Editor’s note: Deadline’s It Starts on the Page (Drama) features standout drama series scripts in 2025 Emmy contention.
Hulu‘s The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood, concluded last month with the series finale, also titled “The Handmaid’s Tale.” After six seasons, it would prove difficult for creator and executive producer Bruce Miller to pen the perfect ending, he admits in the foreword to the finale script below. The episode, directed by star and EP Elisabeth Moss, struck a balance between being bittersweet and ambitious as it set up the upcoming spinoff, The Testaments.
In the finale, with the help of many former hardcore Gilead loyalists including Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski), Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Naomi (Ever Carradine), the underground resistance movement Mayday finally went to war with the totalitarian government. The fight for a free country will continue in The Testaments, with Dowd set to reprise her role and rumors that Moss will appear as June Osborne in light of The Handmaid’s Tale‘s ending that saw June and her husband Luke (O-T Fagbenle) unable to free their daughter Hannah.
In the episode’s final beats, June returned to the crumbling remains of the Waterford home, her first residence in Gilead, as she set out to tell her story of being a handmaid — then known as Offred — in a book to serve as a warning to future generations of the evil they fought against. For the first time in the series, June can reflect on her past and how far she’s come thanks to her wits and bravery as she looks towards a brighter future.
Below, find the script for “The Handmaid’s Tale” episode with an intro by Miller, in which he reveals how Atwood and Moss played a key role in his decision how to end the series.
Bruce Miller
Getty Images
How do you write the finale of The Handmaid‘s Tale? It’s a daunting and somewhat terrifying charge, just one of many I’ve enjoyed in the last decade working on the series for Hulu and MGM.
To be honest, from the beginning I felt severely out of my depth adapting Margaret Atwood’s novel for series television. I had read the novel when I was attending college, in a “new fiction” class, and I was awestruck. The brevity, simplicity, and insightful power of Offred’s tale inspired me to be a writer. As I worked as a writer, I often reread The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret’s storytelling taught me volumes about how to tell stories.
And now, through a series of unlikely events, I was given the challenging gift of crafting a series finale for a version of that story.
How do you write a decent series finale? I actually don’t have much experience — I haven’t been on many shows that needed a finale episode. Most television shows end abruptly, victims of scheduling decisions or the like. It’s rare to get the chance to end a series mindfully, to get the chance to wrap up the characters and their stories.
I was given some of that freedom when finishing The Handmaid’s Tale. It required different thinking — I have spent my career writing series television. The entire focus of series television is continuing the story, always trying to leave the audience eagerly asking “what happens next?” after each episode. But leaving the audience with that kind of expectation seems like it would make for a frustrating series end.
Many things to consider. But I settled on one finale rule — first, do no harm. I think the series has been good in large part because I chose to follow the story and tonal spirit of the novel as much as possible.
So for the finale, I returned to Margaret Atwood’s novel. As I reread, I recalled conversations I had with Elisabeth Moss at the very start of the project. It was early, early days, but inevitably we talked a little about how June’s story might end. It was magical thinking, of course — we hadn’t even started prepping the pilot. Elisabeth and I both knew a finale episode was a hopeful fantasy at that point. We talked about it anyway.
In the novel, the last thing known of “Offred” was her recording of the tale itself. Her final act was making sure her handmaid experience wasn’t lost to history. Elisabeth and I agreed that it would be a cool way to end the series if we got to see June record her story, record The Handmaid’s Tale we had just been watching.
It wasn’t a surprise that the answer would be in Margaret Atwood‘s text and my conversations with Elisabeth Moss, women who would become my creative partners for the next 10 years and six seasons. I should’ve guessed that the answer would be found with two of the smartest women I knew. I shouldn’t have worried in the first place.
Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
Bruce Miller
Across its first five seasons, The Handmaid’s Tale, from MGM Television, has been nominated for 76 Emmy Awards including 15 wins. For Season 1, it became the first streaming title to win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series, Moss won for Lead Actress In a Drama Series, and Miller’s pilot script for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. The show has earned multiple Drama Series and writing Emmy nominations since while also landing two WGA awards.
Read the script for the finale below.
