Beyond the Gates Performer of the Week: Jasmine Burke as June

When we were first introduced to the homeless June on Beyond the Gates, she was scrappy and mistrustful of everybody. Understandably, she had learned to protect what little she had, and that was how she ended up in Jacob and Naomi's orbit – June had assaulted a social worker who seemed like she was trying to take June's few belongings. Since then, June has shown a cheerful but potentially unbalanced side as she incorporated characters from As the World Turns and projected them onto her own life. But this week, June kept her mystery going while completely revealing herself, and that's why her portrayer, Jasmine Burke, is Soap Central's Performer of the Week.

June is all year long on Beyond the Gates

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June didn't seem to have any fight left in her as she summoned Naomi to Orphey Gene's, embarrassed that she had to tell the waiter she couldn't afford to pay for her coffee. There was almost something skeletal, ghost-like in the way Burke held herself as June explained how a “cleanup crew” had swept through her encampment, scattered its residents, and done away with everyone's belongings. June remained resigned, with a bit of trauma showing behind it, but Burke let June's voice crack when June mourned the loss of her beloved, aged photo, one that froze two supposedly random children in time. “Couldn't they at least have left me that?” June asked, her tone betraying her.

The next day, June was humbled as she expressed to Naomi the surprise that anyone would be looking out for her, which was something she was not at all used to. Burke opened up June's face once she got into the subject of the photo – her eyes lit up and she assumed an almost childlike wonder herself as she described the unidentified children, who made her feel like there were people she belonged to who loved her. “You can pretend a lot of things when you've got pictures,” June added, both impish and shy. The adult in her came back when June admitted that the “whole universe” in that one captured image took away her loneliness, an ache Burke made palpable.

June could barely get her breath as she declared to Naomi that the single snap was worth the whole world to her. Then, Burke brought a stoicism to June's expression upon seeing Jacob enter with a box that may or may not contain her beloved picture. June quietly said that the Hawthornes had restored her soul by being so good to her, and Burke held back what must have been June's desperation to rip the box open as June casually began her search. June remained calm, or tried to, but confusion gave way to rising anxiety as June rifled through the items Jacob had brought. Though June outright said it didn't matter whether the photo was there, Burke did an instant one-eighty and allowed June to become increasingly frenzied, a wild look in her eyes as she insisted over and over that the snap just had to be there.

Just when it seemed that June was going to burst from hysteria, she locked onto the photo – and not only did Burke's whole face change, it seemed to strip away every layer of June's defenses as happy realization segued into guttural sobs. “Oh, you sweet babies!” June weeped, losing every shred of control. “I'm so sorry – I'll never leave you again!” Burke nearly melted into the table as it felt like every tear June had ever wanted to cry but never did forced itself out of her. “Jacob! Naomi!” June heaved, brandishing the well-worn shot for the Hawthornes to see. “You don't know!” The way the detective/lawyer couple looked at each other and appeared to be reading each other's minds...it may well be that they do know.

Jasmine Burke has taken a character who could have been a streetwise, homeless stereotype and turned her into a real woman without giving everything about June away. And it's certain she has viewers wondering, “Just who are those children?”

Beyond the Gates airs weekdays on CBS and streams on Paramount Plus.

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