Ratched Season 1 Episode 5 Recap – The Dance

[00:01:00] Mildred invites Richard for dinner. She doesn’t waste time and gets down to business once Richard arrives. She tells Richard that she won’t allow him to have Edmund deemed fit for trial. Richard responds he will make his own decision about Edmund Tolleson; they will not control him. Mildred knows Richard would make things hard for her. She responds by trying to blackmail Richard. She reminds him he’s responsible for two murders in the hospital. He denies having anything to do with Salvatore’s death, but Mildred tells him otherwise. She tells Richard she could testify in court or whatever seems necessary to put him behind bars. Mildred wants Richard to appoint her as head nurse—this infuriates the doctor, but he tries his best to control his anger and not make a scene.

[00:03:00] Mildred gets up, leans toward Richard, and whispers: “Search yourself, and you will realize it’s wise to do what I ask.” The next day, Richard forces Nurse Bucket to hand over her resignation. He tells her he’s sick of her and her gifts. She refuses to resign, telling the doctor no one else is capable or qualified to fill her position. “Mildred Ratched,” Richard responds. Hearing the words from Richard shatters her heart. Nurse Bucket slowly leaves Richard’s office while wiping her tears off.

[00:05:30] Mildred addresses all the staff as a newly appointed head nurse. Nurse Bucket sits on the far side of the common room, listening to what she has to say. Mildred has temporarily saved Edmund from Richard’s wrath. She now focuses on saving Edmund from Governor Wilburn. She tells the staff they will have a little celebration in her name—a dance for the staff and patients in the common room. Mildred tells Edmund he needs to convince everyone in the dance that he’s insane so that everyone can see. After their talk, Mildred meets with Nurse Bucket and gives her a peach. Nurse Bucket promises not to undermine her because she needs the job, but Mildred turns the tables on Nurse Bucket. “He has feelings for you,” she tells Nurse Bucket, referring to Dr. Hanover.

[00:08:00] Nurse Bucket can’t believe it, but she feels flattered that the love of her life could somehow love her back. Mildred gave her false hope—everything was part of her plan. After speaking with Nurse Bucket, Mildred goes to Richard’s office and tells him to say yes to Nurse Bucket as she will most likely ask him to the dance. Richard disapproves, but Mildred manages to convince him. Meanwhile, a black woman berates a violinist, quietly playing under a tree. She insults him to the point that bystanders try to protect him. The woman brags to the bystanders that she’s a great violinist. She continues to insult the violinist while he packs up his stuff.

[00:10:30] The woman introduces herself as Ondine Duquette. After the incident, Miss Duquette finds herself at the Lucia State Hospital, interviewed by Dr. Hanover. He asks her what she’s doing at the hospital. Miss Duquette tells Richard her name is Charlotte Wells. Richard double checks the paperwork—it reads Ondine Duquette. She tells Richard she’s having memory problems and recalls boarding a train to New York without any recollection of how she got on the train. Charlotte tells him she used to have melancholia. The facility that tried to treat her gave a medicine that kept her awake for days. He tells Charlotte about the police report and a woman named Ondine Duquette. Charlotte starts crying and tells Richard she doesn’t know Ondine. She only hears a voice inside her head.

[00:12:00] Richard tries to evaluate Charlotte further, but she turns into another personality. She starts baby talking and tells Richard her name is Baby Taffy. She gets up and tells Richard her mommy needs soup. He asks her where her mommy is, then Charlotte points over to the empty couch behind her. Richard tries to calm Charlotte down and sit on the chair again, but she changes into another personality. This time, she is full of rage. She tells Richard that Hitler is outside the hospital, waiting to strike back. She goes on shouting Hitler didn’t die, and he’s out to get revenge because she got five gold medals in Hitler’s own Olympics. Charlotte throws one of Richard’s armchairs and takes the broken leg to defend herself against Hitler.

[00:14:00] Four persons restrain Charlotte. She’s changed into Ondine again and tells them she needs to be on a train for New York that night. Richard administers a drug into Charlotte’s system as he tells her she needs to rest because her nervous system is exhausted. She slowly calms down and returns to normal. She asks Richard where she is. Richard responds she’s safe, but she’s suffering from multiple personality disorder. Richard tells her to rest and leaves the room. Mildred follows Richard, but he wants her to stay away from him. She tells Richard he needs to cure Charlotte and show Governor Wilburn he could cure her and forget about Edmund. She tells Richard he will get all the funding he needs if he successfully cures Charlotte.

[00:17:00] That evening, Mildred enjoys dinner with Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn is confused why she’s having dinner with Mildred when she denied all of her previous advances. She tells Gwendolyn she has feelings for her, but she still doesn’t understand them. Mildred wants to do things her way. Gwendolyn understood. She tells Mildred Governor Wilburn wants the Edmund case resolved by the end of the month. Mildred agrees and tells Gwendolyn she wants nothing more than for Edmund to get what he deserves. Mildred tells Gwendolyn about her promotion and invites her to the dance. Gwendolyn accepts the invitation and tells Mildred she would be glad to accompany her to the dance.

[00:19:00] The next day, Lenore Osgood arrives in Lucia. She tries to get a room at the motel, but things aren’t up to her standards. She knocks on Mildred’s door and tells her she’ll hear from her once she finds a more suitable place to stay.

[00:21:00] Lenore calls Mildred over to talk as she finds a very fancy hotel to stay in, paying for the whole top floor. Lenore goes down to business and tells Mildred she hired a man to do a woman’s job. Mildred confirms she works for Richard, and he told him about Henry. Lenore recalls Henry playing the cello when he was still a little boy. But Henry lost both his arms and legs, so he won’t be able to play the cello any longer. Richard must die, Lenore tells Mildred. Mildred agrees and tells her she will be up to the task of killing Richard. She requests one million dollars, but Lenore doesn’t take it lightly. She thinks Mildred is taking advantage of her.

[00:24:00] Mildred tells Lenore she has a family to take care of and would no longer be able to provide for her family after she kills Richard. No one takes advantage of her, Lenore tells Mildred. Meanwhile, Richard studies hypnotherapy as Nurse Bucket approaches him. She asks Richard to go to the dance with her. Richard hears her request and happily agrees. He requests to try hypnosis on her as part of his research for Charlotte. Nurse Bucket agrees. Richard turns on the machine then tries to convince Nurse Bucket to no longer attend the dance, but she refuses. She tells Richard she wouldn’t miss the dance for anything. Richard concludes that hypnosis doesn’t work on her and leaves. Nurse Bucket celebrates—she is going to the dance with the love of her life.

[00:27:00] Dolly brings a meal for Edmund. She read Edmund’s file and saw what he did to the priests. He asks her if she thinks he’s a monster. Dolly responds she doesn’t think he is a monster. She knows the feeling of rage towards someone. Dolly knew that one of the priests raped Edmund’s mother and left her—she blames the monsignor for putting rage in him. She tells Edmund she also has the same kind of rage. She wishes to be with Edmund for the rest of her life. She implants an idea in him that they could grow old together and nothing from their pasts would haunt them. Meanwhile, Edmund tells Mildred about his plan for the dance. He tells her he will act possessed then start cutting himself in front of everyone. Mildred agrees and thinks it is a good plan.

[00:31:00] Richard starts hypnotherapy on Charlotte. He addresses all of her personalities and asks for their permission to allow Charlotte to undergo therapy. Somehow hypnosis works on Charlotte. She goes to sleep for a few minutes. When Richard wakes her up, she is just Charlotte. Richard told Charlotte her multiple personalities resulted from severe trauma in her past. He wants to know what happened, so Charlotte tells him. Four white men kidnapped Charlotte. They brought her to an abandoned house and stripped her naked. She thought they were going to rape her, but they didn’t. Instead, they kept her inside a closet for nine days. They would come by the house and just play with her. They would set her free and chase her around the house. It was torture for her.

[00:34:00] One of the boys no longer wants to participate in her torture. They told his friends to let Charlotte go as her wounds were starting to get infected since she sat in her excrement. On the ninth day, police went to the house and promised to release her as long as she didn’t press any charges against the boys. Charlotte didn’t think the man was a real police officer. She knew he was one of the boy’s fathers. She agreed not to press any charges, and she was given a fresh set of clothes. The man gave her five dollars and took her to the bus station. Nothing has been the same ever since. Richard knew that Charlotte’s personality emerged to shield her from the trauma she experienced. He tells Charlotte to go back to sleep.

[00:36:00] Richard snaps his fingers and tells Charlotte she will no longer be bound to her traumatic experience. He records his analysis and findings on Charlotte’s case. He cries at the thought of finally helping someone and achieving something in the field of medicine. Meanwhile, Nurse Bucket invited her friend over for dinner to practice dancing. She is preparing for the dance and brags she is going to the dance with Richard. Nurse Bucket is obsessed with Dr. Hanover, to the point that she sees things differently when she’s with him. Nurse Bucket doesn’t see annoyance when Richard rejects her gifts; she genuinely thinks something is between them. Nurse Bucket’s friend is the owner of the motel, Louise. They danced till dark and continued drinking on her porch. Nurse Bucket tells her she needs to get revenge on Mildred.

[00:39:00] Nurse Bucket wants Louise to go through Mildred’s stuff and find anything she could use to expose her. She knows Mildred is up to something, and she wants to find out. Louise supports her friend, agreeing to her plan. The next day, Richard is calmly eating dinner when Lenore enters and asks for a table. Richard stops eating once he hears Lenore speak to the waitress. He doesn’t know what to do. He glances at the table where Lenore is sitting, but as he tries to look, Lenore is gone. Richard goes to the motel and asks Mildred for help. He is frantic and admits to abusing drugs. He tells her he’s falling apart. Mildred calms Richard down and instructs him to return to the hospital. He does as told and leaves the motel.

[00:43:00] Mildred asks Lenore why about showing herself to Richard. She tells Lenore that Richard is now holed inside the hospital under an armed guard. Lenore tells Mildred she followed Richard all day long. She thinks she would get enraged by following him around and just shoot him in the head and be done with him. But Lenore thought of Henry: no one would care for him if she gets sent to prison. Lenore tells Mildred she cannot be implicated in a murder. She tells Mildred she will pay her $100,000 to kill Richard. Mildred knows the money isn’t enough, but she couldn’t turn the offer down. She accepts and leaves the hotel. Mildred goes back to the hospital and visits Edmund, practicing his dance moves.

[00:45:00] Mildred tells Edmund about their plan. She told all the staff not to pay attention to him because he’s part of a social experiment. Edmund couldn’t believe Mildred could pull things off with Richard’s permission. Mildred tells Edmund that Richard’s mind is elsewhere, and she’s now in charge of the hospital. Later that night, the dance is in full swing. Harold invites Charlotte to dance while the rest of the patients are already lighting up the dance floor. Nurse Bucket does everything to get Richard to dance: she often brings him punch. Richard finally agrees to dance with him. As the two of them are dancing, Richard realizes something and leaves immediately. Mildred asks Nurse Bucket if she saw Dolly anywhere. Nurse Bucket responds Dolly is her problem as head nurse and goes back to enjoy the dance.

[00:48:00] Richard goes to his private stash to shoot up on drugs. He does a quick one then returns to the dance. He is so high he takes the dance floor with Nurse Bucket, stealing the show. Suddenly, everyone freezes at Edmund’s arrival. Mildred quietly tells him where she hid the razor blade. Gwendolyn gives Nurse Bucket some punch and introduces herself. “Betsy Bucket,” she introduces herself. They talk about Mildred as the music slows down. Gwendolyn tells Betsy she’s attending the dance as Mildred’s chaperone. Betsy ends their conversation as she finds it odd for a woman to accompany another woman as a chaperone. Dolly arrives in a red dress and invites Edmund to dance. Betsy confronts Dolly for dancing with Edmund, but she tells her to mind her own business.

[00:52:00] Dolly asks Edmund if he remembers their plan. Edmund responds that once Dolly gives the signal, he goes after Harold and will escape together. Betsy approaches Richard and invites him to dance again. Richard no longer wants to dance, but he can’t escape Betsy. Gwendolyn tells Mildred they also should dance, but Mildred declines. She tells Gwendolyn that maybe someday, they also get to dance in public. Huck takes the opportunity to ask Mildred to dance—she agrees. Huck escorts her. Meanwhile, Betsy fantasizes about her future with Richard. She tells him that everyone is looking at them when no one notices them.

[00:54:00] Betsy tells Richard their story is a fairytale: a doctor and a nurse, as she puts it, but Richard disagrees. Betsy is fine if Richard doesn’t want to have any kids. She tells him being with him for the rest of her life would be enough. Richard has had enough of Betsy. He shames Betsy in front of everyone. He tells her he loathes her presence since day one. Richard shouts at her and tells her nothing will happen between them. He forbids Betsy to speak with him ever again and threatens to hurt her if she ever tries to talk with him again. Mildred tries to calm Richard down as Betsy flees with a broken heart. Gwendolyn tells Mildred they should run after Betsy. Mildred hesitates but goes with Gwendolyn anyways.

[00:55:00] They find Betsy washing her face inside the pantry. Betsy cries as she knows everything is just in her mind. Betsy admits she knew Richard didn’t have feelings for her, but she wanted things to happen so badly she imagined everything between them. Gwendolyn and Mildred do their best to help Betsy out. Mildred tries to fill her head with positivity, but she’s just too heartbroken to see things from a different perspective. Mildred leaves Betsy with Gwendolyn and confronts Richard. He tells Mildred he’s done following her orders and adds that he’s her superior, so she should follow him. Mildred tells Richard he’s mistaken and tells Edmund it’s his turn.

[00:58:00] Edmund takes the razor, but instead of cutting himself, he slits Harold’s throat, spewing blood all over Charlotte. Dolly takes Harold’s gun and points it at anyone who dares to stand in their way. Gwendolyn tells Dolly to put the gun down, but Dolly doesn’t want to. She shoots Gwendolyn in the chest before fleeing. Mildred goes over to Gwendolyn to check her wound as Charlotte reverts to Ondine. Richard does his best to calm Charlotte down, but he can’t.

[01:00:00] Dolly and Edmund abandon their car while the police are hot on their heels. They find the car, but Dolly and Edmund are no longer around.