WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Ratched Season 1, available now on Netflix.
Even though Sarah Paulson is the titular character in Netflix’s Ratched, the true star is Sophie Okonedo. While she is billed only as Charlotte Wells, she impressively aces a remarkable feat by taking on five characters, which she plays in rapid succession without letting one influence the other in the slightest. It takes a seasoned, dedicated actor to masterfully present even one character on screen, but Okonedo, playing a patient with multiple personality disorder at Lucia State Hospital, breathes life into five distinct personalities.
Charlotte Wells
This is the real personality of Okonedo’s character. Charlotte Wells is a meek and broken woman, who self-admits herself into Lucia State Hospital to get psychiatric care. Two years ago, she was attacked by four white men, and they beat her, took off her clothes and locked her in basement of an abandoned house for nine days. On the ninth day, a police officer let her go on the condition she wouldn’t press charges against the boys.
It is revealed that the memories of the severe assault led multiple personalities to emerge in her psyche to protect her from the pain of the trauma. Okonedo brilliantly portrays the character of Charlotte, who is dejected, depressed and beyond hope but is aware she needs help. On the other hand, each of her personalities portrays a side of her, a suppressed emotion or a quality she wishes to have.
Baby Taffy
Baby Taffy is a very young child looking after her ailing mother. Taffy is small, innocent and vulnerable, and she needs someone to protect her as she can’t do that for herself. Via Taffy, Charlotte is projecting her exact state of mind and suppressed emotions when she was attacked and couldn’t save herself from her assailants.
Apollo
Okonedo's next take on Charlotte’s third alter ego is the athlete Apollo, who bested the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at his own Olympics by winning five medals. While Apollo reserves immense anger against Hitler for being the tyrant he was, it is really Charlotte's suppressed rage against those who assaulted her. Charlotte’s unstable psyche imbued Apollo with the strength to be ready for repercussions as he believes that Hitler faked his death and is coming for him. His anger and strength are what Charlotte believes she needs in order to get justice for what she's gone through.
Ondine Duquette
Ondine is one of Charlotte's dominant personalities and is a self-proclaimed, world-renowned musician. Ondine is bold to the point of being rude as she prides herself on her fictional accomplishments. She reflects the boldness Charlotte wishes she had displayed when she was being assaulted. She is also a mirror of Charlotte’s belief that had she been famous and popular, no one would have dared to touch her. Ondine appears whenever Charlotte is on the verge of being overpowered or threatened by someone, as she is strong enough to resist and question the things happening to her against her consent.
Dr. Richard Hanover
On the run for his crimes, Hanover takes Charlotte in hopes of redeeming himself by curing her. On seeing the police, he panics and hides her in a closet that tips Charlotte over the edge, so Ondine and then Apollo take control. In a fit of rage, she kills Hanover but falls unconscious due to the drugs in her system. Though Mildred manages to send Charlotte out of the country, she once again loses control as a fifth personality takes over: Hanover. When she visits Lucia months later, she is mimicking Hanover, including his confidence and sense of authority. Above all else, it is her psyche trying to erase her guilt over unknowingly murdering him.
Okonedo as Charlotte is the very antithesis of all the above personalities that appear for just seconds. While she enacts any of these other secondary characters, they don’t come across as mere caricatures. When Okonedo plays the others, she, "had a full life for them in [her] imagination," and portrays them as different individuals who have a story of their own.
Ratched stars Sarah Paulson, Cynthia Nixon, Judy Davis, Sharon Stone, Jon Jon Briones, Finn Wittrock, Charlie Carver, Amanda Plummer, Corey Stoll, Vincent D’Onofrio and Sophie Okonedo. Ratched's Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.