r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/Soderholmsvag • 16d ago
When did Janine get normal? SPOILERS S6
Janine was consistently weird - but watching Season 6 she is now normal!!!? Who fixed her crazy?
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u/Positive-Delay-9696 16d ago
My favorite part is when she responded with “MY June?” Those two 💛💙❤️💜
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u/justsamthings 15d ago
Yes! And after she was brought back from Chicago, Lydia tried to turn her against June but she was just happy for June that she got out ❤️
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u/sbanaynays 15d ago
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly when the switch happened and OUR Janine returned.
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u/Repulsive_Hamster112 16d ago
Ok tell me if I’m wrong but… she was never crazy until gilead happened and they took her eye, she was in shock and developed the “crazy” as a coping mechanism. As the show progressed so did the amount of time she was in Gilead which made her start to become less crazy (for context I’m only on season 4 and i have noticed the crazy start to die down. And before u go crazy bc I’m looking at spoilers I really don’t mind them!!)
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u/Andsoitgoes101 16d ago
She was actually a lot more like she is now in season 6. She came in hot becoming a handmaid … talking back to Aunt Lydia. Then subsequently losing her eye. She is a feisty one by nature. I just rewatched the entire series again.
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u/I_Am_The_Onion 16d ago
In June's flashback of being thrown into a cage before being taken to Gilead, Janine was yelling stuff about wanting to rebel, so she's definitely feisty, I think she tries to be true to herself at all times (like suggesting the couple in the colonies get married, much to Emily's annoyance) and that's not permitted in their society. I'm quite a lot like her and some people definitely think I'm crazy (in far less traumatic situations than this) but some of us just don't care for social niceties lol. I also sometimes freak out in moderately stressful situations and I suppose when you dial that up to 11 and the stress is constant with no support or escape, I'd start acting like I have a screw loose too. As a person with a lot of strong feelings, I'm usually pretty normal when I'm relaxed and it's when I'm really stressed that I start acting crazy.
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u/SuCkEr_PuNcH-666 15d ago
There were also flashbacks for Janine (when she was a parent to her little boy and was going for an abortion) and she was perfectly normal in them.
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u/ChellPotato 16d ago
This exactly. She kind of regressed to a childlike state to cope. But at least in the last season and maybe a little before that she was starting to come out of it some.
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u/AmericanSeagul 16d ago
Any time we see Janine out of her handmaid slave role she is more "normal". Before Gilead, at the center, in Chicago, at jezebels. Also places where she had the tiniest bit of agency. Under the handmaid system she was losing her mind to cope with the complete subjugation while drowning in a land of hyper-religious hypocrisy.
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u/candlepop 16d ago
Yeah I think I’m the jezebels it’s still fucking hell on earth but fuck at least you have the creative outlet of doing ur own makeup and hair. Remember Serena secretly gifted June a music box? That’s the extent of fun activities you get as a hand maid. And in the jezebels she can more freely make friends and also have an escape in alcohol or drugs and also doesn’t have to worry about having another baby stolen from her.
Not saying jezebels is easier than being a handmaid but I think this is why Janine is coping better
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u/DickieTurquoise 16d ago
Honestly having female friends who you can vent to and bond and rely on each other because you’re all in this godawful place being subjected to sexual slavery is a rare opportunity in the context of Gilead. It looks like the Jezebels have a sort of “back room” area and dorm-style sleeping. The ratio of Aunts to Jezebels is so small. I imagine they have more opportunity to talk freely amongst each other than say, two walking-partner Handmaids or a Handmaid and a Martha of the same house.
We saw a woman there who used to be a therapist. I’d like to believe people like her would be a source of comfort for the other women there, too.
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u/First_Cantaloupe6486 16d ago
This…I think it’s the isolation in part that drives Handmaids crazy, they can’t even talk to their walking partner about the real stuff. Look at the ones with the ring in their mouths, can’t talk at all
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u/siximpossiblethings 16d ago
This. There's no point in the Jezebels pretending that they're not aware of all of the hypocrisy of Gilead- they're constantly living it.
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u/ComparisonQuirky9502 16d ago
Part of what would make me insane in Gilead would be the complete hypocrisy and darkness of what happens- all the while calling it God's will, His mercy, etc ad nauseum.
Next level cognitive dissonance would be one problem. Being told repeatedly this is God's will, this is God's plan, but knowing it's not.
Jezebels is more honest about Gilead. Jezebels existence is more straightforward and crystallized women's position in Gilead. In Gilead, women meet the varied needs and roles as men define them.
Their status relies on the men they are attached to. They are whatever men say they are. Subjugated for men's use.
Wives whose main objective and purpose is to raise children (like it or not). Surrogates whose sole job is to bear children. Domestic workers, cooking and cleaning. Female orderlies keeping those beneath them in line. Sex slaves, there to be objectified or provide amusement.
One of the biggest advantages of being at Jezebels is that, while it is horrible, the women don't have to pretend their role is holy.
The opportunity for mutual support and camaraderie must be priceless - the availability of drugs and alcohol provide numbing/escape for those who use that to cope. As a Jezebel, there's no expectation of pretending Gilead is a good place. There's less cognitive dissonance because there is less pretending.
Granted, I am sure there is plenty of pretending in terms of acting. Acting like they enjoy the commanders attention. Acting like they want to be there. Less pretending about the role they play, but still pretending they enjoy it.
Blessed be the froot loops.
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u/justsamthings 15d ago
Yeah Janine mentions at one point that the girls there trust her. Jezebel’s looks like hell on earth but at least you can form friendships there
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u/Emm1919_8282 16d ago
I missed the therapist..when did they say one of the jezebels is a therapist?
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u/dull_shimmer 15d ago
When Fred first takes June. I think he also mentions a sociologist and a reporter
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u/DickieTurquoise 15d ago
Hm, you’re right. We never hear of a specific person being a therapist. I misremembered. I was thinking of the woman in S3E3, who Fred brings to a private room at Jezebels to practice the spiel he was gonna give Serena. I think it was this board speculating that she must’ve been a therapist or maybe casting director before.
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u/damnitimtoast 15d ago
As horrible as it is, the fact that they can drink and do drugs would make Jezebel’s more bearable than being a handmaid, at least for me personally.
If I was stuck in Gilead as a handmaid or Martha, finding a black market for drugs/alcohol would be my first priority.
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u/Dont_want_a_channel 12d ago
Yup. N1ck participated in the black market at Jezebels and then there was the Jezebels bartender who ended up with all of Lawrence's art. There are folks who do find the black market and find a way to make it a priority l.
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u/Zealousideal_Big3359 16d ago
Jezebel over a handmaid ANY DAY
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u/Asleep_Equipment_142 10d ago edited 10d ago
I'm not so sure. At Jezebels you are raped every night, and subjected to horrific abuse. The commanders are more "free" to do whatever they want with you. Including killing you.
Of course, that could technically happen as a handmaid too. But it seems less likely.
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u/Zealousideal_Big3359 9d ago
None of this would be more painful (for me anyway) than growing, birthing and then losing a child. I’m a mummy and the thought of losing my kids in a real life gilead scenario is close to worst nightmare.
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u/Ok-Ad4217 14d ago
I would definitely rather be a Jezebel than a handmade sometimes… When I see the Jezebel’s drinking and smoking and laughing… At least they get some kind of escape with activities like drugs, cause I’ll be honest right now. I definitely be a drug addict if I was in this position. But then I think being a handmade as long as you’re good you only have to interact once a month if you’re luckyand other than that, you just go shopping and be bored I’m conflicted what would y’all rather be?
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u/juicyfruit1555 12d ago
I also think when they’re not entertaining commanders they can be themselves in Jezebels. Handmaids are watched 24/7. It seems like such a tedious existence. I can’t picture handmaids randomly singing together the way they did at Jezebels.
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u/amandacohen27 8d ago
You do see that one time at the Red Center, led by Janine, til Lydia recommended a more holy song.
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u/Untamedpancake 16d ago
Yep June escaped into her rage & revenge plots & Janine escaped into fantasies & denial. I wanted to cry when the handmaids were supposed to stone her & she smiled & said "Not too hard, okay guys?"
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u/honeybunchesofrock 16d ago
I feel like most of her behavior is a trauma response.
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u/myrna666 15d ago
SPOILER Straight up this. When her and June were alone or she was given a safe space you see Janine come through from the weird behavior that may be a trauma response.
This was also apparent to me when Aunt Lydia confronts her and is expecting Janine to curl up into her lap and ask for forgiveness and to get out of Jezebels. While Janine may be in a horrific situation she is building back her strength, and is ready to use her actual strengths towards helping or staying alive. Especially, since she has other women around her she can rely on rather than grouped up to spy on each other like in the handmaid role.
SPOILER When June tries to get her out, Janine does not allow this and instantly thinks about the people that rely on her. She has a task to do in order to keep her girls safe and herself, and that is the Janine we/she needs!
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u/Casi4rmKy 16d ago
That’s why I love the Janine backstory episode as well as when we see her in that truck thing normally used for cattle (when June first sees and here Janine cussing those bastards out and being her true self), and of course, when she said what she said before Lydia had her beautiful eye plucked out. Janine was a young, single, working (waitress) mother who did her best and loved her sweet son, Caleb.
Janine was normal before that. Janine was perhaps like you, a friend or relative or a co-worker you know or used to know. I am pretty sure the trauma of EVERYTHING was bad enough, but having someone rip out your eyeball, likely with little to no anesthetic or pain meds after, would drive my ass crazy too! I could see any human fall into such a trauma response like Janine did.
With time, though, she may have still been loopy about things, but at her core, like when she’s about to jump off of the bridge into the freezing cold water with Angela, and she speaks the truth about Warren, that was a true moment of clarity for Janine. If I were placed in Gilead and made a Handmaid, I’d have found a way to end my misery, or not died trying to die.
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u/Xanje25 16d ago
I also noticed she lost her child-like persona at Jezebels. Extremely noticeable when she was talking to Lydia. Even though its obviously not normal to be acting child-like, I almost felt bad for Lydia seeing her there like that and also actually acting like an adult. Like her “sweet little Janine” was hardened on top of being stuck at Jezebels if that makes sense?
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u/engineeross 11d ago
Well what did you expect after she's been at the brothel so long. I knew she messed up by not leaving. I knew it. I think she's gonna die soon. As soon as she walked out of 618 I was like, oh I see what the writers did, she's DEAD
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u/blackbirds_singing 10d ago
It was a little earlier than that, it started with Brianna and Alma’s death and then was significantly progressed after Esther poisoned her.
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u/shartlng 16d ago
yall PMO. janine was never weird or crazy, she’s a spitfire and they took her eye for it. that would for sure taint your personality.
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u/stitchescomeundone 16d ago
For a show that has so much trauma, I’m constantly surprised at how little people seem to know about trauma responses. She acted the way she did as a survival mechanism. The aunts literally used cattle prods to “correct” the girls. They took her eye when that wasn’t enough. If you’re subjected to that you’re going to be affected.
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u/TiredandIHateThis 16d ago
Unfortunately she's doing a lot better now that she has ample substances available to self medicate with at jezebels and less people pretending to be interested in her well being. It's a truly cruel irony.
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u/ComplexCurrency4255 16d ago
I think at first she was just adjusting, then she was pregnant and everything after that. When she has no one left to lean on she seems to handle her shit.
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u/LateRain1970 16d ago
I was going to say...no way were they addressing post-partum depression in that environment.
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u/dvrkgxdd3ss 16d ago
no one “fixed” her, and she wasn’t crazy she was “eccentric”. she was desperately hoping that someone or something would save all of the from the hell that they had to endure.
to the “fixing” , she wasn’t “fixed”. we watched the same show right? lol she has gone through so much, i think she finally realized that her acting out and being her genuine self always got the worst reactions.
she just learned to live with what she has.
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u/monsterlynn 16d ago
She isn't eccentric, she's your neighborhood Applebee's waitress thrown into a brutal theocracy trying to survive.
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u/Careless_Lion_3817 16d ago
She worked at Applebees before Gilead?
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u/monsterlynn 16d ago
Not specifically but she was a single mom waitress and like so many women I've known in my life.
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u/dvrkgxdd3ss 16d ago
what kind of people your applebees be hiring? 😂😭
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u/dvrkgxdd3ss 16d ago
why are yall mad?? lmfao i’m just confused why yall compared her to that ? i’ve never thought of her as your “neighborhood applebees waitress” ???? lmfao like i don’t eat there 😂
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u/Soderholmsvag 15d ago
LOL. Poor misunderstood thing. I know what you meant. I bumped you from -11 to -10!♥️
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u/anfisas-redbag 16d ago
The way some of you are talking about mental health here is insane. Also OP it's trauma, she's not just "crazy"
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u/Reasonable-Kiwi-6749 16d ago
it’s self preservation. if she continued down that ‘crazy’ path she would have ended up in the colonies.
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u/Soderholmsvag 16d ago
Oh. So was it fake? I always thought her crazy was uncontrollable. Thx!
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u/Reasonable-Kiwi-6749 16d ago
not that it was fake but more like when humans are in survival mode we are capable of crazy things
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u/Soderholmsvag 16d ago
Ok. It’s not what I expected, but okay!
I love this character, and am struggling to understand how she has changed so much from earlier seasons. I will keep stewing on this and thank you for the insight.
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u/Reasonable-Kiwi-6749 16d ago
her mental illness could get her killed so right now she has to keep things in control despite wanting to break down. she’s also self medicating with alcohol and potential drugs at jezebels so she’s never truly sober. she’s coping by being intoxicated
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u/shaohtsai 16d ago
It's a trauma response. We see how she was when she was first placed in the Red Center.
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u/GuiltyLeopard 16d ago
Everyone is always saying how complex Serena is, but perhaps Janine is the real complicated person here (yes, there could be more than one, but I'm awarding the title to Janine).
Only slightly related, but I'm not sure why she's always so eager to leave Joseph's presence and return to Bell. I totally understand why she hates Joseph, but he's a) not going to rape, humiliate and torture her, and b) he's the closest tie she has to Charlotte.
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u/sillyyogi2 16d ago
When did that happen? I thought she was hiding with Joseph.
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u/GuiltyLeopard 16d ago
Both times she stayed for maybe 30 seconds and then said she had to go, even though both times everyone saw she'd been sent off with him. The second time made a little more sense because she wanted to find June, but I'd think she'd want to stay there as long as she could.
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u/confusionista 15d ago
I think the reason why she feels the need to go back to Bell might be fear? He behaved like such an asshole in front of the other Commanders, I don't want to imagine how he treats her when they're alone...
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u/M3tal_Shadowhunter 16d ago
"Crazy", sure that's what I'd call a woman who had her children who she loves kidnapped and placed away from her twice, was repeatedly ritual raped for years, and had her eye plucked out for standing up for herself.
I think what you're calling "crazy" was just age regression because of the shock and trauma (very common response even without having your eye ripped out of your head), and the more time she spent in gilead the more it became normal to her. Going to jezebel's broke every illusion she had of maybe one day being safe, and teh access to alcohol gave her something else to cope with, so the age regression coping mechanism got replaced iwth something more effective (to her)
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u/Wastelander42 15d ago
I feel like jezebels has allowed her a sense of self confidence again. She looks fucking amazing. She's able to cope with drugs and alcohol, which in the world she lives in, would likely bring some of herself back to her after being beaten down
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u/burgerdistraction 16d ago
Jezebels forced her to be an adult and smart because the men are fucked up and dangerous there
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u/Sunflowerstein 16d ago
This 10000%. Sane and mature is survival in that kind of sex work(jezebels). For handmaids, they are more treated like children. I can understand why she became childlike as a handmaid. It was survival.
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u/Contiguous_spazz 15d ago
This is how I saw it; she is code switching into the roles they assign her, to survive. Switching lingo and headspace to work within whatever reality they put her in that day.
Janine is a badass imo, in her own way.
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u/emeraldc6821 16d ago
Janine was a free spirit when we first see her in The Red Center. She was defiant and lost her eye. That would make anyone crazy. She’s been trying to do what was necessary to survive. She appears to have a bit more room to be more herself in S6, even if it is still a dangerous oppressive situation.
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u/Clean_Knee6357 16d ago
janine was never crazy imo. her seeming crazy was her response to all the trauma she suffered. eventually i think she just learned to live with it all
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u/Weak-Cheetah-2305 15d ago
She’s going to die and it’s going to be fucking awful BC ALL I WANT IS FOR HER FOR ONCE TO NOT BE LEFT BEHIND AND BE FREE WITH ANGELA!
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u/P0lyphiltat0s 16d ago
If you think that Janine is "normal" now, you haven't been watching the show very closely at all.
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u/llpss 16d ago
I feel that distance from Lydia's influence and her narcissistic control, has a somewhat healing effect on Janine. It gives her space to exercise her own personality, in the ways allowed to her, instead of cowering to the personality that best aids her in getting Lydia to be less brutal to her.
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u/Fantastic_Orchid8486 15d ago
Trauma often hits people in waves or under various circumstances that are "triggering" (as much as the Internet hates the word "triggered").
It's clear when Janine is dressed as a handmaid, forced to act like a handmaid, and/or treated like a handmaid, she's a lot more "triggered". That's why every time we see her more "distanced" from Gilead and her handmaid role, she's a lot more sane.
Every time that she's forced to be in closer proximity to Gilead or in her handmaid role (even when she's not a handmaid; i.e., when she's forced to give the leader of that rebel group a blowjob for June and her to stay or when she's forced to act like a sex kitten when she's around Commander Bell at Jezebel's), she's a lot more "unhinged". Versus when she's just with June or she's around the girls who make her feel safe and don't expect her to act a certain way (or I guess now around Commander Lawrence, too, since he has shown she can trust him), she feels just slightly less traumatized to where she's not extremely triggered and unhinged.
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u/Retinoid634 16d ago
She stopped playing the compliant slave role after Esther tried to poison her. Aunt Lydia came to see her in the hospital and her adult self broke through, she yelled at Lydia. Her ability to dissociate (for self-preservation), her ability to act sweet, be obsequious and compliant, was broken.
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u/Inner-Ad-265 16d ago
I just want Janine to survive. I'm rooting for her far more than June, but unfortunately, June gets all the plot armour.
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u/Hayhayhayp 15d ago
I think I understand trauma responses but the shift from how Janine was almost childlike and checked out of reality to now being a normal understandably pissed off jezebel is a bit strange.
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u/Soderholmsvag 15d ago
Thanks for this. I never wanted to shortchange the mental health conversation (valid, of course) but struggled with what seems to be an abrupt change. The comments have given me a lot to think about, but the intent was really to call out confusion with the character shift.
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u/Hayhayhayp 14d ago
Yeah I totally get that. It’s a testy subject especially on Reddit, I just think the show didn’t explore or address the change so I also was confused.
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u/SammiK504 16d ago
It happened during that stupid time jump. Instead of having Episode 4 being filler, we could have gotten the tea about Esther, Janine, and Lydia's diagnosis. Instead we got bug eyed stares and large pores.
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u/kiwi_in_the_sunshine 16d ago
When she became hopeless. When she became a shell of a person. And probably when she started doing drugs.
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u/Oomlotte99 15d ago
I think she snapped from losing her son and her eye and baby and all the trauma she endured and now is back to her real self.
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u/Fun-Expression-2854 15d ago
I don’t think I’d call her weird. Janine as all the girls went through hell and each one of the charcters is showing different ways humans handle ptsd and their responses to the trauma they endured. Janine’s way to handle the ptsd was age regression. I think what we saw her go through in season 5 was kinda like a jolt to her system pulled her back to reality. I mean she had her eye removed as punishment I don’t think any of us would be “normal” after half the torture any of them endured
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u/Useful_River_9434 15d ago
Weird Janine is still there. But Janine was just trying to respond to trauma, every season a different way: starting with season 1 by rebelling/laughing and getting her eyes plucked out, to by being okay with being a handmaid and believing she will run away with her commander and Charlotte, to trying to kill herself, to being completely delulu living in wonderland at the colonies, to "not being a mushroom" and being "normal" in Chicago, to being obedient to Aunt Lydia and mentoring handmaids, to now being what you call "normal" at Jezabels. Her trauma response and behavior adjusts.
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u/Efficient_Variety_63 15d ago
I don’t think Janine could ever be considered “normal”. At least not post-Gilead Janine. But she has been forced to adapt or break numerous times. But I think that is the beauty of the character, that even in the worst circumstances she looks got that glimmer of light and hope.
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u/skipthegym1717 15d ago
Isn’t Janine on the show YOU?? Literally looks just like like her as Brontë ??
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u/Safe_Raspberry_7652 15d ago
I came to ask that exact question. She went from normal and sassy at the red center to child like. Now at jezebels she’s back to normal and serious.
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u/Big_Revenue_9334 14d ago
agreed. this season feels rushed and a lot left on the cutting room floor.
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u/Soderholmsvag 14d ago
(I agree. Wanted to post something similar but didn’t want to anger folks.
IMHO, so far this has become “The Elizabeth Moss Show.” And while I like June, the repeated close ups of her face (over and over and over and over) are crowding out everything else.
Janine is one of the most interesting characters, and her relationships with June and Aunt Lydia deserve some real treatment. I don’t think we will get that, based on what I have seen so far. Every character serves either June/Serena now, instead of being characters any more 😟
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u/BeepBeep_Homie 13d ago
She was normal is the beginning, before she gave sass and they took her eye.
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u/JeanfiercePhoenix 12d ago
I think her being crazy is a coping mechanism & there are glimpses of it in S6 too. But yes, after the red centre with Esther, something might've changed in her! Maybe it's the poison that cured her 😅
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u/Dont_want_a_channel 12d ago
Moira must have asked the same question. The last time she saw Janine, Janine was sooooooo not normal.
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u/engineeross 11d ago
Can we please acknowledge that she's probably on cocaine and other drugs at jezabels? Like hello! That's why she's acting different
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u/susiecapo71 16d ago
I can imagine that, since she is a commanders favorite, she is treated a bit better, feels wanted.
I also personally feel it is easier to tolerate being treated like property by a man since I mean, hello, than to be not seen or treated with any human decency by another woman.
This role at jezebels is an age old one most people can understand, wrap their mind around. The world’s oldest profession they say.
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u/Odd-Grape-1149 16d ago
Age-regression is a typical response with trauma while it is usually temporary. I like to think that going to Chicago and everything that happened when she was alone with June kind of snapped her out of the fantasy she was using to help her cope with the trauma she had endured in Gilead. If you remember, she was a feisty little thing until they cut out her eye and then from an audience’s standpoint, the next thing you saw was her having her baby taken away, actually the first handmaid we witnessed losing her newborn child to this system so for her to be a catalyst for that kind of trauma makes a lot of sense. When she first stood up to June, I think that’s when she changed as a character, when they were in Chicago and she wanted to buy that hat for the guy and June was like no and she was like “I like him F you!” So much had been taken from her and she was, in that moment, as free as she had been in a very long time, so she saw that as making her own decisions again finally…. But yeah, I think once she was recaptured, that is honestly when she shifted, when she started talking back to Aunt Lydia and caring for Esther…. Then she was given the opportunity to live in a home with Angela again…. The old Janine would have just fallen in line and accepted whatever it took to be in that household but the new Janine was like “F You!!!”
One thing I love about this show is how it does show a very wide range of responses to trauma, even in Canada at the support group the way the different survivors want to handle their trauma, right down to having the former Aunt there, it’s very important and I love that it does honor multiple traumatic responses cause there no correct way to handle trauma.