Ratched – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Dance

Episode 5 of Ratched begins with Dr Hanover meeting Mildred again. The pair discuss Edmund Tolleson and in particular, the death sentence he could be facing.

Mildred takes drastic measures and starts blackmailing Hanover for the two deaths inside Lucia State. Going one step further, she demands to be installed as head nurse.

This is all part of her plan. As she gives a rousing acceptance speech in front of everyone, a cutaway scene with Edmund confirms her true motives. She’s going to allow a patient/staff dance so both can enjoy time together in a social setting. It’s here she wants Edmund to convince everyone that he’s insane.

Knowing that Bucket is the one obstacle in her way, she hands over a peach and manipulates the woman. She tells her to take Hanover to the dance. To make sure things go swimmingly, she also blackmails him into saying yes.

After an outburst at a violin player, Charlotte Wells is brought into Lucia State. She’s suffering from amnesia and hearing voices. Specifically the voice of Ondine Duqette.

As we soon see, she doesn’t have amnesia but instead multiple personality disorder. As she begins to turn manic, Hanover sedates her and put the girl to sleep for now.

Mildred continues to spin her web of deceit, this time seemingly toward Gwendolyn. She goes out for dinner with her and admits she has feelings for her. At this point it’s really difficult to know if she’s being sincere or not.

However, she invites Gwendolyn along as her companion to the dance.

Rocking up like Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean, Lenore Osgood shows up at the motel with her pet monkey. She’s flying in her decorators to redo all the furnishings and sits with Mildred where they talk about what happened with Hanover and Henry. On the back of this, Mildred requests 1 million dollars and promises to get rid of Hanover for her.

With the dance coming up, Dolly takes the time to visit Edmund down in the basement. She wishes they could be free together and Edmund tells her he loves her. As they kiss, she leaves him for now and he heads to the showers.

There, he confirms to Mildred what his plan is – including cutting himself and causing a scene in front of everyone.

Elsewhere, Hanover starts to conduct hypnotherapy on Charlotte to get to the bottom of what’s happening to her. As she finally opens up about her past, Hanover promises that her trauma doesn’t need to be a burden anymore. Hanover however, struggles to conduct himself in the wake of helping Charlotte overcome her fears.

However, that’s the last of his woes. As he sits at a diner and eats, he notices Osgood arrive in the corner of his eye. Only, she leaves as he turns his head. Unable to control himself, he heads to Mildred’s house and asks for her help.

She encourages Hanover to sleep in his office at work. Eventually Mildred heads off to see Osgood and asks her what she’s doing. Overcome with rage, Osgood admits she’s unable to control herself but doesn’t want to be labeled a murdered. Instead, she agrees to give $100,000 for killing Hanover. As they shake on it, Mildred heads back to the dance.

The dance gets underway and Mildred makes her move. While everything starts going swimmingly, Hanover takes his absence to take drugs. Mildred watches from afar as he starts making a scene and dancing in front of everyone.

Edmund arrives, followed by Dolly not long after, who leads him into the middle of the dance-floor. As they dance together, Dolly has a plan of her own intending to undermine Mildred’s.

Unfortunately all of this starts coming undone when Bucket and Hanover go their separate ways. As she starts sobbing, Mildred gives the nod to Edmund and tells him to make a scene. Only, that scene comes from Dolly suddenly turning, shooting Gwendolyn and Edmund slicing the guard’s throat.

As they race away, Mildred pleads with Gwendolyn to survive. At the same time, police catch up with the car…but find both Edmund and Dolly gone.

The Episode Review

As we cross the halfway point, everything starts to come undone and turns into a teen melodrama. We’ve got weird romantic love angles, drama and Mildred getting involved in everything.

It all leads to a confusing, conflicted series that can’t decide what sort of tone or feel it wants to adopt. Logic is thrown out the window here too. Who would allow dangerous criminals like Edmund to be free without handcuffs? Let alone that close to Dolly. No one bats an eyelid to it.

Even more alarming is Dolly’s sudden 180 and ease in shooting Gwendolyn. That comes out of complete left-field. Sadly this show seems to have taken a nose-dive in quality.

It’s a shame too as it started so brightly. Bucket being used as comic relief is ultimately the final nail in the coffin here and it’s a real shame. Hopefully this is just a blip and it can improve going forward.