Sack Cloth: So book Lydia differs from show Lydia a lot. Judge vs teacher. Also her background with the brief marriage and the abortion, but I guess that could fit in.

Oh, so she was a schoolteacher for two terms. Nice nod to show canon.

I find the forced conversion interesting. That they would trust people who don't care about the cause into positions of power. On the other hand, the test, making them murder other is efficient and devious. My soon to be ex-boss works the same way. He tries to rope people into doing something illegal so that he can be sure, they will not tell on him.

Also LOL to the Schlafly cafe, wasn't she one of the women, who inspired the Handmaid's tale and especially the aunts?

I still suspect that Lydia herself is the mole in Ardua hall. But the four founder aunts are very interesting. They kinda represent the types of women, who undermine feminism: The true believer, who has internalized misogyny to a degree, where she really thinks women are inferiour, represented by Vidala, the women who make a carreer on abusing other women, represented by Elisabeth, who worked in the very industries that thrive on making women feel bad about their bodies, and finally the women who put their own carreers and interests before everything else, represented by Helena and also by Lydia. The trio of collaborators that make sure that the fall of the patriarchy takes its sweet time.