"A boiling point." Madeline Brewer on her favourite The Handmaid's Tale season 5 scene.

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Madeline Brewer has two favourite The Handmaid's Tale scenes this season.

No spoilers, but both involve her character, Janine, of course, and Aunt Lydia, played by the spectacular Ann Dowd.

In season five, Janine and Aunt Lydia remain one of the audience's main links back to the show's initial setting of Boston, under Gilead. While June finally made it to Canada in season four, audiences spent multiple episodes terrified about the fate of fan-favourite Janine. 

When she returned to screen, it was devastatingly back to Handmaid red. 

We meet Janine, ever the optimist, once again in the first few episodes of the season. She's taken on a mentor role at the Red Centre, especially over Esther, the young former wife who helped hide June, Janine and other Handmaids last season.

Speaking to Mamamia over Zoom from London, Brewer discusses Janine's motivations in season five. Handmaids have their entire existence whittled down to a walking womb, but she thinks Janine found a crucial sense of purpose in mothering and helping the other women in her position.

"I also think she truly believes like, 'I can help these girls not make the same mistakes I've made. I've been here a long time. I've gone to hell and back, pretty literally. I've seen everything there is to see in this place, and I can help you if you'll let me.'"

Image: SBS.

In episode two, Janine's coaching of Esther angers the traumatised teenager and leads her to poison them both.

In hospital, Janine is tended to by a Bible-quoting Lydia, and this becomes a catalyst for some major character progression.

Brewer's eyes light up at the memory of going toe-to-toe with frequent scene partner Dowd in season five.

"My relationship with Anne is one of the most special relationships of my life," she says. "She is a very, very dear friend and I completely admire her as a woman and as an actor, and as a human being. There's a great level of love there."

She says this love translates into their characters, who have one of the most complicated, intriguing relationships in the entire series. Unsurprisingly, it is Janine who helps Aunt Lydia finally acknowledge the flaws in Gilead's Handmaid system with some harsh truths.

"I feel like there are elements of [their real-life love and respect] at play, where you see more of how Lydia copes with what happened at the end of episode two. And I think it is a straw broken for her," Brewer says.

"There are two great scenes this season, that I love so much, that I get to have with Anne that are just a level of honesty that we don't ever get to have with each other. But we've reached such a boiling point. And I think it was finally realising that the people in power don't want what's best for humanity. They want power and that's it."

Image: SBS.

Viewers would probably not consider Lydia an optimist, but Brewer sees optimism in both characters - and how it mutually breaks in season five.

"Everybody says Janine is the optimist, and she is, but there is some really blind optimism happening on the part of Aunt Lydia up until this season; trying so desperately to believe in the 'good' that people are doing in what they believe is God's image - they're not, they just want power," she says.

"I think she's finally seeing that, so as her delusion really starts to crumble so does Janine's. Really, she's on her last legs here. She doesn't have any performance left in her."

There is perhaps no one fans of the show root for more than Janine, and playing a fan-favourite on a show with such a passionate following is a unique experience.

"The response to Janine that I've seen over the years has been so, so kind and the way people identify with her but also see her is just such a beautiful experience," Brewer says. "Because I love Janine. I love her. I love her so much, so that she's enjoyed by other people is such a treat."

She believes the character is so beloved because she is a beacon of light in what is more often than not a very dark series.

"She's sometimes like a bit of comic relief in some of the silly things that she says, which we need to break up the tension. She is light. She's a bit of optimism in such a dark place. And I hope that people can see how fiercely she loves her friends and how every fibre of her being is meant to be a mother, and that she will fight always for that and for Charlotte, for her child," she says.

"I hope that comes across. I hope that's what people enjoy about her. But if they enjoy her being the one-eyed batsh*t crazy one, that's also a facet of her many facets, so great."

It is very rare we get to say this, so I'm taking my opportunity: THIS IS SO PURE. Image: SBS.

As much as we wish the best for her, the reality of The Handmaid's Tale is that there can be no real happy endings. We see it with June and other refugees in Canada, who live with physical and mental reminders of Gilead even thought they've physically escaped.

Brewer's main wish for Janine's future is control.

"l'd hope that Janine can just be in control of her own life. She gets to choose what she eats at the grocery store, she gets to choose what she wears every day. She gets to choose the when and how and where and what of her life, you know," she says.

"[And] I'd love her to be in therapy."

The Handmaid's Tale has always felt timely. Real events inspired the details in the book by Margaret Atwood. But season five of the series, airing only months after the overturning of Roe v Wade in the United States and as protests wage across the world for women to choose what they do with their own bodies, feels especially poignant.

"It's such an honour to be in a show that is so talked about, especially with such political weight, just given what's going on in the United States, as well as all over the world," Brewer says.

"And it's humbling and gratifying to be a part of that. It's an honour."

The Handmaid's Tale season five airs on SBS and SBS On Demand.

Read more:

• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 1: How to get away with murder. 
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 2: GET THE F*** AWAY FROM HER.
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 3: The wedding that wasn't.
• Mamamia recaps The Handmaid's Tale, season 5, episode 4: KEEP YOUR SH*TTY STATE OUT OF CANADA.

Chelsea McLaughlin is Mamamia's Senior Entertainment Writer and co-host of The Spill. For more pop culture takes, recommendations and sarcasm, you can follow her on Instagram.

Feature Image: SBS/Mamamia.