Tonight’s conclusion to the American Horror Story: Asylum Anne Frank two-parter could have easily been a perfect penultimate episode of this season’s brand of crazy; mentally and figuratively.
Sister Jude Disrobed
Taking the Mother Superior’s advice, Sister Jude visited with the Nazi hunter the Mother Superior spoke of in a seedy hotel to keep up secrecy of their meeting. Sister Jude gave the man, Mr. Goodman, Dr. Arden’s file, which she suspected was all forged. The Nazi hunter then warned Sister Jude to not corner Dr. Arden, because it can get quite ugly if he did so.
Meanwhile back at Briarcliff, Sister Mary Eunice met a very deranged Anne Frank, who was not only wielding a gun, but a wounded Dr. Arden as well. Anne hinted at Shelly’s deformed body in Dr. Arden’s closet and the Nazi suspect begged for Mary Eunice to leave. A minute later, Security Officer Frank appeared behind Anne with a pistol for her head. So much for that plan, Anne…
The next day Sister Jude spoke with a strapped down Anne, who recounted what she saw in Dr. Arden’s office at the behest of Sister Jude. After hearing Anne’s account of what she saw, Jude countered that while she and Frank did check Dr. Arden’s lab, there were no signs of anything out of the ordinary. Sister Mary Eunice then interrupted the two to tell Sister Jude that a man had come to Briarcliff to pick up his “wife,” aka Anne.
But according to the man, whose name is Mr. Brown, “Anne” is really Charlotte Brown, a mother who went on the brink after caring for their colic baby drove her a bit mad. Sister Jude was clearly upset that Anne Frank, her only link to taking down Arden, was only an insane housewife and not the real symbolic literary figure. Mr. Brown explained that after Charlotte read the book and saw the play while pregnant, she went over the edge, going as far as tattooing the numbers on her arm. After the baby was born, Charlotte immersed herself in everything dealing with the Holocaust and neglected their baby, posting pictures and copies of various articles on a wall. Dr. Thredson, who Sister Jude slyly called “Dr. Buttinsky,” diagnosed Anne’s condition as postpartum psychosis, but Mr. Brown denied the claim and wanted his wife to come home so she could get better. Dr. Thredson disagreed with the idea, but Sister Jude angrily gave the final word.
Later on, Anne/Charlotte fought against going home, but once Mr. Brown produced the picture of his and Charlotte’s baby boy, Charlotte actually calmed down and went with Mr. Brown as Dr. Thredson warned to Sister Jude that she was making a mistake.
After having her case against Dr. Arden crumble before her eyes, Sister Jude left a message for Mr. Goodman to drop his search against the mad doctor, who made his way into her office as she was placing the call. After a bit of prodding and dodging between the two, Dr. Arden cut to the chase and confronted Sister Jude on her snooping around in his lab and office while he was in the hospital. 
Dr. Arden then upped the ante by announcing he was contemplating bringing up charges against Sister Jude, who allowed “Anne” to get a hold of a gun on her watch and was completely “inept” to run Briarcliff anymore. Sister Jude, while not conceding to Arden’s taunts, tried to reason with the man and offered a fresh start between the two of them. Arden wasn’t buying what he assumed was an “apology” from the nun and preferred for Jude to “grovel” to make things right between them. When Jude didn’t budge, Arden threatened that he would call the Monsignor to remove Sister Jude from her position permanently before telling her she was “through” at Briarcliff. That son of a…
Later that night, Charlotte is brought back to Briarcliff and few moments later, Dr. Arden made his way to Charlotte’s cell and closed the door behind him. In Sister Jude’s office, Mr. Brown explained how Charlotte went complete batsh*t crazy when they got home and attempted to kill their son when he asked her to spend time with the kid. Despite Sister Jude’s pleas of an alternate solution besides Briarcliff (for obvious reasons that were happening at that moment in Charlotte’s cell), Mr. Brown demanded that Dr. Thredson give the “proper care” his wife needed. But Dr. Thredson’s time at Briarcliff was over and he had already left the building.
A few moments later, Mr. Brown bumped into Dr. Arden leaving Charlotte’s cell and apologized profusely for his wife’s actions to which Dr. Arden brushed off. He informed Mr. Brown of another solution for Charlotte that he promised would cure Mr. Brown’s wife and have her home by the end of the night. The procedure in question? A lobotomy. God help this poor woman’s soul…
As Dr. Arden prepared the transorbital lobotomy, Sister Jude prayed for her own soul (and probably that of Charlotte’s as well) after it was discovered that Lana Winters was missing (more on that later). Frank came in and confirmed Jude’s fears that Lana was off grounds, taking with her possibly Sister Jude’s last chance of running Briarcliff. Jude then went into a dialogue about how as a kid, her pet squirrel died how she prayed to God to revive it. While praying over the squirrel on her kitchen table, her mother came in and immediately threw the squirrel away in disgust. Jude cried to her mom that God didn’t answer her prayers. Her mother replied that God always answers our prayers, but that they might not be the answers we are looking for. The speech was Emmy reel worthy and I’m not doing it any justice here, so moving on…
After telling Frank her “goose was cooked” at Briarcliff, Jude packed her clothes and left Briarcliff to only end up in a seedy bar to be approached by a man, who she ended up sleeping with.
Meanwhile, Mr. Brown checked in on Charlotte, who, after become a full-fledged member of the Stepford Wives, was throwing away all the Auschwitz/Holocaust photographs that she was obsessed with. As the “happy family” left the room, the camera panned in on one photo still on the wall featuring a group of Nazis and a young Dr. Arden, aka Hans Gruber standing right in the center of them. Shut the front door!
Kit Walker Betrayed
While Kit and Grace waited to be sterilized, the two talked about their dreams of having kids through their solitary confinement walls. Sister Mary Eunice suddenly walked in with good news for Kit, who showed such compassion and redemption with Sister Jude that she decided to spare Kit of the sterilization procedure and confinement. Kit asked if Grace was spared as well, but Mary Eunice didn’t disclose any details on that particular subject. After the accused killer left the area, Mary Eunice revealed that Grace was not spared from the procedure and that she should “rest” for the big day. While Grace screamed to be let out of her cage, she later gave up and was visited by Kit’s visitors from out of space!
While being probed and pricked by the creatures, Grace was approached by Alma, who told Grace to don’t be afraid and don’t fight the experiments, which would only make things worse. Meanwhile, Dr. Thredson has his last consultation with Kit, producing a huge suitcase sized tape recorder for Kit to hear himself say that he killed Alma and Bloody Face’s other victims. Thredson assured Kit that the “confession” would help Kit stay in Briarcliff and not get the death penalty since it would ‘prove’ his insanity. Thredson reminded Kit to ‘confess’ only if Kit believed it himself. Does anyone else smell the B.S. here?
In the commons area, Kit found a semi-catatonic Grace bleeding from her midsection, but whether it was from the actual neuter procedure or the aliens is another question in itself. Kit didn’t have time to console his new lover, because the cops came and arrested him for the murders of Alma and all the other women Dr. Thredson conned him into confessing earlier that day. As the cops carried him out, Grace screamed to the officers and Kit that Alma is actually alive and that Kit is innocent! What the hell was Thredson thinking?!
Bloody Face Unmasked
While seemingly staring into the same bright light Grace found herself staring into moments earlier, Lana was visited by Dr. Thredson, who told her to be ready to escape the asylum that night after dinner. Once Dr. Thredson finished the last business he had with Briarcliff (aka setting up Kit), he and Lana walked clean out of Briacliff without a problem. But once they got to the car, Frank stopped Dr. Thredson to ask him to come take a look at Charlotte. Frank clearly didn’t see Lana and Dr. Thredson informed Frank that his official business with Briarcliff was over and that truthfully he was “never there” to begin with. Hmmmm…
Once Dr. Thredson and Lana made it to his house, Lana wanted to go home, but Thredson explained it would be best if she stayed with him since people would be looking for her there, since she’s an escaped mental patient. Lana agreed, but as soon as Thredson left the room, she tried to call a friend and
was stopped by Thredson. He gave her a glass of wine and the two tasted to taking down Briarcliff and telling Dr. Thredson’s story. Then Thredson turned on his lamp shade, which Lana noticed had a pair of female nipples on them. Thredson next offered Lana a mint from a bowl that was made of a human skull. Knowing that she’s basically up sh*t’s creek, Lana asked to go to the bathroom, which Thredson gave her directions to. But those directions led Lana into Dr. Thredson’s, sorry, I mean Bloody Face’s ‘play room.’ Thredson then opens a trap door under Lana, dropping her into a basement like area.
Lana awoke to find a very frozen and very dead Wendy in the middle of the floor beside her. Thredson, dressed in a long leather coat, taunted Lana on how they were going to continue their conversion therapy (from last week’s episode) by kissing Wendy’s lips. He then put on his Bloody Face mask to show Lana that he took Wendy’s teeth and applied them to the mask.
I don’t know if “sick” could even begin to describe this plot twist.
Other Moments from the Night
– Mary Eunice revealed that she was the one who took Shelly out of Dr. Arden’s office, claiming that while she doesn’t get Arden’s “work,” she’s been an important part of it. After talking about plotting to take Sister Jude down and replacing her with the mad doc, Arden marveled at how Mary Eunice managed to remove Shelly all by herself. Well with a demon coursing through your soul, strange things like lifting a legless deformed woman becomes second nature.
But while Dr. Arden claimed that he trusted Mary Eunice in taking care of him, he might want to hold off on that praise. At an unknown school, a classroom of kids and a teacher find the deformed Shelly on the back steps of the school. What on earth could Mary Eunice be thinking?
And that, folks, was tonight’s phenomenal American Horror Story: Asylum, and we’re eager to know just where you might think the show is headed now with all the reveals tonight. What is your take on the cinematography? Bloody Face’s reveal? Sister Jude trading her habit for a red teddy? Speak out below…
Photo Credit: FX
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