The Handmaid’s Tale gave us a piece of Aunt Lydia’s back story in season 3, episode 8. But today’s episode of The Testaments gives us more insight into her transition from the before times into becoming an Aunt.
Episode 106 – Stadium
As the Aunts sift through ancestry records to finalize matches, Agnes plots for her chance at love. Meanwhile, Lydia contemplates the choices that shaped her rise in Gilead.
Writer: Gianna Sobol
Director: Jet Wilkinson
The next morning at school, Agnes and her friends are anxiously awaiting the decisions of the Aunts as they choose the contenders for the Greens’ marriages. Aunt Lydia gets the Aunts started on discussing the girls’ prospects as she flashes back to a moment before Gilead began.
In her previous life, Lydia was a schoolteacher. Sometime after the Presidents Day Massacre, she is in the teachers’ lounge with fellow teachers as school has been canceled another day. A much younger Vidala walks in to let them know that there are some men outside, very similar to the day that June and her other female coworkers were forced to be let go. The men want to talk to their male coworker, but as the women gather around the door, they watch as he is killed on site.
We jump forward a bit to a stadium that we see is filled with women. More are being processed as they wait in long lines and have their belongings taken by men wearing all black with machine guns. As the women move through the line, they are sorted into various groups. Vidala and Lydia stay together and try to process what is happening.
Lydia is taking in her surroundings as we hear her make sense of the situation in her monologue. A line of women is brought out onto the tennis court and murdered in front of the crowd for being “sinners”. Lydia and Vidala are horrified along with the other women. Back in the present, the Aunts are smoking together discussing the marriage matches and we see that there is still much tension between Aunt Lydia and Aunt Vidala.
Aunt Vidala has Hulda come into a private room to confirm that she did indeed receive her first period. This appears to be a standard procedure while Daisy watches with confusion. Once Aunt Vidala confirms that there is indeed blood present, Hulda is ecstatic. In the flashback, the women in the stadium are attempting to sleep in the night, when several women are taken from their seats.
In class, Becka reveals thar her own mother isn’t speaking to her after what happened at the ball. Jehoshuba is still firing insults, but this time at Shunammite. Aunt Vidala walks in and announces that Hulda is officially a Green and is eligible for marriage this season. She then asks Hulda what the punishment should be for a girl that enacts violence on another, and Hulda looks at Shunammite and responds that her hands should be bound and whipped. Hulda is then forced to hold Shunammite’s hands down so that Aunt Vidala can carry out said punishment in front of the entire class. Shu does her best to take it with grace. It’s all a performance for Aunt Vidala to prove to Aunt Lydia that she is serious.
Back in the stadium, Lydia is watching all the women suffer as moldy bread is passed out. Lydia talks about how she forced herself to make it through the mental and physical torture in the stadium, and we don’t know how long they’ve been held there; it’s been at least several days. In the middle of the night, Vidala apologizes to Lydia about forgetting to refill coffee at school, but that’s the least of Lydia’s worries now. Vidala tells her that she is a “damn fine teacher” and Lydia returns the compliment, as they comfort each other. Lydia wakes to see that Vidala is missing.
Shunammite returns to the group at lunch with bandaged hands but brings gossip that Penny has gone into labor too early. We learn that this is her third pregnancy and the others were miscarriages. The girls join hands and pray for Penny.
At the stadium, in the middle of the night, Lydia is taken and dragged off. She sees all the belongings of the women that were taken have been sorted. The men dressed in black cart her off to a makeshift office where she is presented to a younger Commander Judd.
We learn that he oversees the new “women’s sphere” in early Gilead and has to decide where Lydia shall be placed in the new order. He reads her file, seeing that she has never married and has had an abortion. He says, “You’re aware that this form of person-murder is now punishable by death? And that the law is radioactive.” Oh the “pro-lifers” are going to love this one. He says that women will have to adjust to no longer having equality. Lydia, in an act of survival, tells him that she commends what the men are doing. But she suggests the spheres should be truly separate, and that women should be in charge of the women’s sphere.
The Aunts are back at the table discussing Agnes’s matches, and June is alluded to. Commander Judd walks in to tell her which men are to be taken out of the running after some of them are being sent to the front of the war. Aunt Lydia asks about Penny, and he reveals that it’s too hard to be home and watch it unfold.
The Plums are having their PE class and Becka lets it slip that she doesn’t want to get married, and all the girls stop what they’re doing in shock. Agnes exclaims, “What is wrong with you? This is our whole lives! Some people would give anything for the right match.” They’re taught that their entire lives hinge upon being married off as young girls. Agnes storms off and Becka follows. Agnes reveals that she’s in love. Becka absorbs this and asks who. She looks devasted after hearing that it’s Garth but keeps her composure. Agnes asks if she’s ever felt this way before and Becka lies, saying no, but at least feeling this way once is a blessing. Aunt Lydia later pulls Agnes aside, and Agnes says that she has a question/request. Agnes very delicately asks her to make Garth eligible this season, and surprisingly, she agrees to think it over and sends Agnes off to class.
Back at the stadium, Lydia is taken to a locker room and given a bowl of soup, bread, and some clothing, which includes a skirt (no more pants, clearly). She re-enters the stadium and Commander Judd says that she needs to prove she wants to join their cause. He hands her a handgun, and she tries to beg him not to make her do this. Then he pulls the old George W. Bush line and says if she’s not with them, she’s against them.
She gives in and is walked out to the court where women are blindfolded and kneeling. They force her to stand in front of Vidala, whose blindfold is removed. They stare at each other in horror, as Lydia realizes what she must do for her own survival.
The other men raise their guns, and Lydia hesitantly follows suit, aiming at Vidala who begs her not to. But Lydia still pulls the trigger, and we see that there was no bullet and Vidala lives. It was all a test from Commander Judd, and Lydia is forced to face what she has done.
Back at the school, Aunt Vidala and Aunt Lydia are continuing to make their matches. Aunt Lydia adds Garth to the eligible mix, but Aunt Vidala pushes back against this. Aunt Estee comes in to let them know some awful news. Aunt Lydia finds a grieving Commander Judd and offers comfort and asks if it’s time to consider getting a handmaid. So, Penny must have lost the baby.
After passing her test, Judd tasks Lydia with helping to choose a uniform for the women that will oversee the women’s sphere and we see seven different brown fabric swatches. We learn that Lydia had a hand in building and shaping the roles of the Aunts.
The Plums are told of Penny’s news, and the girls gather round to grieve together and comfort one another.
Outside of school, Hulda reveals that she has her first fitting and then a teeth whitening. Agnes looks scared of what may await Hulda at the dentist. Garth arrives to pick up Agnes to bring her home from school.
Daisy has a nice chat with Aunt Estee and we learn that she is also not originally from Gilead. She said she had a calling to be an Aunt and that she guesses you can say that she was “the original Pearl Girl”. Daisy looks like she has an idea, with her scheming face on.
After the Aunts finish matching the Greens, the Aunts celebrate with a drink as Aunt Lydia offers a toast. She says that it’s now time to tell the girls’ families about the matches. She hands one Plum file to each Aunt. Once left alone, she opens a safe and removes a journal. We learn that after she let the handmaids go when Boston fell, she promised she would document everything, including the crimes of the men. She hopes for a better future for Gilead, but what does better mean to Aunt Lydia?
Aunt Vidala arrives at the home of Agnes to deliver the news of who she has been matched with.
