I saw this on reddit so hopefully it's okay to post here! I originally thought June would go on the run but this makes way more sense.
Some people seem to think that june and the other women could be prosecuted for Fred's murder, that june said goodbye to Nichole because she has to go on the run. But that's ignoring the importance of the chain of events leading to Fred's death and the legal consequences of things taking place in no man's land.
Tuello is part of the USA-in-exile, not Canada. He worked in Canada out of necessity with Canada's
blessing. When Tuello handed Fred over to Lawrence at the border, neither the US nor Canadian
governments had jurisdiction over what happened to Fred anymore.
Fred's fate was legally - even in the eyes of the ICC-in the hands of Gilead because he was repatriated by prisoner exchange.
Lawrence is just one Commander who couldn't determine Fred's fate without the support of the other Commanders... unless the Eyes took custody of him.
The Eyes are a force unto themselves. Gilead's secret police. For every man who ends up on the wall, I
bet there are others who have been disappeared by the Eyes, if not the way Fred was.
Fred was dropped off in no man's land, meaning that it was territory not claimed by any government.
Really nothing could be considered a crime there because it wasn't subject to any country's laws. But if
it was subject to any law, it would have been that of Gilead, because Fred was a Gileadean citizen, and
so Gilead could have tried for an extradition treaty if they wanted to pursue his killer(s).
But there will be no extradition treaty. Under Gileadean law, the Eyes can do what they wish to their prisoners. Hell, Gilead would still view all former Handmaids as property that hadn't yet been returned to them. June and the other former Handmaids had already been used to execute traitors to Gilead whenever they were gathered and Aunt Lydia blew the whistle for the particicution to start. They were performing that "duty" one last time. So even if it were officially acknowledged within Gilead what actually took place that night, it was completely in accordance with their laws. But as it stands, Gilead's ruling body of Commanders has plausible deniability. Everything happened under his Eye. That Eye being Nick!
No one's coming after june, Emily, or any of the other women who were more "weapon" than "killer." It was not a murder. It was an execution of a traitor.
Unless the international community sent people to searching the forests of no man's land- and they wouldn't because why would they even know to do so? - there isn't even proof that Fred is dead. Fingers can be cut off living people, and I have a feeling it was removed while he was still alive, so forensics wouldn't conclude that he was dead. They (the ICC) knew full well that Fred was a traitor to Gilead when they made the exchange, as the whole point of him flipping to give evidence against Gilead was to save his own skin from being prosecuted and convicted of crimes against humanity. If the news ever caught wind that Fred had been killed, the international community would shake its collective head about the brutality of the Gileadean government and be grateful they got those 22 women to safety when they could.
June doesn't have to go on the run. But she is forging her own path forward.
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