The Testaments - Handmaids Tale Sequel has started on Disney + ***contains spoilers***

[EineReiseDurchDieZeit]

It seems pretty good so far, Gilead through a Young Adult gaze.

Anyone watching ?

The inconsistencies with the book are annoying so I'm just choosing to view at as inspired by the book rather than based on it and that works for me. Can't wait until Wednesday!

How old do you think Daisy is in The Testaments?

Agnes/Hannah is supposed to be 14/15. It would be weird if Daisy was any younger than that given Melanie seemed to be actively encouraging/condoning Daisy having sex with her boyfriend.

Tbh though I always felt as though the ages of characters and timelines in THMT never really added up.

I thought she was too based on June's reaction to meeting her. But now I'm wondering if @Justanotheremma13 is right and she's Charlotte/Angela

That's a good theory that she could be Angela. She'd be a couple of years younger than Hannah. Hannah could be 17 in the show and Daisy 15. I know 17 is old to get your period but it's not impossible. On reflection I don't think that works either. Daisy can't be younger than 15 and Hannah can't be much older. We go back to the same problem of no babies Hannah's age being stolen from gilead because gilead didn't exist!

It would be very interesting if they did change it to Charlotte but the whole thing of the book is that Stolen Baby Nicole is a symbol in Gilead

Also Janine was reunited with Charlotte so where would she be now, and why would Charlotte have to be hidden?

The timelines are totally wrong in the tv series. The book was set 15 years after THT, is is 4. Hannah was in her 20s and a Martha, Nicole (Daisy) was a preteen.
I'm just going to ignore the book and enjoy this for what it is.

Yes I think we just have to ignore the timelines in the book.

I’m excited to see what’s to come, I will binge watch on Thursday, can’t wait.

Hannah was not a Martha she was an aunt, and Daisy was 16.

Since they are veering from the book, I have a different theory as to June's reaction on watching Daisy.

I think June planned to recruit Daisy much earlier on, and was hanging out in her parents' shop to do just that. She recognised Daisy as a livewire, headstrong girl and thought that she would be a good candidate for MayDay. Also being a similar age to Hannah would have meant that she could find a way to get her directly to a placement in Hannah's school.

I think June orchestrated the attack on the shop in order to radicalise Daisy and give her a reason to join MayDay. (Either directly and making it look like Gilead, or indirectly by feeding fake intelligence to Gilead about Daisy's parents).

June has always put other people in danger to try to reunite her family, and I think Daisy is just another cog to her. It was all too slick for her to turn up after the attack and whisk Daisy away without pre-planning.

Also when Daisy asked about June on the bus, the Guardian's reaction made it clear that June hadn't gone through "official" MayDay channels to get Daisy into position as a Pearl Girl.

TLDR: June groomed Daisy's family and orchestrated the attack on her parents to radicalise her into joining Gilead.

I think that's way too far off from the book to be plausible. Not sure if you've read the book? Daisy isn't recruited by normal means, but it's not June who recruited her. I also think it would be far too out of character for June to murder people to radicalise someone, she's never done anything like that before.

Yes I've read The Testaments!

I'm just adding a new theory,in the spirit of discussion and debate! 😉
However June has been responsible for quite a number of deaths throughout the TV series. Commander Lawrence's wife; the Lawrence Marthas; Natalie (she knew she would be killed when she told her to shoot); the handmaids on the train tracks; - all because of her single-minded focus on getting her own girls out at any cost.

I've never liked June, so I wouldn't put anything past her!

I am surprised that there hasn't been any mention of baby Nicole yet in Gilead since she was supposed to be so important to them.

@VivienneDelacroix your theory has been bouncing around my head - I like it. It's wild but agree June is more than capable of doing something like that. Explains the scene of her hanging around the shop, and a new light on Daisy's reaction as her parents couldn't even use a mobile phone properly etc!

Enjoying these theories! I haven’t read the book so can’t compare it to that.

Tell you what isn’t working for me. Modern music in the background - they simply wouldn’t be allowed to listen. Otherwise I love it.

Not as gripping today as the previous three. Wonder where this is going.

I'm enjoying Tabitha. She was really good when Agnes started her period, and not just because of the social status (although that clearly matters to her). She's an interesting mix of horrible (sabotaging Miriam) with flickers of sympathetic.

It feels as if Giliad has been in place for longer than the ?10 years - it is so 'normal' (although we are seeing the elite I suppose). In THT we saw Agnes secretly writing 'Hannah' so I hope we get a reference to her remembering things at some point.

I have read The Testements, but really didn't like it and don't remember a huge amount.

I think a lot will depend on who Daisy's actual parents are. As in birth and Gilead parents. It made sense it was June but we know this isn't true. She has to be the child of someone high ranking who was rescued.

We know precious few high commanders. Maybe a Bell child? They had a lot of children with the handmaid Christina.

Now we just need Noah Joy Waterford and Baby Boy Blaine to turn up.

I know the timeline doesn't fit, but what happened to Esther's baby with Putnam? Naomi only had Charlotte with her.

Maybe the little girl who got out on Angel's Flight who's Dad was at the airport when they landed. She said "is this the place where I can be anything?"
She wasn't particularly important, but she was memorable.

I'd really like to know this - I was disappointed we didn't find out in the final series. I assumed the baby was given to a family and Esther was reassigned.

Hilarious comment. Have you actually read THMT? It was written to highlight the abuse that women suffer. Everything in the book has been experienced by women around the world. Margaret Atwood couldn’t be any more pro women if she tried.

She also believes men can be women which is probably what @Givinguponmyhair means