From the moment The Testaments was announced, I was excited to get more of Aunt Lydia.
Well, color me surprised when the Hulu series brought us five episodes from just Agnes and Daisy’s POVs.
The Testaments Season 1 Episode 6 finally delivers the start of Lydia’s story, and it doesn’t disappoint. I just wish we had more!
Aunt Lydia Isn’t Ready to Bring the Regime Down
From the earlier days of The Handmaid’s Tale, Aunt Lydia’s character has always been pretty clear.
She is a survivor, and she will do what she can to remain Top Dog among the Aunts.
This is a woman who has believed in the Gilead regime. That’s something we got to see through a flashback during the mothership series.
Of course, The Testaments readers were expecting a different side of Aunt Lydia in the TV series.
In the novel, she is working to tear down the whole regime, but that’s because the book’s Aunt Lydia is very different from the show’s version.
I like it like this. We get to see the same woman in two different lives.
While her thoughts about Gilead were negative at the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, it was really only about the “ungodly men.”
There was nothing to suggest that she didn’t believe in the system as a whole.
It wasn’t all that surprising to see her in charge of the school, helping transform the Purples into Greens — and get them ready to become Wives.
She has brought everything she learned about the system with her, and she has learned lessons from the past.
By the end of this hour, we learn that she is making notes and she’s hiding the stories she is writing down, but that doesn’t mean she’s looking for a way to bring the regime to its knees.
Not just yet.
She wants Gilead to succeed, and that means finding the right Wives for the Commanders.
There’s an intricacy to this, making sure bloodlines aren’t crossed and expectations are met.
We get to see similarities between this process and finding the right Handmaids for Commanders.
It takes a sharp and organized mind to figure all this out.
We have to remember that there have only been four years since the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, compared to the 15 years in the book.
Those years will heavily affect decisions, and for now, Aunt Lydia is seeing a brighter side to Gilead.
I get the feeling that the Aunt Lydia we know right now hasn’t made it to the Aunt Lydia we know of in the book, and I wonder if something has to happen to her new “girls” for her to change her mindset.
Right now, she’s a survivor. That’s what she has always been, and a survivor doesn’t start a revolution.
Finally Understanding the Animosity Between Lydia and Vidala
The flashback for Lydia on The Testaments was a wonderful way to show us why there is so much animosity between her and Aunt Vidala.
At first, I thought it was just going to be a woman wanting more say and more power in a system that is designed to be against them.
Yet, seeing how Lydia chose to survive offers a more reasonable arc.
When the Gilead regime first took over, the teachers at the school Lydia and Vidala taught at were rounded up.
Some were immediately killed, and some were taken away because they were unmarried and pregnant — presumably to become Handmaids.
Then there were women like Lydia and Vidala.
What was surprising was finding out that Lydia had once had an abortion. I found myself wanting to know more.
Why would she choose an abortion and then go on to look down on other women who chose to do the same?
I always go back to survival, but I would love to see it play out on the screen.
With four more episodes left this season, there’s still time to delve into this, but I worry we won’t get it.
After all, The Handmaid’s Tale only gave us one pre-Gilead Lydia story.
What we do see is that Lydia is always planning and thinking ahead.
She knows that, with all this information in the men’s hands, she needs to find a way to work the system.
It’s she who comes up with the idea of the Aunts, and she even gets to pick the color and material for the clothing.
Yet, Commander Judd — who was the one in charge of bringing the regime change in this part of Gilead — needed her to prove herself.
This is where everything between Lydia and Vidala starts to make sense.
Lydia has to join the executioners to kill the women on the sports field, but while other women remain blindfolded, Lydia’s victim looks her in the eye.
That victim? Vidala.
And what does Lydia do? She fires the gun.
It’s all blanks, but Lydia went through with it.
She was willing to kill Vidala to prove herself to Judd, and there isn’t even an ounce of regret on her face.
It’s what she needed to do to show loyalty and respect for a system she doesn’t necessarily fully believe in, and it’s not pretty.
So, it’s no wonder Vidala hates her on The Testaments. I’d find that difficult to get over, too.
Sure, I’d understand it — it’s Survival 101 — but that doesn’t mean I’d want to be anywhere near my would-be executioner.
It paints Vidala in a different light, and I’m willing to look at her a little more softly now.
Of course, they’re both still Aunts. They are both helping to uphold a system that pushes their gender down, and that makes them evil people, but it doesn’t mean they’re not human.
The question now, though, is whether this reveal will ever be discussed between the two women in the present day, or whether Vidala will act behind Lydia’s back.
Blessed Be the Extra Thoughts:
- Hulda was getting a lot of hate after ringing the bell, but I genuinely think she’s too naive to realize the timing was inappropriate.
- I worry for Penny now that she’s had another miscarriage, because Judd is surely going to blame her.
- Did Lydia really understand what Gilead was when she initially talked Judd into creating the Aunts?
- I want to know how Vidala ended up becoming an Aunt since she was supposed to be executed.
Overall, this has been the strongest episode of The Testaments so far, and now I’m ready for things with Mayday to ramp up a little. Or just for someone to deal with Becka’s dad.
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