Diksha Sundriyal
After the lavish ball and the presentation of all the young girls of marriageable age, it is time to find husbands for them. The sixth episode of Hulu’s ‘The Testaments’ jumps right into the nervous anxiety of the girls who know that the Aunts are going to decide their prospects and present them with three options. No matter whom the girls like or dislike, it is out of those three choices that they will have to pick a husband, or risk a future worse than anything they can imagine. Interestingly, this episode is not narrated by any girl who is poised to be married. Rather, Aunt Lydia takes the lead, which paves the way for some shocking revelations. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Aunt Lydia Tells Her Side of the Story
Most girls know Aunt Lydia as the statuesque figure that is always watching over them, but Aunt Lydia knows almost all of them intimately enough to know what they want in their husbands. She knows who wants security and who wants power, but she confesses that she has no idea what Agnes wants. Later in the episode, she finds the answer to this mystery when Agnes herself walks up to her and asks her to make Garth, who will soon be a Commander, eligible for marriage this season. The Aunt who rules the women’s side of Gilead with an iron fist in a leather glove in a woolen mitten is also aware that, being an unmarried woman, choosing husbands for young girls is quite a joke in itself, cruel or not. Still, she takes her job very seriously.
This is why, when Aunt Vidala points out that Commander Maddox has been taking an interest in Becka, she points out that he is the one who got the girl drunk. This is not the kind of behavior that should be rewarded. She tells Vidala to check in on Hulda instead, performing a test that confirms that she is indeed on her period. With Hulda’s eligibility confirmed, the girls are allowed to celebrate. At the same time, Vidala makes an example out of Shunammite. In the last episode, she had planted a slap on Jehosheba’s face. Now, she is punished for it, and Hulda has to hold her hands down so that Vidala can strike them appropriately. As a passing Lydia notices this, she remembers how this is the way Gilead treated women to make them bend to the new order of things.
This prompts a flashback, back to the beginning of Gilead, when the coup was a fresh wound, and women were still being rounded up and killed or thrown into Gilead’s system, based on their past and the possibilities in their future. Lydia was a schoolteacher, and one of her young colleagues was a woman named Vivian (who is now Aunt Vidala). One day, three armed guards came to their school, asked to talk to their male colleague, shot him in the head, and then took away all the female teachers, including a heavily pregnant woman. It didn’t take much for Lydia to figure out that a coup had happened (one of the many to follow, in fact). But what she had to focus on now was to survive this turn of events.
The Origin Story of Aunt Lydia
All the women (their jewelry, phones, and other belongings removed) were taken to a stadium. While a soldier assured a woman that her belongings would be returned, no tagging or record-keeping confirmed that he was lying right to her face. The soldiers remove some women from the line, including Lydia’s pregnant colleague, who is never seen again. Later, some women are brought to the center of the field and executed for all to see. The women spend days huddling into the seats of the stadium, waiting for their turn when the soldiers take them away. They are given a slice of bread and a bottle of water to keep them alive, but their mental state spirals quickly.
In all of this, Lydia manages to keep her sanity intact, and being next to Vivian is a major reason for that. And then one morning, Lydia wakes up to find out that Vivian has been taken, too. Soon, the guards come for Lydia as well, and she finds herself before Commander Judd, who is in charge of deciding what to do with the women. He notes that Lydia remained unmarried and had an abortion when she was young, for which she could be executed even now. She confesses that she was very young at the time, but she still loved children, which is why she became a teacher. Instead of fighting the enemy, Lydia decides to join them. She commends Judd on the work that Gilead is doing.
Though she is not the first one to say this to him, she is the first one to suggest how to go about controlling the women. Judd is intrigued by her suggestion, but first, she needs to put her money where her mouth is. He puts a gun in her hand, and she is to shoot one of the women who has been lined up for execution. Of all the women in the stadium, he puts Vivian in front of her. Lydia is shocked and hesitates as Vivian pleads for her life. But when the time comes, her survival instinct takes over, and she pulls the trigger. It turns out to be a blank, so Vivian is alive. But whatever friendship they shared earlier is gone now. Later, when he asks her to choose fabric and color of the uniforms, Lydia chooses a coarse fabric, particularly because it would be uncomfortable to wear.
What Does Aunt Lydia Write in Her Diary?
The Aunts are in the process of matching prospective Commanders with the right girls, and their main task is to make sure that there is no inbreeding. Vidala wonders if Agnes’ true parentage will cause an issue, not because her mother was a Handmaid, but because she was “the Handmaid.” They are unexpectedly joined by Commander Judd, who cannot stay at his house while his wife is in premature labor. He points out that certain Commanders are at the battle front, which means they are out of the running this year. While Vidala thanks him for his insight, Lydia tells him not to bother himself with such matters and escorts him out of the room. In the middle of this, Garth’s name also pops up as Lydia reveals that she wants him in the marriage pool, even if he is not a full Commander yet.
Soon, it is revealed that Penny has lost her child, throwing Judd into a state of shock. Lydia consoles him while also asking him if this is the time to consider a Handmaid. Although she is no longer in charge of that department, she can still make arrangements for him. The conversation ends with him basically telling Lydia, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Elsewhere, Aunt Estee commends Daisy for being an excellent pearl girl, revealing that she herself was an original pearl girl, which is a big surprise to Daisy. Agnes tells Becka about her love for Garth, and her talk of love breaks Becka’s heart a little more. Later, as they leave for home, an excited Hulda talks about her dress fitting and a visit to the dentist, which makes Agnes visibly cringe. Finally, the Aunts finish their process, and Lydia sends them away with three files each to the houses of different girls.
Vidala is sent to Agnes’ house, though there is no telling whether Garth’s file is one of the three the Aunt holds. Meanwhile, Lydia reflects on all that it took for her to survive Gilead for so long, especially the events following the massacre at Jezebel’s and the fall of Boston. Since then, she decided to write down (Aunts being the only ones allowed to write in Gilead) a detailed account of everything that she has seen, heard, or done. This was a promise she made to herself, knowing full well what would happen if it ever got out. She knows that most of it is incriminating evidence against the Commanders as well as every other man and woman who has committed atrocities in the name of Gilead, including herself.
Read More: The Testaments: How did Neil and Melanie Die? Who are Daisy’s Real Parents?
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