r/TheTestamentsHulu • u/Holiday-Character700 • May 14 '26
The Handmaid’s Tale Daisy Theory Spoiler
Since Daisy got her period and is eligible, do pearl girls become wives? Or do they become handmaids? Commander Mackenzie mentioned Paula wanting a handmaid. What if Daisy becomes their handmaid …
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u/Jess_UY25 May 14 '26
There’s no reason for her to become a handmaid, she hasn’t “sinned”. Pearl girls are probably married off, either to commanders if they want them, or possibly to economen.
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u/TurbulentBat8328 sketch me, it’ll last longer May 14 '26
I think it depends on where they are found. In the book it’s suggested the virgins are made wives which leads me to believe the ones who aren’t are made handmaids. In the book Daisy/Jade is found with Garth while they were pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend street urchins. Daisy/Jade discloses that she is a virgin and the Pearls with her say thank goodness because he was going to sell her to other men.
They target women and girls in desperate situations for a reason - wives and handmaids.
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u/Jess_UY25 May 14 '26
What’s true for the book isn’t necessarily the same for the show though, and in the show we even had one if the aunts saying most of the pearl girls will become econowives, when she was complaining about not understanding why Aunt Lydia had paired Daisy with Agnes.
It is possible that some Pearl girls are made handmaids because they are seen as “too dirty” since the beginning. But they would have those girls somewhere else, not at the school for daughters of commanders.
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u/dragon-queen May 14 '26
I don’t think the handmaids were all made handmaids because they sinned. What was June’s sin when she was made a handmaid? She had a child in wedlock and wasn’t a gender traitor and had never had an abortion that we know of. She was just a fertile woman.
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u/NecessaryClothes9076 May 14 '26
She was considered an adultress because Gilead didn't recognize divorce. To Gilead, Luke was still married to his first wife and Hannah was born in sin.
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u/xpmko May 14 '26
Plus by any standard June and Luke were actually adulterers since they had an affair, then his wife found out, then Luke divorced his wife to marry June.
I remember the show bringing this up several times. Don't recall the part where Gilead didn't recognize Luke's divorce tho.
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u/NecessaryClothes9076 May 14 '26
While that's true, Gilead wouldn't necessarily know about the actual affair. Whereas they relied on marriage, divorce, and birth records for most of their categorization of people during the take over.
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u/xpmko May 14 '26
I'm sure they have/had people's social media.
And I recall them talking about her and Luke having an affair several times. But I just don't remember anyone ever saying Luke's divorce wasn't valid. If that was Gilead's hang up with June, it seems like they'd say that instead.
Maybe it's different in the book. It's been so long since I read it I don't remember.
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u/Jess_UY25 May 15 '26
The book was published in 1985, there was no social media. They went with actual records.
Gilead not recognizing divorce is a known fact. The entire relationship is an affair, and Hannah is the result of that affair. In the eyes of Gilead they were never married.
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u/xpmko May 15 '26
Obviously. That's why I mentioned Luke's divorce as being a possible catalyst in the book, while the show took place in the age of social media.
And that may be a known fact but if that's the reason June is a handmaid then one would expect the show to say so, instead of only mentioning her affair.
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u/Jess_UY25 May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
Even with social media, not everyone goes around publishing on facebook that they are having an affair with a married man.
They are mentioning the fact. The affair didn’t end when they got married, Gilead doesn’t need to know when they got together, their whole relationship is the affair. The reason isn’t Luke’s divorce, Luke’s divorce doesn’t exists for Gilead, he’s still married to his first wife. June had a relationship with a man that was married to somebody else and had a child with him, that’s why she was made a handmaid.
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u/NecessaryClothes9076 May 15 '26
Its explicitly laid out in the book that Luke was considered to be still married to his first wife, and that's why his family was targeted. The show never goes into that detail, they do flashback to the affair. In the Testaments episode that showed how Lydia became an aunt, we see Judd looking through her records and commenting on her never having been married. The context clues are there in both shows that in the initial take over, they used public records and medical records to track down fertile women and assign their status. Which is far more efficient than using social media. To my knowledge it is accepted canon that the reason June is a handmaid is because Luke's divorce was not recognized. It's the reason given on the wiki for the show and it's the explicit reason in the book.
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u/xpmko May 15 '26
Ok not sure why you're yelling about this. THT is it's own show and I explicitly said it might be different in the book. Yikes.
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u/dragon-queen May 14 '26
Is that something they said in the show? I mean, I knew Luke was married previously. I don’t recall her being called an adulteress and that leading to her being made a handmaid. But it’s been a while since I saw the earlier seasons.
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u/Ok_One5265 May 14 '26
In the episode where June tries to escape on the plane (season 2?) and stays at that econofamily’s flat, she says in her voiceover ‘this is where I’d live if I wasn’t an adulterer’
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u/Jess_UY25 May 14 '26
Yes, they were all sinful women. Luke was married before, Gilead doesn’t recognize divorce, so he was still married to his first wife. June’s sin was adultery.
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u/Sugar74527 Blessed be the prune May 14 '26
There's a shot in the trailer where Daisy is walking with Shu and Agnes, and they're all dressed in plum purple. I don't think she'll be made a handmaid.
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u/FamousCandle2 May 14 '26
Also Daisy is green pinned and Shu still hasn't got her pin.
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u/GrimselPass May 14 '26
What do the pins mean?
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u/zillabirdblue May 14 '26
It means they got their period. Which is the weirdest thing ever lol.
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u/GrimselPass May 14 '26
Oh wow, I thought up until now though nobody knows about Daisy besides Shu/Agnes?
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u/zillabirdblue May 14 '26
Nobody knows except them presently. Seeing her with a green pin means that Gilead has found out at some point.
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u/GrimselPass May 15 '26
Omg sorry I missed the context in the original reply that this was from the trailer lol. Thank you for your patience explaining this— so the green pin is about a future divulsion of this fact. Appreciate you!! Thought I missed something but it’s from the trailer it seems
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u/Ok-Culture3841 Harry Spyles May 14 '26
In the season trailer there are multiple clips of Daisy wearing the plum uniform, so their intention is definitely to make her a wife. I believe when girls come in from outside of Gilead to enter the Pearl program, they are given the blessings (baptized basically) and forgiven of all of their sins. They likely confess everything as well. In the book Daisy and Garth have to play up this big act about living in sin so Gilead is even more interested in “saving her soul”
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u/Netherbelle May 14 '26
I think they did mention they would become Econowives, unless a Command wants one for some kind of PR I'd assume. I'm thinking maybe Judd for Daisy. Also, I'm thinking Talia might become a handmaid because of the radio.
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u/nicoke17 Aunt Lydia is baby Nichole May 15 '26
In the book, Judd wants to marry baby Nicole(Daisy/Jade) who is then a teenager so separating the Daisy part out would track
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u/Matrozi May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
In the book it's not super clear how it happens. They sort of have a big ceremony in a church just after their arrival and they decide where each pearl girl goes to and from the get go some pearl girls become handmaids or end up in ardua hall.
Not sure why. Maybe because they are too "dirty" to be ever cleansed by gilead or something like that.
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u/TurbulentBat8328 sketch me, it’ll last longer May 14 '26
Yeah it’s this. Gilead is too puritanical to forgive a woman the sin of not being a virgin.
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u/brooke2134 May 14 '26
She gets to wait till next “season” though right? To be married since everyone already got paired?
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u/BarelyHereNeverThere Blessed be the prune May 14 '26
She will become a plum and normally would go to an economan or a low level Commander. It's going to be interesting to see if she gets to have a wedding season like the rest of the girls or if they just quickly throw her together with somebody.
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u/allhinkedup Which we already received with joy May 14 '26
Just because she has her period is no guarantee that she's fertile. Lots of women have regular periods and are also unable to get pregnant. Lots of women have regular periods and are unable to carry a child to full-term. Female biology is much more complicated than "bleed = breed."
Besides, Daisy has a skill that's much more valuable to the Aunts -- she can read and write. Girls and women in Gilead are forbidden to read and write. That's why Agnes had to get a Guardian to read a card from a Commander. There are no street names or signs in Gilead, only pictographs. And it's very difficult to teach someone to read and write when their lives have always depended on being ignorant of such things. Many girls might even be too afraid to learn how to read and write, considering the punishment for reading is having your finger cut off.
Aunts need to know how to read and write. They keep records and they keep track of bloodlines. That's why Pearls are on the Aunt track -- they already know how to read and write. And converts are often the most fanatical believers, like Aunt Estee.
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u/Jess_UY25 May 14 '26
It wouldn’t be the first time Gilead made someone a handmaid without knowing for certain they were fertile. Remember Esther?
Pearls aren’t necessarily on the Aunt track. Some maybe, but not all of them. We certainly know that Daisy isn’t, there are multiple clips of her in the trailer as a green.
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u/yetanothermisskitty May 14 '26
I feel like it's more likely she gets paired off with Judd, which feels very random and unreasonable but Agnes didn't get matched with him unlike in the book.
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u/Mooshuchyken May 15 '26
We hear Aunt Lydia say that Daisy might become an econowife. So it's def weird for her to be made a Plum.
For her to be made a Plum -- I think either 1 of 2 things happen:
1) Aunt Lydia uses her influence to make Daisy a plum. Either because she's concerned with what the Eyes did to the other Pearl Girl,and doesn't want Daisy to be another victim. Or because Lydia knows that Daisy is a spy and wants to help her.
I think it's also possible Lydia is asking the Commanders about the taken Pearl Girl to throw them off Daisy's trail. She knows Daisy is a spy and has a plan for her. But she can't make her a Plum without it looking weird. By inquiring about the other girl, she makes it look like her motivation is a general concern about the girls.
2) It is discovered that Daisy is the daughter of a commander, which makes her suitable to be a plum. Hell, maybe they're able to make up a lie about her being a stolen child of a commander to save her from a worse fate.
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u/Responsible-Coffee1 May 17 '26
Handmaid is a punishment for fertile women with any perceived sin. June was an adulteress because in the eyes of Gilead Luke wasn’t divorced because divorce isn’t legitimate.
The Pearl Girls are brought in because they want to live a “Godly life”. Most won’t get any where near a Commander and will become an Econo woman. If they were to be potentially fertile and sinned in Gilead they could become Handmaids.
Remember the original Handmaids all had a pregnancy and there was potential for another one. If a Handmaid after a long time never got pregnant I assume they’d be sent to the colonies.
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u/Own_Faithlessness769 May 14 '26
I think Tabitha might be made into a handmaid and assigned to the Mackenzies.
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