The truth is revealed about the Bloody Face in the present day. Dr. Arden is determined to draw the aliens back to Briarcliff.
**CONTENT WARNING: Descriptions of violence/body horror and abortion**
Synopsis
In the present, Johnny Morgan (Dylon McDermott) meets with a therapist. He describes his childhood fascination with murdering and skinning animals, which caused him to get bounced around foster homes. Recently he looked into his parentage and discovered that he is the son of Bloody Face. In an attempt to follow in his father’s footsteps, he kidnapped Teresa and skinned her, but he botched it because he lacks Thredson’s medical skills. The therapist grows increasingly concerned by his admissions, yet ultimately becomes his next victim.
Sister Mary Eunice informs Lana that she is pregnant. Lana wants an abortion, but Sister Mary Eunice insists that the baby will be carried to term and then given to an orphanage. Lana goes to Thredson, still tied up and hidden, and tells him of the baby. Thredson begs her to let him be a father. She pretends the only way she will is if he starts being honest, tricking him into confessing details about his murders while Kit secretly records their conversation. With the evidence on tape, Lana tells Thredson that she already aborted the baby the night before with a confiscated coat hanger. With no need of Thresdon anymore, Lana tries to get ahold of a real weapon, but after failing decides to kill him with the coat hanger. Upon returning to the room, she finds it empty. She encounters Sister Mary Eunice, who she believes must have freed Thredson. Sister Mary Eunice notes the coat hanger in her hands, but is pleased to realize through her supernatural senses that the baby survived.
Sister Jude wakes tied down in one of the patient rooms. Leigh survived her self-defense stabbing and conspired together with Sister Mary Eunice, Dr. Arden, and Monsignor Timothy to slander Sister Jude’s name to a judge and frame her for Frank’s murder. As such, she’s been sentenced to spend the rest of her life as a patient at Briarcliff. Later allowed to join the other patients in the common room, she sits with Lana and apologizes wholeheartedly for what she put her through. Jude promises to get Lana out of Briarcliff. Lana is not inclined to trust her, but Jude promises to win Lana’s trust, starting by breaking the record Jude had previously insisted play nonstop in the common room during her headmistress days.
Leigh seems repentant and clear-headed, religious even. Monsignor Timothy thinks he can parade him around as a miracle case to improve his reputation. Monsignor Timothy uncuffs Leigh and baptizes him, but Leigh overpowers and drowns him into unconsciousness, then hangs him from a crucifix. Shachath appears to take him away.
Kit hides Thredson’s recorded confession under a tub in the bathing room, but then is spotted by Dr. Arden who takes him to his office. Now convinced the aliens are real, Dr. Arden theorizes that they have a vested interest in Kit. They took Alma and Grace immediately after each had relations with Kit, and now they’ve taken Grace’s body. He thinks they would come to protect Kit if they believe his life is in danger, so Dr. Arden proposes to bring Kit to the brink of death. Kit is surprisingly amenable to the idea, hoping it will allow him to find Alma. Dr. Arden injects him with something to stop his heart, with a plan to inject adrenaline to revive him should the aliens not arrive after all. They needn’t have worried, because the aliens show up moments after Kit’s heart stops. Dr. Arden follows their lights into the neighboring room where he finds an unusually lucid Pepper caring for Grace, alive and well, and abundantly pregnant. Pepper says the baby will come soon, and she will care for Grace until then.
The Staff
I honestly can’t tell if Monsignor Timothy legitimately believes Jude has gone crazy, or if he is in on the conspiracy. He does seem genuinely disappointed in her “fall.” But it also seems odd that he would be that naive about the situation. Then again, he was awfully naive about Dr. Arden’s experiments, and now Leigh’s supposed repentance. We saw Shachath arrive, but did not actually see her finish the job yet, so we’ll see if he actually died here or if it was misdirection.
I’m glad someone else finally believes in the aliens. I’m actually impressed that Dr. Arden spoke to Kit in a reasonable manner to get his permission for the experiment, rather than forcing him into it like he used to do.
Sister Mary Eunice mentions to Monsignor Timothy that she would like to replace Jude at his side as he ascends to Rome. What better place for the devil disguised as a nun to be? Of course her plans are a bit thwarted now that Monsignor Timothy has been attacked. For some reason Sister Mary Eunice seems incredibly invested in the fate of Lana’s baby. She was relieved to find the baby still alive and well. I wonder why she cares so much. They already did antichrist baby in season one, otherwise I would suspect that is where this plotline is going.
The Patients
Welcome, Jude, to this list. It was only a matter of time, honestly. They’ve been building up a case for her mental instability for several episodes now. I figured they would turn on her eventually and pull it all together as a way of turning her from headmistress to patient. At least it was more justified and gradually established than Vivien’s institutionalization in season one. Last episode I mentioned the irony that Jude has believed herself a murderer for fifteen years, then actually became one the day after learning she never was in the first place. Now the irony deepens, because she still has not murdered anyone after all, but she’s been convicted of a murder she has nothing to do with. In any case, I’m glad Jude finally recognizes how awful she was as a headmistress. The apology she gave Lana was well-deserved. Jude has grown on me a lot since that first episode when I thought she was just Constance 2.0.
Kit was so amicable to the idea of bringing himself to the cusp of death. I get that it might be a shot at meeting Alma again, but he literally just got his hands on a tape that could free him from this place, and now he’s entrusting his life to Dr. Arden, of all people, in a procedure that could kill him. He better appreciate that it actually worked.
I don’t think we’ve seen Pepper since the Nor’easter episode. They mentioned her as one of the escaped patients, but I thought they had just lost track of her briefly. Now I guess she had been abducted at the time off screen. Now that I think about it, that was right about the time Sister Jude ran into an alien in the hallway during her drunken spell.
The aliens must have brought Grace back from the dead. I still don’t really understand why they gave her back—twice, now—but kept Alma. At least we’re digging more into the alien story, so hopefully the next episode will reveal more.
The 60’s must have better technology than I thought. Somehow they were able to tell that someone was pregnant within a couple days of conception! (/sarcasm) I can understand why Lana wants nothing to do with this baby, and it was clever of her to use it as leverage to trick Thredson into confessing. Unfortunately, we also know that whatever comes, her baby will survive and end up in the foster system, and will become the next Bloody Face. I could have sworn the voice of present day Bloody Face in episode 6 was Zachary Quinto, but it must have just been my preconceived notion because I went back to listen and it does sound like Dylon McDermott now that I’m paying closer attention.
Conclusion
My one issue is the absurdly short timeframe in which they were able to medically tell Lana was pregnant. I guess I understand why they did it this way, because the surrounding plotlines can’t wait around for weeks between plot points just to give one plotline the time it needs to breath. Still, it feels odd. I know, it’s ridiculous to draw the line of suspension of disbelief at something so random when this show also contains zombie-like creatures, angels of death, Satan possessing a nun, and aliens returning a woman from the dead while accelerating her pregnancy, but in this instance there isn’t anything supernatural causing Lana’s pregnancy to be noticed more quickly than we can even in the present day. If anything, they could have excused it away by having Sister Mary Eunice’s demon-sense tell she was pregnant the first time around, instead of having her learn through a medical report. But I digress. The rest of the episode was still as solid as ever, so I guess I can excuse one sloppy detail.
Score: 7/10