The Testaments Episode 9 Recap - Marat Sade - BOOK READERS ONLY

追加: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]I know it's really early to be saying this, but I think this episode is going to be one of my favorites of the entire series. It's like Hecate said, this is a high pressure system, and we've just watched the pressure cooker these girls are in slowly building all season, and it just exploded. We have a lot to get into, but before we get any further, if you are new here, welcome. I'm Marjorie, and what we're doing here is dissecting this television show with the source material in mind. If that sounds like something you're interested in, then go ahead and subscribe because this show just got renewed for a second season, and we have a lot of deep dives to get into between now and next season. But as far as book spoilers go, does it even matter anymore? I did not see that coming. The one thing I felt sure that they were sticking with was the Secateurs storyline. And I suppose they did stick with the Secateurs, but that was such a brilliant book deviation. And we will get into Becca, but before we get into this episode, we do need to talk about the title, Marat Sade. Going in, I knew nothing about this reference, and I'm still not convinced that I'm pronouncing it right, but I did some research to figure out what is happening with this title, and honestly, it's a whole separate video. There is a lot happening here, and I really need time to make sure that I'm not misinterpreting the summaries that I'm reading. So to be clear, I have not actually read this play, but I do think I understand it enough to get through this recap. I know there's more, and I do want to rabbit hole into this later.

[00:01:18]So until then, this is a very surface level understanding of what's going on here, but it's still really, really cool. And that's why I want to dive deeper into it later. So to start, there was a French Revolutionist named Jean-Paul Marat. Marat? Marat? I don't know. And he was assassinated in a bathtub, and that assassination was depicted in at least two different paintings that I can find. Although I don't know which one's the original, the second one looks like it's inspired by the first because they look very, very similar. But regardless, both paintings that I found on Google look exactly like Grove's final scene, dead in the bathtub. It is picture-perfect spot-on. Now, the reason he was assassinated in a bathtub is kind of interesting. He had a skin condition, so he would work from his bathtub, and he would take meetings from his bathtub.

[00:02:11]And there was another French revolutionist. I believe this is where I started to feel like I can't get into the nitty-gritty of looking into all of this right now when I have an entire episode to recap. Um but there was a woman.

[00:02:26]I forget her name. Catherine Corby?

[00:02:29]Something like that. But she was also a revolutionist, but she felt like Marat was too violent and too extreme in a lot of his views. There was a massacre that she blamed him for, and she felt like if he continued to be a voice within their party that it would be the death and destruction of everybody. So, she gets a meeting with him, and I don't know where she procured this knife, but she assassinates him with a kitchen knife.

[00:02:57]Now, that's the first half of the title, but the other half of this title is Marquis de Sade, also a real person.

[00:03:04]And he I have to do more research into him for sure cuz I was kind of confused about what his life was. But I believe he was a writer, and then he was incarcerated in a mental asylum because violent I'm not really sure what he was incarcerated for. I just know that the term sadist comes from him and his name. And I believe he was also known for directing plays in the asylum that he was incarcerated in. And that brings me to the play. Now, there's a play by Peter Weiss, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as performed by the inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the direction of Marquis de Sade.

[00:03:45]So, that's the title. And this play centers around revolution, violence, madness, repression and what happens when oppressed people finally snap?

[00:03:55]And that is everything we've been seeing in the series so far. And in this episode, it's not just Becca that snaps.

[00:04:01]Daisy snaps first.

[00:04:03]And that sets everything into motion.

[00:04:05]Now, this play is structured as a play within a play where the inmates at the asylum are acting out the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat. Where the inmates at the asylum are acting out the assassination of Marat. And these patients have been controlled and brutalized by institutions. Their violence and instability are portrayed as products of a society that has imprisoned them. And in this episode, we have these plums indoctrinated, isolated, denied autonomy, and exposed to extreme violence under a surveillance state. And in both cases, it asks the question, is this madness, or is this what oppression produces? And the play debates whether violent revolution is justified when society itself is monstrous. And that's exactly what we have here with Becca. She's been taught that God's justice is absolute and it's violent. She believes that God has an authority over men, obedience is holy, and suffering is virtuous. So, because of all that, I can see Lydia spinning this into Becca getting a calling from God to enact justice that everyone else is trying to delay. And then she can say it's God's will for Becca to become an aunt now because she carried out her calling from God and ruined her chances of marriage. But now we're getting into prediction territory, we haven't even gotten into the episode yet. So, we will get to all of that scene by scene.

[00:05:22]One other thing that I want to point out scene by scene cuz it's in just about every scene of this episode is this play within a play structure. So, like I said before, the play is a bunch of inmates acting out an event that happened in real life. And in this episode, these patients are the plums. But we're watching this horror show unfold through a series of scenes that we've already seen before. Whether it's on The Handmaid's Tale or The Testaments, these poems were acting out stories in this episode that we've already seen before.

[00:05:52]We've seen it with Eden. We've seen it with Esther.

[00:05:54]And then individually with these scenes, there was so much of this episode that felt incredibly reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale. So, it really made me think about this play within a play structure even within this episode. It was very very cool. And like I said, very surface level understanding. I'm sure there's a whole lot more about both Jean-Paul Marat and Marquis de Sade and this play that Peter Weiss wrote. But that is a rabbit hole for a whole different video when I have more time.

[00:06:18]Because we really do need to get into this episode. So, this episode starts out with no music. Just the sound of a fresh corpse thumping on the ground as the eyes roll it away and the Pearl Girls mop up the blood. And we've seen this scene before in The Handmaid's Tale many times. These girls mopping up the remnants of a violent punishment, God's justice. And we've got Aunt Estée showing us exactly what these girls have been indoctrinated into believing. That if a man does harm, that harm shall be done to him. Everything that happened in this episode was because of the pressure cooker that these girls have been placed in. And the madness that we're seeing is a symptom of the monster society that these girls have to live in. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. And in Becca's case, a heart for a heart. There's so much foreshadowing into Daisy's motivations and surprise, Becca's motivations, too.

[00:07:10]When teenagers are raised in a violent and religious indoctrination, they're going to be prone to reckless vengeance.

[00:07:16]But as Aunt Estée is continuing on with her Leviticus lesson and the Pearls are mopping up the blood, she is giving Daisy the strangest look. And it's not the first time that she's done this. And we get that moment later in this episode where it's like the first time Daisy sees Aunt Estée. And I don't know what's happening. We don't know a lot about Aunt Estée's history. She has that curious original Pearl Girl line. It's certainly possible that these two have some kind of history and connection, but I don't think we know enough about either of them to figure it out. I'm not sure what the weight of that look is. I just know there is something about the way that that that woman looks at this girl. And then Daisy's monologue starts, and she confirms everything we've just seen and everything we've seen on the show and in The Handmaid's Tale that Gilead has a hard-on for vengeance. And throughout the rest of this episode, we're going to see what happens when these girls are raised in that kind of environment. And what Daisy's saying here in her monologue is that she's not immune to it. She's going to have a different perspective and a different code of conduct than these girls, but the more she's exposed to this kind of violence and this kind of vengeance, the more damage will be done to her psyche and the more she's going to be changed in the same way that Gilead changed June and it changed Hannah and it's changed every other woman within its clutches.

[00:08:28]She says, "It seems shocking and violent at first, but then you start to appreciate that style of justice for all of its possibilities.

[00:08:37]And it starts to give you ideas, reckless ones."

[00:08:40]And we watch her in real time get a reckless idea. And we know that her reckless idea is that she wants to incriminate the dentist and be a whistleblower for the sexual abuse that's happening. She wants to make her accusation so loud that they can't deny it. And it is a very reckless plan.

[00:08:55]Lydia is going to call her out on it later. We're going to see the ripple effect that it has on all of the girls around her. And yet, what's the alternative?

[00:09:04]Turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse that this dentist is continuing to perpetrate because of his position and the grooming in which this society has done to these girls that he takes advantage of knowing they're not going to accuse.

[00:09:17]And if they do, it's going to be shut down before it ever gets high enough up.

[00:09:21]But Daisy's been told day in and day out, "An eye for an eye. If a man does harm, harm shall be done to him." She's seen the hands cut off and the dead bodies hanging. She's heard all of the purity culture and religious scripture that has been forced on these girls. So, from Daisy's perspective, it feels like she doesn't have another option. It might be reckless, but I think it's an important line that Paula had about their prefrontal cortexes not being fully developed and they're going to make rash decisions. That's what we're seeing in Daisy here. This is what's going to happen when you have a teenager, Canadian or otherwise, exposed to Gilead under this intense pressure, reckless decisions will be made. And there's one piece of her monologue that I skipped over and I want to put a pin in it and save it for later and compare it to something she's going to say in a couple scenes. After she talks about Gilead having a hard on for vengeance, she says, "Back home, Melanie always said, 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.'" And then she continues on by comparing her experience to Gilead. But just remember her language there because it changes in a couple scenes. And then we cut to a scene with Lydia and Vidala discussing the end of the season. So, it is good to know that as soon as Daisy comes forward, she's not going to be rushed into marriage cuz that season is officially over. I was wondering when that end happens and a new season begins or a new season territory. Very conveniently at the end of this television season. So, I do feel confident that they're not going to marry Daisy off in the next episode.

[00:10:44]Kind of sarcastically, but then you've got Lydia and Vidala kind of sarcastically smirking at the fact that Maddox hasn't been married again. And Lydia says that they kicked that can a little further down the road and they've promised him the cream of the crop for next year's season. And then Lydia remarks that he's getting up there in age and he might not even be around next season. It sounds like death is aging these men out of the system just as periods are aging these girls in and that is a really gross stretch of time, as we know. But Vidala and Lydia seem equally amused by the fact that they didn't match him once again.

[00:11:21]And Vidala sits down to discuss whatever, I guess the matches. I don't know. I wanted to hear more of whatever conversation they were about to have, but we don't get to because it is interrupted by bells.

[00:11:35]And they're all really confused. I don't think anyone's expecting these pearls to get their period. I guess it's just really that rare. And then we cut to the pearls and the aunts all gathering on the courtyard to see who it is that's going to walk across that platform. And here in this scene we've got Daisy acting out an event that we've already seen Agnes do, a play in a play. And we see Daisy walk across the platform and whatever happened to that body that they were cleaning up in the beginning had to give an her such an adrenaline rush that spurred her to then go ring those bells because she wants that kind of vengeance done to Grove. And there's no more time to rethink this decision. Once those bells are rung, there's no going back and she's got to walk across this platform. And you can already see her starting to rethink this, but she crosses that stage and Estee is looking at her really odd through this whole scene. Again, everyone's surprised and in shock and awe that it's Daisy. And then there's Estee. There's just something happening on her face. I don't know. She's giving her a look. And she tries to get through the prayer speech that they're supposed to give on this occasion, but this inmate forgets her lines. She just goes, "I got my period."

[00:12:46]And they all just laugh. It's like everyone's so in awe of the fact that she got her period that the fact that she doesn't know these words is okay.

[00:12:55]They just seem really amused by her terminology, which I think speaks to the fact that A, she's a pearl girl, she hasn't been there that long, and B, they're all just really happy. And then there's Estee who looks excessively happy. She looks like she's on the verge of tears. But they're all happy because of exactly what Lydia says. This is the pearl girl promise, you should all have hope. And then Lydia tells her tomorrow she'll join the plums. And we cut to the next scene and the first shot we have in the school is of these little pinks walking down the hall. And we've seen these shots of these girls before in the series and it is a jump scare every time because we're seeing exactly what their future entails. They'll be the next set of inmates acting out these scenes in the next season. And the madness is that the cycle is going to continue unless someone breaks it. And so is what Daisy did reckless? Yeah, but given the realities of her situation and the context of her situation, it's a lot more sane than I think people are giving her credit for. And then we get one quick shot of a loom once again. And I think it is just a nice sound and image to use as a cut to these girls in the school. And we have seen it a lot, but I do think there's something there. And it kind of is in the same vein as these pinks becoming the next ones to be plumbs and then the next ones to be greens and then they're going to be wives. And we've seen this cycle continue and all of these colors getting set and pressed into a pretty picture is kind of what a loom does. I don't know. I'm going to keep looking at that loom until I get a coherent thought on it, but that feels like it could be something. But then we get Becca confronting Agnes and this scene is so heartbreaking every time I watch it. Like throughout this whole episode, right up until she's actually stabbing Grove in the heart in the bathtub, I really thought Becca was going to use those shears on herself. So every scene with her leading up to that was devastating because you're just watching her get pulled tighter and tighter and tighter until she's going to snap. And given the context of her upbringing, the way in which she snaps makes perfect sense. But we get some great foreshadowing here with Becca and Agnes working on the needlework with Becca stabbing away with her pin. And Becca tells Agnes, "You and Daisy seem close these days. She's a spy." And that pause scared me. I really thought she was going to start casting doubts on her allegiances here. But she continues for Aunt Lydia. And we know that's how these plumbs view these pearls, which is why I think it's so hard for Becca to understand why Agnes and her are getting so close. And of course Becca's feeling ousted in the process. And Becca's worried that if Agnes messes up, Daisy's going to rat her out. And I'm worried that Becca's going to feel that way towards Agnes by the end of this episode. And then Agnes tells her, "You don't know her." Which isn't really a consolation for Becca at this point. And she says, "I know that you've changed ever since she's been around." And Agnes tries to say, "Can't that be a good thing?" And Becca says, "It's not." You can see her trying any different angle over and over and over again to try to get out of Agnes what the problem is, what's different, why she's changed, cuz she has changed. And obviously Agnes doesn't want to tell her why.

[00:16:02]And when Becca finally gets to the heart of the matter, and she points out that Agnes doesn't come to her house anymore, her face looks so heartbroken. But Agnes doesn't have any time to even respond, because then Daisy gets announced as a Plum. Now, I am woefully inept when it comes to movie history. This is not anything that I picked up at all, but Scarlett, knowing that I have not seen Pulp Fiction, sent me a text and gave me a little background on the song. This is what she had to say. Now, this song was originally sung by Neil Diamond, but the version that they use in the show is the version that was used in Pulp Fiction.

[00:16:37]And there are some parallels between the two scenes. Mia and Daisy are both dressed in white offering themselves up to die. Daisy by revealing her menstrual status, and Mia by doing an epic amount of professional-grade heroin of an unknown origin. And so, there you have it. Scarlett's very right. I did not know that scene from Pulp Fiction at all. And this whole thing with the purple and her getting dressed and putting on these clothes is absolutely something that we've seen in The Handmaid's Tale. We've seen this scene play out many times. We've seen some really moving scenes with June as she removes her Gilead clothes and gains her freedom. And then in the end we watched her put it all back on to go undercover as Mayday and take back Boston. And now we're seeing Daisy ascending in Gilead as the next generation of Mayday. And then Daisy has that line about purple being her power color. And it's very similar to June's monologue in season 6.

[00:17:26]It's in episode 8 where she says, "They assigned us colors. They dictated what we wore and who we could be. They used our clothes to divide us, dehumanize us.

[00:17:36]But tonight, these clothes will be our weapons. Tonight, we will use these clothes to start a war. They put us in red, the color of blood, to mark us.

[00:17:44]They forgot it's also the color of rage." And here, this is Daisy's first declaration of war, putting on the plum clothes so she can get an appointment with the dentist and seek the violent vengeance that she's been exposed to.

[00:17:56]But then she has the line that has me kind of alerted. She says, "My mother always told me purple was my power color. I didn't know what she meant, but I do now." And it's very likely that she's talking about Melanie here. But this is that part that I wanted to put a pin in. She was talking about Melanie just a few scenes before.

[00:18:14]And she says Melanie. She says, "Back home, Melanie always said." And here, she says, "My mother always told me." It's curious.

[00:18:24]And her voice-over is from the future, so it does make me wonder a little bit.

[00:18:28]But I do think it's also very possible that she's still just talking about Melanie. And sometimes she says mother, and sometimes she says Melanie, because for a good chunk of her life, Melanie is and was her mother. So it's possible she's just saying Melanie in this testimony to clarify who she's talking about. And she's also saying mother because that's who it was to her. But as we're constantly wondering who Daisy's mother could be, it does make me wonder when she says mother.

[00:18:55]Like, is Estee in the background somewhere telling her that purple is her power color? Guess we'll have to wait and see. Especially because when she's saying that line in the voice-over, she and Estee are standing together in the same shot. But Estee asks Becca to pin her, and it's a really great foreshadowing as Becca stabs her with it. I remember feeling bad for Daisy in the moment when I first watched this, but I also remember thinking that that little pin stab was nothing compared to what Becca was going to do to herself later. I had no idea how perfect that pin stab foreshadowing actually was. But once Daisy's been plumbed up, all the girls are finding out what happened. And it's very clear to Becca that everyone already knew, and that was so devastating to me. She's already feeling ousted and alienated by this girl, and now she's realizing it's not just a perception, it's a real thing. She's been ousted and alienated and replaced by Daisy. And she keeps trying to figure out why. But once again, she's interrupted as soon as she tries to get some answers. And they find out that Daisy's going to the dentist now. So, Agnes volunteers to go with her because she doesn't have any family, and it's just another wound for Becca. It's brutal as the audience to know what the problem is, to understand Agnes's behavior, and to see how it affects Becca and how she just doesn't get it.

[00:20:06]And we're watching it all pile up. This pressure is building and building and building within her. And once she has that final piece, and gets the answer that she's looking for, she's going to snap. We've seen what happens to the mental state of these women who are oppressed by this regime. And we're going to see it again in this episode.

[00:20:21]But we cut to the next scene, and we've seen this before.

[00:20:25]The nervous waiting room. And we can see how stressful it is for Daisy because she does feel like she's putting herself in harm's way, and it's all happening faster than she was expecting. She doesn't have a whole lot of time to mentally prepare for what's about to happen, but she knows she's going to have to react. already know how traumatic this dentist has been to Agnes. So, her sitting there having to watch Daisy go through the same process has got to be retraumatizing her as well. And they each try to offer each other what little comfort they can in the moment before Dr. Grove calls Daisy in. The whole time they're going through the checkup, I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for him to do something creepy.

[00:21:00]Every move, every way they shot it.

[00:21:02]Daisy's waiting for him to make a move, and then it's over. And he doesn't do anything. And at first I was a little surprised. Daisy's definitely surprised.

[00:21:10]But that proves just how dangerous he is. He doesn't know Daisy at all. He knows Hulda. He knows Agnes. And he knows the society in which they've been brought up in, the rules in which they live by. He calls Daisy a foreign girl, and he's smart enough to know not to try anything with her until he at least grooms her up a little bit, until Gilead grooms her up a little bit. She's too Canadian to accept sexual abuse from her dentist because she might react exactly how she reacted. And here she's literally acting out a scene we've seen before. Because we watched it happen to Agnes. And since it didn't happen to Daisy, she's now recreating it for herself as she rips open her shirt and reacts to something that didn't actually happen, but did happen just not in this moment.

[00:21:55]And then she goes out into the waiting room and she creates a scene there and she makes sure that everybody sees her.

[00:22:00]So there are lots of witnesses. And then we cut to Daisy giving her testimony to the aunt. And Vedalla tries to tell her that she's confused.

[00:22:08]And Daisy is adamant that she is not confused and she is not going to be silenced. And this is why Grove didn't abuse her in that situation because she would do something like this. Whereas Agnes and Hulda, the second Vedalla told them to be quiet, that would have been the end of it. And that's the difference between this foreign Canadian girl that both Vedalla and the dentist have called out versus these girls that have been indoctrinated into these beliefs in this society and taught to accept this.

[00:22:37]So is it reckless what Daisy does? Yes.

[00:22:39]But what are your other options in this society? Anything that isn't acceptance and submission is reckless. Those are the choices. So in the office, she rips open her shirt recreating Agnes's abuse.

[00:22:50]And now with the aunt, she's recreating Hulda's. And just like the title of the episode, Daisy is acting out a scene we've seen before. Very literally as she lies about these accusations.

[00:23:01]But I think that Daisy is really smart in her testimony because she wants a response. She wants these aunts to do something. And the promise these pearls have been given is come to Gilead and be free from these types of sin. And Daisy is sitting there demanding an answer for all this hypocrisy. She says, "I know what sin is and I was supposed to be protected from it here and I'm telling you I wasn't." But then Lydia sends the other aunts out so she can talk to Daisy alone and I love this conversation so much.

[00:23:28]First Daisy starts out with a tell and we know that Lydia is highly perceptive to these things and Agnes is going to pick up on it later. Lydia starts out once they're alone by saying, "I'm sorry that this ungodly event occurred." And Daisy says, "Yes, I pray that he will be brought to justice." And anyone else in this situation, especially one of these Gilead raised girls, is going to not be focused on the justice. That's in God's hands or at least the aunts' hands or the eyes' hands. It's not in their hands. So it's not their focus and I guess she's just saying praying, but it's her first response. There's no trauma here. There's just a need for vengeance. And that's all the confirmation that Lydia needs because it's clear she already suspected as much. And she goes, "It is fortunate that he was so reckless as to tear your blouse and with witnesses." And reckless is the same word that Daisy said in the beginning about her reckless ideas. And that's exactly what Lydia is calling her actions. And Daisy says, "Lust makes men reckless" because she's certainly heard that line here. But Lydia tells her, "I'm choosing not to think on it too deeply." And she raises her eyebrows at her and I think Daisy understands exactly what she's saying. And Lydia says she's choosing to focus on the fact that the Lord has shined his light on Dr. Grove's evil. And I guess this is what I mean by when Mayday sends a teenager in, you have to expect that she is going to make reckless decisions like this. We've seen adults with fully formed brains do reckless things in the society under this pressure. So to put a teenager in this situation as an undercover spy is a reckless decision in and of itself, but I do think that there are some safety nets and I think this is the one right here. Like Lydia knows what she's doing and she's warning her very subtly that she knows what she's doing and that she doesn't believe her and that it was a reckless decision. And I think Daisy's going to learn to be more calculated and a little less rash in the future.

[00:25:16]But she's a teenager. Trial and error is sometimes the quickest way to learn these things. So then Lydia dismisses her and Aunt Estee is waiting for her and she is distraught. She falls on her knees and she begs for Daisy's forgiveness. She could just be distraught because she's a true believer and the original Pearl Girl and this is the promise that they've given these Pearl Girls is you're going to be protected from this and she could just be feeling a whole lot of guilt because this society is going to make these women feel guilty for things that they can't control like this and so she feels bad that she couldn't protect her from the sin and it could just be that she was a true believer and she's devastated that this Pearl Girl that she's come to really like and look out for, she failed.

[00:26:02]Or this is the same scene where Daisy notices her eyes and then it cuts to Daisy's eyes and so I don't know what we're saying here, but it does kind of feel like they're saying this is her mother. It almost seems like she's apologizing for a lot more than the dentist's office at this point. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. Like I got you out of this place and here you are back in it. I don't know. I don't know. Then we cut to Daisy and Agnes speaking alone for the first time since all of this has gone down and you can see how much stress and pressure Agnes is under in this conversation.

[00:26:35]She's really worried about Daisy, but Daisy is proud. She's relieved. She's done what she needed to do and you can see it in her demeanor and it's throwing Agnes off because it's not the demeanor that Agnes is expecting. For Agnes, she's been re-traumatized all over again and she's not seeing any of that trauma on Daisy. And then on top of that, Daisy's saying that the aunts believed her and that she was really clear about it. And Hulda was clear, and Agnes was clear, and the aunts not that they didn't believe them, but they weren't going to do anything about it. They shut them down and said this doesn't leave this room. Be patient and wait for God's justice. Go do what you're told and get married and be quiet about it.

[00:27:13]But Daisy, this brand new plum, goes into the aunts and says the same thing, and they believed her because she's clear. It doesn't make sense. And so now Agnes is worried. She's under all of this pressure, and now this person who she's close with, who she's disclosed all of this personal and very inflammatory information to, is acting really peculiar. And Daisy once again focuses in on the punishment for the dentist instead of the trauma for the victim. And she says, "I hope he gets what he deserves." And despite all of Agnes's trauma, the reason this dentist did that to her is because there is a history. She has been groomed. This is her best friend's father. In Gilead, what he deserves is a violent death. We see it in a few scenes later. He was going to be salvaged, and that would have been a traumatic event for Becca and Agnes. Because for Becca, it's her father, and it's her status, and it's the little security she had in this world, assuming he isn't actually abusing her like she says, but that remains to be seen, I suppose. Um but for Agnes, it would be traumatic to watch him be salvaged because they've been taught to believe that this is their fault. They've been taught to internalize these actions of the dentist. So, to see the bloody consequences of his actions would be a traumatic thing for her. And she's not seeing any of that reservation on Daisy's face. This is what Daisy wants.

[00:28:29]And now Agnes needs answers because something is not right about Daisy, and she confronts her on it. And she says, "You're not a Pearl Girl." And once again, it's that little jump scare of a statement in this episode. And Daisy goes, "Hm?"

[00:28:43]And she goes, "You're not like them.

[00:28:44]They do everything they can do in, but this could ruin your chances. This could ruin everything you came here for, which makes me wonder, what did you come here for? Because everything she assumed about Daisy isn't making sense right now. And Daisy starts listing off the people he hurt, and she says, "He hurt you. He hurt Hulda." And Agnes goes, "He hurt you, too, right?" And I think she's starting to realize that Daisy may have just repeated Agnes's and Hulda's story, and now set this chain of events into motion that may very well get out of control, and they very well do. And then Daisy realizes how uncomfortable this conversation is getting and how much she keeps saying the wrong thing.

[00:29:22]And she tries to exit the conversation, but Agnes questions her again and says, but Agnes is continuing to question her of, "You're a plum or a green. Why would you be on cleanup duty as a pearl?" And Daisy's response is very alarming to Agnes. She says, "I'm an experiment. There's no rules written for how I am supposed to behave or what I'm supposed to do. No one really knows what to do with me."

[00:29:44]And she really is an experiment in so many ways. And that sends Agnes over the edge. Her entire journey home, she's thinking on all the events of this day, and it's been a lot for her. First, she has Becca questioning her about Daisy.

[00:29:56]Then Daisy becomes a plum. Then she's whisked away to the dentist. Agnes jumps in to go with her, but then has to be retraumatized by sitting there and watching her friend go through the same thing that she already went through. She had to face Dr. Grove again, when we know she doesn't want to. And then she has suspicions that Daisy might be lying about so many things, about the assault, about who she is, about why she's there.

[00:30:17]Nothing's making sense, and all this pressure of the day has built up in Agnes, and she can't breathe. She needs a release. And we've seen these scenes before, too. You can't have a panic attack in Gilead. She has to hold it back all the way up to her room. She has to go behind her bed to finally give herself a chance to react to what's happening around her. Because her body was literally forcing her to react at this point. It's such an incredible scene of showing the inner turmoil that Agnes is going through with the calm, cool, and collected exterior that she's forced to have. And here we see a break.

[00:30:47]And I love the imagery of the bars of the bed behind her. It looks like a cage or like a prison. And that's exactly how she feels in this moment as she breaks down. Then we cut to the next scene with Lydia and Judd arrives. And it seems like she called on him. And I do think it's an interesting show of status here. Because I feel like in the past in The Handmaid's Tale, a lot of the times she would go to the Commanders when she needed something, anything at all. I don't really remember her beckoning them to her.

[00:31:18]But it seems like that's what she's done. She called on him and said, "You need to come discuss with me a very important matter." Which just in terms of a power move, I just feel like I'm surprised she didn't say, "You may come speak with me at my office." But it is actually a very clandestine meeting. And it would be a safer meeting to have in the Aunt Quarters than wherever the held Judd works, the head of the Eyes, the head of Western in the Eyes. What is he the Commander of? All things important at this point? Cuz I know at the end of this episode Paula says that no, not Paula.

[00:31:50]Um Becca's mom says, "Commander Judd's going to deal with it." Right? She doesn't say, "Commander Western." I'm pretty sure she says, "Commander Judd." I do confuse them so much. But anyway, Vidalia shows up with Judd in tow. And it's clear that Vidalia is in her own pressure cooker as Judd and Lydia close ranks without her. She tries to stay and find out what this conversation is going to be. She says, "Lighter hands make for lighter work."

[00:32:13]And they both agree that this is a private conversation and they'd rather have it without her. And that's got to be alarming to her because you can see the distress on her face. And I do wonder what it's going to look like when Vidalia snaps. Is she going to snap at Lydia?

[00:32:26]Is she going to snap and turn on Judd?

[00:32:28]Either way, it certainly makes her uneasy that these two are having a conversation without her. And given the events at the stadium, it's very easy to understand why. And Judd has heard enough rumors that he doesn't even really question the validity of the accusation. At this point, he just needs the gossiping to stop. Prior to that, he had assumed it was idle gossiping. And now, with the scene that Daisy has created at the dentist's office in the waiting room, too many people are going to talk about something that was actually seen. And so, they have to respond. So, despite it being a reckless decision that Daisy made, if Becca didn't take matters into her own hands, I think that that her plan would have worked out exactly how she wanted it to. Doesn't mean that that would have worked out for her, and that that wouldn't have had its own consequences as all of these girls rip this man apart to get their pound of flesh, as Jed said. But, this dentist really was expendable in Jed's eyes. Too many people are talking, a public accusation has been made, and so he said, "Let's just salvage him." But, then Lydia suggests delaying his fate so that Becca can get wed first because she would hate to see her future jeopardized by the actions of her father, which is kind of a funny statement considering these girls' futures are planned based on the actions of their fathers and the ranks of their fathers. And so, it's clear that Lydia is looking out for these girls because otherwise, I don't think he would really care. Probably even see it fitting that Becca should be punished for the actions of her father.

[00:33:53]But, Jed makes it clear that he wants this dealt with so that people stop talking. And he says, "What a pity. He was such a good dentist." And Lydia's response is so subtle and so clear that she is disgusted with that statement.

[00:34:05]She doesn't even have to say anything, it's just a look, and there's a lot of judgment in it. Then, we cut to Becca's house, and they have Garth over for dinner, but they're waiting on Dr. Grove to come home still. And we already know that Becca's had a terrible day, and we can see how nervous his mother is. Like, just her general existence in Gilead seems to be anxiety-fueled. Because she has to live in this world of Commander's wives as a dentist's wife. I think the stressors that come with that are weighing on her constantly. And she's even nervous about her daughter's very low ranking engagement. She just seems really stressed out like she wants this to go really well and has a lot riding on it.

[00:34:44]At the end of this episode, I find myself still wondering what's going to happen to her because I don't think anything good is going to come out of this for her. I mean, they might just send her off to the colonies or to the wall or whatever execution style they deem appropriate for this this one because of her sinful husband and her murderous daughter. Like they're just write off the whole house. This woman just has no power without her husband or her daughter's marriage. And so now she's got nothing. But despite her nerves, Garth is so amicable and lovely through this conversation, especially after the dentist comes home and he excuses himself cuz he's not feeling well and Becca's mother follows. And then Garth and Becca are alone. And you can tell that Becca's worried. And Garth is trying to make her feel better. First he says he doesn't like scotch and don't tell your mom I said that. And you can tell she is too focused on what's going on with her parents because something's very off. And he tells her that story about his father and how he just had to go to the bathroom. And he even gets her to smile. And given everything that Becca's been through today, that couldn't have been an easy task.

[00:35:44]And I do really like them together. I don't think they're going to be together after this episode, but I do like them together and I'm not as like a marriage, obviously. Becca doesn't want to marry him. Becca just needs a nice person in her world and for one half of a second she had a nice person here. But then the parents come back and the dentist can't control himself. He has to declare his innocence. And part of it could be what Jed has already said that people are going to talk about this. He probably knows that people already talk about him. And now to have these accusations brought to the forefront, it's probably the only confirmation that anyone needed. And I think he can tell too and he can feel that pressure, obviously.

[00:36:21]But his wife is really taken aback.

[00:36:22]She's like, we have company right now.

[00:36:24]And he's like, no, he's going to hear about it anyway. I'd rather hear about it from me. And he doubles down on having nothing to be ashamed of. He really wants to declare his innocence.

[00:36:34]Which feels extra guilty. And he says, "A mentally unstable patient came in."

[00:36:39]And given the title of this episode and that play, I really love that line.

[00:36:43]Because there is absolutely a parallel between the mentally unstable patients in that play and Daisy here. But then he identifies her as the Pearl Girl who just became a Plum. And Becca and Garth know exactly who he's talking about. And clearly they both have a vested interest in this information. I think it's the first time we found out his name is Richard. And it was funny when he said, "I've already reached out to Commander Judd." Because we know Commander Judd has already sealed his fate. Daisy has been a problem for Becca pretty much since she's appeared. And I'm sure to Becca this is feeling very personal. But this was kind of interesting too, because Garth makes a quick exit. But when he talks to Daisy, it's not until the next day. So I'm wondering where he was quickly exiting to and who he was informing. I guess he was probably just trying to go get whatever information he could get, maybe check in with his handler and be like, "I I might have a problem here." But he does make a swift exit. Him and Grove shake hands and he leaves. Then we cut to the next morning and all the Plums are arriving to school. And there is a lot of them around. And Daisy, the Plum Pearl experiment, is coming down the stairs from her dormitory. And when Becca sees her, she attacks. And we've seen Becca have a hard time playing the proper Gilead Plum role, especially as her marriage has gotten closer and closer through the season. But this is a new form of reckless even for Becca. There are a lot of people around and it's clear she doesn't care who sees her. So Agnes quickly ushers her away. Daisy looks really taken aback because I think she's already starting to feel the weight of her reckless actions and the consequences that are now out of her control. And I don't think she considered at all that this was Becca's father.

[00:38:14]And what effect that would have on her.

[00:38:15]And in an episode where we did not get a lot from Shunammite at all, we do get this really, really great line. That altercation had stopped everything that was happening in the hallways, and now everyone's staring at Hulda, Shunammite, and Daisy. And Shunammite turns around and says, "Sketch us. It'll last longer." That's pretty much all we get from Shunammite. Even when she doesn't have a lot of lines, she still has some of the best ones. But then we cut to Becca and Agnes, and Becca cannot hold back her rage over the situation and Agnes's relationship with this person who is causing so much destruction in Becca's life. She tells Agnes she's a liar, and you were there.

[00:38:51]And Agnes goes, "I was, and she was" and she pauses before she says, "distraught." Cuz we know that that's the whole problem Agnes is having is that Daisy's not distraught. She's proud. She executed her plan the way she wanted to. And then Becca asks her why she's defending her, but Agnes really doubles down on believing Daisy. And she wants to know if Becca's been hurt by her father, too. And Becca is really taken aback by this question in a way that makes me think that he hasn't abused her. I believed her when she says that because I feel like any of this would have triggered her in a different way if she believed that her father was capable of this. I think she's really blindsided by this information. It feels to me like this dentist knows he can get away with it with these brand new green patients. And that's his MO because they know they don't want to risk their marriage, and he knows he has this window of opportunity to get them alone with an assurance of their silence because as we've seen, the repercussions for this kind of accusation for these girls is huge and often stonewalled. And I do hope that that's true that the dentist hasn't abused Becca. In the book, he was abusing her since she was really young.

[00:40:04]He was abusing his patients in addition to his daughter. They're really making it clear that Becca is a lesbian. I don't want people to read into it that she's a lesbian because of the trauma she experienced from her father. Like I just want her to be a lesbian because she's a lesbian and that's who she is, not because of a traumatic event that made her this way. Cuz that kind of sounds like Paula therapist territory.

[00:40:26]Like no, you're not gay, you're just traumatized. Like I kind of just want her to be gay. That would be okay.

[00:40:32]Not in Gilead.

[00:40:34]But in the story line, I think it's an important one to have. But whether Becca's telling the truth or not, she doubles down on he didn't touch me, he didn't touch anyone. And that's when Agnes' face changes. And she doubles down on she's not lying. Because even if Daisy's lying about what happened to her, she's not lying about what happened to Agnes. And you can see how excruciating it is for Agnes to tell Becca what happened. And it's excruciating for Becca to hear. And both of these actresses were absolutely incredible in this scene. And you barely have any time to react before Gabanna comes over and whacks Agnes with a rod.

[00:41:06]And it's just such a like we've seen this like rod whacking all the time.

[00:41:11]Reminds me a lot of herding livestock.

[00:41:13]It's like we've ditched the taser, but now we have the rod. But in this moment it was extra painful and extra awful.

[00:41:20]And you can see the hurt on Agnes' face of not being able to continue this conversation. Like this was such a brutal moment for these two girls and then they're just shut into silence.

[00:41:30]And then not only that, but they're ushered off into this prayer circle. And this is the society that these girls have to live in. In the midst of all of this trauma, their only recourse is to pray about it. And you've got Becca sobbing through this prayer. And they're not doing anything to help her. This was so hard to watch for me. She's just left with her own thoughts again and you can see by the end why she has the psychotic break that she has. You can see this girl visibly broken as she's sobbing.

[00:41:59]And they're just saying pray it away.

[00:42:01]Pray it away, put it in God's hands. And Becca doesn't get a chance to address any of the turmoil she's feeling. And in the middle of this breakdown for Becca, she's finally getting the answers to the questions that she's had of why Agnes has changed. She now understands what it is that has come between them, and all she can do is sit there and pray about it. If she was going to make a case in a justice system outside of Gilead for an insanity plea, I think it'd be fair to point to the religious indoctrination that led up to it. Because at the end of the episode, she's going to keep saying it's divine justice. I did God's work.

[00:42:37]That's all she's ever been taught. And as she's starting to have this mental health crisis, they're just telling her to pray it away. Well, and we've seen these scenes before, too. But then we cut to Daisy, and she's looking out the window. She sees Garth arrive. So, she goes down to make herself visible to him so that she could get a chance to speak with him. And then we get a shot of her on the side of the school with the secateurs clipping the flowers. Every time they would show those damn secateurs, I'm like, is this it? Is this what is happening? And then it was Daisy holding them, and I was like, is that a sign? Is that a clue? Is Daisy going to leave these out? Is Becca going to grab them? But it was none of that. She gets Garth's attention, and they're able to have a conversation. I didn't know if she was going to lean into her lie with him and say that she was assaulted, but she quickly tells him that it wasn't true. She only said it because somebody needed to. And understandably, Garth starts to crash out once he realizes that she made it up. But from Daisy's perspective, I can see why she thinks her actions were valid. She says, "Someone had to do something. That's what I'm here for." He says, "You're here to do what Mayday tells you to do."

[00:43:36]And to Daisy's credit, Mayday doesn't tell her to do anything. She says, "I'm just supposed to be a sponge, be invisible." She says she's tired of being a sponge, and he goes, "So, you decided you knew better?" Which is a fair point. We've debated that many a time with June in The Handmaid's Tale.

[00:43:52]But Daisy leans into the same reasoning that June would always lean into. I'm going to protect those girls. She'd rather be reckless than inaction than passive and accepting of the situation.

[00:44:01]And for Daisy, she doesn't understand why she's there if it's not to stop something like this from happening. She was supposed to pay attention, learn what she can learn, and once she found out some information, she acted on it.

[00:44:11]Because what else was she going to do?

[00:44:13]Because what else is she supposed to do?

[00:44:15]She says, "I was going to protect those girls because no one else was going to do it."

[00:44:19]And Garth doesn't have anything to say to that because no one else was going to do it. Lydia was okay with it continuing to happen until whatever plan she had in the works. All of the idle gossip was just that, gossip. It didn't stop Agnes from being sent there. It didn't stop Holden from being sent there. Nobody seems to be able to stop this dentist's abuse. So, at least Daisy tried. Then we cut to a very tense dinner at Becca's house. Becca's not speaking at all. Her mother keeps nervously speaking about the wedding and the details and the food and the cost. And she's looking at Becca's dad the whole time. And Becca's dad isn't responding to anything that the mother is saying. He finally, when he does respond, says, "Are you going to say something?" And no one's even addressing her. He's the one that's being addressed, but he can tell that Becca's sitting in her sullen silence.

[00:45:04]And given the accusations and everything that's gone down and his own conscience, I'm guessing that he's trying to gauge what Becca knows from Agnes and Holden and the likes. And we know exactly what she knows. She asks him if it's true.

[00:45:19]And he sells out himself when he says, "I didn't lay a finger on that Pearl girl." But given what Becca knows about Agnes, she can see through that statement. And I think this might be the actual final piece of the puzzle for Becca here.

[00:45:32]And the final piece that makes her snap.

[00:45:34]Because she knew that Daisy had come between her and Agnes, and she couldn't figure out why. And then she finds out that Agnes has been distant and hasn't been coming to the house because of everything that had happened with her father. And then with her father really doubling down on I never laid a hand on that Pearl girl instead of saying I would never put my hands on any girl, I think Becca was able to read into that statement and figure out that what Daisy did was a lie and that it was to protect Agnes and to get justice for Agnes and to make sure that Agnes doesn't get hurt again. And all Becca wants to do is get back in Agnes's good graces. And she feels like she's been displaced by Daisy. So, in order to get back in Agnes's good graces, she's got to do what Daisy couldn't do. And then it's pretty much the next thing she does after this scene. The final statement in this scene is her mother telling her that she should check out the flower arrangements before she goes to bed.

[00:46:24]Then we cut to a scene of Agnes and she's turning off the light in her dollhouse. And I feel like that is very symbolic of the last shred of childhood and innocence that she had left being turned off.

[00:46:35]She's going to go to sleep and be woken up in the night by a bloodied Becca and everything's going to be different from that point on.

[00:46:41]Then we cut to a scene of Daisy vigorously brushing her teeth. And we've seen this scene before with June. She vigorously brushes her teeth after an encounter with Fred. She brushes her teeth so hard she spits blood. And now we see Daisy doing the same thing. As an audience, we have seen all of these scenes before. They're just being reenacted with a different cast. And with the vigor in which she's brushing her teeth, it's clear that she is in a lot of turmoil and really thinking about the decisions that she made and the wheels that she set in motion that she can't stop moving now. And as she spits the blood, it's almost the exact same shot of when she spat the blood at the dentist's office. And when she did that, the next thing he said to her is you've been a very bad girl.

[00:47:21]And she goes and spits out this blood again and I feel like she could just hear his words in her head. And I think she is filled with a lot of regret for not thinking through her actions. But she's a teenager whose prefrontal cortex has not been fully developed. She's going to make decisions like this. It's not her fault that she's living in a situation where these consequences are dire and often fatal. And then we cut to Becca and she's checking out the flower arrangements like her mother had told her to. And she's got the secateurs. And the first time I watched this, I was filled with dread at this point cuz I'm like, okay, this is what we've been waiting for. This is where it's going to happen.

[00:47:55]And I'm like, this is too different than the book. She's not at school. There's no one there to see this. She's going to be alone. What do you mean she can't be alone? What's going to happen? And I'm terrified and the music is so haunting and it's beautiful, but it is creepy in this scene. And every shot was so slow and deliberate. It was just an incredible scene. Then you get a shot of her taking her slippers off and she slowly starts going up the stairs.

[00:48:18]And it feels so childlike with her bare feet and her nightgown and that's all you see of her as she's going up the as she takes her first steps up the stairs.

[00:48:26]And it does feel a little bit like a horror movie, especially on the second and third watch when you know what she's going to do. Actually extra haunting.

[00:48:32]Watching this little girl slowly ascend the stairs with this weapon in her hand.

[00:48:36]The little hammered dulcimer player. And then at the top of the stairs as she's walking through the hallway, we've seen this shot before. This feels so much like the Waterford's house in this feels so much like June in that white nightgown with her hair undone in the middle of the night in extreme mental distress. And then when she opens the door and you see that it's Grove bathtub.

[00:48:57]Still didn't think she was going to kill him. I thought she was going to slit her wrists in front of him. And it's so cool because we've seen this scene before too. I mean I could do a whole video just on what the bathtub symbolizes in The Handmaid's Tale.

[00:49:11]And here we are with another bathtub scene. Everything is so slow. As she enters the room, the music starts to die out a little bit and other sounds in the room start to come in. You hear the opera music that's playing in the bathroom. You can hear the door open.

[00:49:26]You hear other sounds. Everything starts to get a little like distorted feeling.

[00:49:30]And then you see her stand next to the bathtub and I'm waiting for at any moment for her to do something. To to begin what I'm expecting to happen. And I'm dreading it cuz I don't want to see this girl hurt herself after everything that's happened, the last thing I want to see is this girl slit her wrists. I don't want to see it. I'm truly horrified with how they're going to show me the scene that I don't want to see.

[00:49:55]And then they get a shot of the water dripping.

[00:49:57]And I think what's so cool about the water dripping is that when you hear a faucet dripping like that, it's methodical. It's consistent. It's like a metronome. You hear it once, you expect it again. And so you hear the water dripping at least once, I think maybe a couple times.

[00:50:12]And then you get a shot of Grove and he's still just sleeping or sitting there with his eyes closed unaware of his daughter's presence.

[00:50:20]And where you're expecting that next drip, you get his gasp of air as she stabs the shears into his lung, it seems like heart, it's got to be his heart because the blood squirted right out.

[00:50:31]And he tries to stop her and she plunges those shears in at least couple times.

[00:50:35]He's grabbing her, she backs away and then you get a shot of the shears falling to the now bloodied ground. And as she exits, you get that final image of him in the bathtub. It's exactly the same as those paintings. The way his arm is reached out and slumped over the edge like that, it's identical. And then at this point as she calmly goes back down the stairs and gets her mother's cloak, it's clear that she's in the middle of a mental health crisis.

[00:50:58]I mean, if it wasn't clear that she just murdered her father, but she's so calm afterwards. Like there's there's not rational thinking happening. She's just going through motions right now and she's in complete shock. So she takes that cloak and she goes on the run and we've seen this before too with June.

[00:51:15]She's been in an econowoman cover on a bus trying to escape. And so it's so eerie to see this young girl in a similar predicament after just murdering her father. The consequences for that in this world are never going to be light.

[00:51:29]They can't turn a blind eye at a young girl killing a man, her father no less.

[00:51:33]Gilead views her as his property. They can't let that stand. And then we cut to another familiar image of a Martha with a lantern. Although this time it's Zillah waking up Agnes. And at first I was like, why the lantern? And I get it that the house is big and these Martha's have to move through the night and they don't want to turn all the lights on and wake everybody up. So, it does make sense, but I do think it's more of a nod to the fact that we've seen the Martha network run by lantern in the past. So, it does kind of feel like Becca has found her way into the Martha's network and she's being ushered into the safety of her best friend, but that's not exactly how that's going to go. Agnes is startled being woken up in the middle of the night and she's even more startled when she finds a bloody Becca. And the first thing that says is he can't hurt you anymore. And from Agnes's point of view that has to be a very alarming statement because she's covered in blood and that's terrifying. It also must be really interesting for Zillah because she's maybe hearing for the first time that he has been hurting Agnes. And then you've got her best friend covered in blood saying I've taken care of the problem. It's God's divine justice. This is a highly alarming situation to be in and aside from the tears running down her cheeks, she really keeps it together. But aside from the tears running down her cheeks, she really keeps it together and remains calm and we know that Agnes can do that until she's pushed to her absolute breaking point. But she tells Zillah to run a bath and she's going to get Becca cleaned up. She wouldn't know how triggering a bath might be for her. And Becca looks so out of it. She looks happy and calm and nothing about her demeanor looks like how it should and that's how you can tell that there is something mentally off. The trauma she's been experiencing has pushed her far past her mental capacity. So, Zillah runs the bath and she is also visibly shaken up by this turn of events.

[00:53:21]Understandably so, a blood covered girl just showed up in the middle of the night saying she did God's justice. Then there's the shot of the water dripping in the bathtub as Agnes is helping her get cleaned up. You can tell with her being in the bathtub that she is mentally still reliving that moment cuz Agnes asks her if the water is warm enough and she says, "I did God's work."

[00:53:41]Obviously, she's in a state of delusion right now. But, based on everything that she's experienced, it's understandable that this is the delusion she would go to. And poor Agnes, she can only say, I know. Because, what else do you say to someone when they're in that kind of state? Agnes can tell that logic and rational conversation doesn't need to apply at this point. But, then Becca continues saying, I did it for you. And that's got to be even more alarming for Agnes to hear. Because, now she's got the burdens of Becca's actions being motivated by her. And these actions are gruesome. And Becca doesn't see it. She continues on. She talks about what it's like to stab the shears into skin, into body, into his heart. She talks about it so nonchalantly. Like it's just a fascinating observation. So, Agnes rightfully can tell that she needs a hospital. She needs medical attention.

[00:54:26]She needs care. She's not well.

[00:54:28]Something's wrong. And I was kind of surprised that Agnes's first thought is hospital versus like prayer circle. And then she tries again to get Agnes to run away with her. Because, Agnes had kind of promised her that in a fantastical sort of way in the past. And it's the first time she says before anyone can find out. I was worried that she was going to start to panic once the realization of the situation started to land on her. But, obviously that doesn't happen just yet. Because, in her mind she was doing this for Agnes. She was doing this to A protect Agnes, but also to win her favor back. And she thinks now that she's shown up and said, it's no longer a problem. We can run away together. That it's going to be that simple for Agnes. And obviously, she's not thinking rationally enough here to see anything else. And so, Agnes placates her and she says, yeah, let's go get you some clothes. Then when Becca tells Agnes that she would do anything for her, I think it's very clear to Agnes that she needs help. And it shows the level of trust that she has for her father that she goes to him saying, we need to get this girl to a hospital. And I think she very much believes that her father was going to help. And then you get a final shot of Becca kind of giggling and smiling in the bathtub. And juxtaposing that with the final image of her father in the bathtub is a very ominous image. But, is it madness or is this what oppression produces? They go down the stairs led by lantern, and it does feel like they're part of this Mayday Martha network, and I do hope that this is a breadcrumb for what's actually happening at the end of this episode. But, before we get to it, Becca is still fully on board with they're about to run away into the night together. That's when Commander McKenzie and Paula show up, and they are definitely a bit of a jump scare. I don't know what other recourse Agnes had in this situation, but I didn't really want to see their faces here.

[00:56:08]And he tries to be reassuring, and he says, "Don't you worry, we're going to get you help. We're going to get you to the doctor." And she's like, "I don't need a doctor." And it seems like Becca snaps out of it a little bit. She does seem scared, like she's just been turned on by Agnes again. She's done all of this to get back in Agnes's good graces, and now Agnes has just turned her over to her parents. I imagine she feels highly betrayed in this moment, and she's starting to wake up to the reality of her actions. And then when he says, "Your fiance is here," I think Becca really thought she was walking out that door to her escape, the escape of this life that she didn't want. And I think when she realizes that her fiance is standing in that door, she's realizing that there was never going to be an escape. And Garth was as convincing as one could be that he is a safe option for her. I did want her to go with him.

[00:56:51]I wanted her to get away from McKenzie, for sure.

[00:56:53]And I wanted her to get cleaned up and to get into the hands of somebody other than Agnes, cuz obviously Agnes doesn't know what to do with the situation. But, as they exit, neither of them are saying anything, and it's a very ominous feeling walk. And then you see the Eyes come out from the shadows, and they have masks and cloaks. My first instinct was definitely that they were a different class of Eyes than we've seen, because we don't see Eyes move like that, not physically I mean. Even just like that operation, like the Eyes want people to know that they're there, and they don't really care. They're always armed, and they're not secretive.

[00:57:31]And this felt like a secret police coming out of the shadows without faces or without weapons. But when I rewatched it, they're really female-esque. They're not much larger than Becca. They're not using a lot of force with her, and I just feel like the Eyes would just throw her in the back of the van and be able to throw her in the back of the van very easily.

[00:57:53]And instead, they like shuffle her and heard her. So, as they surround her, Becca starts to scream, "No." And Garth tells her it's okay. And he still seems like it's okay. Like I feel like Garth knows more about where she's going and who's picking her up than we do. And I want to believe them when he says, "It's okay."

[00:58:11]But given what she's just done, I can't imagine how it would be other than Gilead had already passed his sentence of a salvaging. And And the fact that she just beat them to it might be okay considering the personal nature of the situation, maybe. But anyway, she cuts She yells out to Agnes, and that's when we cut back in cuz Agnes can hear the commotion outside. But he pulls her back from the window, and he tells her not to look.

[00:58:33]And this is the first time that Agnes realizes that Becca's not going to a doctor. And Paula needlessly in the background is saying, "Of course he did." And it's the one line you get from Paula, and of course it's annoying. But then Becca's put in the back of a van, and that is the end of the episode. I don't think those are Eyes. I still think Okay. So, I think that this was a brilliant deviation from the book because cuz you do have a chunk of viewers that very much expected something different at this point. So, it's an excellent plot twist if you thought you knew it was coming. If you had no idea and didn't read the book, it was still just an excellent episode and still a surprise that Becca did this because it's a surprising action period.

[00:59:09]But I do think that we're going to still get Becca back in the same place regardless of whether it was Secutoris to her wrist or Secutoris to her father's heart. I still think that's going to be the avenue in which she becomes a supplicant. And I didn't In my prediction video, I didn't explain what supplicants were. It's um, Aunts in training. We haven't really seen aunts in training. We've seen aunts and we've seen plums and pearls and greens, but we haven't seen the official supplicants. In the book, it is a long period.

[00:59:37]And in the book, Becca is the first one to become a supplicant. And it's because she's so opposed to marriage that she's suicidal. So here, we have her so traumatized by Gilead that she's homicidal.

[00:59:49]And I'm wondering if somehow Lydia and the aunt police have intercepted her.

[00:59:57]And they are going to usher her into supplicant school and say that she had some kind of calling from God.

[01:00:03]And they're going to brush away this murder of a man in which they were going to murder anyway. So I think there's a way in which Gilead can save face.

[01:00:12]Not worry too much about the death of Grove.

[01:00:16]I don't think we'll ever hear from Becca's mom again. That's not true. We still have Becca, so we'll probably find out what does happen to her mom. I don't feel good about what's going to happen to her mom. I think any possibility looks grim for her. But I do think that Lydia can twist this into a calling from God. And that's how we'll get our first supplicant. But now we're into prediction territory and this video is getting too long for any more predictions and any more yapping from me. It was an absolutely brilliant episode. And with this title, I do think there's a lot more to it if I can just get a little deeper into exactly what that play is about cuz I think that there are a whole lot of parallels happening. But absolutely brilliant episode.

[01:00:53]Completely changed the tone of the season so far and the tone of the series, I think, moving forward. And I'm sure we will get some answers as to who exactly picked Becca up and how they got to her first.

[01:01:05]But I think it's Lydia and I think those are women. It just had It It had to be women. It kind of felt like um the costumes that they wore for Fred's funeral. Remember the They were kind of creepy and kind of cool? I just remember Naomi Putnam in her wife one and it was like a whole face covering.

[01:01:26]Kind of felt like that.

[01:01:27]And it was dark enough where they could have I mean, they had to see somehow. So, I feel like it was the same outfit.

[01:01:34]Aunts funeral garb. Oh.

[01:01:37]Death of a green and the birth of an aunt. Maybe they'll bring her into some kind of skull and bones initiation into the aunts. And again, that like hooded cloaked under covered darkness thing is very Lydia and very aunts. They were women. If those are eyes, that's a faction of the eyes that we have not seen on the show. Eyes have guns, always. Especially if they're picking up a homicidal teenager. That That's enough speculating. I might try to do another prediction video before this next episode. Guess it depends on how much I think of as I'm editing this. So, you will either see a prediction video from me before this next episode comes out and if you don't, it's probably because the episode's going to come out before I can finish it, in which case we will see then what this finale looks like. But, I am very, very excited for Secateurs. If you have made it to the end of this video, thank you because I feel like this is going to be a long one. I can't see my total run time here, but I had to change my microphone twice. So, I haven't had to do that yet and I think that my editing might be a while. I may be apologizing in advance for how long this is going to take me to get out, but I did have a lot to say. So, if you have listened to all of the things that I've said, thank you so much. And if you made it to the end of this video, comment Charlotte Corday, c o r d a y. In the beginning of this video, I was talking about the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat and I said some woman. And I was I had made a lot of effort to make sure I got his name right and Sade's name right and then I got to her part and I never even wrote down what her name was and we see women erased from history all too often. So, I don't want to contribute to that any further. So, the woman that assassinated Jean-Paul Marat is Charlotte Corday and since this episode was called Marat Sade, comment Charlotte Corday if you made it to the end of my episode. And thanks again for watching. We'll see you next week and stay safe.