The Testaments Brings These Handmaid’s Tale Characters Full Circle

The Handmaid’s Tale took its final bow last year, but the story of Gilead and the people effecting change from the inside continues in The Testaments.

Streaming now, the new Hulu series is based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name. Picking up in the aftermath of The Handmaid’s Tale, the book is told through the perspectives of multiple women — each with a very different (yet ultimately intertwined) relationship to Gilead and its downfall.

While the team behind the new series has announced some key departures from the novel, it’s a thrilling story and a helpful roadmap to refer to as you watch along. Here’s a quick recap of the book ending and plot summary of The Testaments. Spoilers ahead!

Familiar Faces

The Testaments is told from three points of view.

Aunt Lydia oversees the education of Aunts at Ardua Hall while planning a scheme to overthrow Gilead from the inside. For historical record, she also opens up about her life and how she came to her position of prominence in a cruel society.

Agnes is a girl who grew up with her adoptive parents, Tabitha and Kyle, in Gilead. She had a happy relationship with Tabitha, but soon after her death, Agnes despairs at the prospect of being forced into marriage. To escape that fate, she and her friend Becka become Aunts.

Finally, Daisy grows up in Toronto with her own adoptive parents, Melanie and Neil. When they are assassinated for their work in the Mayday resistance, Daisy learns that she is actually Baby Nicole, aka the handmaid’s daughter (who Handmaid’s Tale fans know to be June), who was safely removed from Gilead as a baby. Now, the resistance wants her help sneaking back as a purported convert, so she can smuggle out damning documents that will bring about the end of Gilead.

A Harrowing Scheme

At Ardua Hall, Agnes and Nicole learn that they are half-sisters. (This would make Agnes June’s older daughter, aka Hannah.) They are sent out with the intel needed to bring down Gilead, and it works.

After a treacherous water crossing — and with the support of Becka and Aunt Lydia, who sacrifice themselves for the sake of the mission — the girls arrive in Canada and are reunited with their mother. An epilogue reveals that their mission brought about the collapse of Gilead once and for all.