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Staff of Lucia State Hospital
Nurse Mildred Ratched
Played by: Sarah Paulson
The main protagonist of the series. A calculating and deceptive woman who hires herself onto the state hospital in the hopes of rescuing her brother.
- Badass Boast: She does this quite a lot with people who cross her, such was when Betsy Bucket sarcastically apologises for eating her peach.Mildred: You are not sorry. But you will be.
- Battleaxe Nurse: Despite being the poster girl for this trope, Ratched only shows shades of this archetype since this is her origin story.
- Blackmail: She manages to manipulate people in her favor by finding juicy dirt to use against them.
- Big Sister Instinct: She'll do anything to protect Edmund from being convicted.
- Character Development: During the first half of the series, she was firmly homophobic and found the idea of same-sex relationships to be appalling. After witnessing the brutal treatment her lesbian patients endured while coming to appreciate Gwendolyn, she lets go of her homophobic beliefs and accepts her identity as a lesbian.
- The Chessmaster: Ratched's greatest strength is her ability to organize elaborate schemes while taking notes of the people around her to either use to her advantage or to take them down in the long run.
- Dark and Troubled Past: "Got No Strings" goes into full detail with Ratched's backstory. During the Great Depression, her mother became an alcoholic and sent her to the foster care system due to being unable to raise her anymore. Each foster family was unbelievably abusive towards Mildred and her blood brother as they endured physical beatings and insults for the most trivial of reasons. To top it all off, their final foster family forced them to perform sexual actions onto each other for a crowd of perverts and pedophiles. As Edmund killed them in righteous fury, Mildred was forced to run away and harbored guilt for leaving her brother behind despite promising him that they'd always be together.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite her open disdain for the LGBTQ community, she is appalled when Betsy forces two lesbian patients to undergo brutal hydrotherapy sessions in the hopes of "curing them".
- She's appalled when Governor Wilburn electrocutes a man live on air, in front of an audience full of reporters.
- Kick the Dog: She tells Mr. Salvatore that his family are never coming back for him and intend to leave him in the hospital forever, culminating in the poor man committing suicide with a letter opener in Dr. Hanover's office, which she merely did in order to have blackmail material on Dr. Hanover in the future.
- Mercy Kill: During the war, she would smother various soldiers who were suffering from serious injuries. Unfortunately, she did it too many times that her commanding officer caught on to her malpractice and fired her.
- My Greatest Failure: She's motivated to free her brother due to running away as he killed their pedophilic foster parents despite vowing to be with him.
- Trauma Button: She doesn't enjoy puppet shows. This is because her last foster family featured a puppet theater where she and Edmund were forced to perform sexual acts.
Dr. Richard Hanover
Played by: Jon Jon Briones
The head doctor of Lucia State Hospital. He tries desperately to maintain control of his hospital while dealing with Ratched's sinister agenda.
- Asian and Nerdy: He is a Filipino doctor (real name: Manuel Bañaga) who studies and researches various medical treatments in order to help his patients.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He actually had a wife and 8 year old daughter but failed to provide for either of them since he was too busy helping with Japanese patients after the Internment Camp era. It got to the point that his wife decided to file a divorce with the judge allowing it in her favor.
- Decapitation Presentation: Ratched cuts off his head and gives it to Mrs. Osgood to collect the bounty that she had placed on it. Though it should be noted that he was already dead before being decapitated.
- Functional Addict: He's seen abusing drugs to cope with the immense pressure he's under.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: He has shades of misogyny based on his treatment of Nurse Bucket. In Episode 2 he calls her a lilly-livered hausfrau (a German housewife) as an insult and later he flat out stated that he was tired of women telling him what to do.
- Would Hit a Girl: He threatens to strike Betsy if she tried to approach him with romantic intentions, though to be fair he was high as a kite on amphetamines at the time.
Nurse Betsy Bucket
Played by: Judy Davis
The head nurse of Lucia State Hospital. She becomes one of Ratched's sworn enemies due to the new nurse's underhanded tactics.
- Abhorrent Admirer: To Dr. Hanover who detests her open displays of affection.
- Alliterative Name: Betsy Bucket.
- Believing Their Own Lies: When Mildred tells Betsy the reason Dr. Hanover is so cold to her is because he's secretly in love with her, Betsy not only believes this despite having every reason to mistrust Mildred, but starts misremembering every interaction with Dr. Hanover as being full of romantic overtones and telling her friend Louise she's sure they'll elope. All because he reluctantly asked her to the dance.
- Character Tics: She talks with her hands a lot, fitting her dramatic personality.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: As the story progresses, she becomes more emotional and warmer compared to her serious persona in Episode 1.
- Does Not Like Men: She comes to develop this attitude at the end of season 1 and feels much happier as a result.
- Fire-Forged Friends: She ends becoming this with Ratched as the two women decide to cooperate to take down Dr. Hanover and end up in more desirable positions at Lucia.
- The Rival: To Ratched.
- Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: Her behaviour towards Dr. Hanover borders on harassment at times, constantly giving him gifts he doesn't want, trying to make him put his hands on her at the dance and choosing to interpret his extremely unfriendly demeanor and body language as him merely being "shy".
- You Are in Command Now: After getting Dr. Hanover fired, Betsy ascends to becoming the new boss of Lucia State Hospital.
Huck Finnigan
Played by: Charlie Carver
A good hearted man with a scarred face who works as an orderly.
- Boom Head Shot: He's unfortunately killed with a bullet to the head by Charlotte in the season 1 final.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's appalled when Dr. Hanover orders two lesbian patients to be burned in hot water to "cure" them. He hates it so much that he teams up with Ratched to help the two women escape the hospital and live somewhere safe.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The right side of his face was heavily burned. Most likely from his service in World War II.
- Morality Pet: He is one of the only people Mildred never attempts to manipulate in any way and she always treats him very gently, even giving him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech when she declines his invitation to dinner.
- Nice Guy: One of the few good hearted people at Lucia State.
- She Is the King: A gender flipped example. After Betsy ascends the throne, she appoints Huck as the new head nurse.
Nurse Dolly
Played by: Alice Englert
A nurse trainee who ends up becoming Edmund's love interest.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: She has a history of falling for dangerous men. She even falls head over heels for Edmund and helps him escape.
- All Women Are Lustful: She's a nymphomaniac and is pretty amorous. It's because of this that she ends up having sex with Edmund upon their first meeting.
- Farm Girl: She claims that she used to work at her grandma's farm and knows a thing or two about killing farm animals for food.
- Last Stand: When the police corner Edmund and her in an abandoned farmhouse, Dolly tries to fight back by attacking the cops with a shot gun. She only gets a few shots in before she's gunned down.
Patients of Lucia
Edmund Tollerson
Played by: Finn Wittrock
An inmate who was arrested for killing four priests in cold blood. He is also Ratched's brother and has a complicated relationship with her.
- Big Bad: Is setting up to be this in season 2.
- Dark and Troubled Past: "Got No Strings" goes into full detail with Edmund's backstory. His mother was raped by a priest and abandoned by him, and soon he too was abandoned by her in the foster care system. Each foster family was unbelievably abusive towards him and his blood sister as they endured physical beatings and insults for the most trivial of reasons. To top it all off, their final foster family forced them to perform sexual actions onto each other for a crowd of perverts and pedophiles. As Edmund killed them in righteous fury, Mildred was forced to run away and harbored guilt for leaving her brother behind despite promising him that they'd always be together. Edmund would later be arrested and be sent to live in a home for delinquent boys.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- He ends up falling for Dolly, a nurse whom he had sexual relations with. After breaking out of the hospital together, Edmund tries to remind her of the seriousness of their situation while treating her like a respectable boyfriend. He even breaks down in tears after Dolly is gunned down by the police in a desperate attempt to help him.
- Zigzagged with Ratched. Despite their bond as siblings, Ratched often feels frustrated by Edmund's difficulty to cooperate with her plans because of his skewed morality and bringing up their past mistakes. And once Edmund finds out about Ratched's plan to Mercy Kill him from Betsy, he decides to denounce her as his blood sister and vows to kill her.
- Freudian Excuse: His reason for killing the priests was because one of them raped his mother and had the nerve to abandon her afterwards.
- Mr. Fanservice: His extremely muscular body is shown off several times in the series. Dolly is certainly impressed, to the point she willingly gives him a handjob the first time they meet and believes him to be a psychopath.
- Serial Killer: His episode debut features him killing four priests. In the season 1 finale, he would kill 7 nurses in Chicago in order to deliver a message to his sister.
Charlotte Wells
Played by: Sophie Okonedo
A fragile woman who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Charlotte cannot remember anything whenever one of her alters take over.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if Charlotte is aware of her involvement in Edmund's breakout along with joining his killer crew.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: She deeply cares for Dr. Hanover do him using various treatment methods to help her to which she feels grateful for. When she realizes that she killed him on accident, she would create a new alter based on Dr. Hanover to keep herself protected.
- Broken Bird: You can't help but feel sorry for the woman after all the trauma she endured in the past and present.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She admits that she was kidnapped by a group of white men who took her prisoner in an abandoned house for more than a week. While they did not rape her, they did beat her, insulted her, stripped her naked, and forced her to stay in a closet when they weren't tormenting her. Her alters were created as a coping mechanism to deal with the trauma.
- Large Ham: In her various personas, she tends to Chew The Scenery to absolutely absurd levels. Her Establishing Character Moment alone is pure Incoming Ham.
- Split Personality: As stated above, she developed D.I.D. in order to cope with the trauma of her kidnapping. She ended up creating the following alters:
- "Ondine Duquette", a professional but haughty violinist who criticizes everyone believing them to be nothing.
- "Baby Taffy", a little girl who takes care of her mother.
- "Apollo", a violent Olympian who holds a grudge against Hitler and all nazis.
- "Dr. Hanover", a new alter based on the doctor who cared for her who intends to rehabilitate Edmund Tollerson.
- Trauma Button: Being trapped in a closet thanks to her traumatic experience.
Coastal Residents
Gwendolyn Briggs
Played by: Cynthia Nixon
The put-upon secretary and campaign manager for Governor Wilburn. She has a "complicated" relationship with Nurse Ratched.
- Hidden Depths: She likes puppet shows because they remind her of her childhood and watching them takes her mind away from the ongoing stress of adulthood.
- I Just Want to Be Special: One of the reasons for why she wants to maintain a job in politics.
- Innocently Insensitive: She brings Mildred to a puppet show despite Mildred expressing distaste for them, then Mildred has a complete breakdown during it because it reminds her of her Dark and Troubled Past.
- Lipstick Lesbian: She has a preference for women and presents herself in a feminine manner. She also ends up in a relationship with Mildred after the events of season 1.
Louise
Played by: Amanda Plummer
The eccentric owner of the Sealight Inn Motel that Ratched resides in.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Her allegiance switches faster then you can say salsa verde. First she's content with helping Ratched when it comes to relaying messages when needed. Then she helps Betsy by going through Ratched's dirt to look for potential dirt. And in the season 1 finale, she's revealed to have joined Edmund's killer roadtrip.
- Hidden Depths: In her prime, she was a professional flapper girl.
Antagonists
Charles Wainright
Played by: Corey Stoll
A private investigator who takes a hit contract on Dr. Hanover.
- Bald of Evil: He has a chrome dome and is trying to kill Dr. Hanover.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He's trapped in a tub filled with boiling water. Although he manages to escape, his body is severely burned that it pains him to move or speak. He's eventually shot by Harold believing him to be a threat.
- Kick the Dog: After having sex with Mildred, he tells her she's the worst lay he ever had. Crosses into Bullying a Dragon territory when you remember exactly who he's messing with.
- Starter Villain: He is the first villain that Ratched and her allies have to deal with.
Governor Wilburn
Played by: Vincent D'Onofrio
A politician who is trying to secure his position as California's governor. To do this, he intends to have Edmund executed to boost his public image.
- Kick the Dog: He does the kicking. His new strategy involves participating in executions for high level criminals and making their deaths as painful as possible. This is to show the voters how "tough" he is on crime.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a sexist jerk who constantly belittles both Gwendolyn and Ratched for being women. He even makes gross remarks about their appearances.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: We never learn if the idiot won the election after the season 1 finale.
Lenore Osgood
Played by: Sharon Stone
A wealthy heiress who holds a grudge against Dr. Hanover for disfiguring her son and wishes to kill him.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: She comes from a wealthy background and is dead-set on killing Dr. Hanover for vengeance.
- Demanding Their Head: She hires Charles Wainwright to kill Hanover and bring her his head, in retribution for having mutilated her son, Henry. The bounty is later collected by Nurse Ratched.
- Enemy Mine: Despite some uneasy beginnings, she teams up with Ratched when the nurse decides to get rid of Dr. Hanover to continue her agenda.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Her whole vendetta schtick was for the sake of avenging her precious son. She meets her demise when Henry literally backstabs her with a pitchfork wielding gardner.
- Parental Neglect: Her treatment of her son can be seen as this. While she does spoil him rotten, Lenore refuses to hold her son accountable for his own actions and would prefer to hide him in their mansion rather than treat him like an actual mother. Even after she presents Dr. Hanover's head, Henry points out that he spent more time plotting her revenge rather than actually raising him.
