Praise be! Gilead is back, but this time, it’s completely different. Now, we experience this dystopian world through the eyes of a new generation of women, those who were raised within the system and have never known life before it.
If you haven’t finished ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ or just need a quick refresher, here’s everything you need to know before diving into the highly anticipated sequel, ‘The Testaments.’
10. How Did ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ End?
‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ ends with Mayday warrior June and reformed Commander Lawrence conspiring to sneak a bomb onto a plane carrying Gilead’s top officials. Their plan succeeds, with Lawrence sacrificing himself by boarding the flight. The explosion kills everyone on board, including June’s former lover Nick, who joins the plane at the last moment. His loyalties were always ambiguous, but his love for June was undeniable.
In the aftermath, June and the Mayday resistance help liberate Boston from Gilead’s control, bringing freedom to the Handmaids. Janine—once a Handmaid and later forced into sex work—reunites with her daughter Charlotte, while Emily, who escaped to Canada, finally finds peace. June is also reunited with several loved ones, including her mother, Holly, and her younger daughter Nichole, whom she had with Nick.
By the end, however, June’s fight is far from over. She remains determined to find her eldest daughter, Hannah, who was taken from her and placed with a Commander’s family at the very beginning of Gilead’s rule.
Related: 10 Most Brutal Deaths In ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
9. ‘The Testaments’ Timeline
‘The Testaments‘ is set more than 15 years after the events of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ However, much like its predecessor, the showrunners have confirmed that the series won’t strictly follow Margaret Atwood’s original source material.
Instead, the show takes a different approach, unfolding just four years after the original series finale. While Gilead remains the central setting, the focus shifts to a new generation. These young girls are raised entirely under this oppressive regime and know nothing of the world that came before.
8. What Is Happening In Gilead Now?
Despite the blow dealt to Gilead’s leadership by Mayday, the totalitarian regime remains firmly in place, still clinging to power across what’s left of America.
However, ‘The Testaments‘ introduces a crucial twist through Aunt Lydia’s storyline. Beneath the surface, Gilead is beginning to decay, rotting from within. The high-ranking Commanders are locked in internal power struggles, and their hypocrisy is becoming increasingly impossible to hide.
All signs point to one inevitable outcome: another rebellion may be closer than ever.
7. The New Generation Explained
The sequel is essentially a coming-of-age story, following the adolescent girls of Gilead—those born into the regime, as well as others brought there through manipulation or force. They belong to a new tier in Gilead’s hierarchy known as the “Plums,” named after the distinct color of their uniforms.
Many of these girls are raised in relative luxury within Commander households, yet they still long for independence. However, their futures are already decided. They are being groomed to become perfect, obedient wives.
Having grown up entirely under authoritarian rule, they have no understanding of how women’s rights were stripped away or how the outside world truly functions. Their reality is shaped by control, surveillance, and carefully distorted truths. But beneath that conditioning, resistance is beginning to stir, and this time, it may be led by the very girls Gilead sought to control.
6. What Is The Wife School In ‘The Testaments’?
The Wife School serves as an elite training ground for young girls, where they are taught the duties expected of future Commanders’ wives. The institution is overseen by Aunt Lydia at Ardua Hall, which used to be the headquarters for the Aunts.
Much of ‘The Testaments‘ unfolds within this setting, where obedience and servitude are the core principles instilled in every student. However, Ardua Hall stands apart as one of the few places in Gilead where women hold administrative power.
That contrast makes it a quietly volatile space, one that could very well become the breeding ground for the next uprising.
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5. What Do The New Colors Mean?
In The Handmaid’s Tale, viewers were introduced to Gilead’s rigid color-coded hierarchy: red for Handmaids, blue for Wives, green for Marthas, and brown for Aunts. The Testaments expands on this system by introducing a new set of distinctions.
Within Aunt Lydia’s Wife School, softer, pastel shades define the stages of girlhood. Pink is worn by the youngest students, plum by older teens, and green by those deemed ready for marriage. The shift to green marks a pivotal moment; it occurs only once a Plum reaches puberty, signaling her eligibility to become a wife.
4. Aunt Lydia’s Secret
Aunt Lydia was one of the most loathsome figures in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ overseeing the Red Centre and enforcing its brutal, inhumane practices. But in ‘The Testaments,’ she is seen in a very different light.
Now guiding the next generation instead of training Handmaids, Lydia is no longer blindly loyal to the hypocritical men who built Gilead. Her disillusionment began toward the end of the original series, as she realized that internal power struggles mattered more to the Commanders than any supposed moral cause.
Through carefully placed flashbacks, the sequel explores her transformation—from Gilead’s most feared enforcer to a key figure working against it. As part of the regime’s founding generation, Lydia is uniquely positioned to dismantle it from within, and this time, she intends to do exactly that.
3. Who Is Daisy?
Daisy is a “Pearl Girl” brought into Gilead from Canada under Aunt Lydia’s watch. The regime has begun opening its doors to young converts, recruited and indoctrinated by missionaries. Back home, Daisy was an ordinary teenager, until her parents’ mysterious death revealed a hidden connection to Gilead. She enters the regime after June takes her under her wings. Soon, Daisy’s agenda becomes clear.
In ‘The Testaments‘ book, Daisy is revealed to be Nichole, June’s younger daughter with Nick. However, this twist doesn’t align with the timeline established in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ show, where Nichole is still an infant by the end.
As a result, the series takes a different route. In ‘The Testaments,’ Daisy is reimagined as a Mayday recruit motivated by a tragic loss. She and June share a mentor-mentee dynamic, with June guiding her from afar about Mayday’s ultimate mission.
2. Who Is Agnes?
In the series, we are introduced to Agnes MacKenzie, the daughter of a high-ranking Commander, studying at the Wife School to prepare for her future as a Commander’s wife. Despite her privileged upbringing, Agnes struggles with the life that has been chosen for her.
However, her true identity tells a far more tragic story. In ‘The Testaments,’ Agnes is actually Hannah (June and Luke’s daughter), who was taken from her parents as a child during the rise of Gilead.
After her abduction, she was renamed and raised by Commander MacKenzie’s family, growing up as part of Gilead’s elite. Now living as Agnes, she embodies the very system that once tore her life apart, without fully knowing who she really is.
1. Where Is June In ‘The Testaments’?
The last time we saw her in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ June was more determined than ever to find her daughter, Hannah. Speculations about her return were rife, but now, it has been confirmed that June plays a major role in ‘The Testaments.’
Living in Canada, she operates in the shadows as part of the Mayday resistance, working to dismantle Gilead while still holding on to her ultimate goal: rescuing Hannah. Along the way, she encounters Daisy and shapes her into the greatest weapon against Gilead.
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