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Mayday is an anti-Gilead resistance movement that operates in Canada. For decades, Mayday has collaborated with people in and outside of Gilead to smuggle oppressed women out of Gilead and harbor them as refugees. Mayday is hated by Gilead and recognized as a terrorist organization by Canada due to the power and influence that Gilead exerts on the Canadian government, though civilians in Canada seem to support its work.
Mayday Quotes in The Testaments
The The Testaments quotes below are all either spoken by Mayday or refer to Mayday. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 24
Quotes
I did not wish Aunt Sally dead: I simply wished her incoherent; and so it has been. The Margery Kempe Retreat House has a discreet staff.
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Chapter 46
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The Angel’s real crime was not [smuggling] the lemons, however: he’d been accused of taking bribes from Mayday and aiding several Handmaids in their successful flight across our various borders. But the Commanders did not want this fact publicized: it would give people ideas. The official line is that there were no corrupt Angels and certainly no fleeing Handmaids; for why would one renounce God’s kingdom to plunge into the flaming pit?
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Mayday Term Timeline in The Testaments
The timeline below shows where the term Mayday appears in The Testaments. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 12: The Ardua Hall Holograph
Judd explains that his operatives in Canada have identified and eliminated two members of the Mayday resistance movement—which runs the Underground Femaleroad—with the help of Lydia’s Pearl Girls. The Pearl Girls,...
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Chapter 20: The Ardua Hall Holograph
...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...
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...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...
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Chapter 24: The Ardua Hall Holograph
Lydia meets again with Judd, who reveals that his operatives recovered Mayday’s communication method with whomever their source is in Gilead. They have been using a microdot...
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Chapter 31
...there is little public pressure. The Gilead embassy is blaming Aunt Adrianna’s death on the Mayday terrorist organization and is pressuring Canada’s government to root them out.
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Chapter 32
...possible. Gilead is using its large and aggressive military to pressure Canada into going after Mayday. They’re not sure where to put her, however, since Canada is becoming less safe and...
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Chapter 46: The Ardua Hall Holograph
...be executed are an Angel charged with black market dealing (though truly suspected of helping Mayday smuggle Handmaids out of Gilead) and Dr. Grove, who’s been charged with the attempted rape...
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Chapter 52: The Ardua Hall Holograph
...opinion, Jade should be harshly interrogated, and the tattoo removed, in case she is a Mayday spy. Lydia deflects her suspicions and desire to torture as best she can.
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Chapter 56: Transcript of Witness Testimony 369A
...the name is redacted, and beneath it the notations tell Agnes that she is a Mayday operative at large in Canada. Two unsuccessful assassination attempts have been made on her mother’s...
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Chapter 59: Ardua Hall Holograph
...Agnes’s biological mother is notorious for helping Baby Nicole escape and now works as a Mayday operative. Lydia assures Vidala that Victoria and Immortelle will prove themselves virtuous and pure on...
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...Vidala may be the one who gave Victoria access to the file. She surmises that Mayday has Baby Nicole in their possession and may be trying to reunite Baby Nicole with...
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Chapter 68: The Ardua Hall Holograph
...Lydia continues to feign ignorance and accepts her responsibility for failing to see through the Mayday plot. Lydia has a brief flashback of when she stood in the stadium, brown-robed, and...
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Epilogue: The Thirteenth Symposium
...by a military coup, a series of local rebellions, and numerous sabotaging strikes coordinated by Mayday operatives.
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