The Handmaid's Tale season 4 has only seen more and more of June taking charge against Gilead, but in episode 4, Janine takes her place in performing sexual favors so they can stay at the resistance camp. When June (Elisabeth Moss) and Janine (Madeline Brewer) are train-hopping towards Chicago, the pair finally engage in some much-needed verbal sparring - airing out underlying tensions. It's clear that being a mythologized beacon of hope and overall rebellion leader is taking its toll on the show's headstrong, main character.
This makes it even more deflating to find out that Steven, the leader of the resistance camp they find themselves at, expects them to earn their keep with sexual favors. Understandably, June can't bring herself to do it. However, the implication is that she and Janine won't be able to stay if she doesn't give him what he wants. When June tells Janine that it's not safe at the camp and they'll find someplace else, Janine registers what that means. She ends up performing the favors unbeknownst to June, so her friend doesn't have to. After she tells June that they get to stay, Janine tries to act as though the incident didn't affect her. She jokes, "It wasn't so bad. He thinks my eye patch is cool." But then, she tragically seems to choke back tears.
Though it was a tough call to make, it's not surprising that Janine came around to it. After all, she's been a handmaid for years - treated as a sex slave without autonomy or basic human rights. Sexual trauma, and - most likely - a certain sense of learned, psychological detachment/compartmentalization has become second nature. She's used to doing whatever it is she needs to do in order to survive throughout the course of The Handmaid's Tale, and this is yet another situation where she has to accept discomfort and degradation for a certain level of safety. And it's also seemed as though Janine's mind has had a history of creating false narratives to protect herself. In the past, she convinced herself that her Commander was in love with her, that they would have a life together with their daughter. Naturally, this is an easier thought to bear than the reality of being forced to have a child via ritualistic rape.
Janine also sees June in a very different light in this episode. She finally sees her as a flawed human, who's also just doing her best given the circumstances. Despite being fiercely brave and impressively tough in the face of pain and danger, even June has her breaking points; after all, she gave up the other handmaids' location to protect her daughter. And Janine also sees June's humanness when she can't bring herself to perform favors that she doesn't want a part of anymore; as well as how rattled she is afterward. Seeing all of this, Janine decides to take on some of their situation's burden as well.
In her backstory, Janine also seems to have a less relationship-bound approach to sex than June does in general. The second time she becomes pregnant and is contemplating getting an abortion in a flashback, she says that the baby's father is her boyfriend "sometimes." Of course, there's a big difference between consensual sex and feeling as though you have to do something for a certain outcome or due to a power dynamic. Janine's experience is traumatic, unethical, degrading, and shouldn't happen. But having a slightly different attitude about sex and being able to have previously detached her emotions and created a new reality in her mind throughout The Handmaid's Tale, Janine most likely sees that she might be able to bear the experience with less function-impeding distress than June - who she now remembers is only human as well.