Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Handmaid’s Tale season 4, episode 4, “Milk.”
The events of The Handmaid’s Tale season 4, episode 4, which use flashbacks to show some of Janine Lindo’s backstory before Gilead, serves to make its problems with June Osborne even worse. The Handmaid’s Tale season 4 is continuing to explore not only the survival of June, but her attempts to join-up with Mayday and fight back against Gilead. Following on from the end of season 4, episode 3, which featured the deaths of several Handmaids such as Alma, episode 4 finds June and Janine on the run and trying to make it to Chicago.
Alongside the central story of “Milk” are flashbacks that show some of Janine’s past. This includes her visiting what she thinks is an abortion clinic, only to discover the people inside want to do whatever it takes to make sure Janine has the baby, alongside seeing her spending time with her son, Caleb. The Handmaid’s Tale season 3 revealed that Caleb died, something Janine ostensibly doesn’t know, and the flashbacks serve to heighten the sense of tragedy around that. Furthermore, though, they all showcase what’s been a growing problem for the show and its main character.
The dive into Janine’s backstory in The Handmaid’s Tale season 4 highlights just how great a character she is. It once again shows how much she – like most of the women forced to live under Gilead’s rule – has overcome. And while it makes things sad in terms of knowing where it ends up, there’s also something happy about seeing her with her son, or showing just how strong, brave, and resilient she is. Most of all, though, it makes the viewer want to see more of Janine’s story in both the past and present. June herself is all of those aforementioned things, but it feels like The Handmaid’s Tale has reached the end of the line in terms of using her to full effect as the main character.
The Handmaid’s Tale‘s story has started to become repetitive, and that’s because of its reliance on June. She gets captured, tortured, escapes, goes somewhere else, and then eventually gets captured again, and the cycle begins anew. In conjunction with that, the show has built June into its biggest hero: not just a main character, but an almost mythic-like figure who seemingly cannot be killed. The stakes are still high, but the effects are slightly dulled when audiences have seen so much and know that, no matter what, June will survive. In contrast, anything and everything Janine does carries with it a sense of risk and higher stakes, because as the deaths of the other Handmaids showed, she could be killed at almost any point.
Combining all of these factors, then there’s an argument that Janine should be given greater focus herself, but it’s really more of an argument for The Handmaid’s Tale to lean more into its entire ensemble (similar to Orange is the New Black). The show is full of fascinating – or at least, potentially fascinating – characters like Janine, all of whom deserve more time to shine. Rita is another good example from season 4, episode 4, having an emotional storyline that adds new layers to her character. As June’s struggle continues to feel familiar and mired in the show’s apparent love of graphic violence and torture porn, these characters and plot lines offer a way to tell a more interesting, hopeful, and fresh story.
