Years after the dramatic ending of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the totalitarian theocracy of Gilead is still chugging right along, and still has a bone to pick with its original rebellious handmaid, June Osborne (Elizabeth Moss). Although in “The Testaments,” the focus is not on her but her offspring. Namely Agnes (Chase Infiniti) — formerly Hannah, although she doesn’t remember that — June’s daughter with her husband, Luke (O-T Fagbenle), who was kidnapped and forcibly adopted into the family of the high-ranking Commander MacKenzie (Nate Corddry), before the events of the original series.
Now, Agnes is a teenager at the Aunt Lydia School, where the daughters of the prestigious families of Gilead train to one day become Wives … if they’re lucky. (Sorry, “blessed.”) She is a Plum, the school’s cutesy name for girls who have not yet gotten their periods, even though most are well into their teen years. We learned that most girls in this world simply never get a period, which means that when Aunt Flo does show up, it is cause for celebration, followed by a swift transition into official adulthood. At that point, Plums become Greens, eligible to marry and start popping out babies for the highest ranking Commander who will have them.
At school, Agnes meets Daisy (Lucy Halliday), newly arrived from Canada as a Pearl Girl, a name given to young women who travel to Gilead from other countries, lured by kindly missionaries dressed all in white who promise comfort, safety and purpose; for the low price of giving up all of their freedom and bodily autonomy (a fact they conveniently gloss over). Most Pearl Girls at the school occupy a space somewhere between service workers and students, but Daisy gets unique access to the Plums thanks to Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd, reprising her role from “The Handmaid’s Tale”), pairing her with Agnes to learn the uniquely rigid ropes of Gilead.
But of course, there’s a twist: Daisy is actually a spy for Mayday, the resistance group that June and several others first joined in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” whose purpose is to bring down Gilead. Her assignment is simple: to be a “sponge” hovering at the edges of Gileadan society and absorbing information to pass to her handler, all without drawing attention.
However, it quickly becomes evident that Daisy might not be sponge material after all; she may be more of a Brillo pad, built to scrub away problems through grit and force. Despite clear instructions from Mayday to keep her head down, Daisy can’t help but push back against the panoply of injustices that surround her. And as she and Agnes grow closer, it becomes evident that her rebellious spirit may be rubbing off.
Like “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Testaments” is based on a novel by Margaret Atwood. But unlike its predecessor, whose first season covered the entirety of the novel and stuck fairly close to its source material, “The Testaments” takes generous liberties right out of the gate.
Some character relationships are tweaked — in the book, Agnes and Daisy are not initially peers, but have more of a mentor-mentee dynamic — while others are totally reimagined. For example, Garth (Brad Alexander), while a bit player in the novel, is one of the main characters in “The Testaments,” serving as Agnes’ guardian and secretly, Daisy’s handler for Mayday. He also serves as one point in a lopsided love triangle that is unique to the show: Agnes secretly pines for him, although she knows her crush is forbidden by Gilead’s laws, while Agnes is completely unaware that her best friend, Becka (Mattea Conforti) is in love with her.
If this all sounds like “The Testaments” is a YA version of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” well, it kind of is. However, far from a mark against it, focusing on the (kidnapped) youth of Gilead who don’t remember the former United States provides a fascinating new insight into the oppressive society, which went largely unseen in the original series. Most of the young characters are daughters of commanders, although Becka is an exception; her father is a dentist who perfects the smiles of Gilead’s elite. All of the girls readily repeat the propaganda they’ve been fed since they were young, blissfully unaware that the dream they’re working toward is actually a living nightmare.
As we watch these young girls compete to attract the attention of much older, powerful men — including several social events that feel straight out of a creepy dystopian version of “Bridgerton” — it’s hard to look past parallels to today’s society, in which the Epstein files are still trickling out to the public in a horrifying stream while met with little accountability. That’s not the only way in which “The Testaments” feels more aware of the political climate in which it will be viewed than its predecessor ever was. Early on, we are told in a pointed voiceover that Gilead didn’t happen all at once, but gradually over a period of years as Americans elected extremist politicians, assuming they were exaggerating in their campaign promises, only to be shocked when they followed through.
And of course, there’s the choice to make many of the Plums and Pearl Girls members of racially marginalized groups, while keeping the Commanders and Wives almost exclusively white. Although for now, the girls seem largely oblivious to their racial differences (keeping in line with the original show’s portrayal of Gilead as a bafflingly post-racial society), the casting choice to have many of them appear so different from the people raising and controlling them feels intentional and will hopefully be explored more thoughtfully as the series goes on.
That said, as compelling as the girls of The Aunt Lydia School are, they are not the only significant characters in this story. Once again, Dowd delivers a magnetic performance as Lydia, peeling back even more layers of a character who already established herself in “The Handmaid’s Tale” as one of the most complex and compelling women in recent television history. Her story, too, is altered from the novel, but the changes make sense, and arguably even enhance the effectiveness of her role in the story.
The cast of “The Testaments” is a study in excellence across the board. Infiniti and Halliday both turn in fantastic performances in their respective roles — even if it’s a little hard to believe that Daisy isn’t immediately exposed as a spy, given her penchant for picking the least opportune times to confer with her handler. And the rest of the young cast shines, including Rowan Blanchard as the fiercely loyal Shunammite, Isolde Ardies as the innocently idealistic Hulda, and of course, Conforti as the romantically tortured Becka. And while Dowd is, as expected, the MVP of the adult cast, there’s not a weak link to be found among the supporting players, from Amy Seimetz as Agnes’ resentful stepmother Paula, to Eva Foote and Mabel Li as Aunts Estee and Vidala, to Reed Diamond’s charming and dangerous Commander Westin.
“The Testaments” also takes a more leisurely approach to its source material, covering only about a third of the book’s intertwined narrative in Season 1. It also makes significant departures in plot, shuffling around certain events, reimagining others and turning some completely on their heads, leaving plenty of runway for future seasons. This approach could easily have backfired, making for a thin season as the writers attempted to stretch out too little story over too much space, but fortunately, that didn’t turn out to be the case.
“The Testaments” moves by at an engaging pace, deftly jumping between its many intertwined subplots while thoughtfully exploring the nuanced relationships between its characters. By the time the series reaches its explosive and unexpected finale, it’s hard to not want to link pinkies with the girls of the Aunt Lydia School and join in their teenage rebellion.
“The Testaments” premieres Wednesday, April 8, on Hulu.