Saturday, December 1, 2012

Saturday TV Special: AHS: Asylum - 2x06 The Origins of Monstrosity / 2x07 Dark Cousin

By s. Saturday, December 1, 2012 , ,
In the last two weeks in American Horror Story we had another series of delightful gore filled scenes and fucked up occurrences. Lana is now the unluckiest character on TV, while people are coming up with new theories each week what could happen to Dr Arden for justice to be served. Being eaten alive by raspers? Getting his dick cut off? Being forced to watch Honey Boo Boo?

Anyways, back in Briarcliff, Sister Jude kept going back and forth between quickies and booze and her habit. That is until Monsignor Howard, persuaded by Dr Arden, fired her. "Persuaded" may not be the right word, as the relationship between Arden and Howard was built on the promise of papacy and the blackmail. These two go way back, when Arden was working with tuberculosis victims. At one point Monsignor sees the effects of his job in the form of room filled with jars filled with ashes. Something that brought Prometheus death capsule chamber to mind should send anyone running, right? Well, not for naive Monsignor who instead of genocide sees sacrifice and the efforts of the "good" doctor.
Still, in the monsters filled Briarcliff, Monsignor is looking relatively decent so far, even if it's him who killed poor Shelley. Oh yeah, Shelley is dead. Apparently police didn't figure out that since she still has her arms and hands the good idea would be to give her a piece of paper so she could write what the hell happened to her. Oh well, the police in AHS has never been particularly sharp anyways. While Monsignor dealt with Shelley, Sister Satan expressed her admiration for Dr Arden and planted a kiss on his cheek. James Cromwell seems to be a real chick magnet in that Asylum.

Arden also captured new victim - chronic masturbator, after seeing him peek on Sister Mary undressing. That was a nice Psycho homage. Curiously not the only homage we got this episode, as in the beginning the modern Bloody Face called the police (the voice of eagerly anticipated Dylan McDermott) telling them he killed some new people and he is a bad boy (how disturbed am I that I found that line to be hot? No, don't answer that.). We got nice visual nod to The Silence of the Lambs there.
Meanwhile, in the word's most fucked up basement, we got to learn a bit more about Dr "I make lamps with nipples". His mother abandoned him and he is messed up because of that. "Touching dead bodies and skinning them" kind of messed up. So he chose Lana as the replacement for his mommy and he also wants her to tell his story since she is a journalist. Also he feeds her breakfast. I'm certain at one point Lana will finally get to hurt him in some gruesome way and he will go "Remember that soup? That was Wendy". It's just something that I think we can expect from Ryan Murphy.

Another key point of Origins of Monstrosity involved showing us that Sister Satan has access to Sister Mary's memories and introducing little girl who is a killer, showing us that sometimes evil is there from the beginning, which is either a parallel or a polar opposite of Dr Thredson/ 60's Bloody Face story. I need more flashbacks to determine that, as based on the scene with Lana from the very same episode saying that "he was some one's baby, somebody love him" I'm still not sure whether he was evil from the very beginning.
We saw that sequence at the end of the episode as Thredson told Lana when exactly he saw Lana for the first time and why he chose her - it was when she was explaining to her editor that she thinks Bloody Face is a person whose story should be told. It was one of the most chilling sequences of the series so far, as we got really quick editing here and we only saw one frame of Thredson standing next to Lana in the dark, as the cameras flashed the light, and the scene was switching back and forth between this flashback and the basement where Lana begged for her life and we kept getting glimpses of Bloody Face's most disgusting mask to date. Then he forgives her for trying to escape and starts sucking her nipple after saying "Baby needs colostrum". The possibility of Wendy flavored soup sounds more likely now, doesn't it readers?

Sister Jude has been getting pissed and walking around moping for several episodes now so I kinda lost the track. Anyways she shares a drink with Arden telling him he won and then goes to Nazi hunter's apartment only to find him dead after Sister Satan killed him with mirror shred. Mary Eunice is having a blast as we also get to see her dancing around in Jude's red lingerie, singing You don't own me to a cross.
In this week's episode - Dark Cousin - we got a little bit of hope. Well, what passes for hope in American Horror Story - the promise of death. Angel of Death appears, played by the amazing Frances Conroy, and what an angel it is. So compassionate, caring and peaceful that, hell, I'd go with her. She appears when someone wants to die or is close to dying and when they tell her they are ready, she plants a kiss and takes them with her.

In the beginning of the episode she appeared to Grace, who is bleeding out after her uterus and probably other feminine parts were taken away. People in Briarcliff think it is Arden's doing and Sister Satan thinks so too - angry at him she uses telekinetic powers to throw him against the wall. So apparently all of those scissors and mirror shreds are just a weapon of choice that make things just a little bit more...bloody. We however know that it was aliens, and though Grace hangs strong till the end of the episode, having some miraculous shit injected in her by Arden and being close to rescue as Kit escapes the cops and comes in to save her, she takes the bullet destined for Kit and the angel takes her. And then we see the white flash that marks the presence of aliens in the show. Why am I discussing the ending first? Because Grace and Kit are the most boring thing in the show so let's just get it out of the way.
We also get to meet one other patient, but that is as insignificant as little girl from last episode - long story short he kills himself, the angel kisses him and that's it. But that is when Sister Satan sees the angel and they talk a bit in a pretty neat little scene where the Angel wonders what resides in the nun that she is able to see her. Sister Mary Eunice gets to overcome Satan for a moment and begs the Angel to kill her, after which Satan says "She likes it in here".

Meanwhile, in the crazy liar of Dr "I serve mints out of skulls", Thredson figures out that the best way to bond with his new mommy is to rape her. So we get truly unpleasant scene with Lana getting raped, her eyes looking lifeless and empty. And then the Angel appears and she sees her. She offers Lana the way out but Lana, a survivor, says that she doesn't want to die. She manages to escape and gets into the car and the car is driven by William Mapother. Now, one can't blame her for getting in as she is being chased by killer, rapist and a psychopath, but if she stopped and wondered whether to get in, I would not be surprised. When you see this guy you just know things won't go well.
So Lana, now thinking she is safe, is in the car with this guy who starts going on and on about how he hates women and how his wife cheated on him. Lana gets increasingly freaked out, Angel of Death appears on the backseat and the guy shoots himself. And then bang - Lana is back in Briarcliff, after the police drove her there from the scene of accident. Lana tells Sister Satan that Threadson is Bloody Face and Kit is innocent. Sister Satan assures her that she will notify the police and we get to see the flashback of the possessed kid in episode 2 telling Threadson that he loves his work. Yep, no one will know Lana is there, yet again.

Sister Jude, meanwhile, sees a message from Sister Eunice on the TV describing the accident in which Jude believes she kills a little girl. All of that happens after Eunice and Jude talk on the phone and Jude figures out that Eunice is possessed. She encourages Jude to run, since the police will no doubt believe she is the one who killed the Nazi hunter. Jude drinks, goes in the bathroom in nearby diner and envisions herself slicing her veins and lying in the puddle of her own blood.
When she gets out she sees the Angel of Death sitting at her table. Two of them talk like two old acquaintances and we find out that Jude got syphilis from her fiance and he left her on wedding night. We also learn she tried to commit suicide many times. We see a flashback where she crashes her car, while being drunk, right in front of statue of Mary and she is surrounded by nuns which is without a doubt when she started being a nun. In the present, after her meeting with an angel, Jude decides to visit the family of the girl she thinks she killed.

There we got a neat twist when we find out that Jude didn't kill the girl - the girl survived the accident and even has a kid of her own. All of Jude's suffering was unnecessary. But I bet there is more in store for her as sister Mary is not done with her yet and the useless police will start sniffing around the dead Nazi hunter. But to be completely honest, Jude's story is only a little bit more interesting than Kit's. All I care about is Arden, Mary Eunice and Lana. And obviously the two Bloody Faces. While there will be 3-week long hiatus after the episode 2x09, the things are starting to be shaping up into a very creepy picture.

Since we got that rape scene I'm now certain that Lana will be pregnant and will give birth to the child that will grow up to be the new Bloody Face. And this week not only we got a confirmation for the identity of modern Bloody Face from both Ryan Murphy and Dylan McDermott but also the picture of him, thank God, unmasked and I mean that in two ways. As for Aliens, Raspers and Satan...I had no idea what to expect.

But here is a preview for next week's episode where we get to see Ian McShane as the killer Santa. Were you naughty or nice?
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4 comments:

  1. This show is crazy. Why are they holding off on the aliens so much? I would have thought there'd be more of them based on the pilot. Maybe there's more to come. Didn't Sister Jude run into one in the asylum one night? What happened with that?

    I'm also wondering if the present is going to start playing a bigger part, what with modern-day Bloody Face starting to factor more into the bigger picture. Interesting theory on Lana being Modern-Day Bloody Face's mom. I can get behind that.

    Poor Lana. I thought that Mapother stuff was a bit much.

    p.s. I'm pretty sure Lana was eating Wendy soup as well.

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    1. Yeah, she did :) i think she just assumed she was drunk. I'm sure we will get to see more of them in upcoming episodes.

      I think beginning with episode 2x09 we will get to see more of modern times scenes.

      Yep, that's just seems like Murphy's way of thinking, I'm still waiting for the reveal :)

      Thanks for commenting!

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  2. 3 weeks, whaaat? Gah I hate breaks.

    Yeah I only care about Lana, Thredson and Sister Satan as well. Jude is fine, but it gets too self-loathing-y.

    I didn't notice the flash after Grace dies. There really must be something to it.

    Love the Angel of Death, v. pretty.

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    1. Yeah, it sucks. But hopefully they will use this time to film really awesome ending, they only began shooting the final episodes now.

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