The brutal scene that confirmed everyone's worst fears about The Handmaid's Tale.

Gilead is back for a second season and it’s even bleaker than season one.

So much so, that even some die-hard fans are turning away from the Emmy award-winning TV series.

They’re switching off The Handmaid’s Tale and pretending the whole thing isn’t happening.

They’re seeking out TV shows that don’t take such an emotional toll on them and, quite frankly, don’t give them maroon-clad nightmares.

While the end of season one offered us some hope, so far season two has only been confronting… and dire… and full of never-ending setbacks for June.

That’s why fans have been struggling this season, because the likelihood of a happy ending is slim. June may never get real freedom and she may never be reunited with her family.

Having The Handmaid’s Tale withdrawals? Alias Grace will also hook you in. We discuss, on The Binge. Post continues.

And now one brutal scene has confirmed our worst fears.

In episode three, entitled Baggage, June leaves the Boston Globe building where she’s been hiding out for two months.

She travels with Omar, a member of Mayday the resistance movement which is helping her escape, to his bleak, grey apartment building.

The plan is for June to hide out there overnight, and then Omar would help her get to an airstrip, where a plane would be waiting to fly her out of Gilead.

Omar and his wife, Heather, are part of the lower classes in Gilead. Heather is what is known as an Econowife. They both wear grey and attend church every day.

While they’re at church June becomes convinced they’ve been caught, so she puts on some of Heather’s grey clothing, walks out of the apartment building, through the city, and then boards a train.

When she arrives at her destination she runs into the woods and walks until she comes across the airstrip.

She sees the plane arrive, walks over and introduces herself to the pilot. The pilot then ushers her and a driver, who is also trying to escape, onto the plane.

He starts the engine and begins gliding down the runway.

Then it happens.

Several armoured vehicles surround the plane and begin shooting.

They kill the pilot. They drag the driver out of the back of the plane and shoot him in the head.

The final scene shows them pulling June out of the plane, as she desperately tries to cling onto anything she can grab hold of.

We don’t see what happens to June next.

We can only assume she’s going back to a life of being a handmaid. To living under the rule of her masters. To being disciplined by Aunt Lydia. To living a life without Nick. To feeling even further away from her family.

This one bleak scene has confirmed all of our fears – there’s no easy way out of Gilead and there’s probably no happy ending for June.

Are you still watching The Handmaid’s Tale?