The Handmaid's Tale's Aunt Lydia is confronted by a ghost – and turns towards the light

But during a heated conversation with Commander Lawrence, in which he needled her for deciding to walk away from the rebellion, the expression on June's face shifted from defeated to devilish.

The answer to their latest setback was staring them right in the face: Serena and Commander Wharton's wedding, duh.

But how to go about it?

Enter Rita, who laced Serena's wedding cake with a sedative that would take effect shortly after the who's who of Gilead had returned to their homes, which is when the Handmaids, armed with daggers, would let them have it in whichever way they saw fit.

The throat, perhaps? Or how about an eye (for an eye)? The choice is yours!

As punishment for the torture he'd inflicted upon Janine, June opted for the latter and with that, the odious Commander Bell was reduced to a heap on the floor while she helped herself to his liquor – a toast, if you will, following his grisly demise.

Good riddance to ya!

But for a hot minute, their plan appeared to have stalled, this time due to the pesky Aunt Lydia. She should have been in DC after Lawrence made arrangements to keep her firmly out of the way, but there she was, much to his vexation, and within moments of her arrival, she had spotted a ghost from the past: June.

Cue ominous music.

"I think June Osborne is here," a visibly rattled Lydia said to Lawrence, who was quick to rubbish her claims.

Had she exposed her, right there and then, at Serena's wedding reception, it would have spelled the end, of everything.

But a short time later, while she was catching her breath, Lydia realised something was afoot when she discovered the drug-infused cake the Handmaids had discarded beneath their seats.

She then immediately rushed to their dorm to chastise them and dole out the required punishment, where she was met with resistance by Moira. And it was in that moment Lydia's uncertainty melted away. She knew.

"I was right, she's back. I know she's back," she declared. "Tell me, where is June Osborne?"

Speak of the devil and she shall appear...

"I'm right here," said June, stepping forward.

"I knew it, I knew it!" responded Lydia, all fire and brimstone. "You did this!"

But June was quick to correct her, instead forcing her to reckon with what she had been complicit in.

"You trained us to be like this, after you beat us and after you mutilated us, after you tortured us, after you took our children away," she said as Lydia's lip began to quiver. "You did this."

But then, June gave her an opening to redeem herself.

"I think that you've seen things that you can't unsee, and I think you've learned things that you can't unlearn, and I know that in your heart of hearts, you know that rape is rape, and you know it wasn't our fault, and we don't deserve this, and we're not fallen women," she said, referencing Lydia's own sermonising from the early days of the regime.

"I would like you to ask yourself, Lydia, if you think that God wants this for us, for your girls?" she added. "That God would allow all of this? Or, is there a God who would empower a woman like you to stand up for us, to arc toward the light, and to finally declare enough?

"Because we, all of us, together, we've had enough."

June then brought out her secret weapon, Janine, who spoke of the horrors she had endured at the hands of Gilead's great and good, before making one final plea.

"If you want to save us, let us go," she said. "Please, Aunt Lydia."

They waited, with bated breath. Would she do right by her precious girls? Was Lydia capable of change and honest self-reflection?

Yes, it appears she is.

Miraculously, Lydia made the uncharacteristic decision to turn away from the darkness, embracing Janine and apologising for the hurt she had facilitated while the rest of the Handmaids filtered past into the night, so that they, too, could do their worst.

"We were angry. We were exhilarated. We were ready for a new beginning," narrated June.

"The dress became our uniform and we became an army, an army to free ourselves from the prison of the dress.

"We would take our freedom and use every last ounce of it to fight. And so we fled, away from the darkness, within and without, and into the light."

The Handmaid's Tale airs on Hulu in the US and Channel 4 in the UK.

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