We’re at episode eight of The Testaments, and that means several of our young brides-to-be are inching toward actually getting married. As alarming as that is, there are still some dreadful rituals to claw through first—and the distinct sense that several breaking points are close to being reached. The Testaments has been careful to operate (as much as it can) as a standalone from The Handmaid’s Tale. If you know the broad strokes of the earlier show’s plot, including who June (Elisabeth Moss) and Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) are, you can get by, though having watched Handmaid’s does bring more understanding to the proceedings. This is underlined in “Broken,” which references two major events in The Handmaid’s Tale, including something that happened all the way back in season three. And the way they’re worked into The Testaments is both deft and illuminating.
In “Broken,” the eligible Greens—including Agnes (Chase Infiniti), Becka (Mattea Conforti), and Hulda (Isolde Ardies)—are now engaged. Even the girl who tripped at the tea party got matched up.
Not everyone is happy about this change in status; Agnes, as we know, pines for Garth (Brad Alexander), who’s engaged to Becka, who pines for Agnes. Also unhappy is Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard), who hasn’t gotten her period yet. Not only is she envious of everyone else, she’s worried it will never happen for her. In that case, she can’t get married or fulfill what she and Gilead see as her God-given purpose. The Aunt Lydia School offers no comfort, as Shu and Daisy (Lucy Halliday) are pointedly excluded from “copulation class.”
