Saturday, October 3, 2020

Round Two: Ratched

Ratched: Season 1, Episode 2 “Ice Pick” (B+)

This show is certainly fascinating, even if it’s more than a little disturbing. Mildred did confirm to Father Andrews that Edmund is her brother, and she seems to have this passion for helping others achieve what she believes to be serenity, the elimination of suffering even if what it results in is absolutely not what people would want. Dr. Hanover was excited to share his lobotomy procedure with the press, but even his nurses couldn’t handle the sight of drilling into someone’s head. His next option – driving an ice pick into his patient’s eye – was almost worse, but it didn’t rattle Mildred at all. She’s more than comfortable with the procedure, using it on Father Andrews after she convinced him that he should say all he knew allegedly under the guise of keeping Edmund from hurting anyone else. Dr. Hanover is very impressed with her, and he’ll likely be blinded to her true intentions, especially as he loses confidence in the rest of his staff. Nurse Bucket is not being particularly welcoming, and I think Sarah Paulson may just have won another Emmy with her delivery of “Oh look, my peach” when Nurse Bucket vomited in the operating theater. Gwendolyn was rather forward in bringing Mildred to a lesbian bar, something that she probably shouldn’t have done given that lesbianism was one of the ailments that Dr. Hanover was trying to cure, and she did not respond well at all. I’m intrigued to see how her endgame will play into what she does at the hospital and how loyal she truly is to her brother.

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