The Testaments Recap: Agnes' World Is Upended In Jam-Packed Finale — Plus, Grade It!

That thing that all of us knew for the entire first season of "The Testaments"? Now Agnes knows it, too.

In the Hulu series' Season 1 finale, the girl who grew up as Commander MacKenzie's daughter becomes aware that her lineage is far more badass, albeit far more problematic, than she thought. The revelation about her biomom kicks off a crisis for Agnes, though she's not the only one of her friends who's Going Through Stuff in the season's final hour.

Becka, last seen being carted away after killing her dad, spends time in a prison and a wedding dress. And Daisy — proving she's June's spiritual, if not bloodline, heir — decides to stay in Gilead when all signs suggest it's better for Mayday to extract her.

There's a lot to get through before we want to hear your thoughts on the episode, so read on for the highlights of "Secateurs."

The morning after Dr. Grove's death, Aunt Lydia visits Becka in the prison ward where she's being held. (Side note: Anyone recognize the woman who lets Lydia into the cell area? We love a Margaret Atwood cameo!) Becka is singing "Rise and Shine Give God the Glory" quietly to herself, and she doesn't stop when the Aunt approaches. Commander Judd is there, as well, and he's unwilling to give the teen any special credit. "A man of Gilead was slain by a woman," he chastizes Aunt Lydia. "Your pupil." An outraged Lydia is all, "I'm sorry, were we not just casually discussing how we were going to murder him OURSELVES after the wedding?!" 

But Judd is unmoved: He thinks Becka should become a handmaid, but says the court will dictate her fate.

Meanwhile, all the girls — minus Becka — attend school as normal. Ironically, gossip queen Shunammite is the only one who doesn't know what's happened. Aunt Vidala announces that Becka's father has died, and that Becka will be absent for the forseeable future. Then she leads everyone in prayer, but Agnes is overcome and runs outside to find Garth.

After she yells at him a bit, he tells her that Becka was moved to a women's holding facility. Agnes takes out her frustrations on the Guardian, beating at his chest. He lets her for a minute, then puts his arms around her to comfort her. Of course, that's the moment that Aunt Estee comes zooming in and orders him to unhand Agnes. Garth has never been hotter than when he yells back at the Aunt that he will NOT let go, because can't she see that Agnes needs comforting?

Agnes eventually winds up back inside, in the bathroom, getting the third degree from Hulda, Shu, and Daisy. The conversation emboldens her to march into Aunt Vidala's office and demand to know what the Aunts are doing to protect Becka. After all, she reasons, didn't the older women teach them to do exactly what Becka did and mete out God's justice?

While that's happening, Daisy gets Garth's attention and begs him to have Mayday help Becka, because "I can't just do nothing."

Later, Commander Weston (aka Agnes' betrothed) comes to the MacKenzies', ostensibly to support Agnes because he knows she and Becka are friends. But when Paula is in the kitchen making tea, Agnes quietly asks him to help Becka — and he refuses. She broke God's law, he reasons, and it doesn't matter that her father did so first. "Would it matter if she was doing it to protect your future wife?" she says, playing the only card she really has. "I was one of the girls he hurt."

Weston asks if Agnes' parents know — she says they don't — and he offers to do "whatever I can for your friend." Agnes thanks him, tears in her eyes.

And indeed, Becka is returned to her family's home. Weston says the situation is temporary — she'll be questioned and remanded to the state soon, and she's under 24-hour surveillance — but it's better than where she was. Her mother hugs her and cries. Becka apologizes and cries. It's awful.

A Radio Free Boston broadcast confirms to Garth that June got his message, and that Mayday will deal with his "loose cannon" that evening. After Daisy gets word, she sneaks out of school at 10 pm, folds herself into a very tiny space, and rides in the back of a honey-delivery truck until they arrive at a river's bank. And guess who's there? June!

Mama Mayday hugs Daisy and says they're getting her — and not Becka — out of Gilead. Daisy protests, but June reasons that Daisy has been threatening Mayday, so now she's a liability. "Rita warned you this would happen. I warned you," she reminds the teen. "We are going to win, Daisy. But you cannot put the people fighting for that at risk just because you think one person is special, alright?"

Daisy fights back, accusing June of leaving before the fight was over and the girls were free. June argues that she can't free the girls Daisy's become friends with because they don't even know that freedom is exactly what they should want. So Daisy reasons that she should be allowed to go back to the school and help win hearts and minds to the cause. June is resolutely against this... until Daisy starts listing the names of the girls, and June realizes that Agnes — aka her daughter, Hannah — is there. Off June's shocked reaction, Daisy puts it together: "She's the one you left behind."

June starts crying. "What's she like?" she asks. "She's just a really good person," Daisy tells her. "She's the one that we all want to be like, you know?" Poor June wonders if her long-lost daughter is happy. "She could be. They all could be," Daisy replies. Still, June isn't going to Daisy return to her assignment, but the kid digs in: "You need to learn to believe in someone other than yourself, June." (Side note: Daisy cumulatively has spent all of, what, two hours with June, and she's already got her pegged? Impressive.)

So June relents. She's not happy about it — nor about when she asks Daisy to stay safe, and Daisy replies, "I don't think I can, to be honest" — so all she can do is hug her again and hope that God protects her. "I think She will," Daisy says. Then June takes off in a boat, and Daisy crawls back into her honey hiding spot. (Side note: I loved this scene and that perfect last line.)

But that drawn-out conversation comes with a cost: The truck returns to the school grounds too late, and the Aunts know that Daisy is not in her bed. A quick-thinking Garth gives her his cigarette and has her take a drag, then makes a big show of how he caught her smoking. That earns her a lecture from Aunt Lydia, but it also a) hides the fact that Daisy was gone for a while, and b) affords Daisy an opportunity to shame the older woman for doing nothing for Becka.

Next thing we know, Lydia and Vidala are at the Grove home with a new plan: Mrs. Grove is going to lie and say that she killed her husband, in order to save Becka's future. Becka protests that isn't what happened. "It's what should have happened," her mother says, just before both of them dissolve into agonizing sobs and Lydia prays.

At the MacKenzies', Agnes' father comes home with news that Weston broke off the engagement, citing Agnes' proximity to the Grove scandal. Then he tells her about Becka's mother's confession. Later that night, Agnes wakes to a scraping sound coming from her bedroom: It's a drunken Paula, who is scrubbing the floor. She demands to know what Agnes said to "scare him off," but Agnes says she's got no clue. Then she rambles about how Garth won't be expected to honor his engagement to Becka, and how sinful natures stem from sinful start, blah blah fires of hell. And that's when things get REALLY interesting.

"After that Handmaid attack, Gilead wanted to make her pay," she says nastily. "They wanted to serve you up, piece by piece. Do you understand? Send her a toe, a finger, an earlobe. But your father wouldn't allow it to happen. Your ingratitude is astounding!"

Freaked out, Agnes runs and winds up outside Garth's window at the Guardian barracks. She begs him to go through with his marriage anyway, though he protests that he can't. "You're a man," she counters. "You can do anything you want. I've thrown away my whole life to help Becka. Now it's your turn." He argues that people won't understand why he did it. "But I would," she responds, crying.

Several events then happen in quick succession. Garth is made a Commander. Becka and Garth get married, though Becka doesn't seem tethered to reality all that strongly as it happens. I feel a little better as he gently tucks her into bed, fully dressed, afterward. I feel a little worse as he apparently locks her in her room. Elsewhere, Mrs. Grove is tried, sentenced, and hanged.

Afterward, Daisy asks Agnes how she's feeling, and Agnes said she ruined everything but it might have been worth it. Daisy shoots back that Agnes has an overdeveloped sense of justice, just like her mother, June Osborne. "The terrorist?!?" Agnes cries. Oh man, the moment is here.

Daisy quickly clarifies that June just fights for what she believes in. "Your mother wasn't just a Handmaid. She was THE Handmaid," she continues. "I think your name is Hannah." Something about that strikes a chime in Agnes, who later pulls out her hidden bag of treasures in her bedroom. We see that the drawing she did years ago is still in there, the one where she (illegally) wrote her name at the bottom: HANNAH. (Side note: I remember what hope that scene gave me at the time. Maybe it'll just take a very long time to come to fruition?)

At the end of the episode, June finds a jar of Gilead honey on her stoop; there's a letter from Daisy hidden under the lid. The teen reports that Agnes is a Plum again, the first time that's ever happened. What June doesn't know is that Agnes meets with Lydia and acknowledges that "my mother is June Osborne, the criminal." Lydia confirms that she knew June, and she's never held Agnes' DNA against her.

The letter continues with Daisy asserting that she's going to stay in the fight and "create my own army, because nothing can be more powerful than a teenage girl." Our final shot of the season is of Agnes, Shu, and Daisy linking pinkies as they walk down the hall at school.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the finale? Grade it, as well as Season 1 as a whole, via the polls below. Then hit the comments with all of your thoughts!