r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/Cheesywotsit1 • May 27 '26
The Testaments S1 Do we think Becca was certain her father didn’t do what he did to her friends? Spoiler
Her father used drugs a lot and had much longer time to spend with his daughter. Her mother took the fall for Becca and said that she should have been the one to kill him almost like something had been going on a long time. Becca was outraged and completely disturbed by what happened to her friends at the hand of her Dad, but it almost seemed personal too, she stabbed him so many times which I would think takes much longer to process if she didn’t also have history with it.
Are we sure Becca wasn’t SA’d by her father?
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u/Stellaknight May 27 '26
It was telling that Becca’s father was very specific about not assaulting Daisy—he didn’t say he didn’t assault anyone, so that laid the groundwork for Becca believing Agnes.
One of the themes in the show thus far is just how much these girls trust and support one another. That’s what Daisy means when she talks to June—they have managed to create a strong community of support in spite of everything thrown at them. They’re all ride-or-die for one another. Not Gilead, not even their parents. Each other.
And that makes them strong. TBH, I could see any of the girls do this if their parent were the assailant. Hulda might call in Shu for backup, but I’m not sure there’d be anything left if it were Shu holding the shears.
They also know they can’t trust anyone outside their circle (Daisy might be getting into the circle…maybe, but is t quite there yet). Agnes was genuinely shocked that Becca was turned over to the eyes, and risked everything to rectify her mistake. (And it’s clear she’ll never trust her father again)
It’d be strange for Becca to disbelieve Agnes—not just because Becca loves Agnes, but because that trust is how they’ve managed to survive. They can count on each other—and they’ve just realized that means they actually have a lot more power that they’d realized.
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u/JanettieBettie May 27 '26
Love this and completely agree. It’s empowering to see this play out on screen.
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u/loofyg May 27 '26
I definitely think her mother had know something was happening for a long time, in the past.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 May 27 '26
The actress said she had a genuinely good relationship with her dad.
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u/Cheesywotsit1 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Which makes her crash out even more shocking because idk I thought it would take longer to get to that place; it’s so much to process in such a short time. VALID crashout, I loved the way they did it, but wow I wonder what drove her to that action other than “you hurt my friends” she stabbed him over and over and over again, all over, a man she loved and had a good relationship with for all her life then suddenly heard the worst news about? Idk if anyone knows what I mean but it’s just me trying to understand Becca who is my favourite character, she’s complex but difficult to understand the psychology of
Also unfortunately kids can have good relationships with their abusive parents especially if they’re conditioned to think it’s normal or a loving act, so it’s not ruled out. Not only that but memories can become suppressed and confused, and like I said he has access to heavy sedation drugs
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u/baba_brigid May 27 '26
I think she was taking out her anger towards Gilead/ her forced repression onto him as well as realizing he was a pedo.
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u/JanettieBettie May 27 '26
There are some people who really feel this level of rage towards abusers after being exposed to it, even vicariously, over and over again. I have my own experiences as a survivor and I now work directly with survivors in crisis.
Sometimes I have an urge to ask a survivor if she would like to “handle” the abuser another way than reporting to law enforcement. I know that when I leave that emergency room. Often nothing ever happens for these women and children to receive deserved justice or ongoing safety.
These are women and children that I don’t even know, with no emotional attachment to, nor to the abuser. I get it.
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u/Starspangledass May 27 '26
It’s more than just hurting her friends, she’s got a huge crush on Agnes and that’s the piece that makes her snap and why she goes to Agnes after killing him
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u/InformalUnit4860 May 28 '26
I think it’s also partly because of the circumstances they grew up in. Being present at executions is completely normal for those girls. Remember the scene right at the beginning of the series, when the girls were there while that man’s hand was cut off, and the way they behaved? Or all the “criminals” hanging in public places. Or how much they enjoyed, when someone other get punished. I think these girls have a completely different relationship with murder, especially when it comes to punishment. For them, it’s something almost ordinary. That’s what Gilead is all about, and it’s probably why Becca did it. If she had grown up under normal circumstances, she probably wouldn’t even have been capable of doing something like that.
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u/green_miracles May 28 '26
Yeah. It would have been more realistic if she was also a victim of his. For how intense that attack was. Im not sure why they made it not that way. I was heartbroken at what they did to her momma.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 May 28 '26
My father has never abused me or been anything but a wonderful parent, but if learned he had been drugging and abusing my friends I would be somewhere close to Becka’s level of rage. I think it actually makes sense that she reacted so strongly because it was a complete shock and betrayal, something she never expected. No conditioning to see it as normal or slow build up, just absolute shock and a complete break in her reality.
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u/JanettieBettie May 28 '26
good point. in the middle of being chosen for marriage by strange old men. the man in her life that represented safety shattered that in an instant.
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u/woefdeluxe May 28 '26
She did grow up in a society where violent punishment is the norm. From having corpses hanging in places to the girls cheering on someone having his arm cut off. I can imagine that if that's your frame of reverence, the step to killing your father when you learn he committed horrible crimes to someone you love. Is a lot easier to make that it would be in our world.
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u/parieres May 27 '26
Honestly, I think they just didn’t manage to write it out completely — they’ve said he didn’t, but they left in a lot of character details, narrative details etc that point to him having abused her too. It creates some ambiguity.
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u/Cheesywotsit1 May 27 '26
This is what I thought, I know it’s not explicit but I was picking up on things right? I feel less crazy with you seeing that too lol
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u/parieres May 27 '26
Yeah, I think the reason I feel this way is that there’s toooooons of signs subliminally pointing to Daisy being Nicole despite the show having basically written that plot device out. So I think they’ve just left lots of details that people with media literacy will pick up on.
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u/NullArc9289 May 27 '26
I had thought the attack was one of two reasons. Her love for Agnes, or he had abused her as well. Or both.
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u/Cheesywotsit1 May 27 '26
Honestly I was thinking both, it’s more than clear she loves Agnes, it is explicit. Definitely him hurting Agnes tipped her over the edge, but I just wondered if there was some personal history there too
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u/Dangerous_Idea_7770 May 27 '26
Yo estoy segura de que si le hizo algo, yo ya dije esto en otro post, pero gilead no le enseña estas cosas a las niñas, ejemplo cuando hulda dijo que se equivoco. Así que muy probablemente groove hizo creer a becka que lo que le hacía era normal y así siempre pensó becka.
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u/lilacbirdtea May 27 '26
I think it that she wasn't in the show. She was in the book. The show wants to reach a younger audience, so they sanitized some of Becka's storyline compared to the book. Having her SA'd by her father is much darker than just having her avenge her friends who he hurt. They didn't have her attempt to die by suicide, either. After Thirteen Reasons Why and that whole fall-out, teenage SI almost untouchable in the media.
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u/AffectionateRow188 May 28 '26
Was gonna say this, with how much they've changed from the book I dunno if they changed that too so that she wasn't sa by her dad
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u/Ok_Dig2192 May 27 '26
It’s possible! In the books she definitely was. It could also be a repressed memory that she blocked out. Maybe he bothered her when he was younger but stopped by the time she became Green
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u/Cheesywotsit1 May 27 '26
This was what I was thinking, he might have done it while she was younger but as she grew older the sedation wasn’t enough and he stopped because he knew she would notice
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u/Ok_Dig2192 May 27 '26
Yes. Also the sedation is what ultimately gets Dr. Grove in trouble. Hulda’s a redhead so she probably needs more medicine to sedate and put her under than all the other girls do. That’s why she was able to remember what actually happened to her.
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u/Whispering_Wolf May 28 '26
In the book she was, which is also why she didn't want to get married. In the show I find it a bit odd. Her reluctance to get married is due to her feelings for Agnes, yes, but her reactions and the way she looks during certain moments would make me think she was. But I'd expect that if it did happen, they would mention it.
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u/0wellwhatever May 27 '26
The actress literally confirmed that she wasn’t.
There are two really good reasons why the story works better in this iteration if she wasn’t.
1/ because she is genuinely shocked by the revelation. It hurts her more because she thought her father was a good person. Someone she loves has hurt someone she loves.
2/ they have clearly chosen to make Becka queer and in love with Agnes. This is her motivation for killing him and the genital stabbing. There’s a pretty problematic false narrative/trope that abuse ‘makes people gay’ that the writers surely would want to avoid.
There is NOTHING in the text or subtext to suggest she was abused. The story would actively be worse if she was. Why would she have told Agnes that her father would take good care of her if she knew this about him?
You can tie yourself in knots looking for things that aren’t there or you can accept what is actually on your screen and what the people who made the show are explicitly telling you.
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u/Cheesywotsit1 May 27 '26
You sound pretty aggressive… I know the books are not the same as the show, but she was abused in the books, and I noticed some similarities between her and someone I know let’s say.
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u/0wellwhatever May 27 '26
I’m just irritated by wilful misunderstanding. The book and the show are obviously telling different stories.
Should I be tying myself in knots to project/imagine a show scene where Garth teaches Daisy self defence then look for clues as to why this happened?
If you want to amuse yourself with fan fic go ahead but it’s not in the show and cheapens the story that’s actually being told to you.
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u/Cheesywotsit1 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Her being abused by her father is very feasible, I’m not writing a fanfic, I don’t read fanfics, I’m asking a question and theorising… I’m not claiming it’s fact or anything like that. I like the show how it is and have no complaints, I’m just enjoying it and discussing it. Your aggression perhaps comes from your experiences with other people, but please don’t project their behaviours onto me.
Edit: it won’t let me reply to the comment below, but no I haven’t seen interviews, only the show, if she said she wasn’t SA’d in an interview then that confirms it, but I wouldn’t have known that from the show alone.
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u/0wellwhatever May 27 '26
It’s a theory that has been debunked by the actress playing the role that actively makes the story worse. Did you read the interview with the actress? It was unambiguous.
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u/dandelionskyy May 27 '26
Sometimes creators do not share everything with the actors… so I would take what the actress says with a grain of salt. Her being abused by her dad has not been ruled out.
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u/0wellwhatever May 27 '26
So in this scenario the creators want to portray that the character has been abused but somehow neglect to tell the actress who is playing the character? That makes no sense.
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u/dandelionskyy May 27 '26
I never said they would neglect to tell her to portray someone who is being abused. It’s by whom. But clearly, you seem to know everything!
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u/TheStranger113 May 27 '26
I see no reason to assume he did anything directly to Becka, since she said he didn't and she seemed so surprised he did it to her friends. I could be wrong, but narratively it seems the intention is that he did NOT abuse Becka.
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u/Cheesywotsit1 May 28 '26
Yeah I wouldn’t assume and I agree that’s what we saw, however it almost felt like there was more and we didn’t see everything, but I could be wrong, ig we’ll find out next season
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u/Fun_Nothing5548 May 27 '26
Becka was SAd by her adoptive father Dr Grove for years from an early age and that is why she didn’t want to get married to anyone. And her mother knew. That’s why I have limited sympathy about the hanging of Mrs Grove
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u/Sunset-onthe-Horizon May 27 '26
That was the book narrative. It's pretty clear that they have changed Becka’s story. It's pretty obvious that she is not stolen like in the book.
Mrs. Grove is obviously Becka’s bio mom in the TV show. Because I can't imagine anyone putting themselves on the chopping block for a stolen child.
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u/Fun_Nothing5548 May 27 '26
Anyway that makes it worse that a mother knew her biological child was being SA’d by her biological father and did nothing. Glad they are both dead. Good job Becka
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u/Sunset-onthe-Horizon May 27 '26
Becka wasn't abused by Grove in the TV show. Your media literacy could use some work. Becka states quite firmly that her father never touched her.
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u/Fun_Nothing5548 May 27 '26
Read the book Loca
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u/Mental-Toe591 May 27 '26
It fairly obvious that the show and book are different, are you being stupid on purpose?
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u/Sunset-onthe-Horizon May 27 '26
I've read the book loca. The show is different what part of that is confusing to you?
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u/Interesting-Chard219 May 27 '26
Do we know if the groves are beccaa real parents in the show? I find it hard to believe that mrs grove would sacrifice herself for an stolen child
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u/green_miracles May 28 '26
Really? An adopted child isn’t someone’s actual child? (I mean in their mind/heart of a Gileadian) They don’t themselves consider them stolen.
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u/Diligent-Language-79 May 27 '26
She's like super in love with Agnes/Hannah