It’s become an undeniable trope in the series that women will turn on each other as quickly as — or maybe even more quickly than — they do their male oppressors.
The rest of Boston’s defiant Handmaids somehow elected June to lead them, but June’s relationship with Janine evolved less decisively — a natural pull between women with shared experiences and underlying compatibilities.
In the May 12 episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, the pair finally explores Chicago — purportedly the front of a war between Gilead and what’s left of America.
June confesses to telling the Eyes where the Handmaids were hiding on the farm, a disloyalty that Janine balks at even when she learns that Hannah’s safety hung in the balance.
The argument disintegrates fast and scornful in a way that feels familial; we can be most brutal to the ones we love.
June is unable to control Janine’s decisions in the free world, like when Janine attempts to trade her red cape — the only thing she owns — for a gift for Steven.
With no idea where she’s heading and if she’ll ever make it there, Janine was maybe June’s last chance to be a mother.
Here, on the edge of the world that once was, June and Janine walk close, a portrait of female friendship as sincere as it is imperfect.