Read ‘The Testaments’ Premiere Script “Precious Flowers”

Editor’s note: Deadline’s It Starts on the Page features standout drama series scripts in 2026 Emmy contention.

Stepping away from Hulu‘s Emmy-winning The Handmaid’s Tale and into the world of The Testaments, viewers were met with something lighter, more vibrant and youthful, a tale based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name.

The hopes and dreams of the teens in Gilead — Agnes (Chase Infiniti), Becka (Mattea Conforti), Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard) and Hulda (Isolde Ardies) — are pure, but there’s no escaping the reality of where they live. These young ladies are primed for a life of modesty and subservience to their husbands and the future fathers of their children.

The quartet are introduced in Episode 1 titled “Precious Flowers” as Plums, teen girls predestined to marry high Gilead Commanders who wear uniforms in radiant shades of plum to school and arrive in a plum bus with matching curtains covering the passenger windows.

When Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a native Canadian, is recruited to join Gilead, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) makes her a Pearl Girl, a group of missionaries and Aunts in training who will one day themselves recruit other vulnerable young women to join them. Daisy is paired with Agnes, and it doesn’t take long for the new girl to be welcomed by Agnes’ friends, with Becka serving as the holdout in Season 1.

The Plums, again minus Becka, want to please their parents and their community by marrying whomever the Aunts choose as their best matches, set up house and have babies. But as Season 1 progresses, the girls are revealed as being smart, brave and curious. And with the addition of Daisy, who had lived her life outside of Gilead, they learn that there’s more for them out there. However, that road could lead them to the point of no return. Rebellion, thy name is June Osbourne.

Bruce Miller, who adapted Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale — winning Emmys for writing the opening episode and for Outstanding Drama Series — also created the sequel. Below is his premiere script along with an intro in which he speaks about the “extraordinary balancing act” in Atwood’s The Testaments and the sisterhood of teenage girls at its center whose spirit he tried to capture. The series already has been renewed for a second season.

When I read Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, I felt that same haunting feeling I had when I first read The Handmaid’s Tale decades earlier. There is a timelessness to Margaret’s writing and world-building — the details of her worlds feel both ancient and nostalgic and also alarmingly immediate.

As I began the pilot script for The Testaments series, I was drawn repeatedly to Margaret’s extraordinary balancing act in The Testaments novel: Forbidden sisterhoods, rage alongside humor, brutality alongside resilience, terror alongside hope. Taking on the challenge of continuing to tell stories within Margaret’s world was intimidating, as it should be, but I tried to approach the task with respect and care and affection.

What moved me most in The Testaments was its cast of teenage girls — the Plums seemed to be sparkling, creative, impulsive, curious, deeply loyal, and ready to question the world around them. They were coming of age in a society built to ruthlessly and viciously suppress all those instincts. No matter how much Gilead tries to control them, however, I was eager to see these girls break through each barrier set before them. They form bonds, fall in love, make reckless choices, and rebel. That spirit runs through every page of the book, and I tried to capture it in the script as well.

Never underestimate the power of a teenage girl.

Read the script below.