The Testaments Confirms Agnes' Biggest Fear — Read Episode 4 Recap

All the tea cakes in the world can't clear the sour taste caused by the final scene of this week's "The Testaments."

While the Greens prepare for one of their biggest pre-engagement hurdles — a tea party to impress the Aunts, who'll determine their marital matches — Daisy has a crisis of confidence in Mayday's ability to keep her safe. And all of that terribleness doesn't come close to matching the awful confirmation that shows up at the end of the hour: Agnes has been violated by an adult she implicitly trusted.

Read on for the highlights of "Green Tea."

As the episode opens, the Greens are all aflutter about the upcoming tea they're holding for Aunt Lydia & Co. "Always be extra nice to the frigid sadists who are arranging your marriage," Daisy sarcastically voiceovers. "Gilead pro tip. You're welcome." But she soon encounters a bigger problem: A Mayday operative who works at the florist's shop and draws near to Daisy with a harried look on her face. "Tell Garth he's got to move me or get me out," she whispers. "I think they're closing in. Please." As the girls continue on to the soiree, which will be held at the MacKenzies' home, Daisy is even more unnerved by the sight of bodies strung up as a cautionary tale. "The Eyes will always find them," Agnes tells her friend, misreading the cause of her fear. "You don't have to worry."

At the house, there are a million Guardians outside (thanks to that failed Mayday extraction last week) and one frenzied Paula inside, obsessing over the details she thinks will help seal Agnes' fate. Upstairs, Agnes and Becka practice waltzing in Agnes' bedroom, and, oh honey, it's painful how in love Becka is with her best friend. I'm surprised Paula can't HEAR the poor girl's longing over the clatter of silverware downstairs.

Soon, the Aunts arrive; in order to get a moment alone with Garth, Daisy knocks a gift basket off the table, then hangs back to clean up the mess. She relays the florist's panicked message. "Gilead's retaliating for what happened with the bus," he says. A spooked Daisy then orders him to get her out, saying she doesn't trust the resistance group anymore, but he won't budge: Mayday has never had anyone get as close to the Commanders' daughters as Daisy has gotten, and the group wants to mine all the intel it can get out of her. "Just don't get caught and hung while I do it," she snarks back.

Once everyone is settled at their tables, the pageantry begins. The girls are graded as they serve tea to the Aunts and the Commanders' wives. Everything is going well until Paula feels that Miriam's success needs to be dinged, so she uses her foot and subtly lifts the corner of a rug to trip up the girl. Miriam spills the pot on her way out of the room, which apparently is one of the worst things that can happen. In the kitchen, Miriam is inconsolable, sobbing that now she'll likely be promised to a man who lives in the Colonies. And no one corrects her, because she's probably right.

Meanwhile, when Commander MacKenzie catches Daisy snooping near his desk, she thinks quickly and lies that she was just tempted by some individually wrapped chocolates he's got in a dish. They talk briefly about Agnes — "Is she happy?" he wonders — and then he gives her one of the candies, which has Japanese writing on the back.

Back in the dining room, it's time to serve the Commanders' cake: Think a Mardi Gras king cake, only instead of a little plastic baby Jesus baked into the pastry, there's a tiny ceramic bride. The girl who gets the piece with the bride in it is supposed to be lucky or less damned than the others or something; I admit, I stop paying a little bit of attention to detail when Agnes bites into her piece — crunching down on the ceramic bride — and promptly cracks a tooth. Becka's mother immediately says not to worry, because her husband can fix Agnes' smile right away. Uh, WORRY, AGNES.

At Dr. Grove's office, Becka's father sedates Agnes, then closes the door separating him and Agnes from Daisy in the waiting room. One of the last things Agnes sees before she goes under is the dentist, removing his white coat. When she comes to, he's washing his hands and bidding her a good day.

While Daisy and Garth are alone in the waiting room, she gives him the chocolate MacKenzie gave her. "Japan has sanctions against Gilead," Garth says, puzzled. "What was he doing there?" She doesn't know that, but she does know this: Agnes is in love with him. "Nice work letting that happen," she says.

Later, Agnes quickly shuts down the conversation when Daisy asks about her birth mother. All Agnes will say is that both her biological mom and Tabitha MacKenzie (aka Commander MacKenzie's previous wife) are dead.

Daisy voiceovers that she later learned that the florist from the start of the episode tried to run when the Eyes visited the shop; the woman was shot dead in the street. The teen sees the incident as a lesson to keep her wits about her, because panicking will get her killed. It's hard to maintain one's composure, though, when an "urgent warning" on that night's Radio Free Boston gets interrupted by a high-pitched tone before the broadcast cuts off. Afterward, Daisy runs to the bathroom and cries into a towel so no one will hear her.

At the MacKenzie house, Agnes starts to undress for bed, shedding the multiple layers girls are made to wear. When she gets down to her shirt, she sees that it was sloppily relaced, proving that Dr. Grove put his hands under her clothing while she was sedated. Yes, he absolutely inappropriately touched her as he was putting the X-ray apron on earlier this season. But she likely explained that away as her imagination, or her misinterpretation of events, or some other Gilead-useful compartmentalizing. As Agnes stares at her askew laces, this new violation registers, and she freaks out.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments.