Wednesday, September 30, 2020

My Review of Ratched's 1x06: "Got No Strings"

 


Written by Jennifer Salt & Ian Brennan
Directed by Jessica Yu

Mildred (to Gwendolyn): "He's a patient at Lucia State Hospital. My brother is Edmund Tolleson."

Except, here we just found that Mildred and Edmund are not actually sister and brother in the biological sense but if this episode wanted us to feel sorry for Edmund, then it somewhat succeeded in a way, both through Mildred giving some context to Gwendolyn and Edmund's own behaviour while shortly on the run.

Now I hate puppet shows so I was definitely on Mildred's side in not wanting to go to a puppet show and found it somewhat odd that Gwendolyn herself seemed keen on the idea. This episode also managed to make puppet shows even more disturbing by using it as an allusion to describe the abuse that Mildred and Edmund suffered at the hands of the foster care system in horrifying detail.

Speaking of Edmund, I found it interesting that Dolly quickly pointed out his ease in murdering priests and a security guard while at the same time having a problem with killing a rooster for dinner. Dolly certainly hinted at her own dark side throughout their time together but things came to a brief end with a shoot out that resulted in Dolly's death. I didn't mind the character but I can't say I'll miss her in the grand scheme of things.

As for Edmund, he's back in Lucia State Hospital, having surrendered to protect Dolly (which didn't pan out), lost his alliance with Mildred and thanks to the governor deceiving Hanover, it looks like he'll be toast in the next two episodes. Or will he? Eh, probably not.

Continuing with the trend of terrible male characters in this show, Wilburn managed to be even worse than Hanover this episode with his condescension towards Mildred and the spiteful way in which he also fired Gwendolyn at the end of this one. If Mildred or Edmund want to bump him off, I won't object here. 

- Bucket gave Hanover the cold shoulder in this episode while Huck, Lenore and Charlotte were nowhere to be seen here.
- This episode was mostly away from Lucia until the last ten minutes. I liked the shift in format for this one.
- Standout music: Isham Jones And The Ray Miller Ocrchestra's I'll See You In My Dreams.
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Got No Strings definitely used the concept of a puppet show (and that creepy puppet guy) in an effective way to explain Mildred and Edmund's backstory while also putting Gwendolyn in something of an awkward place as well. As for Mildred, the pressure really is on for her now to save her brother, whether he deserves it or not.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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