Kit, Jude, and Lana’s stories come to an end, as does the madness that has haunted them for ages.
**CONTENT WARNING: Descriptions of violence**
Synopsis
FOUR MONTHS AGO: Johnny walks through the abandoned Briarcliff while listening to Lana’s expose, read by her. He imagines seeing her, her telling him she never loved or wanted him. Then he imagines his father telling him he always wanted him, and Lana stole him away. Leo and Teresa arrive, and we see the events from the first scene of the show from Johnny‘s perspective.
IN THE EARLY 1970’s: Lana finally returns to Braircliff, sneaking in through the tunnel with a cameraman and filming the patients in their atrocious living conditions for her expose. She looks for Jude, but the only thing she can find is a record of a Betty Drake, who was released to the care of Kit Walker. Lana’s expose shuts down Braircliff, but she visits Kit to learn the rest of the story. He brought Jude into his home, not for her sake or his, but to find a way to forgive what happened at Braircliff. Jude detoxes from the medication they had her on, though sometimes she still gets confused about where she is. Kit’s children calm her down and mysteriously seem to help her gain her focus back. On her better days, she teaches the family how to dance. After about six months, her health ails, and she finally welcomes Shachath’s kiss.
After her success with Braircliff, Lana exposes Cardinal Timothy Howard, ambushing him for an interview about his involvement with Arden’s misdeeds. After this expose airs, he can’t handle his guilt over the years of lies and takes his own life.
IN THE PRESENT: an old Lana recounts these things during an interview in her home. She also tells of Kit’s story, how he remarried, how his kids made wonderful lives for themselves, and how he came down with pancreatic cancer in his forties shortly before vanishing into thin air.
Moved by the memory of the weight of Timothy’s lies, Lana reveals truths she’s held in for decades, about how her son lived, and how she even visited him once at the park when he was a kid but didn’t tell him who she was. When the interview is over and the film crew leaves, Lana reveals she recognized one of the crew as Johnny and knows he hid to stay behind. Unbeknownst to him, the police recently showed her a picture of him and warned her they suspect him in several recent murders. She invites Johnny out for a drink and to discuss this once and for all. Johnny threatens her with a gun, saying he just wants to live up to his father and be someone who would have made him proud. Lana says his father was a monster, and Johnny’s nothing like him because he’s a good person. Johnny, upset, lowers the gun while lamenting that he’s hurt people. Lana says it’s not his fault, then turns the gun on him and says, “It’s mine,” before pulling the trigger and shooting him in the head. Finally the cycle of madness has been cut off.
Kit and Jude
I am so glad Kit took Jude in for the short remainder of her life. Yes, she was responsible for a ton of crap, but she also made amends for her mistakes. In the end, she was able to find some happiness in family. And there was more dancing! This time swing dancing. There were occasionally scenes with both Kit and Jude before, but it wasn’t until they danced together that I really remembered they played mother and son in Season 1.
On her deathbed, Jude gives the children some words of wisdom. It’s so poignant that her advice to Julia would be to not let men dictate her life. Much of what Jude has done in her life was either to prove herself in the world of men, or inspired by her admiration for a man who turned out to be a total dick.
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon did it again, just like I knew he would, bringing film magic to Jude’s death scene. First, the bed moved away from the wall, towards the camera, rather than bringing the camera to Jude. Then there was a shot of the bed, glowing, surrounded by black as Shachath came to bestow death’s kiss. It was so well done.
I’m glad Kit found happiness after all of the terror. He lost his two loves, but he found love again. In the end he was taken back by the aliens. We never did learn what makes him so special, but they obviously always watched over him and took him when his time came. He doesn’t seem upset about it.
Lana and Johnny
Lana is back to her old badass self. She faces her fate head on and never waivers, but ultimately gains the upper hand. I’m glad she recognizes that it’s time to come clean. She has always suspected Johnny would find her one day, so it isn’t much of a surprise on her end. The way she talks to Johnny, the wording she uses, reminds me of the way she spoke to Thredson when he had her chained up. Then, she was terrified and threw together any verbal ammo she could come up with to appeal to his nature. Here, she’s calm and collected, working in these verbal cues seamlessly in order to take Johnny’s guard down. It is unfortunate that despite her attempts to offer him a good life and give him a chance at love, Johnny ultimately took after his father anyway. I think she was right not to go through with the abortion, because at the time there was still a chance for him, but I also think it was right for her to stop him here now that she knows he is a killer.
Cardinal Timothy Howard
Though only in the episode briefly, we also finally got closure on our last villain of the series, even if he’s a villain on a smaller scale than some others. I find it interesting that in the end, he commits suicide. Cardinal Timothy has his major faults, but he is consistently a highly religious man. Suicide is considered an unforgivable sin in Catholicism, so he must have been convinced his soul is already doomed if he went through with it.
Conclusion
A solid end to a solid season. All the remaining storylines were wrapped up, and this time around their endings felt fitting, rather than the end of Murder House which felt undeservedly happy. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon didn’t show off as much in this episode as I expected, but he did include some flair. Overall, I’m so happy I watched this season again. I hardly remembered it, so it was nice to get the full story once more.
Score: 9/10