George Wilburn

George Wilburn
Portrayed by	Vincent D'Onofrio
About
Occupation	Governor of California
Status	Alive
Chronology
First Appearance	Pilot
Last Appearance	Mildred and Edmund

“

Now, I'm always listening. I'm listening to the audience to see what they want me to play next. — Governor Wilburn

”

George Wilburn is a character featured in the first season of Ratched. He was the current Governor of California in the middle of a re-election campaign, led to a political involvement with Lucia State Hospital by his employee Gwendolyn Briggs. He is portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio

Biography

Pre-Lucia State Hospital

Though little is known of his life or political career before the events surrounding Edmund Tolleson and Lucia State Hospital, Wilburn was elected to the office of Governor of California about four years prior, in 1943 or 1944. At some point during his term he employed Gwendolyn Briggs as his press secretary and campaign manager for his re-election, though it is possible she was associated with him during his initial election campaign.

As governor, he was described as a 'musty old bureaucrat', though arguably many of his more well-received, forward-thinking political moves were due to Gwendolyn Briggs' influence rather than his own convictions, as he admitted he was more of a performer than a politician and played to current public opinion.

Association with Lucia State Hospital

After rescheduling their meeting for multiple months in a row, while sitting down to lunch at a bar with Gwendolyn, Wilburn happened to run into Dr. Richard Hanover, who had been looking to speak to the governor about further monetary support from the state for new avenues of treatment at Lucia. Wilburn was ready to dismiss Dr. Hanover altogether before Gwendolyn suggested hearing him out. Begrudgingly compromising, Wilburn told Hanover he had until their drinks arrived to pitch his ideas. Unimpressed by what Hanover had to say, he quickly cut Hanover off once their drinks arrived and halfheartedly suggested they schedule a meeting for the next month before sending him on his way.

Despite his lack of interest in supporting Lucia, Gwendolyn spun the possibility of such a move gaining further voter interest and securing his re-election campaign given the media furor around Edmund Tolleson and the facility's assignment to hold him for evaluation, which convinced Wilburn to allocate seventy-five thousand dollars in further state funds to the facility and hold his support as the cornerstone of his re-election bid.

Upon visiting Lucia for a press tour after announcing his support, Wilburn was clearly steering the visit to his own benefit, cutting off journalist questioning about Edmund Tolleson, playing up the state's generosity in a sympathetic light, and insisting on a publicity photo with Mildred Ratched to go along with the article on his visit and the saving of Father Murphy's life. While posing for the photo, he inappropriately placed his hand on Mildred's posterior, which she firmly demanded he move.

Campaigning in San Jose, Wilburn was unable to attend the lobotomy procedures at Lucia, and instead sent Gwendolyn in his place to orchestrate the press coverage of the event.

Later speaking to Gwendolyn about public reception of his initial visit to Lucia, Wilburn ignored her praise of his handling of the event and the positive response from the public, instead noting the photo of himself and Mildred, commenting "She's got a caboose on her, huh?" much to Gwendolyn's mortification. Taking a sudden hard turn in the conversation, Wilburn declared that Edmund Tolleson needed to be put to death before the election and that the decision to have Edmund declared fit to stand trial was his to make, not Dr. Hanover's - a decision Dr. Hanover would have to comply with in order to maintain his funding. Wilburn's logic in this was to prevent the public from seeing him as soft on crime, considering Edmund's murdering of four Catholic priests. Gwendolyn attempted to reason with him, but he quickly shut her down.

At his next conversation with Gwendolyn a few days later, Wilburn restated his insistence that Edmund stand trial, as the party primary was in less than a month, and he needed to not only prove to his probable opponent that the state was still his, but prevent said opponent from claiming he was soft on crime. He questioned if Dr. Hanover had agreed to abide by his decision regarding Tolleson and when Gwendolyn reported Dr. Hanover had been difficult to locate, Wilburn ordered her to find him and bring him to task.

Following the disastrous events of the hospital's dance, which included Edmund's escape from the facility with a member of staff, and Edmund's subsequent capture by authorities, Wilburn met with Dr. Hanover with Gwendolyn and Mildred also present, and outright demanded Hanover sign the paperwork to deem Edmund fit for trial there and then, or face immediate de-funding of the hospital. When Hanover caved to his demands, he frankly commented that he'd thought Hanover crazy from the start, and had been proved correct. As they left Lucia, at Gwendolyn's comment on his commitment to his promise to the facility, he revealed that he had lied in order to force Hanover's hand, and that he had already pulled all of the hospital's state funding. When Gwendolyn attempted another suggestion in order to try and put off Edmund's death, now knowing his connection to Mildred, Wilburn abruptly told her she was nice to look at but her mouth was the problem, and that he was tired of hearing "bullshit advice spewing from it". He immediately fired her and said he was sorry she had gotten shot.

After Lucia

About a month later, Wilburn was present at the execution of Case Hitchen, where he revealed Hitchen would not face the death penalty by lethal injection, but would instead be put to death via electric chair, a punishment previously done away with. After Hitchen was restrained in the chair, Wilburn made a speech to the victim's family, promising that as long as he was governor of California, the elected officials of the state would do everything in their power to go after criminals with the utmost authority. Wilburn then asked to throw the switch for the electric chair himself, and watched passively as the electrocution went awry and Hitchen began to burn tortuously into utter unrecognition, refusing to stop the procedure.

Shortly after, having heard of his new decision to execute via electric chair, Gwendolyn requested to meet with Wilburn, bringing Mildred along, much to Wilburn's surprise. The two women both agreed that Edmund should be put to death, but tried to convince him to execute Edmund via lethal injection instead, with Mildred even revealing Edmund was her brother. Wilburn was unmoved, explaining that the current political climate didn't care about policy but about charismatic figures that could get their point across. He condescendingly told Mildred not to listen to the radio the day of her brother's death and commented he was sad that Gwendolyn had "gone soft", which sparked a reaction from Mildred. As Gwendolyn tried to calm her, he suddenly realized they were in a relationship, and made the rather sexist remark that he now understood why Gwendolyn never slept with him before he uncharacteristically sympathized with the difficulty of such a life and revealed his sister was also attracted to women. He then immediately reminded them to vote for him in the upcoming election before leaving.

Appearances

Season One

• S01E01: Pilot
• S01E03: Angel of Mercy
• S01E04: Angel of Mercy, Part II
• S01E06: Got No Strings
• S01E08: Mildred and Edmund

Trivia

• Wilburn's re-election campaign within the timeline of the show doesn't match up with the real election cycle of California. Wilburn instead would have been elected for his current term in 1946, and wouldn't be campaigning for re-election until 1949 or 1950.