One of the standout characters in The Handmaid’s Tale was Serena Joy Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski). At first, viewers were encouraged to loathe her. We saw her cruelty and complicity in Gilead’s system of sexual slavery through the eyes of June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), the Handmaid forced to serve Serena and her husband, Fred (Joseph Fiennes), a powerful Commander.
But as The Handmaid’s Tale unwound its six seasons, we learned there was a surprising depth behind Serena’s mask of icy perfection. While her willing participation in Gilead’s misogynistic nightmare was never excusable, we saw how her genuine despair over not being able to conceive her own child helped blind her to the horrors she was helping facilitate, at least in the beginning.
We also got a glimpse at her background. Once a powerful author and political figure, she agreed to curb her ambitions to support her husband and the Gilead movement, eventually submitting to a culture that wouldn’t even let women read, much less have opinions or careers. Though she ostensibly knew what she was signing up for, Serena learned quickly just how oppressed she really was, despite being married to one of Gilead’s top leaders.
While she had every reason to renounce Gilead—losing a finger for reading the Bible, as she did in season two, would’ve done it for most people—The Handmaid’s Tale took its time showing how Serena’s faith in the country she’d helped create began to crumble. Strahovski’s searing performance helped make what could’ve been a thoroughly hateable character sympathetic, even as she continued to waver as to what path she should follow.
And she went through a lot. Though she lost custody of the baby June was supposed to hand over to her, Serena did eventually have a child with Fred, a near-miracle amid the fertility crisis that propelled The Handmaid’s Tale. Then, she was forced to confront Fred’s untimely death, her status as an international war criminal, and her struggle to fit into Gilead’s rigid society as a widow.
She even tried to reform Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale’s final season. While that was ultimately a bust, we also saw Serena and June—who was working to “reform” Gilead in a more violent way—forge almost a friendship. Their values would never be fully aligned, but they realized they had common ground, not just as mothers but as women who were really fed up with horrible men being in charge.
At the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, Serena passed on some key intel to June and her Mayday rebels. She also apologized to June for, well… everything, a decision that helped nudge her toward the spiritual healing she so desperately craved. The last we saw, she and her son were in a UN refugee camp. It couldn’t be farther from her former life in one of Gilead’s most luxurious mansions, but it also couldn’t feel more like a step in the right direction.
Speaking of luxurious mansions, in the sequel series The Testaments, one of the first characters we meet is Paula MacKenzie (Amy Seimetz). She’s horseback riding around the massive estate where she lives with her husband and his daughter—the show’s teenage heroine, Agnes (Chase Infiniti).
There’s an entirely different dynamic at play here than what we saw between Serena and June, though the levels of hostility are similar.
In the few years since Serena’s escape, the role of a Gilead wife has shifted somewhat. Handmaids are far less frequently used; we still haven’t seen one in The Testaments. The blue dresses are still part of the custom, as are the immaculate homes and intense paranoia. But Paula is Agnes’ stepmother in a culture where, increasingly, very young women are married off as soon as they become fertile. Their entire “education” revolves around learning how to be obedient wives.
Paula is Commander MacKenzie’s second wife, snagging that desirable position after the much kinder, gentler woman who’d raised Agnes died of an unspecified illness. Paula is haughty and controlling. She is a master of the sly insult, the calculated power move, the thinly veiled warning, and the withering put-down. “Slouching girls get fat husbands” is her idea of constructive advice.
“I’m an irritant to Paula,” Agnes tells us in one of her voice-overs. “She wants me married and gone.”
When Agnes gets her period in episode two—a phenomenon that speaks to Gilead’s work to reverse the fertility crisis—that means Paula is one step closer to getting what she wants. There’s almost a moment of tenderness as she shows Agnes how to use a sanitary napkin. “I was scared my first time too,” she confesses. “It’s a woman’s duty to pass on this kind of wisdom.”
She can’t resist making it about herself, though. “Of course, no one bothered to do it for me.”
We’d like to know more about Paula’s past, but that doesn’t come here. Instead, Paula almost smiles as she hands over a pad cover made by Tabitha, Agnes’ first adoptive mother. But the moment ends quickly as Paula springs into action, listing off all the appointments Agnes will need now that she’s “eligible.” After all, “We need to make her as appealing as possible.”
One of those appointments involves a visit to Gilead’s creepiest dentist, whose wandering hands are Agnes’ first lesson in being blatantly victimized and unable to say anything about it. Later, Paula forces Agnes to parade through a room filled with Commander MacKenzie’s colleagues as the older men slide their beady eyes over her approvingly. It’s repulsive and only underlines the fact that Agnes won’t be able to turn to her stepmother for any emotional support in the future.
This week’s episode, “Green Tea,” plunged us directly into the intricate process Gilead uses to choose husbands for its newly ripe offerings. Surprisingly, this step involves very few men. Instead, it’s Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and her minions, who assemble for a tea party to ascertain whether the girls have what it takes to be a Commander’s wife.
The Aunts also arrange the marriages, so their opinions are of extreme importance. “One stumble, and you could be forever fucked,” Daisy (Lucy Halliday) explains to us in voiceover. Since the domestic servants known as “Marthas” do all the cooking, flower arranging, and cookie frosting, all the daughters have to do is look flawless and make sure they don’t spill any tea.
The party is held at the MacKenzies’ mansion, where Paula, the hostess, is the alpha among the wives. As Daisy explains to us, that’s because she’s married to the most important Commander. “She has power—reflected, but still. That’s what all these girls desperately want. Power is survival in Gilead.” It’s all Paula has, and she clings to it.
The event is tense. The girls march around with their tea pots using precise movements, and everyone’s on point.
Then, Paula catches sight of one of Agnes’ classmates: the prim, nervously smiling Miriam (Birva Bandya). For reasons known only to Paula, Miriam triggers her mean-girl instincts. (Much praise to Seimetz for making us feel Paula’s sudden anger using just her flicking eyes and clenched jawline.)
Paula makes her move right as Miriam is gliding past her. Nobody sees Paula rumpling the rug with her foot. They only see Miriam stumbling—gasp!—and spilling her tea. Disaster! It’s an unforgivable infraction, dooming Miriam to the least desirable husband in the pool, if she’s even deigned worthy of a match at all.
Why does Paula go after Miriam? There’s no context for any relationship between Paula and Miriam or Miriam’s family. This is not even a character that The Testaments has highlighted in any particular way. Paula is apparently just that impulsive and horrible. Perhaps she thought it would help Agnes’ chances, and maybe get her out of the nest that much faster?
Or maybe it’s just that Paula thrives on causing chaotic evil.
We get a deeper clue about why Paula treats Agnes with such disdain at the end of the episode. After Agnes accidentally breaks her tooth at the tea party, she returns to the dreaded dentist for a quick repair.
Paula checks out his handiwork when Agnes returns and gives her approval. Then, she gets a weird dig in: “I blame your mother for this. She gave you weak teeth.”
Not Tabitha, of course. Paula’s referring to Agnes’ mysterious birth mother.
“It’s not your fault you come from weak genes,” Paula adds. “It’s where that rebellious streak comes from.” If Testaments viewers hadn’t already guessed, that’s a big hint for anyone who doesn’t know who Agnes’ real mother is.
Either way, Paula definitely knows the truth, and she’s been holding it against Agnes this whole time. It’s just the sort of petty thing Paula would do. Now we have to wonder: what will she do next? We have a feeling Serena-style evolution, growth, and personal reckonings are not on the table here.
New episodes of The Testaments arrive Wednesdays on Hulu and Disney+.
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