The Testaments Season 1, Episode 7 – Paula Is a Demon, Daisy Is in Over Her Head
This week’s episode of The Testaments (“Commitment”) proved a few things: Paula is absolutely a demon, Agnes is not where I need her to be yet, and Daisy has officially volunteered herself into a situation she is not built for. Let’s get into it.
Daisy: Volunteering for the Underground Railroad… to Gilead
We start with Daisy, who has decided that instead of living her best life in Columbiana, going to school and flirting with Adam, she’s going to enlist herself into Mayday’s version of the Underground Railroad. Girl. Why.
The highlight for me here was seeing Rita again. She looks amazing and she is out here acting as a conductor for Mayday, doing the important work and also telling Daisy the truth: this is not what you want. You are not equipped. Go to Columbia. Go to class. Go get brunch.
Daisy, of course, wants answers about her parents and wants to “make Gilead pay,” even after she’s told that her Gilead parents are dead and there is nothing to be done for them now. Her handler — the older woman who picks her up off that street corner June left her on — keeps repeating the same message: you’re going to die if you go in there, and this is not a movie. Daisy’s response is basically, “I know all about Gilead,” and Rita hits her with the line of the episode: if you underestimate the women of Gilead, you will die.
I loved the reminder that the Aunts and Wives are not slow, sheltered church ladies. They are some of the most calculating women you will ever meet, and the second you stop taking them seriously, you’re finished. Daisy doesn’t fully believe it until she actually sees the wall.
To get Daisy into Gilead, they run a Pearl Girl recruitment operation. The missionary girls are out on the streets of Canada with their pamphlets like some horrifying church youth group, and Daisy has to play the reluctant stray. She curses them out, plays hard to get, then finally accepts their offer of a hotel room and food. Once she’s in the room, she orders half the menu and immediately clocks how bizarre this is.
The Pearl Girls pitch Gilead as a place where women are treasured, protected and treated like precious diamonds. Daisy, correctly, calls that what it is: a lie. But after some prayer circles and laying on of hands, she “reluctantly” agrees to go back with them. We know she wanted this the whole time. This is her plan.
The actual drop‑off at the border made my skin crawl. The Pearl Girls abandon her with Garth and some sketchy Eye agent like she’s a package, not a person. They don’t walk her in, they don’t stay with her. It felt like trafficking, and Daisy being so blind to that energy tells you just how naïve she still is. Garth searches her bag and we know he’ll be her handler, but the whole thing is a disaster waiting to happen.
The one interesting beat is when Daisy studies the binder of commanders. She clocked Commander Weston’s file: crypto money, domestic violence charges, the works… and then sees that he’s on Agnes’s shortlist. We can all see the red flags. The question is whether Daisy will connect those dots in time to actually help anyone.
Bottom line: Daisy is not built for deep‑cover Gilead operations, and if she stays there long, she is not making it out.
Matching Day Fallout: Agnes, Becca, and the Worst Options
Back in Gilead, we’re dealing with the results of Matching Day. All the girls get their assignments, and it’s about as horrifying as we expected.
Hollda gets someone age‑appropriate and is thrilled, which is great for her and absolutely no one else. Becca is given two options: Commander Maddox, who runs the colonies (literally the last place anyone wants to be), and Garth. The Garth speculation was correct — he’s on the list — and Becca is caught between a man who got her drunk and the one decent boy we’ve seen so far. No wonder she wants to throw herself off a cliff.
Agnes, meanwhile, gets several names. One suitor is a complete trash box who brings up her “conception” like that’s appropriate small talk, which opens a door I really wanted the episode to walk through: Agnes starting to question how she came into this world, what happened at the dentist, and what this system really is. Instead, most of her emotional energy is still hung up on Garth, and that’s where my frustration comes in.
We’re seven episodes in, and I need Agnes’s motivation to shift from “my crush didn’t pick me” to “I’m living in a violent theocracy built on my mother’s suffering.” I see the show seeding little cracks in her worldview, but I want them to follow through. It can’t only be about Garth.
Then we meet Commander Weston, and things get truly dark.
Paula Revealed: Full Villain, No Notes
Let’s talk Paula. A lot of you were in my comments earlier this season saying Paula had a heart, that she was “preparing” Agnes, that she meant well. After this episode, I’d like you to go back and review those comments with fresh eyes, because Paula is a demon.
When Commander Weston arrives as a potential match for Agnes, Paula is practically glowing. She adores this man, talks him up, and keeps inserting herself in the conversation. Commander Mackenzie, for once, tries to set a boundary and shut her down — “this is about my child, not shop talk” — and for about three minutes I thought he might actually step into his father role.
We learn Weston’s previous wife died “in childbirth,” which, given the earlier reveal about his domestic violence history, is not a comforting detail. Later, when Agnes tries to politely probe, Weston says the saddest day of his life was losing his child. Not his wife. Just the child. Sir.
Agnes delivers my favorite line from her in the episode when she says she hopes she can live up to the expectations of his first wife. It’s a subtle dig, but it lands. Weston retreats, and Paula’s mask finally drops. She comes at Agnes like Mommy Dearest with a Bible. It’s all threats, jealousy, and barely contained violence. There is nothing maternal in that woman, just resentment.
We also find out Paula was a therapist before Gilead, which is the scariest detail in the episode. She’s a woman who hates women, threatened by Agnes’s youth, beauty, intelligence, and the place she holds in her father’s life. Her goal is not to raise Agnes; it’s to break her.
At this point, I need Commander Mackenzie to either reveal some backbone or be thrown on the pile with the rest of these men. You cannot look at Weston, look at your daughter, and still consider this a viable option unless you are completely hollow.
Agnes, Becca, and a Friendship That Almost Works
Back at school, everyone is comparing matches. The other girls are squealing over Garth being “young and tasty” while Agnes sulks, and Becca is in genuine distress. Agnes tells her she’s being dramatic, which is so tone‑deaf I wanted to reach through the screen. Becca’s choices are a commander of the colonies and a boy tied up with Mayday who could very easily get her killed. Her panic is not overblown.
Becca running off and Agnes following her was a moment where I thought we might get a deeper connection between them. Instead, Agnes still feels wrapped up in her own heartbreak more than the bigger horrors around them. I get that they’re teenagers, and I get that this is realistic, but narratively I’m craving more explicit revolution energy from Agnes.
Later, Agnes tries to do the “big sister” thing with Daisy, inviting her over and offering to shepherd her into Pearl Girl life. Daisy goes to her room and finds a little treasure bin of contraband: drugstore makeup, snacks, and random artifacts from the outside world that Agnes has built fantasies around. It’s sweet and sad at the same time.
Daisy’s internal monologue in this scene is basically: “Don’t be a hater, don’t burst this girl’s bubble; reality will do that soon enough.” I liked that, but again, their bond still feels more obligated than deep. It’s based on shared duty, not shared trust, and in Gilead, that distinction is everything.
The Interrogations and the Wall Closing In
On the Pearl Girl side, things are getting dangerous fast. Daisy and the other girls are called in for interrogation about the bus attack. The regime knows someone on the inside helped and they’re determined to find a traitor. We watch one girl disappear, we see tattoos being removed, and Daisy narrowly escapes being the one they drag away.
This is Daisy’s first real taste of how Mayday’s little missions can end. She’s shaken, but I’m not sure she fully absorbs the lesson yet. If she stays, there will be a “next time,” and next time she might not walk out of that room.
The bigger question for me is what this does to the Pearl Girls as a group. They’re all foreigners. They all came from the outside world. Now that Gilead knows someone in that cohort is working against them, how do you trust anyone? Everyone is suspect, and that’s exactly how totalitarian regimes like it.
Sweet P Rating and Hopes for the End of the Season
Overall, this episode gave us what I’ve been waiting for with Paula — the full villain reveal — and pushed Daisy deeper into danger, but it also highlighted what I still want more of: Agnes’s inner revolution and Aunt Lydia’s actual long game.
Remember The Testaments airs on Hulu
On the Sweet P meter, I’m giving The Testaments Season 1, Episode 7 a 3.8 to 3.9 out of 5 sweet peas. It’s a strong episode in a strong season, but it wasn’t my favorite. My quibbles are small but loud:
- I want Agnes’s motivation to shift from heartbreak over Garth to righteous anger at the system.
- I need at least one commander to pay soon – dentist man, Weston, somebody.
- I miss Aunt Lydia and June; we need more time with their respective schemes as we head into the final stretch.
Let’s talk about it
What do you think:
- Did you clock Paula as a demon from the beginning, or did this episode finally convince you?
- Do you think Daisy survives Gilead, or is she on borrowed time?
- And how bad do you think Commander Weston is going to be if Agnes ends up with him?
Drop your predictions and unfiltered thoughts in the comments.