Warning: SPOILERS ahead for The Handmaid's Tale season 4, episode 4, "Milk."
The latest episode of The Handmaid's Tale features flashbacks to Janine's life before Gilead and her days raising her son, Caleb, as a single mother. Like June, Janine had her child taken away from her when she was forced to become a handmaid. But while June's daughter Hannah is still alive, Caleb sadly is not.
In The Handmaid's Tale season 3 June was given a new posting at the home of Commander Lawrence, and through him gained access to files on all of the handmaids in the area - including her own file, and Janine's. The files include details of any live births that the handmaids have delivered, both before and after the rise of Gilead, and also include the new names of the children who were taken away from them and given to commanders and her wives.
As June learns from reading the files, Janine's son Caleb had his name changed to Samuel Covington when he was adopted by his new family. Then, just one year after Gilead's takeover (four years ago in the show), Caleb was killed in a road traffic accident. In voiceover, June observes that no matter how precious or well-guarded children are in Gilead, accidents can still happen and they can still die. Later, when Janine asks if she learned anything about what happened to Caleb, June decides against telling her the truth. Instead she tells Janine that he moved with his new family down to California, that he lives on the beach, and that "his mom seems super nice."
The Handmaid's Tale season 4 once again finds June trying her best to protect Janine from the harsh realities of life in Gilead, but also sees Janine losing patience with being coddled. "I'm not a mushroom," she tells June angrily, during their stressful journey hidden in a cargo train's refrigerated milk tank. "You can't keep me in the dark and feed me lies and s**t and expect me to be OK with it." Later, when June can't bring herself to perform sexual favors for the leader of a group of resistance fighters in exchange for food and safety, Janine sends June off to get changed and then pays the price herself.
Janine has suffered a great deal both before and since she had her eye plucked out as punishment for backtalk in the Red Centre, and she attempted suicide after being separated from her baby daughter, Angela (or Charlotte, as Janine named her). Janine's sweet, childlike nature has brought out protective instincts in other characters in the show - even Aunt Lydia. But though she might seem fragile, Janine is actually very tough in her own way. When she was sent to the colonies she made an effort to bring happiness to her fellow unwomen, and at the end of "Milk" there's a role reversal as Janine shields June from the harsh realities of survival by taking the brunt of them herself.
With June and Janine now trying to make their way out of Gilead, it's possible that Janine will learn the truth about her son's death. If that happens, it's hard to predict whether it will be what finally breaks her, or if it will be just another tragedy that she manages to somehow endure.
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