The Testaments Season 1 finale ended with the truth being revealed and consequences taking root. With The Handmaid’s Tale spinoff renewed one week before its May 27 finale, the ending’s biggest questions will, thankfully, get answered. But before then, Lucy Halliday breaks down the biggest moments from the last two installments in the video interview above, which was conducted before The Testaments was renewed for Season 2. Warning: The Testaments finale spoilers ahead!
Becka (Mattea Conforti) was arrested for the murder of her father in Episode 9, and Episode 10 showed the fallout. Her mother took the blame to save her child, and the idea came from Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Aunt Vidala (Mabel Li) after Agnes (Chase Infiniti) urged them to help save Becka. Becka’s mother was executed by Gilead, and Garth (Brad Alexander) helped Becka by marrying her regardless of her fall from grace. This marriage was also the result of Agnes’s urging. Her determination to make sure Becka was killed was stronger than her desire to marry Garth herself. Her commander fiancé helped as well, but called off their engagement, sending Agnes back into school, heading into The Testaments Season 2.
Undercover Mayday operative Daisy (Halliday) decided to stay in Gilead after June (Elisabeth Moss), and Garth arranged for her return to Toronto. It was in Daisy’s secret meeting with June near the Canada-Gilead border that they both realized that Daisy had been with June’s daughter, Agnes (a.k.a. Hannah), all this time. June has gone years without an update on her child as she’s tried to end Gilead so she could liberate her. Daisy’s update brought her to tears. When Daisy returned to Gilead, she told Agnes who her mother is. Agnes, shocked, replies, “The terrorist?!” Halliday tells us that this was one of the most difficult scenes to film this season. (For a breakdown of why Agnes doesn’t remember June, explained by the show’s creator, see here.)
“That scene actually was probably one of the most difficult to film, and it took us so long to film it, which is crazy because we’ve got scenes with a lot of action going on or a lot of people in the scenes or there’s a lot of moving parts,” she says. “But that scene actually took really long because we really were specifically trying to land it in a way that evoked what it does in the scene and said exactly what it does say, because we wanted the intentions behind it to be very clear.”
Disney / Russ Martin
“It’s a very calculated decision Daisy undertakes to tell Agnes in such a manner,” Halliday explains. “It’s not done out of malice, and it’s not done out of a desire to evoke some sort of storm within Agnes. It’s done in a place of love and wanting to truly allow Agnes a piece of information because ultimately that’s what these girls are deprived of, information and access to knowledge. And so, we really were redoing it and redoing it to try and land it in the way that it does and also with Agnes’s reaction, we wanted that to be so specific.”
She says that her and Infiniti’s efforts paid off, and she hopes that it satisfies viewers who may have been waiting for Agnes to learn the truth about her mom all season long.
“I’m very proud of what it does on-screen because I think it captures the kindness behind it rather than malice,” she says, “and it is such an evocative and powerful moment in the series, potentially one of the biggest points of the series.”
Daisy told Agnes to empower her with information, but was she also revealing the truth for June’s sake? The duo has become chosen family at this point.
“I think for sure,” Halliday confirms. “I think there was an element of Daisy has a lot of respect for June, and she wants to give June that opportunity for Agnes to know who June is.”
Daisy, according to Halliday, also sees this as planting a seed of revolution.
“It’s also in the sense that Daisy is aware that there is a much bigger picture here, and Daisy can’t do this alone,” she explains. “She needs to find ways of showcasing to these girls what the outside world really is and what the regime in Gilead really is, and this is definitely an opportunity for Daisy to at least start dropping in those hints towards Agnes and start offering information to Agnes about the reality of Gilead and the reality of what’s truly going on.”
Learn more about Daisy and Agnes’s story in The Testaments, as well as the story behind The Handmaid’s Tale and Testaments author Margaret Atwood making a cameo in the finale, in the full video interview above.
The Testaments, Season 1, Available Now, Hulu
The Testaments, Season 2 Premiere, TBA, Hulu