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 ?

I was disappointed in MA’s views on this too - I only hope that privately she doesn’t really believe that but only said it as she felt forced to toe the line publicly.

I've just finished the first 4 episodes, and I was also confused as to Daisy's origins. I seem to remember from the book that Daisy is Holly/Nicole but that definitely can't be true in the series, even if Agnes was meant to be around 16/17 there's no way Daisy is only 11 or 12. I lent my copy of the book to a friend a couple of years ago and she still has it so my memory of the book's plot is a bit fuzzy.

Yeah they prematurely aged Hannah/Agnes due to the length of time the show ran for. I think we will have to swallow that particular plothole

That's not Tabitha. Tabitha died, she really loved Hannah. This is Paula, her step mother, and she doesn't like Hannah at all.

ETA yes - in the book the action takes place when Hannah is 23, so gilead is around 20 years old. That makes much more sense than the timeline the show has chosen.

That wouldn't be possible. That child was returned to her actual father, and was too old to have forgotten her pre gilead life. The timeline really doesn't fit for Daisy to be a gilead baby. Hannah was a toddler when gilead started, so how was daisy stolen from gilead young enough not to know she was adopted??

They really didn't need to. I don't get it. In the testaments, the action takes place when Hannah is 23 and Daisy 16. Hannah's teen experiences are described before Daisy joins. The book was already written around the TV timeline! And now we have a Daisy who makes no logical sense, and lose the main emotional thrust of the girls being sisters.

Yes, I got the names muddled and meant Paula.

The only way I could get it to make sense in my head was if she was about two when Gilead came into being, unless she was the child/grandchild of someone important who was smuggled out before everything kicked off.

I am going to reread the book once the series finishes, but I'm waiting until then so I don't utterly confuse myself...

I know she was returned to her father. But Daisy's birth parents died and she was adopted by the shop couple. So her dad could have died. I did think she would remember Gilead, but none of the timeline seems to add up.

That child was far too old not to know she was adopted.

I thought Daisy knew they weren't her parents but must have got that wrong somehow.

Anyway, it was just me musing aloud as it were as this didn't match the book as I remember it.

She's sent Daisy to Gilead into an extremely dangerous situation, as we've seen in Ep 4. I really think she's mercenary enough to have plotted the killing if Daisy parents to manoeuvre Daisy into position next to Hannah.

To be fair, Daisy's timeline doesn't really work whoever she is. I think we have to allow creative licence.

June talks about Daisy crying as a baby, for June to be familiar with her she must have been on the Angel Flight, so she couldn't possibky be a similar age to Hannah. Again, I think June has created this story about Daisy's link to Gilead make a compelling reason for her to join Mayday.

And yes, I know in the book Daisy is important to Gilead, but I don't think she is here.

I agree, this is very frustrating. The Testaments was written for fans of the show, not as a follow on for the original book. There was no need to change either the timeline or the function of the Pearl girls at all. Daisy’s identity is core to the plot.

Also one of the voices in the book is Lydia’s. I think we are already so far off the book that this isn’t going to really be an adaptation at all, it’s just very loosely based. I’m thinking rather than June stuck in Gilead in constant peril, it’s going to be Daisy.

Of course as with THT, The Testaments has an ending with no scope for 6 seasons without rewriting the entire plot so…

Her name was Rebecca

I just assumed Daisy was Nichole/Holly, hadn’t stopped to think about the timeline. Totally agree, hard to make it fit. They haven’t even mentioned Baby Nichole in the series yet, so I think playing that down as well does open the door to other identities for Daisy.

Can’t think of any babies who’d be similar age to Hannah, or even a couple of years younger at a push. She would have had to have left Gilead as a baby or toddler to not remember anything.

I think it’s going to be that Daisy is Nichole and we’ll have to swallow the maths, or one of the Angel flight toddlers. She does look like June though and she talks like her too.

The Eyes on Gilead podcast is back for The Testaments, although it’s Eyes on Screen now. They did an interview with Bruce Miller and he confirmed that Daisy isn’t Nicole

Oh, that's interesting. So the story will be totally different then. I will have to try to put Nicole out of my head and just see where this goes. Thanks @PinkTonic

Could it be watched as a 'standalone' by someone who hasn't watched THT (but knows the basic premise) do you think ?

Why then was Daisy so important to the Gilead regime they killed her parents?

And this is why it makes so much sense that June set up their murder. By either feeding false info to Gilead or false info to Mayday.
We know she's not Nicole, we can figure out that she's too old to be a baby on the Angel Flight, so the look June gave her in Ep1 must have been because she had plans for her.

I'm not sure it could. It's hard to say. But no one explained what Gilead is in Ep1, so I think it would be pretty confusing to come fresh to it with no understanding of THT.

Could Daisy be baby Angela? Or does that age not fit either?

I think it would be difficult without knowing the back stories from THMT. THMT is excellent, so if you’ve not watched it, then you should, especially the first season.

Sorry, that was too @TirednessOnToast