When you look at the way Aunt Lydia treats Janine compared to all the other Handmaids in The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s easy to question her. Why would she be so protective of this one woman, this one of her “girls?”
While there has never been confirmation, there are some theories based on the backstory we gained for Aunt Lydia in The Handmaid’s Tale season 3. It’s also important to look at how Janine is viewed by the other Handmaids, the one that many of them need to protect.
Janine is like someone from Aunt Lydia’s past in The Handmaid’s Tale
Aunt Lydia is one of those women who wants to protect children. That has always been her driving force, even when she was a teacher before Gilead was created. She wanted to help protect and develop the youth of society, creating them into people who could be respectful within society.
During the backstory, we see Lydia help support a woman and her son. All Lydia wants is to see this son thrive, and she’s willing to support the mother in any way that she can. When she realizes that the mother has taken a backward step in her life, Lydia takes steps to remove the boy from the mother’s home. In Lydia’s defense, she is doing it to protect the boy, even though we don’t all see that as we watch the story play out.
Lydia may see this woman in Janine, and Lydia doesn’t want to see Janine end up in the same way as the woman from before. Of course, Gilead doesn’t even offer Janine a real chance to thrive if Lydia throws her out, and we’ve already seen her sent to the Colonies before as punishment. The idea of Janine going backward will remind Lydia of how she failed in the past.
Janine is the most child-like of all Handmaids in The Handmaid’s Tale
At the same time (and the biggest reason for Aunt Lydia to be so protective), Janine has become almost child-like due to Gilead’s regime in The Handmaid's Tale. She was mouthy at first, but then taken away and punished with the removal of her eye. From that point, Janine became a different person, and then when she had her daughter, Charlotte (Angela to Naomi and Gilead), she retreated into being a child even more.
Remember that Lydia wants to save children. If she views Janine as more of a child, then she is going to want to save her. That leads to her treating her in a way she doesn’t with all the other Handmaids. After all, many of the other Handmaids will reminder Lydia of the woman from her past, but Janine is the only one who has regressed due to trauma.
Janine isn’t that child-like Handmaid anymore, though. June helped her gain a backbone, giving her the strength she needed to do everything she could to escape. That hasn’t stopped Lydia from finding a way to help her, though, still believing her to be that child-like Handmaid she had become.
The Handmaid’s Tale airs Tuesdays on Hulu.