Ofglen trial Handmaid's Tale episode three
Alexis Bledel as Ofglen in "The Handmaid's Tale."

"Showrunners" is a new podcast from INSIDER, a series where we interview the people responsible for bringing TV shows to life. The following is a highlight from our interview with Bruce Miller - the showrunner of Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale."

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Warning: Ahead are spoilers for episode three of "The Handmaid's Tale" and discussion of graphic sexual violence.

The third episode of "The Handmaid's Tale" ended with Ofglen (played by Alexis Bledel) in an eerie hospital recovery room scene. During our interview for INSIDER's new podcast "Showrunners," Bruce Miller explained the decision-making process behind this sequence of events.

"In the book, Offred is told that Ofglen kills herself," Miller told INSIDER. "We don't know if she did, but [that's what Offred is] told. I was very interested in seeing what the criminal justice system looked like for women, which turned out to be amazing. I was really interested to see what punishment was like. What is it like to be convicted of a biblical crime?"

Throughout episode three, the audience comes to realize that Ofglen has been arrested by the Sons of Jacob for engaging in a sexual relationship with a Martha. They are brought to court and "charged with gender treachery in violation of Romans 1:26, by His word."

In the King James Bible, Romans 1:26 says:


The tearful goodbye shared between Ofglen and the Martha was heartbreaking.

The two women are not allowed to speak for the duration of the trial.

"I don't know if you noticed, but Alexis doesn't speak in that episode," Miller told INSIDER. "She's got a huge story, and she doesn't say anything."

Instead, the judge asks the prosecutor if he swears this is the truth. When the prosecutor says yes, the judge declares both women guilty. "Martha 6715301 you are hereby sentenced to the common mercy of the state," the judge says.

We later see that "the common mercy of the state" means being hung by a crane — but the noose is placed around the woman's neck while she is standing and is then slowly pulled upward.

"Handmaid 8967, your existence is an abomination," the judge says. "True justice would see you sent to an eternity of suffering. But God has seen fit to make you fruitful, and by that we are bound. Handmaid 8967 you are sentenced to redemption."

The women were literally muzzled throughout the episode.

The punishment of "redemption" is female genital mutilation (FGM). Though nothing is explicitly stated or shown, the audience is meant to understand that Emily has unwillingly had her clitoris surgically removed. She is told that she can still bear children, but she "won't want what she can't have" (pleasurable sex).

For Miller, the choice to expand on Ofglen's story and show more of the brutalities committed against women was partially rooted in keeping Alexis Bledel in the show.

"I didn't want Alexis to go away," Miller said. "I was a huge proponent of Alexis from the beginning. She was the first person I thought of for that role, and I loved her for it. It was once again because you want that role to go to someone who really has the America's sweetheart feeling about them, because then it's even more kind of gut-wrenching, not that I need to make it more gut-wrenching."

Practices of FGM (also sometimes referred to as female circumcision or clitoridectomy) vary around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 200 million women have undergone FGM procedures, most frequently at the age of 10 or younger.

Miller said both he and the team at Hulu were nervous about portraying FGM in a TV show.

"When I said we were going to do it, they were like, 'On camera?,' and I was like, 'Okay, no,'" Miller said. "But it happens all over the world every day. It just doesn't happen to white girls who look like Rory Gilmore."

Aunt Lydia called Ofglen "Emily" when she entered the room.

In the episode, Aunt Lydia comes into the hospital room after Oflgen wakes up from the surgery. At that point, we learn that Ofglen's real name is Emily.

(By the way, personal accounts of real-world FGM experiences indicate that the procedure is sometimes done while the girls are awake and without proper medical tools or professionals at hand. Mariya Karimjee, a woman from a Muslim sect called Dawoodi Bohra, wrote about her experience with FGM at The Big Roundtable.)

"The way that they talk about it to [Emily], even in the episode is, 'We're saving you. You have an uncontrollable urge, and we're going to take that away. We're going to make your life so much easier,'" Miller said. "Which is a lot of the underpinning of why it's done traditionally to young girls. It's to take away an unbridled sexual desire, to keep them from being lascivious. Here she's a gay woman, they don't want her to be attracted to women, so they just kind of think, 'Oh, we're going to do her this favor. We're not going execute her. We're going to be nice.'"

But there's more to it than that — as the judge said, Emily is "fruitful." Bearing children for Commanders and their Wives is more important than being killed for "gender treachery."

"As Moira says in the pilot, 'We're breeding stock,'" Miller said. "You don't need eyes for that [...] You're a walking womb, or as one of our brilliant writers said, 'vagina furniture,' which made it into a couple of episodes that got cut out, but it was such a great expression."

For more from Bruce Miller, listen to the full episode of "Showrunners" below. Subscribe to "Showrunners" on iTunes here so you can hear new episodes (featuring the showrunners from "Silicon Valley," "American Gods," "Insecure" and more) first.