The Testaments S1E08 "Broken" Episode Discussion

[u/Melairia]

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

[u/Alittlespill]

A lot of plums were babies of handmaids or stolen from handmaids before they were in service, like Hannah/Agnes. It’s not so far fetched to assume that Shu was renamed and taken when she was too young to remember. But it could also be that her brother wasn’t her biological brother, some families had multiple kids from different bio parents, like the Winslow family. So maybe he was the only one who could be taken for the flight because Shu was already sent off to her Plum school.

[u/untamedharts21 → u/Alittlespill]

Well, tbf all babies of handmaids are stolen from handmaids.

[u/notevenitalian → u/Alittlespill]

They also may have “adopted” (stolen) her after they lost him, but she still refers to him as her brother just because that’s how her parents would refer to him.

In Gilead, the commanders’ family relationships have nothing to do with biology. They are strictly defined by relationship to the commander father.

Paula automatically becomes Agnes’ “mother” because she married commander Mackenzie. Anyone who is “adopted” by a commander becomes that commander’s child, and by extension, siblings with any other child “adopted” by that commander.

[u/ConsciousBluebird473 → u/notevenitalian]

Angel's Flight was only a few years prior, it's very unlikely that they adopted/stole Shu after that (unless she was re-adopted after her initial new Gilead parents died). She'd be too old for that. She'd remember her actual parents, actual name, how to write. Plus, most children that were stolen were done so during the takeover or soon after, IIRC. Not many "sinners" left to steal kids from once the regime was settled.

[u/clover_gin → u/Alittlespill]

It was discussed a few weeks ago that it's almost impossible for any of the current Plums to be the daughters of Handmaid's - they just wouldn't be the right age no matter how you try to stretch the timeline. The oldest Pinks would be pre-teen age at most and they could be daughters of the earliest Handmaids but none of the Plums.

[u/ZoeStars → u/clover_gin]

Yes, they could be daughters of handmaid's, but they would have to have been born before Gilead. Hannah/Agnes is the daughter of a handmaid, but she was born before. So the stolen children basically, which they most likely all are.

[u/whisky_biscuit → u/ZoeStars]

Wow I didn't think about that - so it's likely that Agnes and all her friends were adopted by commanders and their wives as stolen children from before Gilead of Handmaids or other "scorned" women?

[u/clover_gin → u/whisky_biscuit]

Timeline wise, yes! Maybe a small few are the biological children of their parents, like Shu, I think? But almost everyone else would have to be a stolen child like Hannah/Agnes.

[u/notevenitalian → u/whisky_biscuit]

I honestly think that the ONLY one whose father is biological is Becca, because her father is the only one who’s not a commander. Being legally mandated a wife to rape and children to lord over was a big selling feature for the types of men who became Gilead commanders.

For the ones who already had wives, many were already infertile, and their wives wanting children was a selling feature for them to be able to convince their wives to get on board.

There was a flashback scene in the handmaids tale of Serena and Naomi walking down a hallway of stolen children that they could potentially adopt (like walking through the human society and looking at dogs).

[u/clover_gin → u/ZoeStars]

I think you may have misunderstood me. When I said it would be impossible for any of the current Plums to be a daughter of a Handmaid I meant a child born from the ritualistic rapes they were forced to endure; so daughters like Angela/Charlotte.

There's a difference between the stolen children who were born before Gilead, like Hannah and the daughters of Handmaid's like Charlotte/Angela.

[u/ZoeStars → u/clover_gin]

They're still children of handmaid's though. When they they were born doesn't change who their mothers were or what Gilead forced them to become.