Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Handmaid's Tale season 6, episode 6 and The Testaments!

Janine and Aunt Lydia have mostly kept to themselves throughout The Handmaid's Tale season 6, and while their story is a bit more secluded, it is vital in setting up the story of The Testaments. Janine and Aunt Lydia have been an interesting pairing throughout the various seasons of The Handmaid's Tale, with their dynamic being unique due to Lydia's immense care for Janine. However, Janine's rebellious attitude has made things tough for the duo, perfectly setting up Aunt Lyida's The Testaments arc after the events of The Handmaid's Tale season 6.

After the success of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale TV show, Margaret Atwood decided to continue the story of the franchise in novel form. Several decades after the original 1985 book, Margaret Atwood released a Hulu characters will return in The Testaments, including Ann Dowd's Aunt Lydia.

Aunt Lydia's Story In The Testaments Explained

She Becomes An Agent For Mayday

The Testaments takes place 15 years after the events of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, with June no longer being around. The story switches between the perspectives of three characters. The first is Agnes, who turns out to be June's daughter Hannah. The second is Daisy, who turns out to be June's daughter Nichole. The final is Aunt Lyida, the same character from The Handmaid's Tale. In the story, Aunt Lydia writes a series of manuscripts about her life and Gilead. She is critical of the country, with her publishing it as The Testaments.

The Testaments becomes immensley popular inside and outside of Gilead, although Lydia's actions against Gilead are far more serious than her manuscripts let on. Lydia is actually a Mayday spy, with her secretly supplying information and aid to the resistance movement from within Gilead. These treasenous actions are far different from what Lydia would be willing to do in The Handmaid's Tale, showing how radicalized she has become against Gilead.

While Hulu's The Testaments is expected to cover roughly the same story as the book, there will be some differences. This is mainly due to the timeline of Hulu's show versus the books. Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale goes a lot farther than the book, with season 1 of the show covering most of the novel's content. Thus, the story of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale elapses a lot more time than the Margaret Atwood book does, meaning that The Testaments time jump will either be shorter, or it will start at a later point.

The Handmaid's Tale Is Making Janine The Biggest Factor In Lydia's Change

Thanks To Lydia's Care For Janine

For The Testaments to work, Aunt Lydia has to be radicalized against Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale. For that to happen, the Hulu series is using Janine. While Aunt Lydia has overseen a lot of Handmaids, she has a special affection for Janine. However, Janine is one of The Handmaid's Tale's most radical characters, with her constantly getting in trouble for her anti-Gileadean actions. This forces Aunt Lydia to try and understand Janine's perspective, and while she disagrees with her actions, she has slowly warmed up to Janine's perspective.

Aunt Lyida has only felt worse about Janine as The Handmaid's Tale season 6 has gone on. As a result of her getting in trouble in season 5, it was expected that she was getting sent to the Colonies. However, season 6 revealed that Janine was actually sent to Jezebel's, a brothel in Gilead. Commander Lawrence used his influence to get Janine there, saving her.

When Aunt Lydia discvoered that Janine was at Jezebel's, she was shocked. Lydia is a genuine believer in Gilead's form of Christianity, so forcing Janine to sleep with Commanders as a punishment is completely immoral within her system. This is causing Lydia to see the hypocrisies and monstrosities that underly Gilead, pushing her closer to where she needs to be at the start of The Testaments.

Janine Is Mostly Wrong About Gilead

Gilead Won't Crumble Anytime Soon

Janine and Aunt Lydia have a conversation about Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale season 6, episode 6, with Janine making a prediction about the country. Janine believes that Gilead is going to "crumble" soon, with it seeming as if she truly believes this. Unfortunately, that will not happen. Gilead still has to be around when The Testaments starts, meaning that it can't be defeated in The Handmaid's Tale. The time jump before The Testaments means that Gilead will have to be around for at least another 15 years, meaning that it won't be crumbling anytime soon.

However, Gilead eventually will fall. The Testaments ends with Canada leaking information about Gilead, leading to a retaliatory coup. This coup leads to the end of Gilead, with the United States finally returning. Unfortunately, The Testaments gives no information on if Janine will be around to see the end of Gilead. While Janine seems to predict that Gilead's collapse will be coming in the short-term, this is not the case. However, it will be happening within Aunt Lydia's lifetime based on The Testaments.

Aunt Lydia's New Behtlehem Hopes May Also Kick Off Her The Testaments Arc

Further Radicalizing Aunt Lydia

If Janine isn't enough to fully turn Aunt Lydia against Gilead, Lydia's involvement with New Bethlehem will. Commander Lawrence's New Bethlehem project has been one of the main focuses in The Handmaid's Tale season 6, with it being a more liberalized version of Gilead. Lawrence plans on implementing reforms in this new era of Gilead, with Aunt Lydia being a big fan of some specific changes to the Handmaid system.

Unfortunately, many within Gilead are not fans of New Bethlehem at all. Several of the Commanders want to put Commander Lawrence on the Wall for his attempts to change Gilead. Individuals like Commander Wharton are probably hoping to oversee New Bethlehem's downfall, maintaining the regressive ways of Gilead. Since Gilead is still around in The Testaments, this means that New Bethlehem has to fail before the sequel series starts. The failure of these reforms could further polarize Aunt Lydia against Gilead, leading to her working for Mayday in The Handmaid's Tale.