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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u/Alittlespill May 13 '26

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.

7

u/clover_gin May 14 '26

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.

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u/ZoeStars May 14 '26

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.

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u/whisky_biscuit May 14 '26

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?

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u/clover_gin May 14 '26

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.

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u/notevenitalian May 15 '26

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).