What happens to Nurse Ratched at the end? Know what happened to her in the book & show

Ratched is the latest Netflix series that released on September 18. It stars Sarah Paulson, Cynthia Nox, Judy Davis, Sharon Stone, Fin Wittrock, Jon Jon Briones and Charlie Carver. The series has gained a lot of attention although a few parts still remain confusing for the viewers. Here are five plot questions that one might wonder about after watching Ratched on Netflix.

What happens to Nurse Ratched at the end of the book?

Nurse Ratched on Netflix is based on the popular contemporary fiction, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The Netflix series is sort of like a prequel to the incidents of the novel. In the book, Ratched blames McMurphy for Billy's death. Furious, McMurphy attacks Ratched and strangles her. He also tears off her clothes for all the other inmates to see. He is taken away to the Disturbed facility. 

A week after the incident, Ratched comes back weeks later, bruised from the incident. However, the injuries left her unable to speak and thus her one tool of dominance over the patients is lost. McMurphy still remains in the asylum but in a vegetable state and is later smothered by a pillow by the Chief as an act of kindness. 

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Why does McMurphy fight Nurse Ratched?

McMurphy is a rather boisterous patient who makes a grand entry in handcuffs and flanked by two guards. He is actually sane but pretends nonetheless to avoid jail time. He is rebellious and raucous, something that Nurse Ratched would have any of. But he still keeps up his antics. 

Towards the end of the novel, one night, McMurphy brings in his girlfriend candy inside the facility and Billy (a patient with an unnatural fixation with his mother) goes to bed with her. When Ratched finds out, she takes Billy's mother's name to make him feel ashamed. The patient does so and indeed but so much so that he commits suicide. When McMurphy comes to know of it he confronts Ratched who further blames it all on him, This is why McMurphy fights Nurse Ratched. 

How does Ratched maintain power over her patients?

Nurse Ratched presents a doll-like facade with a steel heart inside. She pretends to be extremely merciful and beneficial towards the patients but operates through shaming her patients. This tactic ultimately makes the hapless souls submit to her tyranny. She keeps records of all the weak spots. 

During her group meetings, the patients try to please her by exposing her darkest secrets but then she makes them feel ashamed for it. Thus, Ratched maintains power over her patients through the tactics of shame and guilt. She also believes in the policy of divide and rule while dealing with her patients. 

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Who wins the battle in the end of Nurse Ratched or McMurphy?

None wins the battle metaphorically. McMurphy manages to expose Nurse Ratched as a sexual being when he tore off her clothes. The other inmates then failed to recognise her power personified and see her for the sexual, flawed being that she is. While McMurphy tries to strangle her, he also damages her to the point that Ratched cannot speak anymore, losing the only tool which helped her assert her power. However, he himself becomes that which Ratched wanted all along, a vegetable with no physical or mental control of his own. 

On the other hand, Nurse Ratched loses her authority and power over the inmates. While most of them checked out of the facility, those that remain after the scuffle do not recognise as the Authority any longer. However, she wins over McMurphy finally in being able to curb him according to the protocols of the mental facility and he can think no longer. 

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Ratched ending

Throughout the series, Nurse Ratched tries to keep her foster brother from facing the death penalty. However, in the end, she understands that it can be warded off no longer and she tries to make the death as quick as possible. Edmund comes to know of Ratched's plan to euthanise him and he is shocked. He escapes with the deranged Charlotte in Dr Hanover’s old car. Ratched catches a glimpse of him on the road and realises he has become a danger to her life. 

The series then skips three years and now Ratched is living with Gwendolyn who is now on a path to remission. Ratched is still scared her brother might come to kill her one day. However, a phone call explains that he is at some bar and Ratched warns him that she will be ready for him if he comes. The series ends with Edmund and Charlotte being still the road and joined by a man Louise who knows where Ratched lives. 

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