u/pizzzacones

I spell my name Nicole, without the 'h'.

All of my life (and right now, prompting this post), whenever someone sends me an email, writes out my name, or refers to me, etc., they always spell it as Nichole.

I have never met or seen someone who spells it with an 'h' anywhere; basically never finding it "in the wild". I've often met and seen variations of Nicole, Nikole, Nikki, Niki, and so on.

It's just funny to me that I've never seen it before— hi, tell me one of you exists!

I’m rewatching the episode and I don’t know if Aunt Lydia actually knows Agnes’ feelings for Garth.

The other girls are aware enough to know that Becca lost her chances for a good match at the ballroom, which the Aunts of course know as well. This group of girls are compassionate— they openly prayed for their friend’s and the babies health.

While there aren’t supposed to be best friends in Gilead, I’m sure that Lydia’s aware enough, especially as a teacher, to see Agnes and Becca’s closeness, but allows it. The crush Agnes has on Garth is subtle, they both know the consequences of any open affection. Daisy is close enough to Agnes to pick up on it. Lydia wants to protect Becca from the commander at the ballroom and this is a solution for Becca having a chance of having a better future.

I actually don’t mind this match happening. While it would be fun to see Agnes and Garth become closer, this allows Becca (who wants to leave Gilead), Garth (Mayday), and Agnes (innocently lives by the rules, but I can see her “inner June” coming out as she learns more and becomes deprogrammed from Gilead). This trio allows more opportunities to get out.

And if they can’t, at least Becca can be safe. Agnes is too high in society to be matched with a young commander. Lydia ends the episode emphasizing these girls can’t imagine how long life is.

Anyways, I’d love to hear people’s thoughts! I read the books a while ago, but can’t really remember details.