Tamal Kundu
As with any other modern TV shows, ‘Ratched’ utilized the penultimate episode to conclude most of its storylines. Many of the main characters, including Hanover (Jon Jon Briones) and Osgood (Sharon Stone), perished. Episode 10, titled ‘Mildred and Edmund’, mainly focuses on the show’s two main characters and sets the story up for a prospective second season. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ratched Season 1 Episode 8 Recap
Episode 8 opens with Louise (Amanda Plummer), who is now working at Lucia. It then cuts to Ratched (Sarah Paulson) and Briggs (Cynthia Nixon) in bed together. Briggs has started chemotherapy. Edmund seems to have come to terms with his fate and is enjoying his time at the barn that Hanover finished building before his death
Elsewhere, governor Milburn (Vincent D’Onofrio) is still keen on demonstrating his tough stand on crime to gain more supporters before a re-election bid. He oversees the execution of a young man of Edmund’s age and pulls the switch for the electric chair himself. Things go horribly wrong, and the inmate is engulfed in fire. The gruesome manner of his death convinces Ratched that she has to ensure than Edmund has a peaceful passing. She speaks to Bucket (Judy Davis), who agrees to send him to the barn at a designated time, so Ratched can administer a lethal injection on him.
However, all of their plans come undone when Charlotte (Sophie Okonedo) arrives at Lucia, acting as Hanover. She is looking for Hanover’s most important patient, Edmund. She grabs Hanover’s gun from his desk and kills Huck with it, before taking Bucket as a hostage and going to free Edmund. On their way out, their car passes that of Ratched.
The rest of the episode is set in 1950. Ratched and Briggs are in Mexico, and Bucket comes to visit them. They discover a report in a newspaper about the deaths of several nurses in Chicago and realize that Edmund is behind them. He calls Ratched, warning her that he is coming for her. Ratched responds by saying that it is her who is coming for him, and he should be afraid.
Ratched Season 1 Episode 8 Explained
Edmund’s past actions and Ratched’s conversation with Annie has convinced Ratched to finally stop feeling guilty about leaving him in that nightmarish house all those years ago. She realizes that she can’t save him, either from the execution or from himself. But she still wants to give him a painless death.
She and Briggs approach Milburn and pleads with him to have Edmund executed either in a gas chamber or by lethal injection. Milburn rejects the idea but quickly figures out that the two women are in a relationship with each other. Ever the shrewd politician, he tells them in a softer tone to vote for him.
Charlotte’s Arrival
Edmund doesn’t know yet that Ratched has given up on him. he spends his time among the animals, being happy and content. This changes when Charlotte invades the hospital as Hanover. After she killed him, Hanover became one of Charlotte’s personalities. When Edmund first sees Charlotte, he still believes that Ratched is trying to save him, and this is one of her ploys to help him escape. When Charlotte’s condition makes it apparent that the reality is something else, he points a gun at Bucket, who tells him the truth.
The Enmity between Siblings
The very idea that Ratched was planning to kill him turns Edmund even more violent. After lying dormant for a few years, he starts killing nurses, women whom he would have previously considered “innocent”, to draw Ratched’s attention. Ratched, on the other hand, lives in perpetual fear of her brother. She even has a troubling vision in which Edmund and Charlotte come to Mexico to kill her. In the final moments of ‘Ratched’ season 1, she musters enough courage to deny her brother a show of fear after he manages to find out where she is. We are also shown Edmund’s second accomplice, Louise, who seemingly had fallen out with Bucket.
Read More: Where is Ratched Filmed?
