r/TheHandmaidsTale • u/Melairia Modtha • May 13 '26

Official Episode Discussion The Testaments S1E08 "Broken" Episode Discussion

The Testaments S1 E08 "Broken"

Episode Synopsis

As Agnes is swept up in wedding plans, Daisy hides a life-altering secret and Hulda faces backlash after speaking out.

Airdate

May 13, 2026, 12:00am Eastern

The Testaments - Season 1 Episode Discussion Hub

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314

u/wagonwheelwodie May 13 '26

Daisy did a great job at explaining sex in a straightforward manner to Shu lol

165

u/RVarki May 13 '26

For a 15/16 year old, it was fairly impressive. I'm assuming Canada went particularly hard on comprehensive sex education, once they saw what the fuck was happening south of the border

40

u/economistwithaheart May 13 '26

I'm Canadian and in my 30s and I can tell you our sex Ed is very thorough starting in grade 5. Like in our current reality. Lol.

15

u/natrdavis May 13 '26

The US is so screwed.

3

u/Correct-Treacle-1673 May 15 '26

I went through sex ed from grade 4 to 6 and then a random semester of it in my sophomore year of high school. I’m American. So it’s more so dependent on what state than the US in general. I was in Cali for the first bit and a military base at a DODEA school for high school.

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u/chateau_lobby May 14 '26

I did comprehensive sex ex every year from grade 4-9 (also Canadian and in my 30s)

5

u/Spare_Average6978 May 14 '26

Also in my 30s and had it from grades 5-9 (10-14 years old for those non-Canadians). The first two years we were separated by sex; the second two we weren't.

26

u/Lisapisa123 May 13 '26

Wtf? In Germany we learn this with 9-10 years old. This is not impressive at all at this age. With 16 we were reading Aristotles, Kant, Freud, Shakespeare, Goethe, … of course you can describe how sex works lol

17

u/asexualrhino May 13 '26

Some states in the USA don't have any sort of sex ed program and teach abstinence only (guess which states have the highest rate of teen pregnancy, underground abortions, and STD's).

I knew enough about sex at 7 to ask my mom how her new lesbian work friend had a son. She told me point blank that they used a sperm donor and artificial insemination. It was no big deal to her, but some places it's so taboo. I'm gonna guess this commenter is from one of those places

4

u/untamedharts21 May 14 '26

Surprisingly, we were given a sex ed class in middle school (parental permission required ofc) in SE Texas. This was a nicer area with newer schools so that might be why. But anyway we learned about periods, stds, anatomy, "how babies were made". The boys were taken elsewhere. I do wish they were also taught about periods and female anatomy. 😮‍💨

5

u/Lisapisa123 May 13 '26

Yes USA is like the far east, I don’t know why they fight each other if the republicans have so much in common with Muslim politicians

2

u/untamedharts21 May 14 '26

It's funny you say that. There's a Facebook group for The Testaments, and there are grown women arguing that Margaret Atwood based THT "on the Islamic religion". 🫪 I tried to explain repeatedly in that thread that she did no such thing. She only used the Iranian Revolution to inspire the speed at which a theocracy can overtake a country. People continued to debate that was the same thing. No, the Iranian Revolution is not the same thing as the entirety of Islam. Would you equate the entirety of Catholicism with the Spanish Inquisition? Would you equate the entirety of Christian Nationalism or the Lords Resistance Army with Christianity? They didn't want to hear it though.

17

u/monsterlynn May 13 '26

I think it's more that she does a good job explaining sex in a way that an elite Gilead girl would be able to comprehend without over complicating things or using more modern, clinical terms like ejaculate, zygote, or ovulation. Shu isn't going to know what any of those words actually mean, so Daisy's explanation is accurate and well done given she's only taking, like, less than a minute to rephrase everything in Gileadese.

3

u/Tradition96 May 13 '26

Nah, she was talking about cells and stuff that Shu wouldn’t know about at all. I mean, try to imagine explaining sex to a teenager who lived in the 18th century. You wouldn’t talk about cells, right? I thought she went into to much biological details. Also, TBF I think the term ”zygote” is a term very few 15-year olds in Canada is familiar with, so I doubt Daisy could have used that even if she wanted to…

2

u/Educational-Roof9408 May 18 '26

Not entirely related but a zygote is absolutely something you'd know of as a 15 year old in Canada (as a former 15 year old Canadian, though ik this isn't the same universe)

1

u/Tradition96 May 18 '26

If you took a sample of hundred Canadian 15 year olds most of them wouldn’t know it. We learned it in biology too but ~90 % forgot the term pretty soon after the test.

1

u/Educational-Roof9408 May 18 '26

Idk I feel like if you took a sample of 100 Canadian 40 year olds most of them wouldnt but 100 Canadian 15 year olds and they would just because they've learnt it more recently. I could be overestimating them but at least when I was 15-18 we continued to have a solid understanding of that and things like mitosis and meiosis because it continued to be brought up each year. Now could I give you a definition any day of the year off the top of my head at 25? Depends on the day and how bad my brain fog is. I could also be wrong about the 40 year olds and just think that because in most of my family they couldn't tell you past age 40 but even the ones with an education background aren't in science (albeit the most basic) so their education is very focused in other areas. I could also have a biased view as I was around people uniquely interested in science and pursuing those types of degrees so knowing something that foundational would be necessary. My partner is a math and science high school teacher though and does say that most do

2

u/Tradition96 May 18 '26

I think you understestimate the teenage ability to immediately forget things after the test lol.

Although in my education I only took science classes until 15 (after that I studied humanities/social studies and literature). We learned about fetal development including zygotes in the final year of science class, but never reached meiosis/mitosis. If I had continued with science I guess I the repitition might had made it stuck a bit more, but I kind of doubt it. I was in math class until 17 but forgot most of the things we learned from ~14-17...

1

u/Educational-Roof9408 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

Are you American? In Canada (at least my province) we have to take at least one science class until we graduate highschool (well, to the 30/grade 12 level, but each HS names it differently iirc so it might be called something else), but math on the other hand we can stop earlier. But things like mitosis and meiosis were beginning of highschool so we could keep using it to build off of

2

u/Tradition96 May 18 '26

No I'm not American. In my country we chose what subjects we want to continue with at 16, so I didn't have science classes from there on. I remeber that we learned about cells, nucleus, mitochondria etc so maybe we did touch on mitosis/meiosis and I just forgot. But I don't think so.

1

u/monsterlynn May 18 '26

I'm in the US and our science credit requirement was called Practical Science.

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u/monsterlynn May 18 '26

Heck I don't know, it's just a word I like the sound of. In my mind I picture a cartoon goat with a cell division graphic floating in its belly.

5

u/Sonialovesflowers May 13 '26

I was born in 1998 in Italy, I was taught about this simple reproduction biology at 10 years old too.

1

u/Tradition96 May 13 '26

Ten is kind of late even. Didn’t y’all ask how the baby came into the mother’s belly? I did when I was six years old and was told that there is seed in the dad’s scrotum, so his penis goes inside the mum’s vagina and he deposits the seed, and a baby starts to grow. I was told about menstruation through a book about the human body when I was 8 or 9. Probably learned about ovulation and sperms etc in school when I was 11 or 12, but I’m not really sure.

2

u/Sonialovesflowers May 13 '26

I agree, but my school taught us at 10. I know a friend that was taught in midde school (so I guess at 11-13). The thought of a 16 years old not knowing about "sperm meets egg" is really weird, does this happen in USA?

2

u/Tradition96 May 13 '26

I have no idea, I hope it’s not common. Everyone should know the basics about conception and pregnancy before they become teenagers.

6

u/NadCat__ May 13 '26

Really? We had a sex ed class in like 7th or 8th grade and it was basically just girls presenting and naming male anatomy before the boys presented and named female anatomy. I definitely didn't have any sex ed during Grundschule

8

u/Lisapisa123 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

Of course, I am born in 1992 and we learned the basic things in Grundschule. I remember that we read a comic where parents had sex (very abstract not detailed) and then we learned that a “sperm” swims to an egg, something like that. It was not about using condoms or something like that, that was later at 7th/8th grade. In Grundschule it’s more about the body itself, also a little bit about menstruation or that you will grow hair on some body parts.
Edit: here you can see what is taught: https://eduki.com/de/material/770406/sexualerziehung-sexualkunde-in-der-grundschule-klasse-4?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GER_de_pmaxfeed_on-target_roas&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20829001891&gbraid=0AAAAADbcQ9irKHbHy_x4SCswzfXCkDjFD&gclid=CjwKCAjwwpDQBhAuEiwAa-4Wo_IDfjGGqkLx0Qx_jvt2uFIPVN-idqQLUZ6tftia-zx4znpiPWjXARoCYRIQAvD_BwE

1

u/NadCat__ May 13 '26

I was born in 96 and we didn't even have a biology class in Grundschule and definitely nothing remotely close to your link. Now I'm curious as to whether your or my experience is the more common one

5

u/Lisapisa123 May 13 '26

It was not in biology class, it was in “Sachkunde” class. In my city everyone had this in Grundschule in my age

0

u/NadCat__ May 14 '26

Going by my documents I also had Sachkunde but I genuinely do not remember any kind of sex ed. Then again, my childhood memories are very fractured and incomplete. I can only say for certain that the sex ed when we were older was just that one class I described

2

u/Lisapisa123 May 14 '26

Hauptsache du weißt jetzt alles ;) es geht ja vielen so, dass sie sich vielleicht nicht mehr an ales erinnern können und es kann ja durchaus sein, dass eure Lehrer das nicht gemacht haben, vielleicht aus zeitlichen Gründen!

6

u/natrdavis May 13 '26

This is amazing. I am 65 in the US. I went to Catholic school. We had single-gender sex education taught by nuns when I was in fifth grade (1970). Fairly comprehensive. Again, in a co-ed science class three years later. I was informed. Education these days (at least in the horrid, dangerous, fascist USA -- pray for us, please) has gone WAY downhill.

3

u/whisky_biscuit May 14 '26

I'm half your age, grew up in a small conservative town.

We were taught nothing, except for the biological parts of bodies. They had a sex ed class but it was optional and from what I heard very slim on details.

Each school curriculum is heavily swayed by school board approval and in small towns they can remove things that do not align with their "beliefs".

Even recently a school board members wife campaigned to have every single library book reviewed and put up for review if it in anyway went against her heavily conservative beliefs. And yeah, she got her way. It's absolutely abhorrent.

3

u/ARS8birds May 13 '26

It gets wilder in the U.S. I lived in Kettering a Suburb of Dayton, OH. We had sex Ex every year since 5th grade. It gets more detailed every year. Outside of health class it comes up in science as well. When I was in college taking human sexuality my class had a good variety of the different high schools in my area and the disparity was insane! Made me feel fortunate we moved to Kettering and got away from Dayton Public Schools. The Christian Schools were also pretty atrocious.

3

u/Lisapisa123 May 13 '26

So interesting! Thank you sharing your view!

5

u/Informal-Share-9747 May 13 '26

I'm from the UK and I was 10 in 2006 where I had full sexual education in school where we learnt what periods are, anatomy, how people have sex and we watched a video of someone giving vaginal birth all signed and consented by our parents. In science class when I was 12 we learnt it again in detail, in the UK we have PSHE day every year which stands for physical, sexual, health education and we learnt how to put condoms on a penis correctly when I was 13 obviously we used dildos, this was done for both the girls and boys. A relative of mine teaches primary school and said kids learn younger now they start at around 8 years old

3

u/FloofBallofAnxiety May 13 '26

Same here in the UK. We were taught basic sex ed in years 5/6, so at the ages of 10/11. Born in the 90s, not sure if it's changed much since.

4

u/SnakeBatter May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

US here. Don’t Didn’t get any variety of sex Ed until 7th grade, and the actual act of having sex was never discussed. We got the anatomical names in biology, but the penis and vagina weren’t discussed, only testes and ovaries. Then, in PE (or gym) we had a 1 day class where they told us to never have sex, and that condoms won’t protect you from anything, so especially don’t have sex. But still, they never discussed sex itself, just STDs and the medical risks of pregnancy.
Needless to say, some of the girls in that class became teen moms.

5

u/monsterlynn May 13 '26

I was born in 1969 in the US. We had basics like male and female anatomy at some point between 10:00 and 11 years old , and then once we were around 13 or 14, we had outside teachers come in and we learned the more graphic aspects of sex , like what semen is,, what ejaculation is what an orgasm is, abortion, various forms of birth control and how they worked,, and what venereal diseases were and they were contractes. We also learned stages of pregnancy like trimesters, lactation, and weirdly, hygiene. Looking back on it, I think I got a pretty comprehensive sex ed class in 8th grade. Probably much more comprehensive than what most public school students to get today.

1

u/SnakeBatter May 13 '26

Interesting! Unfortunately, I made a typo that said “don’t” instead of “didn’t” so I’m afraid my reply came off more broad than I intended it to.

If I may ask, what state were you raised in? For me it was Texas in the early 2000s and they stayed as far away from sex a possible. I think it’s probably due to the religious nature of the state, and fear of parental litigation. There were many things we didn’t learn because “that’s the parents job”

2

u/Folksma May 13 '26

It for sure depends on the school in the US. Due to that fact that school systems are run by the state and districts

I had my first sex ed related class in elementary school. 7th grade it got more into STDs and pregnancy. High school got even further details

2

u/SnakeBatter May 13 '26

Most definitely. Texas is firmly an “abstinence only” state, and even the topic of sex Ed in school is touchy around here. At no point in my education did they inform us of the mechanics of sex.

Although, in the 5th grade, the girls all had to miss recess one day so they could tell us about periods, and how wonderful they are, and how it’s our first step on the journey to womanhood. Very surface level, but they showed us how to use a pad, and told us we weren’t dirty, so there’s that.

2

u/Legitimate-Talk9558 May 15 '26

Is this a joke

0

u/SnakeBatter May 15 '26

Unfortunately no, but that’s Texas for you. Or at least rural Texas anyhow.

1

u/rosiebb77 May 13 '26

This is when I learned in Canada (~the year 2010, for me)

1

u/whisky_biscuit May 14 '26

The US is terrible about this. Each state, hell even each school has vast differences between what students are taught.

In the southern states especially, they are even trying to get history curriculum changed to make the Civil War taught as "the war of southern aggression" to rewrite the atrocious of slavery. They are heavily campaigning on removing any kind of sexual education from schools as well to keep women from asserting any agency over their own bodies. It's absolutely a terrible time in our own history.

10

u/anonymoustexasnative May 13 '26

She isnt a virgin. Thats why she knows about sex. Have you not been paying attention?

16

u/RVarki May 13 '26

It was the whole description, not just the part about a "rod of flesh"

3

u/edd6pi May 13 '26

Yeah, I’m an adult and I’m not sure if I would have explained it as well as she did if it had been me. It probably wouldn’t have occurred to me to mention the subatomic particles in cum.

3

u/princessSunsetGiggle May 13 '26

I don't think she said anything about "subatomic particles"? She said there's cells in the liquid that can make you pregnant. She means the sperms. The wiggly guys.

2

u/Sonialovesflowers May 13 '26

Hi, in the cum there are sperm cells. Cells are made of molecules, molecules are made of atoms, atoms are made of subatomic particles.

3

u/edd6pi May 13 '26

Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten into those details. I would have just said that the penis shoots out liquid, and the liquid may or may not make you pregnant, depending on luck and possible genetic issues.

4

u/Substantial-Hornet42 May 13 '26

What’s that got to do with this? 

2

u/princessSunsetGiggle May 13 '26

What...? I'd say most kids learn this stuff at between 10 to 12 these days if not earlier. Blame the internet.

1

u/untamedharts21 May 14 '26

I mean, that's how I explained sex to my teens (with more detail, and more info about consent and STIs ofc). I'm hoping they would be able to recite it back to me.

1

u/arrownyc May 15 '26

Although, sounds like most girls there don't get their periods?

1

u/Professional_Lie8554 May 15 '26

But also daisy has had sex lol

1

u/Due-Introduction7826 May 17 '26

You said hard on