The angel of death makes her rounds through Briarcliff and those tied to it. Sister Jude learns some shocking news.
**CONTENT WARNING: Descriptions of violence and rape**
Synopsis
Grace is weak from blood loss and sees Shachath (Francis Conroy), the angel of death. Shachath tries to take her soul, but the nurses revive Grace just in time. Meanwhile, one of the Briarcliff patients has a breakdown and slices open his arms, painting Shachath’s Aramaic name on the wall with his blood. Sister Mary Eunice recognizes the word and confronts Shachath when she arrives to give the injured patient the kiss of death. Shachath recognizes that Sister Mary Eunice has someone else inside her, something she calls a “dark cousin.” For a moment the real Sister Mary Eunice pushes forefront and begs Shachath to save her. The demon regains control and tells Shachath to leave.
Sister Mary Eunice tells Dr. Arden that his botched sterilization put Grace in critical condition, but he insists he never operated on her. After a heated conversation, he backhands Sister Mary Eunice, to which she responds by throwing him back against the wall without even lifting a finger and threatening him. Dr. Arden is so insulted that everyone thinks he did this to Grace that he does everything he can to bring her back from the cusp of death just so she can clear his name.
Sister Jude tries to call the police to report Sam’s murder, but she notices documents in his house regarding the hit and run. Sister Mary Eunice calls her, revealing her possession and warning her to stay away. She tells Sister Jude she left two parting gifts, a bottle of alcohol and a razor. Sister Jude seriously contemplates suicide, but decides against it. Nonetheless, Shachath appears and tries to convince her to give up her fight and find peace in death. Sister Jude is ready for death, but needs to do one last thing. She goes to the house of the girl, Missy, from the hit and run and is about to confess to the family to give them closure when Missy herself, now grown, walks through the door. Turns out Missy didn’t die after all, but made it home that night with some broken bones.
Thredson rapes Lana, and afterwards she gets a visit from Shachath as well. Shachath offers to take her if she wants, and Lana almost gives in, feeling death would be better than this torture, but ultimately decides to put up one more fight. Thredson returns and intends to kill her, but Lana manages to overpower him, choking him unconscious with her chain. She frees herself and runs off, hopping into the first car she sees on the road. Unfortunately, the driver is bitter from just discovering his wife has cheated on him, and he immediately victim blames Lana for her own situation. Lana is unable to leave the car because he’s driving too fast. The man pulls out a pistol, and Lana sees Shachath in the backseat as the driver shoots himself in the head. The car crashes and Lana wakes up back in Briarcliff. She tries to convince Sister Mary Eunice that Thredson is Bloody Face, not Kit, and tells her the evidence is in the basement.
Kit speaks with a lawyer who is not hopeful of a way out of the conviction now that Kit has confessed on tape. Kit asks to get Grace’s testimony that Alma is still alive, but the lawyer says Grace is not only a mental patient, but also gravely ill. The lawyer speculates that they could still get Kit sent to Briarcliff permanently rather than the electric chair if he can be convincing that he’s crazy. Kit attacks him and escapes out the window, sneaking back into Briarcliff through the secret tunnel. He finds Grace, now feeling better after Dr. Arden’s care, but one of the creatures from the woods follows him and attacks one of the nuns. Kit kills the creature, but the security guards misunderstand the situation and tries to shoot him. Grace steps in the way and gets shot in the chest. As Kit is being taken away, Shachath arrives and gives a willing Grace her kiss of death. Grace’s final words are that she is finally free.
The Staff
Sister Mary Eunice has now made her possession completely clear to Sister Jude, and has been pretty clear to Dr. Arden as well. Sister Jude can’t do much about it unless she risks returning to Briarcliff, and Dr. Arden doesn’t seem particularly interested in doing anything about it himself.
I find it absolutely hilarious that Dr. Arden is more than willing to butcher patients all the time, but is so incensed that they would accuse him of being responsible for the one patient he didn’t touch that he fights tooth and nail to bring her back just to have her testimony that he didn’t do it. It’s not like he’s a saint, and even if he didn’t do this one thing he still has earned his reputation for things he actually did. But god forbid he be accused falsely of this one instance.
How crazy that Sister Jude has spent the last fifteen years living with the guilt of murder on her conscious, only to find out she never killed anyone. She’s not completely blameless, since she did still drink and drive and hurt a little girl, but at least Missy didn’t actually die. I wonder if she’ll confront Sister Mary Eunice after all, knowing now that she has been blackmailing her with information that wasn’t even true.
The Patients
Poor Lana just cannot catch a break. She finally makes it out of Briarcliff, only to be abducted by a serial killer. She escapes him only to wind up “rescued” by a bitter, suicidal man who tries to drag her down with him. She survives, but it takes her back to Briarcliff. She has evidence that Thredson is Bloody Face, but is unable to tell anyone except the devil. What a mess. Anyway, now that she has been raped, I’m starting to wonder if the Bloody Face in the present day scenes in other episodes might end up being Thredson and Lana’s child. That would explain why he’s not 80 years old, but still sounds just like Thredson.
I’m confused by Grace’s plot. Why did the aliens bother to take her, just to give her back all weak and ill? And now she apparently died even after surviving that part? I understand why she sacrificed herself to save Kit, but I hope more comes of her story because we still don’t know why the aliens took her in the first place.
Kit certainly has a compelling case now to convince people he’s crazy. He escapes custody and immediately breaks into an asylum. I get why, but it really worked well with the lawyer’s advice to make himself seem more crazy to get him out of the electric chair.
Shachath
The inclusion of the angel of death was interesting, though I almost feel like she showed up too much in a single episode. Her scenes were good and I liked the concept of a holy angel dressed in black and convincing people they are would be better off dead, while not coming across as evil in doing so. They just had to give her the same animation of black wings unfurling every single time she attempted to kiss anyone, which got redundant.
Conclusion
I’m curious to see where this goes now that Grace is dead, Kit is in more trouble, Sister Jude knows she didn’t kill anyone, and Lana is back in Briarcliff. Halfway through and it still has me intrigued. While there are still a couple of things I’m not clear on, I feel pretty confident in trusting the show to bring it all together.
Score: 8/10
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