"Gilead only has one thing to trade that anyone wants. They want to trade us. They want to trade for Handmaids."
- Alma to June (on the gala dinner)[1]
Alma is a recurring character in the TV Series. She was trained at the Red Center as a Handmaid with June, Moira and Janine. She is also involved with Mayday and acts as one of June's contact with the resistance group. She is assigned to Commander Robert Ellis[2]; her patronymic is Ofrobert[3].
In the TV series
She mocks her Commander saying he can't even perform the Ceremony[2], and also has a "big mouth"[1].
As Alma, under her assigned name Ofrobert, learns from her Commander, Mexican delegates visit the Waterfords' home in an effort to create partnerships in trade and see the effects of the Gilead cultural movement. The handmaids are then taken to a party to honor Gilead and show the foreign delegates their success, including presenting the children of Gilead. Alma remarks to June that the delegates are interested in fertile women as a commodity to be traded between the two nations [1].
June reaches out to Alma to become a part of "Mayday" and contribute to the resistance movement. Alm resists at first but ultimately accepts her offer and gives her her first assignment - get a mystery package from a "Rachel at the bar" at Jezebel's and hold on to it until further notice [4].
Alma is the third Handmaid (after Ofglen #2 and June) who refuses to stone Janine, repeating June's excuse ("I'm sorry, Aunt Lydia")[5].
After refusing to stone Janine, she is taken to an abandoned baseball field, quickly revealed to be a deserted, run-down, but very much still recognizable Fenway Park. There there are scaffolds erected with nooses. Each handmaid is given a noose and just before the lever is pulled it shows Alma with the bottom half of her uniform soaked. Instead of dropping down completely and breaking their necks, the platform only drops a few inches. It is all just a scare tactic set up by Aunt Lydia in order to give them a lesson that they'd remember[3].
The handmaids are then all forced to sit in the rain with their hands extended while holding a rock. Aunt Lydia walks around electrocuting them but stops when she is informed of June's pregnancy. June is removed from the exercise and taken inside to get dry. Later the other handmaids are brought in soaking wet and forced to form two straight lines. Aunt Lydia takes them one by one and chains them to the stove. She individually burns their wrists as punishment for their insubordinate behavior[3].
When some fellow handmaids arrive to the baby shower party at the Waterfords, Alma briefly informs June that Mayday has gone silent and is "done helping Handmaids". She adds that Ofglen #2 had her tongue cut out, which is the part that was not June's fault, pointing on her scarred wrist[6].
Serena invites four handmaids (Alma, Ofglen (#2), Oferic, and Ofsamuel) for a surprise lunch with Offred [7].
She was later with June, Emily, and Janine when they walked to the Wall to see deceased bodies of Eden and Isaac hanging below them.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Episode 1.6, "A Woman's Place"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Episode 1.1, "Offred"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Episode 2.1, June (TV Episode)
- ↑ Episode 1.9, "The Bridge"
- ↑ Episode 1.10, "Night"
- ↑ Episode 2.4, "Other Women"
- ↑ Episode 2.6, First Blood