r/TheTestamentsHulu

Did anyone notice that Aunt Vidala and Aunt Lydia had two very different reactions to the girls getting drunk at the ball? Both came off as being strict aunts at first but if you watch it a little more closely you’ll notice the strictness and judgment is directed to two different groups.

Aunt Vidala is very much blaming the girls for it and makes a comment about the inappropriate behavior and she’s the one who they have to hide Becka from. She obviously blames the girls for the situation.

Meanwhile Aunt Lydia seems to be blaming the Commanders who are getting the girls drunk in the first place albeit in a subtle way because she can’t outright accuse the Commanders and those higher ranked than her. But her reaction to the evening is very much centered on the Commanders having done the wrong thing as the girls are taught to do what they’re told vs Vidala’s blaming them.

It reminds me of how Aunt Lydia sometimes was with the handmaids under her care. She was a strict tyrant who wasn’t above doing terrible things to them in order to keep them in line just like how now she’s actively enforcing the system that keeps other women down (though we’ll see how much of that is true and how much follows her book background in TT) but it seems like a part of her does truly care for those women and those girls. Perhaps in a messed up way but still.

Aunt Lydia is consistently a favorite character of mine because she’s got those layers to her rather than just the straight out shittiness the commanders have and it was cool to see her in the OG series go from that feared aunt who took Janine’s eye for a bit of sass like five minutes into Janine being at the Red Center to her letting everyone go and saying the wicked godless men thing and being willing to die with them.

I’m interested for more further explanations of her character and how the show will handle the backstory from TT and her secret rebellious side.

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed this, but about five minutes into episode 5, as the aunts were gathering the greens, Aunt Vidala was squeezing a stress ball.

I thought this was a hilarious (also very interesting) detail. I'm constantly amazed by the attention to detail in this show. I want to rewatch previous episodes to see what I missed.

Not sure how to feel about Vidala. She’s mysterious. Her facial expressions at the tea make me almost think she’s questioning the whole system. She seems so over it. Or she needs modern anti-anxiety medications (which I’m sure is not allowed in Gilead)? She and Shu have been my favourite characters so far. Curious to hear where her character goes and what everyone else thought about this scene.

How many outfits do you think the Plums have? I have noticed that the girls will often be wearing different variations of the uniform to school and I feel like I’ve seen two different shirt/skirt combos with light and dark purple. Two shirts also have different collars and they also have a plum dress that looks a bit more formal (they wore it to the tea) and of course their ball dress. In general, I feel like they have more options to choose from within their plum uniform than the other roles in the show.

Do you think Paula made sure that Agnes got the slice of cake with the baby in it at the Green tea? It wouldn’t surprise me if she tried to rig it so Agnes could have that extra luck and also look good for the aunts.

I know this has been spoken about extensively and I think the reason for that is that Daisy and Hannah being sisters IS the fundamental magic of the story. Gilead rips families apart, produces siblings without them knowing (e.g. if two children are from the same mother handmaid), and constantly changes families (commanders always getting new wives). In the book, the fact that a family then came together against all odds and brought down Gilead is what makes the story so good.

I feel like the producers just felt like they needed a teen story to get viewers, but by doing so they ripped out the core. For the life of me I can’t understand why they didn’t keep them as sisters and just have Hannah in her mid twenties and Daisy as Daisy. Obviously I’m still going to watch every episode but I can’t get over it. Since I found out I’ve found the show quite underwhelming.

Been looking for the next promo. Can't find it. Can someone shoot me the link? Thanks in advance.

I wanted to take a second to appreciate the detail of Shunammite making a tea to bring on a period and it actually working for Huldah. The girls don’t realize that this is a clearly an herbal recipe to end an unwanted pregnancy. It is a nice nod to woman’s efforts thought time to have control over their own fertility and share that knowledge with other women.

Didn't expect this reaction to watching the first episode of The Testaments, but oh my god it's making me so emotional???

I'm filled with some kind of innate maternal rage/despair for June that she she missed so much of her daughter's life, for Agnes and the other girls for living this weird, stunted, rigid life but still seeing the flickers of girlhood that can't be stomped out, for Daisy during the scene with the guard getting his hand chopped off and then seeing what her life was like before... 😭

It's so strange because this show seems a lot "lighter" than Handmaid's Tale (the music, the scenery, even just the lighting itself), but it's affecting me in such a heavy way that I'm not sure I can keep watching (or at least I'm going to have to take a lot of breaks). But the acting is superb so far, I'm just so scared to see what happens to Agnes. 😞

Obviously June is an unreliable narrator and has no problem manipulating facts and people to suit her needs. They’ve also decided to deviate heavily from the book but, do you think we’ll get any answers to Daisy’s origins (if there are any) or maybe it comes out later that June made the whole backstory up and she targeted/chose Daisy for a different reason. Maybe she is a kid who got out before the U.S was fully taken over by The Sons of Jacob and she was always going to be a way back in for Mayday?

Just thought this would be an interesting topic to discuss! I have a two main theories on how Gilead would handle the Amish. My first theory is that they may have actually decided the Amish were “godly” enough and just let them be, similar to the way things are now. They may have even let them continue with their tourism industry, as long as Gilead got a good cut of the money. Or, perhaps more likely, they may have deemed them worthy enough to integrate into Gilead society as econopeople, continuing to use their skills and land to serve Gilead. What do you guys think?

Forgive me if this has been addressed but so far i see no mention of handmaids? Are they still a thing ? If no why not?

I was thinking about the ball episode, and obviously all of the commanders are older than the girls. The older commanders are pedos with no excuse, they know better. But I was thinking about the younger ones, like the one that first danced with Agnes. They’re under just as much pressure to get married too, and they don’t have much of a say in who they’re married to. The younger ones have been raised in Gilead for most of their lives, and have been conditioned to view the young girls as “adult”. I’m not saying they’re blameless, but I wouldn’t consider all of them pedophiles either. They’re doing what they’ve been taught to do. We don’t get a look into what the boys schools/education looks like, so I guess we’ll never know. But I was curious if others had thoughts on this?

There's been a lot of great discussion around Daisy & other characters' identities, timelines, etc. I'm excited to see how the adaptation plays out

There's been a lot happening under the surface that I haven't seen much discussion about and I'd love to hear your thoughts

Garth was asking questions about Commander Hayes's travels & potential weapons deals. At the Green Tea party and the Ball, many Wives & Commanders were preoccupied by talk of troops mobilizing. Gilead is constantly at war but this is something new.

Daisy switches between 2 different radio stations. One is Radio Free Boston, a commercial radio station and the other is for Mayday operatives. At the end of Green Tea, it is the Boston Free station signal that cuts out. I think this is significant.

If it were just the Mayday station that went dark, we could assume they were operating from No Man's Land & Gilead attacked their tower. But Gilead sabotaging a legitimate private radio station in another country would be an act of aggression.

Is anyone else anticipating a military push for Gilead to retake Massachusetts?

Not saying Daisy is any other character cause I’ve seen a lot of those posts but the timeline they gave us about Daisy doesn’t make sense to me.

June said she was an infant when she left Gilead that needed a crib so she was in her first year of life, maaax 2 years old. The show is 4 years after she left but so would like make her max 6 years old? But here she is as a teenager? Is this something the viewers are supposed to overlook or is there something I’m not understanding?

Does anyone else feel the like the show sometimes assumes that people have read the book? Or that they glossed over a lot of things that should have been made clear earlier?

I kinda feel like they rushed the first few episodes to hook everyone, and completely ignored things that should be covered, like time-lines, and how Aunt Lydia got to where she is after Handmaids.

I may be wrong, and maybe some things will be addressed later on.

I feel like I am seeing a lot of confused questions here that are being answered, but the answers aren't coming from what we have seen so far.