Ratched – Ice Pick

By: Kelly Kearney

In the 1940’s mental illnesses were usually written off as hysteria, sexual deviances or an incurable disorder with only the most medieval treatments available. Whatever electric shock can’t fix; a lobotomy will cure. In this episode we learn the key to Dr. Hanover’s treatment for the mentally insane comes in the form of a spike to the brain, something that not only fascinates Nurse Ratched but seems to almost turn her on. Cruelty is her favorite game, topped with a sprinkle of revenge like a cherry on top, for all the suffering she has endured over her lifetime.

A How to Guide to Lobotomys

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out Mildred (Sarah Paulson) has a past seeped in pain and loss. To protect herself from any further pain, she’s managed to cool her rage to a numbness that has left her with a chilly misdemeanor. So, it’s no surprise when she tells Dr. Hanover (Jon Jon Briones),  “There are worse things than simply feeling nothing,” and this speaks to her own ways of dealing with her past but also in the medical practices happening in the hospital. We soon learn Dr. Hanover’s breakthrough treatment is actually an old one – a full frontal lobotomy to cure what ails you. The procedure requires a well-placed sharp tool to the brain tissue and it can numb the emotional pain in people who are often seen as hopeless in the medical world. Perhaps that’s why Mildred is so enamored with the practice. She is living proof that numbing pain can help keep you alive. When we see Nurse Ratchet slicing through a string meant to symbolize a cut off from her past, we start to realize what drives this character – pain and ripping out the parts of herself that feel it.

After a tiff between Nurse Bucket (Judy Davis) and Ratched over a missing peach, Dr. Hanover heads into the surgical theater where he’s invited the Governor (Vincent D’Onofrio), Gwendolyn Briggs (Cynthia Nixon), random spectators and his staff of nurses to fill the room to watch him perform his medical miracle. He plans on curing four patients of varying degrees of illnesses. Only the people he plans to lobotomize aren’t actually sick. One is an overly dramatic actress (Harriet Sansom Harris), another is filled with delusions of grandeur (Joseph Marcell), the third is a distracted teenager (Teo Briones) and the fourth a young lesbian (Elinor Gunn) who Mildred outs immediately. Almost as if it takes one to know one, Nurse Ratched’s gaydar pings with claims she recognizes the woman’s sexuality in her “facial structures.” As if that’s a thing.

As the doctor takes the stage he explains the procedure and how it will benefit his patients. He will lobotomize all four subjects in less than thirty minutes because a rushed spike to the brain? Hey, what could go wrong?! With the crowd leaning in to get a better look at his technique, the gruesome scene becomes too much for some to stomach. He hand cranks a drill into the skull of one man and as the patient convulses Nurse Bucket vomits.  Mildred Ratched smirks and with heavy snark she says, “There’s my peach.” The drill technique is unsuccessful, so Hanover moves on to a tool that resembles an ice pick, driving it through the eye socket of his next victim. This proves too much for his head nurse who flees the room, much to disappointment of her boss. Hanover turns his attention to the one woman who seems enthralled with his practices, Mildred Ratched. “You’re not like those other women,” he says. “You’re different.” I think the word he was thinking of is sadistic, but he is right that Mildred is a standout above the rest.

It’s not long before we see the after results of the procedure and they definitely did not have the curing effect they all hoped it would. The distracted teenage boy, Peter, says he has no thoughts at all now. For a precocious young boy, it’s sad to see him in this emotionless zombie like state. The technique also failed to “cure” the woman of her lesbian tendencies and that’s proven when Mildred catches her in a sexual tryst with another female patient, which leads us to some realizations about Mildred and her own confused sexual identity.

Gwendolyn, Mildred and Lesbian Oysters

After the grotesque display in the operating theater Mildred catches the eye of Gwendolyn, who asks her to go for a drive followed by a seafood dinner. After a short debate Mildred agrees and the two wind up slurping sultry oysters at a table with an ocean view. Is this a date? It seems that way because the chemistry between Ratched and Briggs is tangible. Their passion for oysters and possibly each other is a nice respite from the cruelty and gore at the hospital. The dinner segues into a nightcap and a flurry of mixed signals at a gay bar. At first Mildred is oblivious to the rainbow scene unfolding before her, but just as she starts to open up to Gwendolyn she slams the door shut on any romance and flees the bar in outrage. It’s not that Mildred is incapable of feeling as she has an abundance of those for the killer in the basement holding cell. But this tension between her and Gwendolyn is electrifying. For a woman who lives in a state of constant numbness, the fire is too hot for her to handle.

Back in the hospital Edmund (Finn Wittrock) is released from his cell for some one-on-one time with Doctor Hanover. Who, by the way, is not only lobotomizing patients but also building a barn to incorporate animals, mostly horses, into his therapy sessions. No horseback rides for Edmund though. The young man is suffering from delusions, paranoia, possibly Autism and a theory about aliens implanting radio antennas in his mouth. He bounces between understanding his crimes to forgetting he ever committed them and it starts to become clear that maybe Edmund isn’t as sick as everyone thinks he is. Sure, he comes off as broken and deranged. But the more he rambles nonsensically, it starts to seem like maybe this is all trick to get Hanover to declare him incompetent to stand trial. It’s not so much the killer is interested in Hanover’s cure, but the idea that this doctor can save him from the gas chamber is enough for Edmund to really lay the crazy on thick. Hanover all but says as much and that stops Edmund in his tracks…or at least his leering gaze at a knife on the doctor’s desk. His schizoaffective behaviors take a back seat when he’s reminded of his sister’s promise to protect him. Sister? That’s right! Edmund is the lost brother of Mildred Ratched and that’s why she’s at Lucia State hospital. To be closer to her only living relative and to keep him safe.

No witnesses, No Crime

After escaping the gay scene with Briggs we see Mildred head to the hospital to visit a wheelchair bound and traumatized Father Andrews (Hunter Parrish). He is he only surviving priest from her brother’s unholy murder spree. Always plotting, Mildred convinces Andrews to tell her his story in all its gory details by claiming she too wants to heal the world from the evil Edmund unleashed. Once she realizes the priest got a good look at Tolleson as he was killing the Monsignor, she knows his word will send the killer to the death chamber. If she wants to protect Edmund, she’s going to have to stop the good Father from talking. What better way than to cure his trauma with a spike to the brain! After all, when Hanover’s drill crank didn’t work she was lucky enough to see his other technique – the spike through the eye! It seems easy enough and with her medical training she can silence Father Andrews with swift poke! With a sympathetic tear in her eye, she drives the ice pick through his prefrontal lobe. Later, when the police and district attorney arrive for Father Andrews’ verbal affidavit, the young man is unable to speak and seems lost in his own shredded mind. The police think his behaviors are just a result of surviving a traumatic experience and nobody has an inkling that Mildred Ratched scrambled his brains. With Andrews out of commission and in no way a threat to her brother, Mildred accomplished what she set out to do. For now, Edmund is safe and under the watchful and thoroughly manipulative eyes of his sister. A happy family reunion of the cruelest of ways. Heaven help anyone who gets in Mildred or Edmund’s way.