The Testaments Recap: A Handmaid's Tale Stalwart Drops Hints About Daisy's Birth Parents In Tense Mayday Episode — Read Recap

Raise your hand if you, too, didn't realize how much you missed Rita from "The Handmaid's Tale" until she shows up in this week's "The Testaments."

Just like always, our favorite former martha is a calm, steadying presence in a time where one is sorely needed. And she gives us our first real intel about Daisy's biological parents, which is one of the biggest question marks in the show's adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel.

In the meanwhile, we get more backstory on how Daisy ended up as a faux Pearl Girl, and Agnes gets matched to a Commander... just not the one she wanted. Read on for the highlights of "Commitment."

As Daisy listens to her contraband radio, we get a brief update from Radio Free Boston: Gilead's attempt to invade Boston was unsuccessful, and the number of Gilead casualties/fatalities was high. In the aftermath, America and Canada are convening with the United Nations.

Daisy accidentally falls asleep with the radio still by her side. In the morning, she wakes up just in time to slip it into the bed of fellow Pearl Girl Talia before someone arrives and announces it's time for the girls' "treatment": AKA having their tattoos removed.

At the MacKenzie house, Agnes is crestfallen to learn that her marital matches don't include Garth. But they do include Commander Weston, who is in charge of the Eyes and is someone Agnes needs to impress, Paula stresses.

At school, Becka flatly reports that her matches include the Commander who got her drunk at the dance, a Commander from the Colonies (as Jehosheba annoyingly, though correctly, predicted), and... Commander Chapin, aka Garth. The last name earns her a sharp look from Agnes, who I think really hadn't considered before now that Garth might get assigned to anyone other than her.

All of the marriage talk is tabled, though, when Weston and a bunch of Eyes testosterone their way into the building and announce that new intel from Boston has led them there. Vidala allows them to enter — as if she has a choice! — while Daisy inwardly freaks out.

Let's leave Daisy sweating through her godly white garment for a moment so we can talk about this episode's main flashback. It begins the night Daisy's adoptive parents were killed, when she was waiting in the diner after June left. She sits at the table right up until the restaurant closes, and that's when she learns that the waitress who'd been refilling her coffee all night is her Mayday connection. The waitress gets her to the next safehouse, where Rita (!) watches over the traumatized teen while she sleeps for 14 hours. Once Daisy is awake, we learn that: Mayday's plan is to get Daisy safely to Colombia, that Neil and Melanie set aside money for the teen because they knew it was a possibility they might not be around someday (sniff!), and that Rita knew Daisy's birth parents. "They're not alive anymore," she gently tells Daisy.

This is, of course, a major departure from the Margaret Atwood novel on which this series is based: In the book, Daisy is really Nichole, June and Nick's daughter. But because the timing didn't work out — in the timing of this telling of the story, the character would've been too young to be a clandestine operative — she's not. So if that's the case, who are her parents? Might we know them? Rita doesn't say any more, so make sure you get your theories logged later in the comments.

Also? We also find out that Rita is in culinary school, which isn't important to the plot but which makes me very happy for her, regardless.

Moving on! Daisy doesn't want to go to Colombia. She wants to join Mayday. Rita mentions something about June having a plan that requires someone the right age. Then she asks Daisy if she's "fruitful" — AKA has she gotten her period? — and Daisy says no, but "No one does." In fact, she only knows one girl her age who has.

And just like that, the plan is in play. Rita gets Daisy dirtied up — tattoo, fake rap sheet — as part of her cover. But she doesn't handle it well when Daisy starts to mock the girls her age who have been raised in Gilead. Those girls "have spent their lives being vigilant in a way that you never have," she says sharply; Daisy is chagrined. And when Daisy asks, Rita shares that June has a daughter in Gilead who is about Daisy's age.

When Daisy's cover story as a runaway is complete, she starts hanging out in places where proselytizing Pearl Girls are likely to find her. They soon do. A pair of them invite her to their hotel, offering food and laundry services. It's a soft sell: All they ask is if they can pray over her before she takes off.

Eventually, Daisy's faux-resistance gives way, and she agrees to join the Pearl Girls' mission. They drive her to the Gilead border, where they hand her off to some Guardians for transport. One of those Guardians is Garth.

Back at Aunt Lydia's School For Those About to Pee Themselves in Fear, Commander Weston brings Daisy and a few others (including Talia) into a room for solo questioning. He's got her radio on the table in front of him, and he runs through her (manufactured) backstory with her. She had two dads, dropped out of school, went to Toronto with a boyfriend, and wound up living on the streets when they broke up. After giving her the hairy eyeball for a while, Weston lets her go immediately after, she ducks into an empty classroom to shake.

Over in marriageland, the Commanders start paying their potential child brides visits at home. One of Agnes' suitors remarks that it's amazing she was able to become "such a godly girl, in spite of her conception," and it's clear from Agnes' face that she has no idea what he's talking about.

Commander Weston's visit also does not go smoothly: He abruptly leaves after Agnes obliquely references his first wife, who apparently died in childbirth. "It was the worst day of my life, the day I lost my child," he says. Notice how the loss of his wife doesn't even merit a mention?

Once he's gone, a livid Paula is so ready to hit Agnes that she sends her outside for her own safety. Agnes runs into the yard and sees Chapin smoking; when he tosses the butt, she picks it up and gently holds it to her own lips... and then he catches her.

They have a sparse yet sweet exchange — he affirms that yes, she has a personality, which passes for high praise in this godforsaken land — and then she asks how things went with Becka. (As we saw earlier, it went surprisingly well.) There's a lot that passes between Garth and Agnes unsaid, but then he suggests that she go inside, so she does.

We learn that despite the weirdness earlier, Commander Weston is still interested in making Agnes his missus. "It's no fun breaking a horse that's already docile," he says. EW. Upstairs, Agnes takes Garth's cigarette butt and lovingly places it in her special collection ("Look at this stuff, isn't it neat? Wouldn't you say my complete loss of autonomy is almost complete?") of odds and ends that have meaning to her.

Back at the school, the Pearl Girls are made to kneel as Vidala announces that one of them has been deceiving everyone. Then the Eyes march in, grab Talia, and take her away as Daisy tries valiantly not to throw up in relief/fear.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the episode?