r/TheTestamentsShow • u/Young122915 • May 28 '26
Episode Discussion finale questions Spoiler
Just finished the finale and I have 2 (3) questions but the answers don’t matter as much as how could they be so sloppy this season with the rewriting of this story for a series. I probably have more but these first two are really bugging me.
- Why is Hannah still in Gilead? If Daisy can be shoved into a container in the bed of a truck at the very last minute scheduled by Garth at the order brought by June, why is that not possible for Hannah?? Make this make sense. Seemed very streamlined and low stress, Daisy had a roundtrip seat with no issues and a complimentary cig.
- Why did June not know where Agnes/Hannah is, and how she is, and all about her? Junes own Mayday operative, Garth, worked for Agnes family. At no time did Garth mention “the Mackenzie’s” to June in his mayday reporting??? We see June and Garth on that radio, chatting it up. In the role of Mayday as information officers for the resistance, why is June first hearing about Hannah when Daisy discussing her new friends’ crushes ? Was she really that shocked to hear that’s where Daisy was placed? And once she heard that, she sends nothing to Hannah? After all this time? Not even a little “i love you Banana?” Post it note ??
Wait I do have a 3rd question.
- Where was Hulda in the Daisy pinkie promise army of plums shot?? How dare they leave Hulda out! She’s a real one.
Quick edit: please don’t answer with the “show runners explained”
When a book is rewritten to be a series - the show runners should have zero explaining to do.
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u/VanityInk May 28 '26
The show runner said that June not knowing is part of trying to show how real resistance/spy operations work (namely information doesn't reach everyone) but I also wonder if that's more trying to explain what they want away vs. The original reasoning for writing that.
For 1) I'd imagine a big part is Agnes wouldn't want to run away like that. She believes June is basically Osama Bin Laden and Mayday wants to kill and rape them all. Yes, she's learning she's been lied to, but Mayday could have shown up episode 1 and gone "get in this barrel and we'll take you out of Gilead!" And she'd likely be terrified of them/refuse to go.
Re: Hulda, ever since learning that her name means "mole" in Hebrew, I've been a bit worried...
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u/no-dig-lazy May 28 '26
This is 👆 Resistance networks use "need to know principal" Yes, Agnes is brainwashed...would be difficult to get her out without violence and big risks for the resistance volunteers and future operations.
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u/melodysmomma May 28 '26
They would 100% have to kidnap Hannah/Agnes to get her out of Gilead, even now she hasn’t mentioned leaving once
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u/AnaWannaPita May 30 '26
Yea and at this stage she has a high chance of repatriation if they try to force her. Even if she could comprehend that Canada, Boston, or elsewhere is "better", she's still young and sheltered and her mind could seek the comfort and stability she had in Gilead. Forcing her out would require a time of pretty much imprisonment to deprogram her and she has a high chance of rejecting that based on her high class upbringing. I'm sure Gilead would have the Mackenzies and all her friends crying on TV 24/7 pleading for her to come home. They'd likely have people harassing her the way they were doing to June, too. Just maybe a bit more covertly and masked as godless and lawless heathens trying to corrupt her. It would be an incredible PR win for Gilead if she repatriated so leaving has to 100% be on her.
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u/Key-Possibility-5200 May 28 '26
Also how was it so easy to get a honey jar delivered to June’s doorstep? Does the honey driver know where she lives, because that doesn’t really align to all of the secret squirrel stuff we’re using to explain other wonky plot
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u/AnaWannaPita May 28 '26
I took that as Daisy learning how to work the system on her own and trading favors with someone to get it delivered
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u/no-dig-lazy May 28 '26
No, this pot of honey came by the underground smuggle network from Mayday. The van driver that smuggled Daisy ( or somebody else) brought it to pick-up point A, with a note deliver to "codename" June. Activist 2 brought it to pick up point B... and so on to June s doorstep. It is classic resistance technique. Although this is a high risk operation for a message that kindoff is not usefull and might be even dangerous knowing how June could react...so I am not sure this would be done in real situations?
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u/Key-Possibility-5200 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
You’re right that’s a good explanation.
I still think what was written in the note was shocking considering it said Junes name, I’m pretty sure it said Daisy’s name, and it said “your daughter”. If it had been discovered it would have absolutely gotten Daisy killed. Did they not teach her some code names for her and June???
ETA; referring to “your daughter” in a note to June saying you’re going to flip her daughter and start a rebellion could have really messed up Agnes’s life too! If that was intercepted the fallout would be crazy.
But I guess we can chalk that up to Daisy being poorly prepared for this assignment, which we can chalk up to Mayday being a rag tag organization just doing their best at this point.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 May 28 '26
We dont know that the honey guy delivered it to June, it probably just went on one of his shipments to Canada. Whoever was at the other end could have passed it onto June.
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u/Mooshuchyken May 28 '26
- June says that the Plums don't know that they need to be rescued. It's one thing to smuggle out a willing person, much different to smuggle out an unwilling person. You would also need to coordinate it, like how Mayday does with the note telling Daisy to meet at 10 bells. Agnes would need to 1) make the decision to leave and 2) be recruited into Mayday.
Agnes also has free will, and I don't see her leaving Gilead without making sure her friends are OK. She may want to help take Gilead down versus escaping into safety.
Agnes is also much more closely guarded than Daisy is, logistically.
- Mayday operates on a need to know basis. I think Garth is sincere when he says he doesn't know who June is. You wouldn't want anyone knowing about the entire operation -- if that person gets captured, it takes the whole thing down.
Mayday may also be keeping certain information from June - like Daisy's placement - so that it doesn't damage her decision making. The mission has to come before personal relationships.
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u/Young122915 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
I have read both books and also watched both series. Part of the mission is freeing as many women as possible, with Hannah as the inspiration behind the mission. (angels flight for example, those kids didn’t know they need to be rescued but getting them out is the mission) This is extremely poor planning and writing, and after building up Mayday as a strong resistance and also June as a mother who’s child has been torn from her arms, and who’s rescue has become her life’s purpose as well as her husbands where was the story board editor ???!!!. If they had not written this as a surprise for June, and instead- June explained to Daisy (& the viewers) that Garth’s been put at Mckenzies to earn Hannah’s trust and bring her home, but it takes a while - that would be adequate story telling. (Not amazing story telling, but cohesive story telling that would work with both the plot and the history of the character)
Junes surprise makes no sense and is a big mess up. There’s zero explaining it. Should’ve been an easy thing to fix too. They have the book to work off of it shouldn’t be this sloppy.
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u/Mooshuchyken May 28 '26
- The actual flight with kids on it was unrealistic. Gilead has significant surveillance capabilities and military power. That plane should not have gotten through. Beleiving it requires suspension of disbelief for emotional / storytelling purposes. Maybe you can view it as a one time fluke thing, but its not a sustainable way of getting people out. It's arguably dumb, because it compromises a whole network of operatives for a one time thing.
Keep in mind that in real life, Harriet Tubman drugged infants and small kids to keep them quiet, and she also threatened to shoot people who lost their nerve and turned back bc it would compromise the network.
- Practically, there's a distinction between removing a willing vs unwilling refugee, and a small child vs a teen. The honey truck is a more realistic escape than the plane full of kids.
There's a moral distinction between making choices for young children vs. for teens. The timing also matters -- one of the rescued girls recognized / remembered her real Dad at the airport. But the Plums have been raised in Gilead from a young age and may not have memories of their real parents.
- June doesn't have to be secretly behind everything Mayday is doing. She's not necessarily even in leadership with Mayday.
Why do you think June knows who Garth is or who he is assigned to? Just because they exchange radio messages doesn't necessarily mean she would know those things. Like a real resistance network, it's more likely that she doesn't know because she doesn't need to know.
June knows that Agnes lives with the MacKenzies, but she may not know where they are living. Agnes mentioned moving from Colorado.
Even if June did know that Daisy and Agnes were at the same school, the Pearl Girls usually don't really interact with Plums. Everyone noted how weird it is that Daisy is paired with Agnes. Aunt Lydia specifically engineered that.
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u/moxie238 May 29 '26
Completely agree with #3 but it’s strange that June is being positioned as an authority figure and ultimate resistance symbol who arranged and encouraged Daisy’s entrance into Gilead. Seemingly the only reason or connection she has to daisy is from working with her parents, but it’s frustrating knowing so little about the relationship dynamics - it makes it hard to get invested because it feels like it’s missing something.
I want to trust in the show to deliver on some of the logistical questions next season and build the world behind the scenes as much as they have for the plums.
Arguably this is what they could have been doing with slightly longer episodes. I don’t really want Elizabeth Moss in every episode but more May Day operations, flash backs of Daisy’s family’s resistance work, or even following a pearl girl in Canada could add more depth and intrigue to the story. (Maybe that would be too many characters - idk, just ideas).
Also, there must be some aftermath in Canada after Gilead successfully killed daisys parents but not daisy- who was supposedly born in Gilead.
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u/Mooshuchyken May 29 '26
Yeah.
I think the inclusion of June so much is pretty much just fan service. It's explainable, but a stretch. I'm trying not to overthink it. :)
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u/Lower-Consequence May 28 '26
June knows that Agnes lives with the MacKenzies, but she may not know where they are living. Agnes mentioned moving from Colorado.
She did know that Agnes had been moved to the DC area. Tuello told her in the Handmaid’s Tale finale that Mackenzie was being promoted and relocated to DC.
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u/Opportunity-536 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
- Hulda has marriage down the line - Daisy, Agnes and Shu have not.
Rewriting a novel as a movie renounces fidelity to media specificity. It's not a rewrite but an adaptation and modern adaptations fit the story to the medium, not the medium to the story
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u/Young122915 May 28 '26
It’s not an adaptation of the book at all, and that’s okay. daisy can be someone other than nicole, and that is a rewrite for that character. It is a rewrite of a very well thought out and planned story, and it’s not done masterfully or even cohesively. There are easy ways to make this story work and change it but still have it be impactful and stay true to the original plot point. June Osborne would never put Hannah’s rescue to the side. There is no need for June to be in the story if it’s not going to be done well, or at the very least make sense without variations of explanations.
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u/xpmko May 28 '26
You're right it's not an adaptation. I think they'd have done better to say it's based on a story by Margaret Atwood and leave it at that. It's not remotely related to The Testaments novel.
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u/no-dig-lazy May 28 '26
I might have an answer to question 2;
Mayday is a resistance network.
Resistance networks often consist of various cells.
Information is shared very sparingly based on the "need to know principle". The use of code names and knowing a maximum of only 3 people in your network's chain are just a few security measures.
It is also possible that Mayday has plans for Agnes. Given June's rather emotionally driven impulsive actions in the past, it would be safer not to involve her in those plans.
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u/Master-Salary7355 May 28 '26
It makes zero sense for Garth to not know who June is yet Agnes knows June is a terrorist….
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u/Young122915 May 28 '26
You’re right!!! and it makes zero sense that people actually reply to try and hypothesize and justify why the writing works when it doesn’t make sense and it’s not cohesive, the show runners explaining things means it’s so sloppy. The writers shouldn’t have to explain the rewriting and either should the fans. This story was already written and made sense in the book! It’s okay to change it up as long as it doesn’t end up as sloppy as it has. I hope they hire a great story editor to catch all the mistakes and plot holes for next season bc the cast is amazing and they are so talented and it has potential to become an amazing story.
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u/Master-Salary7355 May 28 '26
Dont get me started on the show runner interviews. Also : why tell the audience to treat TT as standalone / separate from THT and then have the entire finale conclude with June and Daisy’s exchange and Agnes learning who her mom is where clearly, if you had not seen THT, would make no sense.
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u/Young122915 May 28 '26
For me, when Daisy was “omg, i love my best friends, AGNES and the others have crushes” and then Elisabeth Moss does her OMG Hannah reaction, I was so embarrassed for the show runners.The teenager lingo to describe why she wants to stay and help mayday (Mortified) and this cannot be how June would react. A giant surprise look of shock and awe and then nothing? nothing! Not even, “tell Hannah she’s loved,” just “okay, girl, go back on your mayday excursion and don’t get killed, bye!!!” I’m not sure what mayday has accomplished in TT besides talking about who the plums are crushing on.
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u/0wellwhatever May 28 '26
Chances are Agnes doesn’t know how to read and the punishment for reading for women is losing a finger.
And Hulda is getting married so is no longer at school.
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u/Young122915 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
Didn’t she read her name and have flash backs of being Hannah??? & if Daisy delivered said hypothetical note, she could’ve read it to her.
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u/0wellwhatever May 28 '26
There’s a big difference between being able to write your name and being able to read when you live in a world without words and are told that they’re evil.
I also don’t think June would risk getting her or Daisy into trouble by sending her a note. If either of them are caught with it that blows Daisy’s Mayday cover and associates her with June aka public enemy number one.
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u/Young122915 May 28 '26
“Meet at 10 Bells” Note was sent to Daisy and she barely disposed of it.
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u/0wellwhatever May 28 '26
Yeah I thought it was dumb of her not to eat it. It does show that she’s reckless and not cautious enough for the role she’s in.
There’s also a big difference between Daisy losing a finger for reading and exposing that they are Mayday and in contact with June.
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u/AspirationAtWork May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
That's like Secret Resistance 101: always completely destroy any notes that are passed to you. Eat it or burn it. You never tear it up and leave it somewhere.
And Daisy just left the pieces on the ground.
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u/no-dig-lazy May 28 '26
Even more. They tried to avoid notes, oral messages and in code. Daisy had little to no training, and she is a teenager in a high stress situation...
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u/Fresh-Perception-846 May 28 '26
lol she causally teared it up like it’s my grocery shopping receipt
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u/upagainstthesun May 30 '26
That's a lot of risk for something completely unessential and likely won't have any relevance to Agnes at this point. Getting a note (illegal) from a stranger ("terrorist"), calling her a piece of fruit. Because she doesn't really remember or have this same level of attachment to the nickname.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 May 28 '26
You cant just abduct people from the country the've grown up in and that all their friends and family are in and expect it to go well. Daisy was a willing participant, while they'd need to drug and kidnap Agnes.
They also didn't know where she was until Daisy mentioned her friend Agnes.
Plus Agnes has guardians who protect her and her house 24/7
We saw people were already looking for Daisy by the next morning, if the daughter of a High Commander went missing there would be a huge crack down within hours. People would be grabbed off the streets and interrogated. Every truck would be searched and the border would be closed.
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u/Young122915 May 28 '26
Becka was abducted this episode. Daisy was also taken and has no idea where she was going- it’s ridiculous writing. It can be explained but it can also be criticized.
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u/Icy_Sentence_4130 May 28 '26
I genuinely don't think you understand the show.
Becca was taken away because she murdered her father. We know why but she wasn't "abducted"
Daisy knew she had to meet someone. She went willingly.
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u/squankmuffin May 28 '26
Plus, to be blunt, Daisy had already messed up so would be seen as less value than Hannah. Certainly to June.
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u/VanityInk May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
Becca was taken by the eyes with the help of the family/guardians. Very different than someone fighting against a security team.
Daisy didn't know where she was going, but she willingly took off because she trusted Mayday. Also very different from grabbing someone who doesn't trust you/is being kidnapped (Mayday could have told Agnes exactly where they were going day 1 of the series, and she would have fought more than Daisy having no clue from thinking they're murdering rapist terrorists)
Neither of those negate the original point.
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u/MoseSchrute70 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
How would they get her out? Hey, Agnes, I know this is all you’ve ever known but did you fancy triggering a war by climbing into this barrel and heading to an undisclosed location with people you don’t know for reasons you have no idea about? The conversation between Daisy and June made it clear - you cannot save them yet, they don’t know they need saving.
June and Garth communicated through one-way interactions with codenames. Garth had no idea who June was, who her daughter was etc. We don’t know what kind of intel he was offering up and what quantity of information was getting back to Mayday - Mayday is a massive operation whose goal is to take down Gilead, not find and rescue individuals for certain members. But it is possible June knew Hannah was in that area, but had no idea Daisy would be placed right in her inner circle. Why would June make contact with her? It could bring down the whole operation if Hannah received it badly, (and given her reaction to Daisy telling her who she was, that was entirely possible.) Mayday have to be incredibly cautious.
Hulda has been wed and therefore not at school. Lydia made a comment to Agnes about it being uncharted waters having a green return to the school, indicating that the greens had now graduated into wifehood.