Welcome to Briarcliff, an asylum in the 1960’s run by a staff as deranged as their patients.
**CONTENT WARNING: Descriptions of violence, photo of gore/body horror**
Synopsis
Leo (Adam Levine) and Teresa (Jenna Dewan) Morrison are newlyweds on the last stop of their haunted honeymoon: Briarcliff, now abandoned but formerly a tuberculosis ward before becoming an asylum in the 60’s. Briarcliff is most remembered for housing the serial killer known as Bloody Face because he skinned his victims and wore their faces like a mask. While the pair explore the place, Leo sticks a camera through a slot in a door, but something grabs his arm and rips it off. Teresa tourniquets his arm and runs for help.
In 1964, we meet Kit Walker (Evan Peters), a happy-go-lucky gas station attendant who is madly in love with his new wife, Alma (Britne Oldford). They’ve married in secret because interracial marriages are illegal in the 60’s. Kit and Alma hear sounds outside and Kit thinks someone’s come to attack them because of their marriage. Surprisingly, the attack is not by racist humans —it appears to be an alien abduction.
Elsewhere, Lana (Sarah Paulson) enters Briarfield as a reporter who is researching their bakery, an idea that Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) had in order to promote productivity of their patients. Sister Jude is harsh with her patients and no-nonsense during the interview with Lana. Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) announces that the murderer Bloody Face is about to arrive, and Lana’s true intentions are revealed: she’s really here to report on that, using the bakery story as a front.
Everyone goes outside to see Bloody Face get brought in, but it turns out to be frightened Kit Walker, who has mistakenly been pegged as Bloody Face because apparently Alma was the latest victim. It doesn’t help that he claims he was abducted by little green men. The court has sent him here until they can determine if he’s of sound enough mind to stand trial. Kit suffers a harsh initiation into the asylum. He befriends Grace (Lizzie Brochere), a French woman who says she’s not crazy, nor did she chop up her family as she’s been accused of. Her story mirrors Kits, so he finds comfort in this friendship.
Sister Jude confronts Dr. Arden (James Cromwell) whom she find suspicious because any patients that goes under his care who doesn’t have any family always turns up dead. Dr. Arden excuses this away but doesn’t allay her suspicions. Secretly we see that he’s been chopping up these patients and feeding them to some unseen creatures with the help of Sister Mary Eunice. Sister Jude has dinner with Monsignor Timothy Howard (Joseph Fiennes), who she secretly fantasizes about, and expresses her problems with Dr. Arden. He assures her the doctor was chosen by higher ups in the church, and that science is made by God, so she needs to leave Dr. Arden to do the work in his field. The monsignor excites her with his dream for them: him Cardinal and Sister Jude as Mother Superior by his side.
Lana goes home to her girlfriend Wendy (Clea DuVall), another couple who have been keeping their relationship secret because gay relationships are also criminalized during this era. Lana believes sister Jude is hiding something, and gets Wendy’s full support in pursuing the asylum story. Lana comes back to Briarcliff at night and runs into Sister Mary Eunice in the woods out back as she feeds Dr. Arden’s unseen creatures. Sister Mary Eunice is frightened and quickly pulls Lana into a secret tunnel. Lana threatens to tell Sister Jude what Sister Mary Eunice has been up to in the woods unless Sister Mary Eunice gives her a chance to speak with Kit. Unbeknownst to them, Kit has been secretly taken by Dr. Arden to be experimented on. Dr. Arden explains to Kit that he’s been taking his patients brains for study, and that he believes Kit’s mind will be the most interesting since he’s believed to be Bloody Face. Before he can slice Kit open, the doctor discovers a lump on the side of his neck. Kit has been having PTSD flashbacks to the alien ship and we see that they implanted something into his neck. Dr. Arden pulls it out and it looks similar to a microchip, but quickly sprouts legs like a spider crawls away.
The next morning, Sister Jude reprimands Sister Mary Eunice for letting Lana in the asylum. Sister Mary Eunice is distraught and repentant, fully willing to be punished. Sister Jude lets her go with a warning and visits a new patient—none other than Lana. Supposedly, Lana was attacked by something on her way out and knocked out. While she was out, Sister Jude had visited Wendy and blackmailed her into signing a form to admit Lana into the asylum to treat her for being gay, threatening to expose them both and ruin their lives and Wendy’s career if she didn’t.
Sister Jude finds Dr. Arden cleaning a long-closed room with large scratches on the wall, the same room where in the present, Leo lies bleeding out as his wife runs for help through the secret tunnel. Into Teresa’s path steps a man wearing the mask of a human face.
The Staff
Sister Jude is played by Jessica Lange, who played Constance in the previous season. So far they’re not drastically different characters. Both care for people deemed mental disabled, but are the worst person for such a role. Both are homophobic and judgmental, but have their own flaws/sins that they don’t seem to acknowledge. Also, they both are attracted to younger men. One thing I find interesting about Sister Jude, though, is that she’s introduced as villainous, but then she turns around and shares the viewer’s opinion that Dr. Arden is a monster. Both are awful people, but I wasn’t expecting her to be so aware of how awful he is. I would’ve guessed they’d be of a like mind on how to treat their patients.
Dr. Arden is a problem—murdering patients for the sake of science, keeping their brains in jars, and feeding their bodies to some unknown creatures. We didn’t see him kill Kit, who I’m pretty sure comes back throughout the season, so I’m not really sure how that all turned out after the weird alien microchip spider showed up.
Sister Mary Eunice is an odd one. She seems to be easily upset and frazzled, often crying and fully willing to take the blame for her deeds. Yet, she also fully trusts Dr. Arden and feeds body parts to creatures in the woods. It’s unclear whether she realizes where the meat she’s bringing came from, but surely she can’t be so naive to trust in him so fully when his patients often mysteriously die, then meat suddenly becomes available for her to bring to the woods.
Monsignor Timothy Howard was only in one scene, but I think he’ll be an interesting character. I like that he’s a religious leader, but he appreciates science. But then on the flip side, he’s allowing awful things to happen in the place run under his authority. He may not fully comprehend the depth of what’s happening to the patients, but if so, it’s because he is turning a blind eye to it. He was very cavalier towards Dr. Arden’s work despite the concerns of his most trusted ally, so I can’t imagine he cares too much about what’s happening to the people in Briarcliff’s care.
The Patients
The main patients are Kit and now Lana. Neither should even be here. Aside from them, several other characters were introduced. Pepper (Naomi Grossman) offers Lana a flower when she first arrives, but according to Sister Mary Eunice, Pepper violently murdered her sister’s baby. Pepper appears to be mentally disabled and born with a deformity (this season was nominated for an Emmy for their prosthetics). Shelley (Chloe Sevigny) was admitted as a nymphomaniac, something one of the orderlies is seen taking advantage. Spivey (Mark Consuelos) is a jerk who goads people into reacting. Grace is friendly and claims to be innocent and not crazy, which of course immediately makes me most suspicious of her. The way these characters are focused on, even if they aren’t prominent characters, makes me assume they will all become players throughout the story.
The Actors
The cast of the first season was decent, but this season is chock full of amazing actors. Two of the main actors from season one have returned as main characters here (Jessica Lange and Evan Peters), and three of the side actors are now in larger roles (Lily Rabe, Sarah Paulson, and Zachary Quinto – although he doesn’t appear in this episode, credited only). It’s nice to see Evan Peters as a good person this time around, though it’s a bit ironic because now Kit is suffering, while Tate largely got to do whatever he wanted despite being a cold-blooded murderer. Joining the cast this season is James Cromwell, who won an Emmy for his performance, Joseph Fiennes, and Clea DuVall. This was also American Horror Story’s first casting of a popular singer, though I’m not sure Adam Levine will be back for more. Jessica Lange and James Cromwell are such fantastic actors. Once again, AHS has this knack for casting spectacular actors in atrocious roles and I am here for it. I’m so glad that Lily Rabe and Sarah Paulson will be getting larger roles this time, because both are great actors as well. I’ve always been a fan of Clea DuVall, and while I might not like Joseph Fiennes quite as much as his brother Ralph, he still fits the role here well so far. I also appreciate that AHS cast gay actors to play the gay couple. Last season, they also cast Zachary Quinto as a gay character, although it doesn’t look like his boyfriend was played by a gay actor. Nonetheless, it’s just nice to see a common trend for these characters to be played by people with their same orientation.
Comparisons
I noticed several comparisons between the characters’ stories. Both the Walkers and the Morrisons are brand new spouses, floating on clouds of love. Both face horrendous trauma that rips them apart. The Walkers also have much in common with Lana and Wendy—both couples hide their relationship because they live in an era that doesn’t accept their pairings, but for different reasons. Now Kit and Lana are stuck in a horrible asylum for unjust causes.
Social Issues
The previous season had a couple mentally disabled characters. This season is literally set in an asylum during a high time in patient cruelty. Sister Jude even declares, “Mental illness is the fashionable explanation for sin.” Again, worst person for this job. But, like with Constance in season 1, perspectives like these are obviously shown in a negative light.
As mentioned, this era was also hugely problematic when it came to segregation and homophobia, both issues that are already being tackled head on. Everyone assumes Kit killed Alma because she was Black. He’s reeling over getting abducted by aliens, losing his wife, getting framed for her death and the deaths of Bloody Face’s other victims, and now getting locked up and essentially tortured in Briarcliff. On top of all that, every time anyone talks to him, all they want to talk about is how he murdered “the black woman,” not even realizing that he loves her so much and misses her. This poor guy.
Even though I disapproved of Sister Jude’s treatment of her patients from the get-go, I am absolutely flabbergasted that she would go out of her way to blackmail someone just so that they’ll admit their loved one into Briarcliff so she can try her hand at conversion therapy. It was awful to see Lana and Wendy’s relationship used against them. Of course Wendy doesn’t want Lana to be admitted there, but what could she do? Maybe you could say she chose her career over her girlfriend’s wellbeing, since one aspect that tipped the scale was the concept that she’ll no doubt be banished from being a teacher anymore if everyone knows she’s gay. But I don’t think she could’ve won no matter what decision she made. If she hadn’t signed, maybe Sister Jude might have let Lana go. But Lana’s life would have been ruined anyway once her reputation was also slandered by the societal disdain for her orientation. Granted, it might not have been quite as harsh as conversion therapy, but the two of them would have been ostracized and unemployable. Wendy should never have been put in that position in the first place.
Other Aspects
All right, so we covered the asylum and social issues at great length. But I haven’t spoken much about the three other things that came up during the episode. First of all… aliens? Wow, okay. Did not remember that (though I really didn’t remember much of anything so far—it’s been almost a decade since I last watched this season) nor did I expect it. And it was one of the first scenes! Then we have a serial killer, who obviously is still on the loose because there’s no way it’s Kit Walker (I do remember a little bit about that storyline, and it’s pretty interesting, so I’m looking forward to seeing more). Finally, we have the mad doctor and some sort of creatures that have yet to be shown. What are they? Did Dr. Arden “Frankenstein” something, as Charles did in season 1?
Conclusion
I’m only one episode in and I had more to say during this review than I did for any of the Murder House reviews, so that’s a good start. I’m enjoying it, even if I’m not totally clear sometimes on what’s going on. When that sort of thing happened in Murder House, it felt frustrating, like I was supposed to understand but didn’t have enough information. Here, there are scenes that seem almost random, but hint to something deeper that they dare not delve too much into yet, and it leaves me curious. Obviously I’m stoked about the cast, and I’m intrigued by the show’s journey into major social issues, something they only scratched the surface of in Murder House and didn’t necessarily always portray well. My one gripe so far is that there’s so many different things happening. Evil asylums and aliens and blackmail and social issues and creatures and serial killers… It’s a lot of things to pull into one single story. I hope it works together smoothly and doesn’t become overwhelming.
Score: 7/10