Daisy (Lucy Halliday) shook Agnes’s (Chase Infiniti) world to its core in the Season 1 finale of The Testaments, a spinoff of The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. Agnes remembers little of her past; all she can recall is the name Hannah, but she doesn’t know why. Agnes’s true identity, Hannah Bankole (the daughter of June Osborne and Luke Bankole), has been repressed in her mind after years of trauma from being kidnapped at a young age and raised in the Gilead authoritarian regime. Warning: The Testaments finale spoilers ahead!
In an act of love for both Agnes and June (Elisabeth Moss), Daisy told Agnes who she really is in the finale. Agnes didn’t have the best reaction at first. “The terrorist?!” she yelled in horror upon learning her biological mother’s identity. Later in the finale, Agnes told Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) that she knew who her mother was and that she knew this would be a stain on her prospects in Gilead society moving forward. Lydia said she knew June very well and almost had an air of pride when she talked about her former handmaid. But Agnes has caught wise to Gilead trying to control how she thinks and acts. It’s not impossible that what she said to Lydia about June was a front.
Agnes’s voiceover at the beginning of the series said that the girls in The Testaments were destined to change history. Pair that with the knowledge that she is the daughter of Gilead’s most infamous rebel, we have to wonder: Will Agnes rebel against Gilead in The Testaments Season 2, perhaps even join Mayday? We asked Infiniti why she thinks Gilead’s propaganda won’t work forever on the teen girls of the Aunt Lydia School. Her answer, along with Daisy’s final line of the season, are illuminating.
“The more you push on these girls in that way, the way they should be thinking, the way that they should be responding to things, especially with Daisy, you’re going to get pushback,” Infiniti tells us. “And it’s only going to make the girls want to fight back more and question the reason why they’re doing these specific things.”
Infiniti says it’s the nature of teenagers to rebel. Combine this with a Gilead upbringing that conditioned the girls into believing violence is necessary, and the trauma that Gilead’s regime has inflicted upon them and woken them up to harsh realities, and you have a galvanized youth. It also helps when your mother and mentor has already led a rebellion before you.
Agnes and her Gilead-raised classmates — Becka (Mattea Conforti), Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard), and Hulda (Isolde Ardies) — have been disillusioned of Gilead, and now they’re going to keep asking questions and pushing for knowledge after the events of Season 1. Even the boys raised in Gilead, specifically new commander Garth (Brad Alexander), are waking up to the horrors of the regime they once idolized.
The One Battle After Another star says that these girls are changed after Season 1.
“I remember being a teenager and being so stubborn and always being like, ‘Why do I have to do that?’ and pushing back in that sense,” Infiniti explains. “I think that’s something that’s universal across all teenagers and with these girls specifically.”
Daisy, a Mayday operative disguised as a Pearl Girl in Gilead, went from not seeing how any of the girls could believe the regime’s propaganda to understanding exactly how it’s possible. Now, her spark of rebellion has grown into a flame, and she’s staying in Gilead in Season 2 to keep the fire spreading among Agnes, Shu, Becka, and more.
Disney / Steve Wilkie
“Daisy, she’s an outsider. She has the perspective that what’s going in Gilead is abhorrent and she has no interest in adhering to those ideologies or assimilating fully to those beliefs because she’s had the upbringing that differs from that. That’s the crux of why Daisy’s not going to be following dutifully,” Halliday says. “She’s taken aback by the fact that these girls do, or that there are girls in this environment that do, take in that information or do follow those rules to such an extent. As far as Daisy’s concerned, she can’t understand possibly why they would, but it’s because they’ve had the upbringing they’ve had.”
The season ends with June knowing that Hannah/Agnes is with Daisy in Gilead and reading a secret message from Daisy about why she’s staying undercover. Daisy ends the season by saying there’s nothing more powerful than a teenage girl. Halliday says, “I love that line. When I recorded that, I felt like I was recording…a mic-drop moment.”
The Testaments Season 2 will open the door of revolution even more and hopefully pave the way for the fall of Gilead with the help of Mayday, June, June’s daughters (both biological and not), and the rebels they inspire.
The Testaments, Season 1, Available Now, Hulu
The Testaments, Season 2 Premiere, TBA, Hulu
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