No One in The Handmaid’s Tale Deserves Peace More Than Janine

All the dystopian series are rather disturbing, but there's one that really makes us think that whatever is shown on the screen can in some way be adapted by our society if not today but still soon. And nothing makes us worry more than the future of our families and not having our own choice in how to live our lives.

This is exactly what happened to the main characters in The Handmaid’s Tale. The series premiered in 2017 and made the viewers gasp in shock when they realized what the show was about. The show is set in a fictional country named Gilead, which has its own totalitarian and religion-based rules.

Gilead’s handmaids are just fertile women trapped in captivity for the obvious reasons: bear children into the families where the wives are infertile. But these woman are literally sex slaves, being raped by these families whenever they want.

The series’ main character is June, and we see the events of the show from her perspective, but there are many other girls whose lives were broken because of their captivity. And Janine is one of them.

We learn from her backstory that she was gang-raped and got pregnant because of that. She wanted abortion, but instead decided to keep the baby and gave birth to a little boy whom she named Caleb. After she was trapped by Gilead soldiers, she started losing it. The situation really broke her, and she didn’t know how to help herself.

Right after she is brought to the Red Center, she starts behaving like a rebellious teenager: screaming, being sarcastic and vulgar towards aunt Lydia. That’s when she decides to punish Janine by having her right eye removed as a form of misinterpretation of Biblical passages, in this case Matthew 5:29: “if thy right eye offends thee, pluck it out.”

“Everything about Janine breaks my heart. From her backstory, the constant abuse she endures, her mental health, her story with Charlotte, and finally her continued belief in God after everything that’s happened…. I mean she was truly such an innocent girl locked in hell,” Redditor UtubeNoodle said.

Over five seasons she has been through hell: losing her child twice, being betrayed by those she thought were on her side, losing friends, losing hope a thousand times, being free from Gilead only to be taken away. And the way season 5 ended gives us no hope that we will find her being all well in Canada.

So maybe if we beg the writers enough to just leave her alone already and bring peace to her life in season 6, they will listen?

Until then, you can stream The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.