Interview
‘The Testaments’: Mattea Conforti Explains Becka’s Dangerous Confession About Agnes
What To Know
- In Episode 5 of The Testaments, Becka makes a drunken confession about her best friend Agnes, a revelation that puts her in grave danger in Gilead.
- Mattea Conforti, who plays Becka, explains the revelation.
Mattea Conforti‘s Becka makes a heartbreaking confession in The Testaments Episode 5 that pulls at the heartstrings but also puts the character in grave danger. After a commander gets Becka drunk at her school’s ball, her deepest secret is revealed, marking a major shift for her story that viewers may have seen coming, but should be fearful about now that the truth is out. Swooon asked Conforti to explain Becka’s revelation. (Warning: The Testaments Season 1 Episode 5 spoilers ahead.)
A debutante-style ball takes place, where Green girls are paraded before Commanders, and the illusion of elegance begins to fray. The reality of becoming a wife is hitting Becka hard, and things only get worse when a commander gets her drunk at the party. Daisy (Lucy Halliday) comes to her aid, taking her to the bathroom to get her away from the chaos for a bit. It’s there that a drunk Becka admits what’s been implied since Episode 1: Becka is in love with her best friend, Agnes (Chase Infiniti). This makes Becka a “gender traitor” by Gilead law, a crime punishable by death in this authoritarian regime.
Given how much propaganda Gilead feeds its youth, it’s impressive that Becka has the skills to even realize that what she feels for Agnes is love. Conforti told Swooon that Becka has known about her feelings for Agnes for a long time. The lingering threat of marriage made it more and more difficult to deny her feelings to herself.
“I think Becka’s always known, from Episode 1,” Conforti said. “She’s always known that she stood out, at least in the sense that she never wanted to get married. I don’t really think she could pinpoint exactly when she started feeling that way, but she has always loved Agnes and always felt that love for her. It’s just a matter of watching that love grow and the journey that she goes on throughout the season that she starts to notice things starting to change for her.”
“It’s like this looming threat that you can never really conceptualize is actually going to happen until it happens,” she explained. “It’s something that you just put off until it actually happens. For any of the girls, marriage is this idealized conception that one day we’ll be married. But until you actually become a wife, you can never really picture yourself actually becoming a wife, if you don’t want that for yourself.”
Agnes doesn’t seem to realize that Becka has feelings for her. Infiniti’s character is enamored with her guardian from the Eyes, Garth (Brad Alexander), whom she learns at the end of this episode is soon being promoted to commander. This gives Agnes hope that she could marry him instead of an older man she doesn’t know.
Becka is lucky that Daisy — who, being an undercover Mayday spy, does not have extreme, bigoted views about queer people — is the one who heard her secret and not anyone else. But will Becka be able to keep this secret as the pressure to find a husband builds?
The Testaments, Wednesdays, Hulu
