Ratched episode 2, ‘Ice Pick’ recap: Ratched visits Father Andrews

In Ratched episode 2, Dr. Hanover demonstrates a cutting-edge lobotomy procedure. Ratched visits a survivor of Edmund’s massacre and joins Gwendolyn on an outing in Monterey.

Dr. Hanover strives to find the perfect lobotomy method in Ratched episode 2. His initial plan involves trepanning. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a grotesque and rudimentary procedure that consists of drilling a burr hole directly into the skull with a medieval-looking hand drill. When he demonstrates his “miracle” procedure in the operating theater, several of the visiting members of the press are horrified. One woman even faints.

Realizing his method might be too gruesome for the general public, Hanover refines his technique into something equally disgusting, but less graphic on the surface. He demonstrates his new approach on a few cadavers and invites the hospital staff to watch. This method involves a hammer and an ice pick.

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Hanover hammers the ice pick a few centimeters into the patient’s upper eye, beneath the eyelid, and calls it a transorbital lobotomy. Nurse Bucket heaves all over the floor when she sees this, and I don’t blame her. Netflix even added “moist crunching sounds” to the subtitles to drive home the disgust.

Hanover is not pleased with his nurse’s weak stomach and demands she leave the theater.

Once empty, Ratched snatches the opportunity to cozy up to Hanover, preening his ego and the lobotomy method while implying the showering methods used on Edmund are barbaric. Rather than being allowed to shower under armed guard, he’s soaked with a firehose and lathered with brooms by the guards.

Her sly suggestion works, and Ratched volunteers to take Edmund a bar of soap. She promises him she’s working on getting him released, and in this episode, her long-term plan begins to reveal itself.

As for the lobotomy victims, we all know the practice is barbaric. However, there is a legitimate and unfortunate history of horrific practices at asylums. As we see in this episode, the patients are never the same mentally after the procedure. One young male patient received a lobotomy because of his constant daydreams. When Ratched conducts the outpatient interview, he tells her he no longer has any thoughts at all.

Ratched episode 2 recap: Ratched accompanies Gwendolyn to Monterey.

Thus far, the only person who Ratched seems to get along with genuinely is the governor’s assistant Gwendolyn Briggs, who accompanies the press to the operating theater for the lobotomy demonstration. She takes a keen interest in Ratched, believing her to be a lesbian, like herself. Gwendolyn invites the nurse out for an “adventure” to Monterey for oysters, and the two women get along splendidly.

Gwendolyn even shows Ratched the right way to eat an oyster, and it’s full of all the gay subtext and tension you could want. I think it’s nice that these two characters are being played by two proud, out, and queer actresses (Sarah Paulson is married to Holland Taylor, and Cynthia Nixon has been vocal about her queer identity).

That said, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about Nurse Ratched potentially being turned into a gay ally/icon (we have enough gay people presented as villains on television, thank you very much) if that is the direction the show is going. On the one hand, I love watching gay women and characters on television in any capacity I can get, but on the other, I wonder if this doesn’t play into some overall harmful stereotypes. It’s too early to tell just yet.

It doesn’t happen in this episode, though, as when Gwendolyn reveals her true intentions by escorting Ratched to a lesbian bar for a nightcap (“I thought you were one of us”), Ratched balks and takes offense to the insinuation she might be gay.

Earlier in the episode, one of the lobotomized patients was a gay woman, and Ratched had no qualms with labeling her a lesbian and indicating it was a mental illness.

Ratched episode 2 recap: Ratched’s big plans for Father Andrews.

In Ratched episode 2, Ratched visits the lone survivor of Edmund’s murderous rampage — Father Andrews. After what he witnessed, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was escorted to a facility to recover. Wheelchair-bound and experiencing extreme trauma, he’s an easy mark for Ratched. She persuades him to tell his full story on record so they can ensure the court sentences Edmund to death.

Ratched appeals to his religion, giving him the bible she says her mother gave her at her first communion and saying all the right things regarding God and faith. She really is an expert manipulator. Ultimately, Ratched succeeds in convincing the father to visit her at her motel and recount that night for a recorder. While he shares the horrific details, she brews him a cup of tea with a sedative inside as we slowly realize her plan for him.

Once sedated, Ratched straps him to the bed and takes out her ice pick and hammer. She intends to lobotomize him, so that he is unable to testify against Edmund, explaining why she was so fascinated by the procedure and noted the meticulous details. It’s even better than the trepanning method since the transorbital entrance leaves no scars or lingering traces.

By the time the prosecutors arrive at the facility to hear Father Andrews’s testimony, he’s a vacant-eyed vegetable, for all intents and purposes. And just like that, a key witness in the prosecution’s case is defeated.

Odds & ends from Ratched episode 2:

• Scenes between Ratched and Nurse Bucket are some of the series’ best. I loved their battle of the peach in this episode.
• Despite her sexuality, Gwendolyn is married although it’s not clear who her husband is yet.
• When Ratched leaves the maximum-security cell after visiting with Edmund, she has to ask someone to open the gate. Doesn’t that mean someone could be watching her visits to the prisoner?
• Hanover and Edmund have a meeting in his office, and Edmund acts much differently than we’ve seen thus far. He pretends to have severe schizophrenia, but Hanover isn’t buying it. His performance is too perfect, says Hanover. He offers to help Edmund if he’s willing to confess to what happened in his “moment of rage.” Is he considering lobotomizing Edmund?
• Hanover mentions to Edmund that he “raped” one of the priests. I don’t recall that happening?
• Ratched officially admits Edmund is her brother. Part of the reason she’s doing all of this is that she doesn’t believe he was born a monster, but “someone made him that way.”

All eight episodes of Ratched season 1 are now streaming on Netflix.