The Testaments: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

People emigrate out of Gilead in high numbers, which is an embarrassing look for “God’s kingdom on earth.” Especially in Vermont and Maine, where the locals despise Gilead’s government, many individuals take payment from Mayday operatives to guide and smuggle women out through the woods and onto freedom. Lydia’s family came from that area and, before Gilead was established, were a crime-ridden, lower class lot who resented her intelligence, especially since she was a girl. Her father often tried to “wallop those pretensions out of [her].” He was murdered before Gilead was instituted, but Lydia figures she would have arranged for his throat to be cut either way.

Vidala, Elizabeth, and Helena present Lydia with a new plan they’ve written up to decrease the escaping of women into Canada involving more search dogs and better interrogation methods. Lydia assumes the interrogation bit was Vidala’s doing; she secretly loves to torture. Lydia promises to pass the plan along to Commander Judd. Later in the day, the Aunts report back that a number of civilians have been arrested with suspected connections to Mayday in Canada, and they’ll either by interrogated or traded as hostages. Lydia takes the opportunity to tell them about the two operatives recently killed in Canada and the existence of a traitor in their midst, leaking information. The Aunts are all deeply concerned by this and know that it could even be one of them.

Lydia goes back to writing about her arrest in the early days: After she and Anita were left at the stadium, their handcuffs were removed and they were “herded” into a section of marked off bleachers. There were hundreds of other women there, sorted by profession. Lydia and Anita were placed with the other judges and made to sit silently for hour as other women were deposited and sorted. As she sat, Lydia thought about how foolish she was to assume that the liberty, human rights, and democracy she’d enjoyed would always exist. Since it seemed the perpetrators were sorting out the professional women, she’d need to revert herself to her “underclass” upbringing and scheme to survive.

By mid-afternoon, men passed out bottles of water, covered by other men pointing rifles at the women as if they were enemy combatants. The women were not allowed to even go to the bathroom, so human waste trickled down the bleachers after so many hours. In the late afternoon, 20 women were led out into the middle of the stadium and arranged in two lines, escorted by men with rifles. A black-uniformed man shouted into a microphone about God judging sinners, ending with “God will prevail!” The men said “Amen” and opened fire on the lines of women, executing them in front of their audience of the other women. Lydia didn’t understand why they should make such a show if everyone was going to die. At sundown, the women were given sandwiches and allowed to go to the bathroom.