Chapter XX: Bloodlines is the 20th chapter of The Testaments. It contains section 53-58 with Agnes and Daisy as narrator.
Synopsis[]
Plot[]
Section 53[]
(Witness Testimony 369B + 369A) Daisy explains her first impression of Gilead as a “slippery” place where she couldn’t read people’s facial expressions or understand the real meaning of what they said. She feels upset when witnessing a Particicution, whereby someone is executed via Handmaids literally tearing them apart with their hands. She wonders whether her mother, a Handmaid, had been as “feral” as the Handmaids who tear the two men apart.
Section 54[]
Agnes and Becka face challenges in trying to teach Daisy how to behave in Gilead. Daisy lacks gratitude for the food she is served. She also speaks glibly about shaving her green hair, which causes a horrified Becka to cite Corinthians I: “A woman’s hair is her glory.”
Section 55[]
Daisy registers that neither Agnes nor Becka approve of her. Yet she has no one else to speak to, and she suffers from fear and homesickness. She worries, too, that the person Ada and Garth called “the source” might not even exist, meaning she might never get out of Gilead.
Section 56[]
Agnes finds Daisy is an untidy and unthoughtful roommate. More damning is the tattoo on Daisy’s forearm. According to Daisy, it marks her conversion to the true faith, but Agnes notes how Daisy once called God “an imaginary friend.”
Agnes also recalls how Daisy performs strenuous exercises in her room in order to stay strong to fend off aggressive men.
Without permission, Agnes sneaks a look at Gilead’s Bloodlines Genealogical Archives. The Aunts keep careful records of both the official and true records, to prevent inbreeding, but Agnes has not earned access to them yet. Agnes learns that her true parents are Mayday operatives. She then finds out her mother’s second child was Baby Nicole, and there is a “top secret” note that Baby Nicole is in Gilead. She takes two pages from the files, but later destroys them.
Section 57[]
Nicole is brought to Aunt Lydia, who admits she is the source. She then surgically inserts a microdot into Nicole’s tattoo.
Section 58[]
Two days after reading the file about her mother, Agnes and Becka are summoned to Aunt Lydia’s office and find Daisy already there. Aunt Lydia explains that Daisy is Baby Nicole and Agnes’s sister. She also explains how, despite its noble goals, Gilead had turned rotten to the core, which both Agnes and Becka should understand given the secret folders she’d been sneaking them for years.
Aunt Lydia then lays out a plan to smuggle Daisy out of Gilead. Agnes and Becka are scheduled to do their Pearl Girls missionary work soon, but Daisy will exchange places with Becka and go to Canada with Agnes in her stead - Nicole has been assigned to a retreat, but Becka will be the one attending. Becka is disappointed she won’t be going to Canada with them.
Notable Quotes[]
“Quote here” — Context here[1]
Trivia[]
(e.g. observations, cross-references, 'useless knowledge')
Notes[]
(e.g. contextual implications)
References[]
- Initial plot summary taken from: The Testaments on Bibliofile.com. A review by Jennifer Marie