‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Finally Revealed Aunt Lydia’s Backstory, And People Are Not Having It

Spoilers ahead for The Handmaid’s Tale: Season 3, Episode 8: “Unfit”

Since the start of The Handmaid’s Tale, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) has been one of the more compelling characters in the Hulu series due to her cruel, yet pious nature — and the simmering satisfaction she seems to derive from the torture and murder of the young handmaids. Of course, what makes her compelling is the fact that she does this as a woman. While it’s not so much of a stretch to understand the motivations behind the male elite of Gilead — or even their wealthy female counterparts for that matter — Aunt Lydia’s motives seem much more complicated.

As such, viewers have long since been anticipating the character’s backstory, which we finally learned in this week’s “Unfit.”

Pre-Gilead, Lydia Clements worked as an elementary school teacher, after having quit a job working in family law. It’s here that she observes one of her students named Ryan seemingly being neglected by his mother, Noelle (Emily Althaus, Orange is the New Black), who fails to pick her son up on time or provide him with healthy meals outside of potato chips and fast food. Sensing the young mother’s dilemma, Lydia takes the struggling family under her wing — despite the fact that Noelle’s promiscuous lifestyle seems to conflict with her deep-seeded religious beliefs.

Noelle and Ryan later wind up spending Christmas at Aunt Lydia’s home, where they gift her a makeup set that Noelle got on employee discount at her job. With the encouragement to put herself out there, Lydia goes on a New Year’s Eve date with the school’s principal, Jim (John Ortiz, Togetherness), on whom she had apparently been fostering a secret crush. Things go well — adorably so — until they go back to Lydia’s home, where they kiss and she makes a move to have sex with him.

Having just lost his wife three years prior and only just coming around to the idea of dating again, Jim freaks out and asks if they can slow things down. Lydia, on the other hand, takes this as a flat-out rejection and proceeds to have a meltdown as soon as he leaves. In a misguided retaliation, Lydia then goes on to report Noelle to child protective services, who remove Ryan from her care and put him in a foster home — as Jim looks on, horrified.

And … that’s it. In a nutshell, Aunt Lydia got turned down for sex and proceeded to take her perceived humiliation out on the world by becoming … a murderous sociopath Gee, where have we seen this before

Dowd’s acting can sell just about anything the character brings to the table, but it goes without saying that the development was a bit disappointing, for sure — and fans on Twitter tended to agree. (Mostly in GIF form!)

— eli (@_yzzil) July 10, 2019

I’m so confused. I still don’t understand what made Aunt Lydia go from 0-60. Do y’all #TheHandmaidsTale pic.twitter.com/kiorGheFVT

— sammiesopinion (@sammiesopinion) July 10, 2019

I feel like Aunt Lydia overreacted. He didn’t say “no” he said “not right now.” #HandmaidsTale

— Yande ‍ (@iSpeakYande) July 10, 2019

Wow so Aunt Lydia didn’t get some dick and she became a crazy ass snitch #HandmaidsTale

— hi pretty, (@GEEloc) July 10, 2019

Wait….so aunt Lydia a bitch because she couldn’t get her boss dick hard …O #HandmaidsTale pic.twitter.com/DTq0UDnYqS

— Hi, I’m Ashley Too (@_ItsAshBash) July 10, 2019

So what was the point of aunt Lydia back story Bc I hate her more now. She didn’t get some dick and went crazy, like really #HandmaidsTale pic.twitter.com/dtyegSoDp6

— Dayana Castellanos (@Dayana2590) July 10, 2019

Aunt Lydia's backstory somehow managed to make her less sympathetic #TheHandmaidsTale #HandmaidsTale

— soul-sucking monster (@swampdemon79) July 10, 2019

Aunt Lydia would be a bitch because of a man… go figure. #handmaidstale pic.twitter.com/PKtPY6091C

— ☠️ Curtis Sigman ☠️ (@Curtis_Sigman) July 10, 2019

Wait, so am I supposed to feel for aunt Lydia or something #TheHandsmaidsTale pic.twitter.com/fmLRDfilHg

— Alejandra Jimenez (@alee_jimenz) July 10, 2019

Just had to slap myself back into reality after my soft side got all happy for Aunt Lydia getting out there and singing karaoke.#HandsmaidsTale pic.twitter.com/wZNCDtziXd

— Katie (@whatmycatwants) July 10, 2019

funny how the handmaid’s tale’s male writers want us to believe that aunt lydia turned crazy because some guy didn’t want to fuck her… baby that’s MEN, not women

— Virghoe (@MahnoorMannan) July 10, 2019

So Aunt Lydia, went to the dark side because she got turned down… pic.twitter.com/7tQAhhApCh

— smcoolsm (@SM_BB8) July 10, 2019

So in other words, if TV has taught us anything this year, it’s perfectly natural for a woman to go full dark side if a hot guy turns her down for sex. Hate to see it.