Ratched Season 1 Episode 7 Recap – The Bucket List

[00:01:00] In 1943, Richard’s wife filed for a divorce because he chose his career over his obligations as a husband and father. She told the judge that Richard was so absent that she was forced to bring her mother to the US to help raise their daughter. Richard was too focused on his career that he even forgot to hire a lawyer for the proceedings. Richard told the judge he was busy helping Japanese families in the US—separated from each other because of the war. The judge found it ironic that Richard is concerned for the well-being of other families when he couldn’t even provide any attention to his own. The judge sided with Richard’s wife and granted her full custody of their daughter, Marisol. Richard begged his wife for mercy as they walked out of court.

[00:02:00] Richard told his daughter he would continue to provide for her. One month later, Richard went to see Lenore. He praised Henry as he was in a good mood that day for their therapy. Lenore told Richard that Henry was in a good mood because he burnt their cook early that morning—he heated a spoon until it was white-hot and returned it to the drawer. Consuelo, the cook, suffered a third-degree burn. Richard told her Henry was ill; then she asked him if he could treat her son. Richard told Lenore he wouldn’t treat her son—he would cure him. Lenore bursts into tears upon hearing Richard’s words.

[00:06:00] Huck speaks with Mildred and asks her if she’s doing fine. He’s worried about the trauma the shooting incident may have brought her. She tells Huck she’s doing fine and leaves. Huck stops Mildred and tries to ask her out. Mildred is flattered, but Huck thinks she doesn’t like him. Mildred told him the truth: she likes other women. She tells Huck not to tell anyone. Huck assures Mildred he won’t breathe a word of it. “You will find love, Huck,” Mildred tells him. Huck feels disappointed; he thought he could find love with Mildred. Yet, he’s not entirely worried about love; he worries about not having a purpose in life. Huck decides to end their conversation and leaves. Mildred tries to console him, but he continues walking away.

[00:09:00] Meanwhile, Louise brought Betsy the things she found inside Mildred’s room the night of the dance. Louise recalled how she rummaged around Mildred’s stuff and found clippings of Edmund’s murder along with Mr. Wainwright’s diary. She also found Mildred’s recorder. It recorded everything the night she performed a transorbital lobotomy on Father Andrews. Louise and Betsy listened to the recording. The next day, Betsy is on Mildred’s bed beside the recorder. Mildred is briefly stunned when she sees her. She enters her room. Betsy told Mildred she listened to the recording with a friend, then plays the part where Mildred tells Father Andrews: “Edmund Tolleson is my brother.” Mildred performing the lobotomy also got recorded.

[00:11:30] Betsy turns the recorder off then tells Mildred she knows what a lobotomy sounds like. She knows Mildred performed a lobotomy on Father Andrews. Betsy assumes Mildred went to Lucia State Hospital to free her brother. She tells Mildred there’s another party who listened to the recording then warns her: “if something happens to me, that other party would take this information to the police.” Mildred starts crying and tells her she’s tired from running and lying. She tells Betsy she knows between right and wrong, but she still did things she wasn’t proud of. Mildred shares with Betsy how they were abused as kids and how Edmund saved her from it all. So Mildred thinks Edmund doesn’t deserve to die no matter what. She has vowed to repay Edmund’s kindness by setting him free, but she no longer knows what Edmund deserves.

[00:14:00] Betsy sides with Mildred. When Mildred came to Lucia, she doubted she was a real nurse, so she verified her records. There is a standing record of Mildred being a nurse in the army, but she didn’t have any discharge records, so Betsy asks Mildred how she was discharged from the army. Mildred tells Betsy the truth—for the first time in her life, she is telling someone the truth. Mildred lied her way into the army to become a nurse. She didn’t have any formal education because she’s an orphan, but she knew it was her calling to become a nurse. Mildred was able to join the army and just did things her way. She showed mercy to the soldiers as they begged her for death. She knew they were beyond treatment and would eventually die, so she suffocated them to end their suffering.

[00:16:00] Mildred’s superiors eventually found out. She was about to be court-martialed from the army, but her superior just sent her away. Mildred’s career as a nurse ended with the war, but she wanted to try again, so she lied her way into Lucia. She tells Betsy that Richard never called the board to confirm her credentials and just hired her. Betsy thanks Mildred for her honesty and sympathizes with her for everything that happened in her life. She also thanks Mildred for her kindness the night of the dance. She tells Mildred it was a different feeling seeing her kindness.

[00:18:30] Betsy tells her she has a plan for both of them, including the hospital. It seems Betsy wants to repay Mildred’s kindness, and she wants Mildred to vouch for her, so her plan would work. They visit the owner of the hospital: Doris Mayfair. Their family is funding the hospital, paying for the majority of its bills. Doris has a sister: Francine, and when they were still little girls, they wanted to live at the hospital. But Francine had a mental illness. The doctors told their family they could cure her, but she only worsened. She heard voices and thought they were voices of angels and, soon after, demons.

[00:20:00] Francine was kept inside a cage for the rest of her life until she escaped, jumped out the window, and killed herself. Doris stops her story then asks why Mildred and Betsy paid a visit. Betsy tells her Dr. Hanover has fallen out of grace with Governor Wilburn and has lost all the government funding they need to run the hospital, so the Mayfield Foundation will need to fund the hospital to keep it running. Doris doesn’t find any issue funding the hospital, so she asks what they came for again. Mildred takes control of the conversation and tells Doris about Richard’s true identity: Manuel Bañaga. She also shares what happened to Henry Osgood in the hands of Manuel. Both Doris and Betsy can’t believe Mildred’s story. Doris responds that Richard must be terminated as head of the hospital immediately.

[00:22:00] Doris doesn’t know where to find a replacement for Dr. Hanover. Mildred suggests Nurse Bucket be placed as interim head until she finds a replacement. As Mildred and Betsy get into the car, Betsy tells Mildred she owes her. So Mildred tells her to appoint Huck as head nurse. Betsy disagrees—Huck isn’t qualified to become a head nurse. “Neither am I,” she reminds Betsy. Mildred vouches for Huck, telling Betsy that Huck will give his life to the hospital if she gives him the opportunity. The next day, Betsy goes into Richard’s office to inform him of his termination.

[00:23:30] Richard thinks he’s being fired because of being a junkie, but Betsy tells him straight she now knows about his true identity and what he did to Henry Osgood. Betsy tells Richard she doesn’t think he’s at fault for what happened, but he needs to explain everything to the police, who are on their way to the hospital as they speak. Richard panics and starts collecting his things. As he was leaving, Betsy tells Richard she truly loved everything about him—believed him and his teachings. Richard feels confused. “Why would you do this to me?” he asks Betsy. “I’m at the precipice of helping so many people,” he adds. “That’s why I’m letting you go,” Betsy responds.

[00:25:00] Richard tells Betsy he treated her poorly, but she doesn’t deserve it. He immediately goes to Charlotte’s room and takes her with him. A guard sees Richard leaving with Charlotte and tries to stop them. Mildred shows up and asks Charlotte if she believes Richard’s treatment helped her illness. Charlotte responds she believes Richard is the only person that could help her. Mildred takes Charlotte’s words and allows Richard to leave with her. He tells Mildred he shouldn’t have let her into the hospital. Mildred responds it was his best decision as she’s allowing him to leave despite the price on his head.

[00:27:00] Mildred calls Lenore, informing her about Richard leaving the hospital. She threatens to tell everything to the FBI if Lenore tries to call her again or have her killed. Lenore doesn’t like the betrayal, but Mildred hangs up on her. That night, Richard and Charlotte make it to a motel where they book two rooms. They get dinner, and Charlotte asks Richard what his plans are. He tells Charlotte they need to get across the border into Canada—he has a colleague in Vancouver who may admit her so that they could continue her treatment in secrecy. Richard assures Charlotte he can cure her, and once she’s cured, he can come out of hiding. After dinner, Richard takes Charlotte to her room. He is tucking her in when a police officer knocks on the door.

[00:30:00] Richard panics and pushes Charlotte inside a closet. He opens the door. The police officer is merely looking for a Cadillac owner parked outside, so he tells the officer he couldn’t afford a Cadillac. The officer ends their conversation. Richard lets Charlotte out of the closet. As Richard opens the door, Charlotte is now Apollo. Her different personality was triggered when Richard shoved her into the closet. Apollo accuses Richard of being Hitler and decides to fight him. She pushes Richard to the bed and eventually kills him. The next day, Charlotte wakes up inside the bathroom with blood all over her hands and clothes. She goes outside and finds Richard’s dead body beside the bed.

[00:33:30] Charlotte immediately calls Mildred and tells her what happened. Mildred tells Charlotte to lock her door, and she’s on her way. Mildred arrives the next night and helps Charlotte skip town. She books Charlotte a bus ride to San Diego and instructs her to cross the border to Mexico on foot. She tells Charlotte to admit herself to the San Luis Hospital to resume her treatment. Mildred placed fifty dollars inside Charlotte’s suitcase and promised to send more in the following weeks. Before leaving, Charlotte asks Mildred what would happen to Richard’s body. She responds she will take care of it and bids Charlotte goodbye as she boards the bus and leaves.

[00:36:30] Mildred returns to the room and looks at Richard’s body. She suddenly gets an idea and leaves. Mildred waits until morning in front of a hardware store. She enters the store as the owner opens the shop. Mildred checks the aisle and grabs a bone saw. The owner is curious why Mildred is buying a bone saw, but she merely greets him a good morning. After that, Mildred goes to Lenore and gives her a circular box. She’s in awe as she peeks inside the box, then she writes a cheque for Mildred. Mildred takes the cheque and leaves. Lenore gives the box to Henry. She opens it for him, but Henry tells his mother it doesn’t change anything. “I know that,” Lenore responds, “but now we can finally rest knowing that that man has paid for the terrible thing he did to you.”

[00:40:30] Henry blames Lenore for hiring Richard to cure him. Lenore gets up on Henry’s bed and snuggles him. She doesn’t see what is coming. Henry tells her she will now get what she deserves for hiring the doctor. Suddenly, a pitchfork thrusts through Lenore’s back, instantly killing her—Henry asked his friend to do it. Henry celebrates and mourns her mother’s death at the same time. Meanwhile, a woman named Anna visits Mildred. She’s the caseworker who forged the paperwork that made them siblings. Anna blames herself for what happened to Mildred and Edmund. Mildred responds she isn’t to blame because she was their guardian angel. Anna shows Mildred the paperwork about their last foster parents. Anna tells Mildred she wanted to gouge out their eyes after discovering what they did to them.

[00:44:00] Mildred recalls seeing Edmund after getting out of the foster care system. She called every juvenile facility in the state, but no one told her where Edmund was, so she went to every facility one by one, and she got lucky. Mildred finally found Edmund. He told Mildred about his upcoming release and to come back next Wednesday. Mildred assured Edmund she would be there. But when Mildred returned the following week, Edmund was gone—he lied to Mildred. She didn’t understand why Edmund lied, but she was about to find out. Anna tells Mildred about Edmund’s birth mother: Margaret McGuire. She tells Mildred that Monsignor Joseph Sullivan raped Margaret.

[00:45:30] She then tells Mildred that Joseph Sullivan is one of the four priests Edmund murdered. Finding out about Edmund’s mother made Mildred cry. Anna tells her it isn’t worth it to save Edmund. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn plans to move east to seek a new career. She no longer has a job in Lucia. Trevor tries to stop her, but she tells him the truth: Governor Wilburn isn’t the dirtiest man in politics, but he’s not the nicest man either. She knows Wilburn will ruin her career if she tries to enter politics in Lucia again. Trevor apologizes for the sour ending to their relationship then tells Gwendolyn about a man named Andrew who he wouldn’t have met if they didn’t separate. He tells Gwendolyn he will always be there for her if she needs anything and leaves.

[00:48:30] Mildred is waiting in her car outside Gwendolyn’s house as Trevor leaves. She takes the opportunity to talk with Gwendolyn. As Mildred enters her home, Gwendolyn goes down to business. She lets her heart out and blames Mildred for losing her job because she lied to her. Gwendolyn feels used; it hurts so much because she loves Mildred. Mildred tells Gwendolyn to forget about the pain because she loves her—it is the truest thing in her heart. Mildred tells Gwendolyn that Richard is dead. She asks Mildred if she killed him, but she didn’t have anything to do with it. Mildred tells her she came across some money and wants to spend the rest of her life with her, but Gwendolyn refuses.

[00:52:00] Gwendolyn reveals she went to have an x-ray to find out how her lung is healing from the gunshot wound. The doctors found a tumor in her left breast and said it wouldn’t be long until she dies. Mildred assures Gwendolyn they will find a doctor who could cure her. There is nothing they could do, Gwendolyn responds, but Mildred tells her otherwise. She caresses Gwendolyn, and they finally kiss—a moment they waited for a very long time. Meanwhile, Henry is eating lavishly as he asks one of his servants to flip the pages of the newspaper. The article reads of a servant who kills his boss. Henry recalls Diego, his servant, told the police that Henry ordered him to kill Lenore. The police didn’t believe Diego and arrested him for the murder.

[00:54:00] The family lawyer arrives to read Lenore’s last will. Henry killed his mother to gain her fortune, but his plan backfires when the lawyer reads her will. Half of the fortune will go to an art foundation to take care of Lenore’s art collection; the other half goes to her pet monkey, Petunia, for her continued care. The next line shocks Henry: Lenore places him into a psychiatric facility to live out the rest of his days. The will ends, leaving Henry without any choice. Henry despises Petunia; Lenore loves her monkey more than she loves him, and things come full circle as Petunia jumps up and down with glee.

[00:56:00] Betsy addresses the nursing staff of Lucia State Hospital as interim head. She appoints Huck as head nurse and tells everyone to get back to work. Mildred winks at Huck—she made it all happen for him. As everyone returns to work, Huck gives Mildred a slight nod of thanks for giving him purpose.