Janine is the 5th episode of the sixth season of The Handmaid's Tale. It aired on April 22, 2025.
Synopsis[]
June and Moira go undercover. Serena and Nick make consequential choices.
Plot[]
June and Moira, disguised as Marthas, hide in the false back of a delivery truck driven by Luke, heading to the brothel.
High Commander Wharton arrives at Nick's office reporting an "alarming breach of security" in No Man's Land, where two Guardians were shot down. One of the guardians survived the attack, he may even regain consciousness and identify the shooter.
Aunt Lydia visits Serena and complains that her Handmaids have been posted at Jezebel's, while she was promised they would become respected members of society. Serena, taunting Lydia for her naivity, ultimately agrees to accept some responsibility for the suffering the Handmaids have endured. She suggests to open a fertility center in New Bethlehem, where the retired women can work as attendants. Aunt Lydia likes the idea. As a large bouquet of flowers arrives for Serena, Lydia pushes her to read the enclosed card. It is from Wharton, who wants to meet with Serena before he returns to Washington D.C. Lydia remarks that the Commander is a good catch.
June, Moira, and Luke arrive at Jezebel's with their delivery truck. Carrying crates of fruit, June and Moira enter the facility. They soon discover Janine's dormitory, where they learn that Janine has already been sent up to the penthouse to meet with some expected Commanders. As a suspicious Aunt shows up, they claim they're on their way to clean the penthouse for the coming guests. Upstairs they are granted access to the penthouse room using the same pretext where they begin tidying up. Janine enters and approaches them. Because a group of Commanders - among them Bell and Lawrence - enters the room right after her, she quickly passes June a keycard to a bedroom, telling her to meet there later. Bell opens a bottle of champagne and orders 'Martha' June to clean some he's spilled on his pants. Lawrence butts in when Bell keeps taunting her, but he doesn't seem to recognize her with her face partly covered. As Bell turns his attention back to "Kitty" Janine, June and Moira head to the room Janine showed them.
Nick arrives at the hospital and enters the room with the shot Guardian, where he runs into the Guardian's worried mother. She is honored that Commander Blaine has come to see her son. and asks Nick to find the person responsible for shooting him. Nick offers to let her get some rest while he sits at her son's bedside. When she leaves, her son suddenly wakes. Nick asks him some questions, but the barely-conscious man only mumbles something about his dog. Nick leaves the patient's room and goes for a short walk. When he returns to the room, he locks the door behind him.
Back at Jezebel's, the Commanders are talking about the New Bethlehem project. Janine gets flirty with Lawrence to evade Bells' advances. As Bell gets jealous, angrily ordering her into the corner for the "belt", Lawrence tells Bell he's taking Janine for himself, calling him a "pig" that no one in the room likes or respects.
Janine escorts Lawrence to a private room, reminding him that he "can't let them win." She then reveals a peephole behind a hanging painting. Lawrence leans in and listens as the other Commanders call him a "fool" before detailing their plans to shutter New Bethlehem and reinstate Gilead tradition. They appear open-minded when Bell openly calls for Lawrence's execution.
Janine later joins June and Moira in the bedroom and the three women celebrate their reunion. June fills in Janine on Mayday's plan to come back, kill the distracted Commanders, and free all the girls.
Janine draws them a map and provides a code to a secret elevator used by the Commanders. June wants to offer Janine to take her with them that night, which Moira doesn't approve of, while Janine refuses to leave the other girls behind. With the promise of Mayday returning in a week to rescue her, Janine says goodbye to her friends, advising her to wait a few minutes before leaving.
Junes and Moiras controversy about Janine's fate gets into a vicious argument, comparing who's suffered more in Gilead, June as a handmaid or Moira as a Jezebel. Just as they reconcile and prepare to leave, a Guardian enters the room. He spots Janine's notepad and locks it in the room's safe, then forces Moira on the bed, telling her she can have the notepad back when he's finished with her. As he begins raping her, June and Moira attack, beating the man and strangling him to death with a phone cord.
In New Bethlehem. Serena is meeting with Wharton ahead of his return to D.C.. Wharton tells her about his plans to open a children's library where boys and girls can safely read together in the reformed Gilead and that he will name the facility the "Serena Joy & Gabriel Wharton Library." He then gets down on one knee and asks her to marry him. Serena is initially reluctant, claiming she needs to focus on God's calling to change the country. When he replies that they should "change it together", she allows him to slide the ring on her finger and kiss her.
At Jezebel's, June and Moira move the dead guardian into a laundry cart, which they wheel through the building. They finally dump the body into an incinerator. At the same time, Luke returns to the parking garage in the delivery truck to pick them up, where he is interfered by a patrolling guardian who tells him to come back tomorrow
In response to the missing guardian, the facility goes into full lock down. June and Moira cannot meet Luke, nor can they exit the locked building without a Commander's keycard. June spots Lawrence on his way to his car. As he begins to drive away, June jumps in front of his vehicle, begging for his help. Initially reluctant, he finally lets them slip into the trunk of his car.
Quotes[]
Trivia[]
Notes[]
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Elisabeth Moss as June Osborne
- Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy Waterford
- Madeline Brewer as Janine Lindo
- Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia Clements
- O-T Fagbenle as Luke Bankole
- Max Minghella as Nick Blaine
- Samira Wiley as Moira Strand
- Bradley Whitford as Joseph Lawrence
Guest Starring[]
- Josh Charles as Commander Gabriel Wharton
- Timothy Simons as Commander Bell
- Athena Karkanis as Ellen
- Jonathan Watton as Matthew Calhoun
- Tim Campbell as Commander Reynolds
- Jessica Abruzzese as Delia
- Kim Huffman as Fern
- Josh Peace as Guardian Kern
- Patricia Vanstone as Helen
- Jon Ambrose as Loading Dock Guardian
- Amanda Macevicius as Red Headed Jezebel
- Samantha Wan as Aunt Claudia
- Kevin Bradfield as Penthouse Guardian #1
- Avaah Blackwell as Penthouse Jezebel #1
- Tyra Chichester as Penthouse Jezebel #2
- Laila Kharouba as Penthouse Jezebel #3
- Emmerly Tinglin as Penthouse Jezebel #4
- Kyle Jonathon as Toby (Guardian)
Gallery[]
Music[]
- "Atmosphere" — Joy Division, at the beginning of the episode.