Wild swings of quality take the show from masterpiece, to disastrous scene-to-scene; culminating in one of the most bizarre TV endings of 2020. Marley Eleven Bury brings us his Ratched Season 1 Episode 5 breakdown.
Oh Ratched… you had such promise.
Debuting with one of the most impressive pilots of the year, we are now past the season’s halfway point and the show has; consistently, declined in quality with every episode.
Most tragic of all however, is that its swings in quality are not entirely downward.
The show; like a sailor struggling to keep themselves afloat in icy waters, keeps popping above the surface with gasps of greatness and its old quality.
However, the tide of poor writing that has overtaken the series is drowning all of these once great elements.
The episode opens by throwing out all of the best plot elements from the first half of the season: Ratched openly blackmails Dr. Hanover; revealing her malicious intentions, thus completely and permanently changing their dynamic.
This is such a poorly conceived idea, that I was sorely tempted to turn off the episode at this point; dreading what was in store for me.
Yet; for a time, it seemed like the show still had some life within it. A new subplot begins with a character named Charlotte Wells; played by the immensely talented Sophie Okonedo, who is struggling with multiple-personality disorder.
Her personalities include an exceptionally obnoxious ‘world-famous’ musician, a boxer and a baby; all of which are conveyed astoundingly well by Sophie.
Her presence especially as the musician: Ondine Duquette, is exceptional. It is aggressive, intimidating and hateful; in contrast to Charlotte’s likeable and frightened baseline.
As the storyline develops, Dr. Hanover uses hypnosis therapy to explore the root of her trauma and discovers that she was kidnapped, tortured, locked inside a closet and when finally released; after nine days of hell, only freed by the police officer on the condition that she did not press charges.
The officer was the father of one of the boys who tormented her and brought her a fresh change of clothes, $5 and dropped her at a bus-station; as if her suffering was worth little more than a polite: ‘Sorry ma’am’.
Sophie’s performance in relaying these experiences is harrowing, raw and disturbingly realistic; each moment tugs at your heartstrings and when Dr. Hanover uses the hypnosis therapy to separate her mind from the tug-of-war with her other personalities, the relief is so palpable that you sigh in exhaustion.
The cherry on top of this incredible sequence is Dr. Hanover’s reactions, both during and after her revelation.
Jon Jon Briones completely sells the reserved, yet humanistic traits of Hanover and his breakdown afterwards; desperately crying with joy once alone, as he proclaims: ‘I think I helped someone today. I really helped someone’.
This simple breakdown is more powerful than anything else the show has recently offered and his gentle tenderness for this character, a genuinely heartfelt moment in a series full of darkness.
It is by far the show’s strongest emotional sub-plot and had the rest of the episode been even half-as-good, the series could have been well and truly back-on-track.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t. Not even close.
Instead, Ratched’s manipulations culminate in a dance being organised at the hospital; designed to give Edmund the chance to prove his insanity, thus saving himself from the governor.
However; rather than listen to the sister that he has spent years/decades apart from, with a complex emotional history between the two suggested: He instead decides to run off with a sexy nurse.
That might sound chauvinistic, yet there is simply no other summary for it.
Edmund has known this nurse for what cannot have been more than a few weeks, perhaps a month or two at most; yet is ready to abandon his sister for her.
It is comically absurd and the series descends into emotional torture porn level, based on a fundamentally ridiculous concept.
First, Edmund cuts the throat of the likeable security guard; his blood spurting onto Charlotte, thus regressing all of her mental therapy development; as her multiple personalities return in force.
Then, the nurse shoots Ratched’s love interest; badly wounding her, with the moment playing like an absurdist black-comedy.
Now, could this all be justified by future revelations? Yes, it absolutely could be.
But the question is: Should it be?
The show fundamentally feels like its throwing away some of its most nuanced, insightful storylines for emotional shock-value and cheap twists.
The worst elements feel over-exposed, the best undercooked or; in this case, used as build-up for incredibly frustrating payoffs as the show falls further into: “Trying too hard territory”.
It cannot be overstated how tiring that ending feels, a big slap-dash climax that feels so over-the-top, they might as well have blown up the hospital and ended the show on a kill-spree ending.
Even that might feel more dignified then its current slog into insufferable emotional edginess.
Ratched Season 1 Episode 5 Netflix review by Marley Eleven Bury
Episode Reviews
Our Rating
Summary
A once proud narrative falls into absurdity and emotional exploitation, relying on cheap tricks; while its best elements are wasted. Sophie Okonedo steals the entire episode; holding up this crumbling season, yet even she is defeated by the show’s cliff-drop quality fall.
