# Offred (The Handmaid's Tale episode)
"Offred" is the first episode of the American television drama *The Handmaid's Tale*, Hulu's adaptation of [Margaret Atwood](https://www.edgepedia.org/margaret-atwood)'s 1985 dystopian novel, and it premiered on April 26, 2017.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) Written by series creator Bruce Miller and directed by Reed Morano, the episode introduces Offred ([Elisabeth Moss](https://www.edgepedia.org/elisabeth-moss)), one of the few fertile women in the totalitarian Republic of Gilead, who struggles to survive as a reproductive surrogate for Commander Waterford ([Joseph Fiennes](https://www.edgepedia.org/joseph-fiennes)) and his resentful wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski).[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) • [2](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-handmaids-tale/season-1/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Episode | Season 1, episode 1 of *The Handmaid's Tale*; aired April 26, 2017 on Hulu[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) |
| Runtime and rating | 57 minutes; TV-MA[2](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-handmaids-tale/season-1/) • [1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) |
| Credits | Written by Bruce Miller; directed by Reed Morano[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) |
| Main cast | Elisabeth Moss (Offred), Joseph Fiennes (Commander Waterford), Yvonne Strahovski (Serena Joy), Alexis Bledel (Ofglen), Madeline Brewer (Janine)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) |
| Critical reception | 100% Tomatometer from 13 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) |
| Signature change | The episode ends with Offred revealing her real name, June, in voice-over; in the novel she never does[3](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/handmaids-tale-hulu) • [4](https://d-nb.info/1264167814/34) |
| Awards | Reed Morano won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for this episode[5](https://unitesi.unive.it/bitstream/20.500.14247/20158/1/831882-1199237.pdf) |
## Plot
The episode opens with a chase: a woman, her husband, and their daughter flee along backroads as sirens sound, are overtaken, and are separated by armed men, with the mother knocked unconscious and loaded into a van while her daughter screams.[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/) The story then jumps several years. The same woman sits by the window of a sparse room in a red gown and white head covering, and introduces herself in voice-over: "My name is Offred. I had another name, but it's forbidden now."[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/)
Through voice-over and flashbacks the episode establishes Gilead, the theocratic state that replaced the United States after a violent coup and a fertility crisis. Fertile women are assigned as Handmaids to commanders and their wives; women are categorized as Wives, Aunts, Marthas, Handmaids, or Unwomen, the last deported to the colonies.[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/) • [7](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-handmaid-s-tale-episode-1-review-offred/) Offred, in her second placement, lives in the household of Commander Waterford, whose wife Serena Joy resents her. Flashbacks show her re-education at the Rachel and Leah Center under Aunt Lydia ([Ann Dowd](https://www.edgepedia.org/ann-dowd)), where she reunites silently with her friend Moira.[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/)
**Key scenes.** Offred and her shopping partner Ofglen ([Alexis Bledel](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexis-bledel)) walk past bodies of executed priests, doctors, and gay men; handmaids may not read, travel alone, or speak of their past lives, and they risk surveillance by the Eye of God.[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/) The state-mandated fertility ritual called "the ceremony," in which the [Commander](https://www.edgepedia.org/commander) rapes Offred while Serena Joy holds her hands, is staged in full.[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/) • [7](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-handmaid-s-tale-episode-1-review-offred/) At a gathering led by Aunt Lydia, the handmaids beat a bound man identified as a rapist to death; Offred participates with particular violence after learning that Moira may have been caught.[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/) Ofglen then reveals that she is a lesbian who was married and has a son who reached Canada, and warns Offred, "There's an Eye in your house."[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/)
The episode closes with Offred vowing to survive and find her daughter Hannah, naming her husband Luke, and finally confiding her true name to the audience: "My name is June."[6](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/) • [3](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/handmaids-tale-hulu)
## Adaptation choices
The pilot follows the novel closely in voice but reorders its material. The book's first-person narration is transplanted, often word-for-word, into Offred's voice-over, while the novel's framing device, in which the story is reconstructed from cassette tapes found by future scholars, is dropped.[7](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-handmaid-s-tale-episode-1-review-offred/) The novel's most shocking scenes, including the ceremony and the salvaging, are moved to the front of the episode.[7](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-handmaid-s-tale-episode-1-review-offred/)
Two changes distinguish the pilot from the source. First, Offred reveals her real name, June, at the end of the episode; in the novel she does not.[3](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/handmaids-tale-hulu) • [4](https://d-nb.info/1264167814/34) Second, the series made its cast more diverse than the book: in the show, Offred was married to a Black man and has a biracial daughter, a choice producer Warren Littlefield said was made so the world would resemble the one viewers live in.[8](https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/making-handmaids-tale-tale-time/story?id=46989913) Showrunner Bruce Miller also said he made the character more rebellious than her literary counterpart and saw the story's central conflict as between Offred and her former self, June.[9](https://time.com/4754200/the-handmaids-tale-showrunner-changes-from-book/)
Margaret Atwood, who served as a consulting producer on the series, appears in a cameo in the first episode, slapping Offred for being slow to respond during an indoctrination session.[10](https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/525557843/hulus-handmaids-tale-is-compelling-and-chilling)
## Production and visual style
Morano, herself a cinematographer before turning to directing, developed the episode's look with cinematographer Colin Watkinson, who framed Offred silhouetted at her window in a composition he described as referencing Vermeer, lit with volumetric spotlights to build the image the way old oil painters layered paint.[11](https://www.motionpictures.org/2017/08/handmaids-tale-dp-using-old-lenses-vermeer-and-drones-conjure-dystopia/) For the climactic salvage scene, in which dozens of handmaids beat a man to death on a lawn, Watkinson and Morano arranged the women in the symmetrical style of [Stanley Kubrick](https://www.edgepedia.org/stanley-kubrick), using a drone to track the red dresses emerging from the forest and a 50-foot Technocrane for the overhead shots.[11](https://www.motionpictures.org/2017/08/handmaids-tale-dp-using-old-lenses-vermeer-and-drones-conjure-dystopia/) Watkinson described the series as a point-of-view show in which nearly all the cinematography internalizes Offred's experience.[11](https://www.motionpictures.org/2017/08/handmaids-tale-dp-using-old-lenses-vermeer-and-drones-conjure-dystopia/)
## Reception
The episode received a 100% Tomatometer score from 13 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, whose critics consensus credited Elisabeth Moss's "expressive eyes" with speaking "volumes to unspeakable horrors" in an effective introduction to Gilead.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) Reviewers singled out the episode's refusal to provide lengthy exposition, trusting viewers to piece together the new world.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01) The Den of Geek review called Moss "perfect as Offred," conveying rage beneath imposed silence without a word, and judged the pilot a triumph of an adaptation that was loyal and disloyal in the right places.[7](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-handmaid-s-tale-episode-1-review-offred/) The Los Angeles Review of Books noted that ending the pilot on the reveal of June's name was a small but shocking and meaningful choice.[3](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/handmaids-tale-hulu)
At the [Primetime Emmy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/primetime-emmy-awards), Morano won Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for "Offred," part of a haul for the series that also included Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Writing for Bruce Miller, and acting awards for Ann Dowd and Alexis Bledel.[5](https://unitesi.unive.it/bitstream/20.500.14247/20158/1/831882-1199237.pdf)
## References
1. [The Handmaid's Tale – Season 1, Episode 1 "Offred", Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaids_tale/s01/e01)
2. [The Handmaid's Tale season 1 reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-handmaids-tale/season-1/)
3. [The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu, Los Angeles Review of Books](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/handmaids-tale-hulu)
4. [Offred's name and adaptation analysis, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (De Gruyter, Philosophie Jahrbuch)](https://d-nb.info/1264167814/34)
5. [Emmy awards for The Handmaid's Tale season 1, Università Iuav di Venezia thesis](https://unitesi.unive.it/bitstream/20.500.14247/20158/1/831882-1199237.pdf)
6. [The Handmaid's Tale Premiere Recap: Season 1, Episode 1 – "Offred", TVLine](https://www.tvline.com/recaps/the-handmaids-tale-premiere-recap-season-1-episode-1-offred-822055/)
7. [The Handmaid's Tale episode 1 review: Offred, Den of Geek](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-handmaid-s-tale-episode-1-review-offred/)
8. [Making 'The Handmaid's Tale' as a tale for our time, ABC News](https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/making-handmaids-tale-tale-time/story?id=46989913)
9. [The Handmaid's Tale Showrunner on the Changes From the Book, TIME](https://time.com/4754200/the-handmaids-tale-showrunner-changes-from-book/)
10. [Review: 'The Handmaid's Tale' On Hulu, NPR](https://www.npr.org/2017/04/26/525557843/hulus-handmaids-tale-is-compelling-and-chilling)
11. [The Handmaid's Tale DP on Using Old Lenses, Vermeer and Drones to Conjure Dystopia, The Credits](https://www.motionpictures.org/2017/08/handmaids-tale-dp-using-old-lenses-vermeer-and-drones-conjure-dystopia/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Seasons, episodes, and installments › Episodes and serial chapters › Individual episode articles › Pilot and premiere episodes › Pilot episodes of specific series — US and Canada*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license