Last night’s episode of American Horror Story saw Kit and Grace’s child taken from them by nuns, Lana escape from Briarcliff with the tape of Thredson’s confession, and all throughout we got to hear the beautifully haunting Candyman theme.
In this, the third to last episode, the past and present are growing ever closer. We see a lot more of the present day Bloody Face, Johnny Morgan. It opens with him indulging his strange fetish of being breastfed with a prostitute and flashes between his interactions with her and the final confrontation between Lana and Thredson. The breastfeeding prologue was certainly a sight to see. I took notes as I watched this episode, and the first thing on the page is “Opening Scene with Dylan McDermott – O.M.G!” I’m sure I’m not the only viewer that couldn’t believe they went there.
Kit and Grace’s plot thread seems to build to a resolution. After their child is taken from them, Kit’s name is cleared by the release of Thredson’s confession. He uses his newfound freedom, and the threat of exposing the evil goings-on at Briarcliff to get the Monsignor to agree to release Grace and reunite them with their child. Since Grace is dead on paper, the Monsignor is at ease over letting her out despite her murderous record. On paper, he’d only be releasing a body. Above all, I liked the way the scene between Kit and the Monsignor was shot, their shadows tall and stretched out against the wall.
Kit and Grace’s joy is short-lived when they returned home to find a living Alma and another baby waiting.
The final confrontation between Lana and Thredson was great. It made for a much more emotional resolution to have her kill him, as opposed to having him institutionalized.
The episode seems to have a finality to it, like things are winding down. That was before Lana and the police went to Briarcliff looking for Sister Jude to get a testimony. The Monsignor tells the police that Sister Jude is dead (she’s not) and without her Lana doesn’t have enough material to shut the asylum down. At this point, she’s pregnant and didn’t go through with the abortion of Thredson’s child.
The epilogue of the episode is Lana in bed after giving birth to Thredson’s child. His cries are persistent and the nurse tells her that he is refusing formula. Lana agrees to breastfeed him and looks back at the cross on the wall. With her head tilted back, it appears inverted.
This was a great episode. I loved the way Lana’s arc played out, agreeing to bring a new life into the world because she’s simply tired of all the death. I’m curious to see what happens with Sister Jude and how they’ll stretch the rest of the series out in two episodes. As I mentioned before, there is a finality to this episode that makes it feel like the second to final entry, not the third to final. I predict that the next two episodes will take place mostly in the present.
Up next week is Continuum.
The like button is not working for me:( I loved your post and I really need to catch up on the two episodes that I have missed. I can’t wait to see where this final season takes us.
I’m torn about this episode. On one hand, a lot happened and I was entertained all throughout it. On the other hand, there’s still two episodes left and they seem to be ending season long conflicts at an exponential rate. I’m hoping that the present day Bloody Face storyline takes the spotlight from here on out, because honestly, there’s not much to wrap up in the past. Sure we’ve still got the return of Alma, and Sister Jude’s locked up in a secret dungeon, effectively dead to the outside world, but at the rate this show’s been moving they’ll resolve those in the cold open next week. A really great ante-penultimate episode should set the pieces on the board for the final gambit. This episode pretty much said, “Fuck you! Chess is boring!”, flung the board off the table, and set up Rock ‘Em, Sock ‘Em Robots instead. I don’t mean that it’s necessarily a bad thing, just jarring in a way I’m not used to from AHS.
Jim, I’m fairly confident that the next episode and a half will take place in present day.