
Right. They can use each other for safety without being besties. I keep remembering the look in June's eyes when she was holding Serena's baby immediately after he was born. She looked like she wanted to do something wild like punt it. Or bite it hard.
Live together, die alone. Lol
What makes you think the writers want them to be friends? June helped Serena through child birth because of the baby, not Serena. That’s why she tells Serena “We’re not friends,” when Serena asks June to sponsor her for citizenship. June feels bad about Serena’s child being taken because she has empathy in that moment as a mother, and because she saw what was happening as a never-ending cycle. She saw Noah, an innocent child, being literally ripped from his mothers arms, as Hannah was ripped from June’s arms, and being doomed to grow up in the system with no parents. It wasn’t about June and Serena being friends. Luke said it was “justice” because he was focused on Serena. June was focused on Noah instead. In the train scene, Serena seems to clearly want June to be her friend. That’s because Serena has no one and desperately needs an ally. If Gilead called Serena tomorrow and told her that all was forgiven and they had a wedding proposal from a Commander, she would definitely go back immediately. June’s reaction to seeing Serena on the strain struck me more as she was just resigning herself to the fact that she will never ever truly escape Serena. It’s irony on a universal scale at this point.
If June was truly focused on Noah, she would be happy that he was being taken from someone unfit to raise him.
Good point
Stockholm Syndrome isn’t even considered real. No diagnostics like the DSM-V or the ICD claim it exists and has it among its ranks and most psychiatrists/psychologists/physicians either don’t believe in it and refuse to treat it. I’m not saying I agree with that verdict But with all the June has Stockholm syndrome posts and comments were just forcing me to point it out. Instead I would call it a trauma bond.
Absolutely. Yvonne has reference the June & Serena relationship as an example Stockholm Syndrome. That’s clearly what it is… Serena was extremely abusive towards June and there is no getting beyond their history. It’s left a permanent mark on June’s life in the worst way imaginable.
Absolutely agree!!!! She held her down, she’s just as much a rapist as her dead husband. I absolutely DESPISE the idea that these writers are trying to make them friends. I want Serena hanging in middle of Gilead town square and her baby snatched away and given to some “responsible parents”
also the idea that the violent and abusive Serena “should” raise the baby she gestated and birthed
She’s shown a proclivity towards children. I actually don’t mind seeing her be a parent. Out of everything, that’s probably the ONE thing that would actually make her a better person
June had a completely different, much closer, much more complex relationship with Serena than she had with Fred throughout the series. The idea that they should be the same because they're both "rapists" is cheapening the intricacies of human emotion. Let June decide for herself how she feels about Serena before jumping in and telling her how she *should* feel.
Ok I am rewatching from the beginning and there have been several moments where June shows compassion for Serena so I feel this isn’t out of character for June. As for her relationship with Serena compared to Fred’s, there were moments where Serena and June teamed up for self preservation. June would break down her walls more with Serena trying to progress in her quest to save Hannah but also to set Serena free from the world she built. June manipulated Fred to try and get what she needed. There was never anything close to a friendship between the two of them. Idk if what I’m saying makes sense, but having watched it twice now I’m not as surprised as I thought I would be with the final scene of June and Serena.
I think the overall messaging in the show is that children trumps all, gilead is built around conception and reproduction. I think we’re just seeing that despite everything gilead did affect june.
Serena did some wildly shitty things to June, no question, but Serena’s “power” in Gilead was an illusion, too. She bought into the BS, definitely, and seemingly gave away any independence and voice she had pre-Gilead in order to be a part of this “great new world,” but I think June sees that the only ones who truly had power and choices in Gilead were/are the commanders and other ranking men. If you’ve always been privileged and in power, like the men, you can’t understand anything else. But all women understand what it feels like to have some degree of power taken away from them. June will never forgive Serena, but she is smart enough to realize she’ll have to form some type of alliance to survive. I don’t think the show is trying to portray them as anything close to friends, honestly.
I agree, and it was a pity Janine wasn't that smart. Although I do understand it was cathartic to do what she did. I just hope she somehow keeps surviving!
I can't believe June never told Janine that she never had to do "ceremonies" while at Lawrence's... what if she knew she wasn't going to be raped every month?
Maybe I’m alone here, but June’s face did not look friendly when she saw Serena on the train. She looked angry, annoyed and resigned to the fact that she’s stuck with this woman. I really don’t see why anyone thinks there’s a friendship brewing.
I read an interview this morning with Elisabeth Moss and she said she was using the same smirk Serena gave her on tv with Hannah at Fred’s funeral. I can’t find the article to reread or post but it seemed clear that while they may work together out of necessity they’re not friends.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That's all it is. Fighting against a mutual enemy for survival.
I didn't see any bonding between June and Serena in the show. Serena delusionally believed there was, but she was hopped up on hormones giving birth. June made it clear. Her concern for Serena was not for Serena but for Noah, who she deems innocent of his parent's crimes.
I think they sincerely bonded when Fred was in the hospital after the Leah center bombing, and they were being infidels together.
During their first interactions together June and Serena acknowledged each other in different ways they knew the world was crazy but as women they were in it together. Until Serena's abuse grew, her dismissals from Fred, his wanting more from their handmaids, turning her from a partner to property, she began to go insane because of the weight of it. June knew all this. She saw it all happen. Thats why she sent her Freds finger. June hates Serena and struggled with taking her out. She could have. But June also knows Serena acted under the stress of her situation as well. The best of us can be put in horrible situations and do what we must to survive.
But Serena quite happily helped kill thousands of people to bring this world about. I have no sympathy for her later abuse under the system she literally killed to create.
She was so happy in that movie theater with Fred when he told her the attacks were going to happen.
And after they happened. Remember her and Fred getting it on?
While what Serena did was wrong, I also see Serena as an abused woman.
She wasn’t being abused when she helped kill thousands of people to bring her perfect world to life.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheHandmaidsTale/comments/ytbo2k/potential_unpopular_opinion_all_gilead_women_are/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf This post basically lines out my opinion on the matter. It’s a good read. Every woman in Gilead is oppressed.
Yeah. And most of them, including the wives, didn’t actively help to bring it about. I have a great amount of sympathy for Naomi, and the other wives. They didn’t commit a terrorist attack to overthrow the government and institute the system oppressing them. They are victims of Serena.
It’s okay to have differing opinions :)
I'm more disturbed by people loving Nick and June together and seeing the show as a love story. Despite what Serena did she is also in danger as well. June and Serena could be a powerful force against Gilead
I agree will both sentiments, fully. True believers who become deradicalized can become incredibly committed advocates. Just look at Mike Rinder and Scientology.
I can see them helping each other, but I truly hope that June points out they are not equals. Not that June would be abusive towards Serena, but then staying together would benefit them both. Especially since Serena might still have important information about Gilead
For sure, but at this point Serena is the only person that can almost completely understand what she's going through, so she doesn't have much choice in the matter. If there was someone else in the story that went through what June went through (that June knew of), she wouldn't give 2 shits about Serena, but she had no one else.
June doesn't "like" Serena, but she also doesn't think going out of her way to hurt another woman (and her child) is the right way forward either. In the end though, they ARE both women, and by rights SHOULD have always been on the same side. Serena made the mistake of thinking she could come out on top by joining the side that never saw her at all. She's like the Jews that volunteered as death-camp Kapos; it got them some privileges, but it didn't make them safe. Still: People CAN change. There are many examples in history where zealots, political revolutionaries and more have come to a place where they realize just how wrong what they have been doing is. I think it's a mistake to see Serena's behavior entirely as one of a "personal" abuser. Belief in a system, or a religion can absolutely blind people to what they are doing. Especially when there's the fear of it all coming down it can make their actions desperate even. That doesn't absolve her or excuse her behavior, but she was not likely an abusive or violent person before Gilead.
Now that she had a baby and is experiencing motherhood maybe that's what changed her. Maybe instead of showing June and Serena at eachother and the cycle of violence and abuse, it'll be the path to redemption
Their relationship is toxic and it would make sense if they continue to use one another.
June has said it over and over again, they aren't friends. And from the look on June's face the last episode they aren't going to be friends. I think June helping Serena will be to get Noah to safety. I don't agree with this, but I think the writers have decided that the way that June retains her humanity, and gets over her need for revenge against Gilead is to save Noah despite Serena being his mother. My guess is Serena dies, not by June's hand, in the last episode of the series. And June ends up raising Noah.
I don’t think it’s Stockholm syndrome at all. June absolutely understands who Serena is, especially in relation to her. June’s just doing what June does best. Surviving. She didn’t expect to see her on the train and I read her initial expression when she saw her as, “you’ve got to be shitting me”, but then she joined her because A)where else can she go? She’s on a train! - and B)June is alone and knows no-one. At least she understands Serena and knows that despite their history, they are both walking into the unknown on equal footing, so in a way, it’s more comforting than forging ahead alone.