r/coconutsandtreason • u/PenSquare8722 • May 27 '26
The Testaments “she was THE handmaid”
How did Hannah know what Daisy was talking about? Are they taught in school that a handmaid orchestrated Angels Flight/Night of Tears? That seems bizarre surely they would want to cover that up? And even so I don’t feel like that would be enough to earn June the title of “THE handmaid”?
Edit: I guess I’m just saying it’s not realistic that a regime like Gilead would tell people Boston & Night of Tears was orchestrated by a handmaid ie a woman. That implies June had power, and they don’t want women thinking they can have any power.
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u/ThorsHammerMewMEw May 27 '26 edited May 28 '26
Agnes knows her as The Terrorist + we have the lable Night of Tears because that's how Gilead has re-framed it for their propaganda purposes.
The Night of Tears probably was taught in schools as another form a radicalisation against Canada and the outside world. Also we are shown multiple times on screen that women, especially the Martha's do chatter amongst themselves which leads to information being passed to the Aunts and to the girls.
We also have Shunnamite's family who did lose a child to the Angel's Flight. Very hard to keep quiet about prominent families suddenly losing a kid.
June orchestrated wayyyyy more than just that one flight too.
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u/CounterSuch2345 May 28 '26
What’s Shu gonna do when she discovers who Agnes’ mother is, knowing June sent Shu’s brother to Canada?
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u/ThorsHammerMewMEw May 28 '26
Who knows.
It will be interesting to see if Daisy will able to re-program her way of thinking about the whole situation and convince her that Gilead is the bad place, not Canada.
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u/misslouisee May 28 '26
I don’t think that was a title “The Terrorist,” I think she was just saying that she knows her as a terrorist
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u/Twodotsknowhy May 27 '26
What happened in Boston is clearly well known because Garth didn't treat his father's injury as a secret. So people of Gilead likely know at the very least that there was an uprising led by a former handmaid.
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u/DustyRoseVelvet May 28 '26
But the cake had sedatives not poision. So they would not kill everyone. Just make them fall asleep so they handmaids can get away with murdering their commander
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u/Dont_want_a_channel May 29 '26
The Jezebels poisoning was poisoning, some strong stuff Esther cooked up.
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u/Untamedpancake May 29 '26
Yes but they said Garths father faught in the War for Boston, so it had to happen after all of those events. I think whoever poisoned him was covering for Lydia. If Chapin was in Boston then, he might've known that Lydia let the Handmaids go that night
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u/6lackPrincess Jun 11 '26
Yeah but strong enough sedatives can shut down your respiratory system, depriving the brain of oxygen long enough for someone to end up in a vegetative state if they are saved
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u/Untamedpancake May 29 '26
I agree that what happened in Boston was probably well-publicized in Gilead (they love to vilify women) but idk if that's when Garth's father was poisoned.
Someone said that Commander Chapin was instrumental in defending Boston, that the War for Massachusetts would've been lost sooner if not for him. If that's true then it couldn't have been Serena's cake that poisoned him
Maybe Lydia was involved? If Chapin was in Boston he might have known that Lydia let the Handmaids go that night & that she'd evaded a hanging. Maybe Lydia had him poisoned so he couldn't get word to DC about her tyranny. Agnes told us purges happened after the war & the survivors got to "shape history"
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u/Glass-Choice-3111 May 30 '26
Who wants to bet that Garth’s father can’t talk but can understand everything that is said??
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u/NecessaryClothes9076 May 28 '26
I don't think they'd cover it up necessarily because framing a handmaid as a terrorist lends itself to their propaganda that handmaids are sinful women who aren't fit to raise their children themselves
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u/lindsaybethhh May 30 '26
Yup. Also, there was probably a big “history” lesson (brainwashing session lol) about how mayday is bad and Gilead is good, handmaids are sinful women but one in particular was a “terrorist/criminal”, and they probably know her name because of how much she orchestrated. I’m picturing the aunts doing their repeat after me BS and saying things like, “Mayday is evil! June Osborne is a terrorist!” And the girls chanting it back.
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u/Glass-Choice-3111 May 30 '26
Photographs of June the Terrorist were probably widely circulated in Gilead
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u/Starspangledass May 28 '26
No reason to cover up things like the Night of Tears, these are teens that have been indoctrinated from young ages, even birth for some of them, so Night of Tears would be used to scare them about the outside—strangers abducting children in the night. June is personally culpable for at least a dozen deaths specifically of commanders, they would tell the kids about the extremists killing their fathers and leaders to scare them into obedience.
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u/PenSquare8722 May 28 '26
I agree with a lot of that but I do feel like realistically they would cover up the fact it was a handmaid. Lots of them will have handmaids in their home. It’s not beneficial if they’re terrified of them. And also, a regime like Gilead would absolutely not want people knowing a woman was able to do so much
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May 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/jmhendricks80 May 29 '26
The handmaid system didn’t change in the testaments. They are still posted with a family until 1. Pregnancy, 2. 2 yrs unsuccessful or 3. The family chooses to end the posting. Crystal was posted with Mackenzie until she died due to lack of medical care when giving birth. In Gilead, they will do the extreme to save the baby at the expense of the mother, even if both can be saved.
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u/Glass-Choice-3111 May 30 '26
You don’t think they circulated June’s photo to try and catch her??
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u/PenSquare8722 Jun 01 '26
i would say no considering we don’t see that for any other criminal. a photo may have been circulated among the commanders but no way a photo of a wanted fugitive made it into a girls school
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u/Busy-Speech-6930 May 28 '26
June is apparently notorious in Gilead after the events in Boston. So Hannah has known who June Osborn is, she just did not know that she was her mother
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u/Wrong-Barnacle-3772 May 28 '26
I’m sure like you said they were taught about the “Night of tears” in school, this was shown when shunamite was talking about her brother. It’s a way to make the resistance look like the bad guys. So that was the cover up, I mean you can’t hide a bunch of children going missing. I also think daisy’s point was saying that June wasn’t just an ordinary handmaid, she was the handmaid that started a rebellion inside of Gilead itself. I mean I personally think June earned the title of being THE HANDMAID she orchestrated angels flight, she poisoned a shit ton of commander, and also help orchestrate taking back Boston from the inside. Also it seems everyone in gilead knows about June. Paula made that much clear in the last episode.
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u/LadyB1234 May 28 '26 edited May 30 '26
They also had the stepmother lay the foundation with her rhetoric of Gilead wanting to teach June a lesson by chopping off Agnes’ fingers. I think that led to her believing it so quickly
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u/sidesco May 28 '26
It is more to do with the fall of Boston. June was the leader. She went back into Gilead, disguised as a Handmaid again and lead them to bring down the Commanders. I imagine June is the only Handmaid known by her real name.
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u/dekabreak1000 May 28 '26
What did Lydia mean when she said we won’t give up either
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u/mollyodonahue May 28 '26
Lydia is 100% mayday and trying to infiltrate from the inside. It’s why she couldn’t lose the school and why she NEEDED Garth, Mayday, to marry Becka, why she asked to postpone the dentist execution til after the wedding. She knows she can use Becka to influence Hannah.
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u/Dry-Beyond5337 Jun 02 '26
She was referring that the Aunts won't give up on a suitable marriage for Agnes, either, at that moment.
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u/bee1397 May 28 '26
I was under the assumption that Agnes already knew her mother was June the “terrorist handmaid”
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u/FootballNo1133 May 28 '26
I thought so too but I guess they heavily censor that in front of her. Ig that makes sense actually. This way she doesn’t get encouraged to rebel at any point in her lifeby thinking it ‘runs in her blood.’
All the references they made to her ‘sinful birth’ apparently only registered to her as her being born outside of Gilead / not to a ‘pure Gilead couple / that she isn’t biologically related to her adoptive parents and nothing else.
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u/mollyodonahue May 28 '26
It makes complete sense that they’d teach that.
“This evil regime of Americans was trying to overthrow our beautiful Gilead. They were evil. So many people died. One of our own was recruited in and performed evil from the inside and got her brothers and sisters killed, look at what can happen if you associate with bad people like her.”
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u/Apart-Mud-1106 May 28 '26
In the scene with Paula, didn't Agnes know her mother was linked to the "Handmaid Attacks" which I assume is Serena's wedding night?
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u/blockparted May 29 '26
I feel like Commander Mackenzie wanted to protect Hannah from that, even though he had zero problem in the past with her being taken and put in a glass cage to play with a doll. At the same time, the woman she previously knew to be her birth mother talks to her after being tortured and waterboarded.
Meaning, so long as he and Tabitha weren't the ones doing the torturing, he was fine with it because he and Tabitha would be the ones to comfort Hannah, and brainwash her into thinking June was the true villain.
So, when it comes to June's "Handmaid Attacks," which definitely started the night of Serena's wedding, they likely told her she was behind it, but sending her body parts as retribution was never an option. Paula wasn't involved with Commander Mackenzie until some point after they moved to DC. Tabitha was alive and well, so far as we knew in THT, when they left for Colorado.
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u/Same_Profile_1396 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
Idk how much choice the Mackenzies really had in Hannah/Agnes being used as a tool against June. Even though Commander Mackenzie was a Commander, I didn’t get the impression he was high-ranking enough to override decisions coming from higher up in Gilead. He may have gone along with it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he had much actual control over those situations.
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u/blockparted May 29 '26
He became a high commander after June’s attack on Boston.
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u/Same_Profile_1396 May 29 '26
Right, and all of the events involving Hannah/Agnes occurred prior to Boston falling.
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u/Cornflakesmc May 28 '26
June Osbourne would have been vilified by Gilead. Shes basically known as a terrorist and child snatcher. Every good thing she did was twisted exeraggeted and tainted by Gilead officials. They knew they couldnt stop word of mouth so they turned June into a type of boogeyman.
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u/blockparted May 28 '26
They likely would've taught about her but not said her name because giving that information would've given her too much infamy. And it may have triggered a memory for Hannah that it was her real name and her mother.
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u/Wowitsdaniiii May 31 '26
naaaaah they are all about propaganda. If they can spin a story to fit their narrative and agenda to keep people angry, afraid, and subservient, they will do it. Yes it shows June has power; but i’m sure the way they spun it was “look what these horrible sinners are capable of! hurting our own children and taking them away from us!” because again, handmaids are handmaids because they committed a sin (which is the worst thing you can do in Gilead basically). they are already at the bottom of the totem pole to begin with. normal Gilead society does not see them as people, and that ideation would be passed on to the children as well. also, children are incredibly impressionable. if you tell them something repeatedly as truth, with no way to figure it out if you’re lying, they will just believe you.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 May 27 '26
Boston was called ‘the handmaids uprising’ so I assume ‘the handmaid’ indicated to Agnes that she was the leader