*Warning: This article contains full spoilers for The Testaments episode 10, Secateurs.*
The final episode of The Testaments season 1 was very much focused on the tragic story of Becka (Mattea Conforti) who was left to deal with the consequences of murdering her father, sexual abuser Dr Grove (Randal Edwards).
Faced with a future either as a Handmaid or sentenced to death, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Aunt Vidala (Mabel Li) thought of an alternative way of ensuring that Becka, one of their very own students, wouldn’t be punished. It wasn’t an outcome that Becka wanted and saw her mother (Kate Hewlett) confess to the murder herself, later being hung for the crime.
At the same time as Mrs Grove’s death, we saw Becka prepare for her rushed wedding to Garth (Brad Alexander) which was somewhat engineered by Agnes (Chase Infiniti) herself.
After being administered with a sedative to get through the day, we see Agnes come to spend some time with her best friend before the ceremony. In that scene, as Agnes helps Becka prepare for the day, the pair share a kiss.
Speaking exclusively to Radio Times about that moment, showrunner Bruce Miller explained: “First of all, we have incredible actors who are very serious and also work very well together to figure things out. That’s a delicate moment. I’m a white guy telling these two young beautiful actors to kiss each other, it’s only bad, so we had to talk about it beforehand.
“Really, I left it in their hands as actors, because a kiss can mean 10,000 things, so we talked about it, and they just figured it out as it went. You know, who leans into who, who does this, who smiles afterwards, who smiles differently.”
He continued: “I think they did spectacular work, and I wouldn’t have shown it unless it really showed us something about those two characters that I couldn’t figure out another way to tell you.
“What Agnes is doing for her friend, she knows she needs this, and she knows she needs all this support, so it’s such a sisterhood moment.. I don’t think Becka feels like she’s all of a sudden, “Oh, now we’re dating.” She knows what it is, she knows that it’s this gift, and who knows what’s coming next.”
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Miller added: “They have such an intense, good friendship, positive friendship, but it’s also something that happens in 10,000 movies, so those are the things that are the most interesting to say. Okay. Well, what happens in Gilead? But it was a very complicated moment, and the actors were very much involved.
“They’re the only ones there, they’re the only ones who experience it, so even if we’re involved a little too far, we’ve got our nose in their business, you feel comfortable because they’re alone, so you’re kind of alone with them.
“It really moved me when I saw it. That’s Chase (Infiniti) and Mattea (Conforti) being friends for the whole season, figuring out moment by moment what they would be feeling in a moment like that. I hope it doesn’t end up being, you know, Chase smooshing Mattea. I hope it ends up being those two characters in a moment.”
As Miller outlines, it was a poignant moment between the best friends that only mapped out the kind of heartbreak we’d see unfolding in the rest of the episode. The “complicated” nature of the scene is partly due to Becka’s feelings for Agnes but also because Agnes is about to witness her best friend marry the man she’s in love with.
While it may be clear that Agnes holds platonic feelings for Becka, Miller does outline the fact that at that age, your sense of love within friendships is also hard to substantiate.
He told Radio Times: “As a teenage girl… When I was a boy that age, when I was like 13, 14, you want to give a friend all your possessions, just because you just love them so much.
“I didn’t end up being gay, I ended up being straight. But I still had all those feelings for that boy, I still remember, so I think it’s wonderfully age appropriate, and the bigness of the feelings are age appropriate.
“They’re very, very gifted women as actors, but they both also work incredibly hard. They have lots of gifts, but they work harder, they work very hard together. So, I was proud of what they did.”
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