In the latest episode of The Testaments Season 1, titled 'Stadium,' Aunt Lydia discloses keeping a hidden journal documenting crimes in Gilead. The installment features flashbacks to her early days in the regime and advances the plot of matching Plums with Commanders. Key events include a miscarriage and a young woman's request for a specific match.
Aunt Lydia's voiceover narrates Episode 6 of The Testaments, set during the aunts' selection of suitors for the Plums. The girls, including Becka, discuss the process leading to house visits, weddings, and potential lifelong imprisonment. Hulda reaches menarche and is forced to assist in punishing Shunammite for a prior slap by holding her arms during a whipping. Shunammite later shares news of Penny entering early labor, which ends in miscarriage, prompting Aunt Lydia to console Commander Judd, who praises her value as 'above rubies.' Agnes confesses her love for Garth to Becka and asks Aunt Lydia to make him eligible for matching that season. The episode flashes back to pre-Gilead times when Lydia, a teacher, witnesses a coup at her school. Armed men herd women, including colleague Aunt Vidala, to a tennis stadium for executions of 'sinners.' Lydia faces Commander Judd, who notes her past abortion now punishable by death. To survive, she flatters him into delegating authority and passes a test by aiming an unloaded gun at Vidala, unknowingly sparing her life. Lydia then selects the brown fabric for the aunts' uniforms. In a pivotal close, Aunt Lydia reveals her dual promise: to teach the girls as women of God and to document Gilead's crimes after traumas like Jezebel's and Boston's fall. As the only women allowed to write, she hides her journal behind a tapestry, wryly noting it records 'the crimes of weak men and far too many women,' potentially capable of toppling the regime. She expresses doubt about protecting the girls herself.
