The Handmaid’s Tale: June and Rose told us the big problem with overthrowing Gilead

We all want to see Gilead burn. However, there’s a huge problem if (more like, when) that happens. The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3, Episode 9 made that clear.

Caution: There are spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3, Episode 9.

From the very beginning, we’ve wanted to see Gilead burn in The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s not surprising that the show has included fire in promos for the last couple of seasons. The idea is that June helps to liberate the people. However, Season 3, Episode 9 made it clear that there’s a big problem if (and more like, when) that happens.

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At the end of the penultimate episode, June realized that she had been seeing preteen girls around the hospital. She gets the chance to speak to Rose, a girl who admits she’s in for her pre-menstrual checkup. Doctors are keeping an eye on young girls to track pelvic growth to see when they’re ready physically to bear children.

But these girls aren’t going to put up a fight. Rose made it clear that she can’t wait to be a wife and mother. She’s excited for the chance to provide children. It’s a gift from God to be able to do such a thing.

Speaking of God, Rose also believes that if you pray hard enough, God listens and answers prayers. It’s another nail in the coffin of just how brainwashed the children of Gilead are becoming.

We saw it in Season 2 with Eden. She was excited about marrying, becoming a wife and having the chance to bear children. When she ran away, it wasn’t because she didn’t want to be a good wife to Nick but that she’d fallen in love.

Later, we saw Hannah recoil at the idea of June coming towards her. Despite June being her mother, Hannah had spent the last (what would have been at the time) four years with the MacKenzies. She was scared when she met June and even had nightmares for weeks after that. Of course, the nightmares would have been linked to Gilead’s regime, but in Hannah’s young mind, she’d think that June was the monster.

And it won’t just be the young girls, either. Gilead will be doing a number on the boys, too. They’ll be raised believing that women are below them, only useful for birthing children, taking care of the house and garden, and being a wife. It would be difficult to change this brainwashed opinion.

The idea of liberating the people of Gilead sounds like a good thing, but the children are the future. They’ve been raised with the ideologies of Gilead. It’s certainly not going to be easy to bring an end to the total regime.

It wouldn’t be impossible to take down and restructure. We could look at Gilead like Nazi Germany. The Nazi Youth were raised to believe all the ideologies of the Nazis. They were brainwashed at a young age, and learning the truth after the Nazi regime was taken down wouldn’t have been easy.

There are still pockets of people who believe in the Nazi regime, but they’re not mainstream. The same thing would happen with the children of Gilead. But it does prove a point that it’s not going to be as easy as getting the children out of Gilead like June plans — and even that’s not going to be easy.

Something would need to be put in place to ensure Gilead is overthrown and remains that way. That means actions taken against any of the children who grow up believing what they had was right, which isn’t going to be easy to prove considering Gilead is faring better than other countries in the world!

What problems do you see with June’s plan to get the children out? Is there hope to take down Gilead? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Handmaid’s Tale’s Season 3 finale airs on Wednesday on Hulu.