Who Are Daisy’s Parents in The Testaments? How It’s Changed the Book (& Risks Breaking The Handmaid’s Tale Timeline)

by

Hulu’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, called The Testaments, is already introducing big changes, especially concerning the character of Daisy. The show begins about four years after June Osborne and the Handmaids freed Boston. Now, the story shifts its focus to a new generation, particularly Agnes, a girl raised within Gilead to marry a Commander, and Daisy, a young woman who recently arrived from Canada seeking a better life. Be aware that this contains spoilers for the first three episodes of The Testaments and the original book.

Daisy isn’t actually a Pearl Girl; she’s working as a spy for Mayday, gathering information. We learn she was born in Gilead but smuggled out as an infant, then lovingly raised by Neil and Melanie as their daughter. Sadly, they were killed when Gilead attacked their store. After June reveals the truth to her, Daisy seeks revenge, but the mystery of who her biological parents are remains unsolved.

June & Nick Are Not Daisy’s Parents In The Testaments (She Isn’t Baby Nichole)

In the book The Testaments, we learn that Daisy is the daughter of June and Nick – or, more precisely, the daughter of the Handmaid Offred, as that’s her identity within the story. The TV series portrays a similar Daisy with a comparable role, but there’s a significant age difference between her and Agnes in the book, and she appears later in the narrative. The show shrinks this age gap to just a year or two. It’s also important to remember that The Testaments takes place 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale novel, which concludes at the same point as the first season of the TV series.

Bruce Miller, the showrunner for the Hulu series, recently confirmed to Deadline what many viewers already suspected: Daisy is not Nichole (also known as Holly). While the show’s timeline was often unclear, and Hannah appeared to age more quickly than Nichole, it was clear they weren’t the same person. Hannah was about eight years old in the first season, before Nichole was even conceived. There’s roughly a nine to ten year age difference between the two, and with Nichole still a toddler at the end of the series, it wouldn’t have been believable for her to suddenly be a teenager.

Although their connection isn’t fully clear, June and Daisy have a history. June has known Daisy for a while, as well as Daisy’s parents, Neil and Melanie, and seems to be familiar with her past. This hints at a significant relationship, even if they aren’t mother and daughter. While this change fits the show’s timeline, it’s ironic that the actress playing Daisy, Lucy Halliday, strongly resembles what June’s teenage daughter would look like, even mirroring her mannerisms. This also dramatically alters the dynamic between Daisy and Agnes, as they will no longer share the experience of discovering they have the same mother.

Whose Daughter Could Daisy Be Instead?

Fans are trying to figure out who Daisy really is, and it’s proving difficult. One popular theory is that she’s Charlotte, also known as Angela – the daughter of Janine, another Handmaid. Charlotte was taken in by the Putnam family, but this doesn’t quite add up. She would only be about a year older than Nichole, and the story doesn’t match up with her being smuggled out of Gilead as an infant.

There’s also the possibility she’s one of the children rescued from Gilead via Angel’s Flight and brought to Canada. Most of those 86 children were reunited with family, but it’s possible at least one didn’t have anyone waiting and was placed with an adoptive family. This would be a clever way to tie the story back to the show and June’s past, although it doesn’t quite fit with the idea of her being a baby, since the Angel’s Flight rescue happened in Season 3.

It’s possible the new character is the daughter of a Handmaid we haven’t focused on, creating a connection to June without causing major timeline problems. However, the story seems to be building towards a reveal involving someone we do know, and depending on how that’s handled, it could create even more inconsistencies with the show’s timeline.

New episodes of The Testaments release on Wednesdays on Hulu.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/review/the-testaments-review-chase-infiniti-shines-in-the-best-handmaids-tale-release-in-years/embed/#

Read More

2026-04-08 20:45