I’m not sure why I thought
episode 2 of AHS would open with something other than a screaming Jenna Dewan-Tatum
staring into Bloody Face’s…well, bloody face, but that’s exactly where we
begin. When we last left her character, Teresa, she was frantically searching
through present day Briarcliff for a way to get help for her new hubby Leo, who
is currently bleeding out elsewhere in the asylum. Instead of help though, she
encounters Bloody Face who chases her back to Leo. She tries for a hot second
to pull Leo away from the approaching killer and then promptly ditches his ass
to get herself behind a metal door. Bloody Face clearly doesn’t want Leo to go
through life with only one arm, so he(?) proceeds to stab Leo repeatedly.
Speaking of people who are only
looking out for number 1, we go back to October 30, 1964 now where Wendy sits
with friends feeling terrible about committing her lady love to the nuthouse. Realizing
that she made a mistake, she vows to shower and get a good night’s sleep and
break Lana out tomorrow. Yes Wendy – please make sure to bathe and rest up
before visiting Lana in the filthy dungeon she is currently terrorized in. As
she prepares to bathe, I wonder if we are going to get a repeat of the shower
scene from Psycho, but alas, it seems
Wendy just left all of her windows open….which is what people do when local
women have been skinned alive and crazy nuns visit your house to threaten you.
Regardless, Wendy just smoked her last joint and took her last shower. Bloody
Face (clearly not Kit Walker) steps out from the shadows and kills her.
The following morning, the
patients at Briarcliff are going through a room search. Shelley calls down the
hall to Sister Jude “I have a cucumber in my room, but not because I was
hungry.” Heh. I like her. Lana tries to conceal a journal she has been keeping
but Sister Jude takes care of that immediately. Realizing that Lana is going to
be a problem patient, Sister Jude consults Dr. Arden and the possibilities of
electro shock therapy. The following scene that silences Lana is disturbing,
but is performed by incredibly well by the actors. I’m interested to see what
kind of impact the shocks to Lana’s brain have on her…and her memory of
Briarcliff’s molasses bread.
Also in his own personal hell
this morning is Kit, who is meeting the shrink of the day, Dr. Oliver Thredson
(last season’s Zachary Quinto), for the first time. Kit goes into the session
knowing he is screwed: if Dr. Thredson finds him fit for trial, then he will be
convicted of murder…if Dr. Thredson finds him insane, then he rots at
Briarcliff for the rest of his days. He proceeds to tell his story about the
men from outer space taking Alma, and the body presumed to be hers is not because
she is alive, you know, with the aliens. Thredson is quick to diagnose insanity.
Fresh off the fryer, Lana
observes Grace and Kit trying to plan an escape from Briarcliff, and she approaches
Grace later on about planning their own getaway without Kit. Grace indicates
she will not be leaving Kit behind, and Lana goes on and on about being
betrayed by the one person she loves most. No worries, Lana – Wendy is dead, so
there’s nothing for you on the outside anyway.
Meanwhile, Sister Mary Eunice makes
her first appearance of the episode as she is off once again to feed the beasts
lurking in the woods. Dr. Arden sneaks up on her to check her progress but he
still won’t tell her what the creatures are - my mind goes to “those who we do not speak of." Instead, he offers her a candied
apple (from the bakery?), but nuns aren’t supposed to indulge in such
pleasantries. He insists, practically forcing her to take a bite…and boy does
she. Wonder what she would do with Shelley’s cucumber?
Inside the asylum, Dr. Thredson
introduces himself to Sister Jude. He is quite appalled at the conditions and “treatment”
administered at the facility, but she is having none of that. She has to set Kit and the aliens aside for
the moment because there are more important things going on….namely the
exorcism of poor Jed Potter. Yup, why not follow up the anal probe in episode 1
with a demonically possessed teenager in episode 2? Jed is 17 years old and has
exhibited some strange behavior on his parents’ farm. One might think he is
just dealing with the struggles of becoming a man, except for the part where he
speaks in tongues and gnaws through the belly of the Potters’ best cow naked.
Boys will be boys. Dr. Thredson hopes
for a more therapeutic remedy, but Sister Jude knows what is needed.
Elsewhere, Shelley offers to let
Dr. Arden see her candied apple in exchange for seeing five minutes of sunshine.
She may easily be my favorite character so far, but where is young Moira when I
need her? Dr. Arden is apparently not interested in her (“whores get nothing”),
but Shelley maintains that she is just into pleasure….so much so that she
treated herself to 2 Navy guys during fleet week. Her husband, predictably, was
outraged and committed her to Briarcliff. I’m glad we got a back story on her,
and for her sake, I’m glad Dr. Arden kept his cucumber in his pants….for now…
Dr. Creepy has summoned a
prostitute, though he is disgusted by whores? He has prepared a fancy dinner
and is looking to keep things elegant and romantic, but his lady friend
apparently did not get the memo. Her wicked tongue gets her in trouble, and
though he attempts to discuss classical music and fine wine, she offers to “shake
it” for him. And now, my dear prostitute, you have surpassed Lana on the
stupidity scale. He sends her to wash off her makeup and put on a nun’s outfit,
making her look eerily like Sister Mary Eunice. She opens a box on the dresser
to find some erotic magazines…followed by some pictures of women tied up on a
bed….followed by some dead women. Uh-oh. Nice knowing you, lady. Arden finds
her, tells her to lie on the bed and expose herself. He makes ready to ravage
her, and she bites his arm, knees him in the cucumber, and runs for her life.
Getting back to Jed, Sister Jude
and the Monsignor (or Father Hotness as I have decided to call him) have called
in an expert, Father Malachi, to perform the exorcism. I’m assuming his
wheelchair is key in helping him cast out evil. Sister Jude is initially sent
to sit with Jed’s parents, but she makes her way back into the room as Thredson,
Father Malachi and Father Hotness take a break from the demonic beatings they
are receiving. The demon calls Sister Jude out on her scandalous past.
We flash back to a time when
Sister Jude was just Judy, and she rocked a red dress and sang in a club filled
with soldiers, some of whom she seemed to know quite well. That red undergarment she wears with her holy robes makes more sense now. It gets better though – as Judy
drove home drunk from the club that evening, she ran over (more like ran
straight through) a girl crossing the road and flees the scene. Soooooo, Sister
Jude is a former harlot and accidental killer? The plot thickens.
Jed’s lifeline is fading fast with Father Hotness re-entering the room to speak all that is holy and Dr. Thredson joins in to administer medicine (Father Malachi seems to be down for the count). Sister Jude and Sister Mary Eunice stand by as the demon leaves Jed’s body, taking Jed’s life in the process…Sister Mary Eunice faints in the doorway.
The exorcism causes a power
outage in Briarcliff. Escape time. Lana and Grace hurry through the death chute
and Kit follows. Lana, still believing Kit is a psycho murderer, tells him he
must stay behind. Bitch, if he were a psycho murderer, now would be the perfect
time for him to kill you. Grace grabs Kit and vows to find another way out for
the two of them. Lana now makes it to the top of my “I hope she dies next” list
by blowing the whistle on Kit and Grace instead of just escaping.
Seemingly unnerved by his failed
date with the prostitute (did she escape, or did he catch up to her and kill
her?), Dr. Creepy visits a sleeping Sister Mary Eunice. She is exposing some
skin in her slumber, and she awakens to find Arden covering her up. She then
subtly flirts with him. Ew. I assume at this point she is possessed as well,
and I am confident in this thought as the crucifix on the wall of her room
shakes as she throws off the covers again.
In Sister Jude’s office, Stupid Lana (which is now her name) is “rewarded” for being a tattle-tale by choosing the weapon Sister Jude will cane Kit and Grace with. She really doesn’t have as tough of a time doing this as she should. Kit offers to take all of the lashes himself, and the episode ends with Stupid Lana staring at Kit’s beating while Grace glares and Stupid Lana.
Items of note – obviously with an
exorcism episode there is bound to be some religious symbolism. Dr. Arden compelling Sister Mary Eunice to eat the candied apple has to be a reference to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Sister Jude assigns
Kit 40 lashes…which is an interesting choice of number given the 39 lashes
Christ received before his crucifixion. She then calls him “Sir Galahad” for
his sacrifice, a knight known for his valor and purity in the Arthurian legends.
Father Malachi’s name jumped out at me because of a character in Children of the Corn which was the first
horror movie to almost literally scare the shit out of me (I was 5, but it’s
still a pretty chilling movie). However, Malachi is also the name of a Jewish
prophet in the Hebrew Bible. Just some food for thought.
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