Mildred and Edmund
The season 1 finale of Ratched picks up 1 month after the events in the previous episode. Louise is now working at the psychiatric hospital but she continues to hassle fragile patients. With no medical background, she’s just happy to be there with a career. A pressing matter however is the Governor’s re-election. He’s hell-0bent on pushing through Edmund’s execution to try and appease voters. Meanwhile Gwendolyn starts to lose her hair thanks to the chemotherapy she’s undertaking. Mildred kneels before her and contemplates whether they should just drive south to Mexico. She knows some amazing doctors that way and pleads with her lover to see reason. Mildred is desperate to try and cure her. Back at Lucia State, Mildred speaks to Bucket about the upcoming execution. After going over exactly what will happen, Mildred breaks down in tears. Not long after, Bucket brings Edmund to the barn and tasks him to look after the animals inside. It’s part of her new therapy. Well, technically it’s Dr Hanover’s idea but she’s now classed it as her own – as you do. As Edmund starts petting the horse, he tries to hide his fear for the upcoming execution. The Governor makes good on his promise and flicks the switch for a prisoner being executed. It’s not Edmund but it is a sign of things to come. Unfortunately something goes wrong during the procedure and the body inside starts burning. The Governor doesn’t care though and continues to look on triumphantly. On the back of this, Gwen and Mildred head off to see the Governor. They try to talk him out of the electric chair and the death penalty for the state. Desperate to win, the Governor won’t budge and is hell bent on winning votes. Thanks to how much of a spectacle the electric chair is, he won’t budge. Instead, Mildred comes up with a far more humane way of killing Edmund. This will see him injected with a serum to put him to death. Bucket offers her services to do the deed but Mildred is having none of it. Later that evening, Mildred heads in to see her brother. She’s grateful for him killing in the past and apologises for leaving her brother alone when he needed her most. She promises never to be done with him and manages to swing Edmund around to her way of thinking. As fate would have it, Charlotte Wells returns to Lucia State. She takes on Hanover’s persona and asks for Edmund to be handed over to her as she has work to do. Unsure what to make of this, Bucket grabs Huck and asks for his help in dealing with Charlotte. Only, when he shows up Charlotte appears with a gun and shoots him dead. With Bucket held as hostage, Charlotte waltzes down to the basement and frees Edmund from his cage. He grabs a gun and puts Bucket in the cage instead. Holding a gun up to her face, he asks what Mildred had planned. It’s here she’s forced to admit Mildred was going to euthanize him. Together with Charlotte, the duo leave the facility with little in the way of security chasing them. As they head out the facility, Mildred passes them on the road. Edmund shoots a dirty look her way and it sends dread coursing through Mildred’s veins. We then jump forward to Mexico in 1950. Mildred and Gwen are together and Edmund is nowhere to be found. He’s completely disappeared and no one knows where to. Gwen is on the mend too and Bucket is there on vacation. As news of 7 nurses dying in Chicago hits the newspapers, Edmund phones and tells her it’s a clue. It turns out someone has sold her out but Mildred stands up for herself and tells him she’s going to find him. It turns out Edmund is with Louise and Charlotte and as they hit the road, the episode comes to a close.
The Episode Review
Ratched will certainly appease fans of American Horror Story and Ryan Murphy’s previous productions. Unfortunately the show also boasts some of the worst aspects of both of these. The script writing in particular is sloppy and the nose-dive in quality around the second half of the season is quite extraordinary. What happened with the Governor and his election? What’s going on with Edmund? What’s Charlotte’s deal? Is she really Hanover? Why is Edmund now best friends with her? And how has Louise suddenly decided to tag along? With three of them on the run, why is there no police manhunt underway? That’s to say nothing of the contrived nature of this ending and how everything has jumped forward to set things up for a second season. Huck was killed off like nothing too and the security at Saint Lucia certainly leaves a lot to be desired. It’s such a shame but this series has really failed to take off. It’s not a terrible show per-se but it’s also one of those average productions that could have been so much more. Given how pretty this show looks and the excellent acting, Ratched is a failed experiment that’ll stay locked in the basement until season 2 inevitably rolls round.
