The Testaments

“The Testaments” is a television sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” set in the theocratic Republic of Gilead and based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel of the same name. Rather than centering June Osborne, the series follows a younger generation growing up under Gilead’s rule. Its central characters are Agnes, played by Chase Infiniti, and Daisy, played by Lucy Halliday. Agnes has been raised to accept Gilead’s religious teachings and expectations for women. Daisy arrives from outside its borders, bringing a different perspective into a society that demands conformity.

Much of their story is tied to an elite school overseen by Aunt Lydia, where girls are prepared to become wives. The school gives Gilead’s restrictions a polished setting: its students receive instruction intended to make obedience seem virtuous and their prescribed futures seem inevitable. Agnes and Daisy’s developing bond puts those lessons under pressure. Their different histories matter because Gilead controls not only what girls may do, but also what they are allowed to know about themselves and the world beyond its borders.

Ann Dowd reprises her role as Aunt Lydia from “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Her return connects the two series through one of Gilead’s most consequential figures. In the earlier show, Lydia supervised Handmaids, enforcing rules through religious instruction, punishment and surveillance. In “The Testaments,” her position at the school places her directly in the lives of Agnes, Daisy and other girls being shaped for marriage. That setting makes her authority personal: she helps determine what the students learn, whom they trust and how they understand their own futures.

Atwood’s novel provides the series with a distinct point of departure. Published decades after her original “The Handmaid’s Tale” novel, “The Testaments” shifted attention toward girls raised within Gilead and toward Aunt Lydia’s place inside its hierarchy. The television adaptation similarly moves beyond the earlier show’s principal viewpoint while remaining in the same fictional state. Its premise is not simply that Gilead still exists; it is that Gilead must teach each new generation to preserve it. By following Agnes and Daisy at the age when their roles are being assigned, the series examines how that process works—and what happens when the girls begin to question it.