- Air Date: 10/31/2012
- Directed By: Michael Uppendahl
- Starring: Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson, Lizzie Brocheré, James Cromwell, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters
- Guest Stars: Chloë Sevigny
I generally don’t like when television shows waste precious minutes of their airtime reviewing events that occurred in the previous episode. However, I do like it when they show Adam Levine getting stabbed again and again. I don’t know what it is about this guy. Maybe it’s the whiff that he sold his soul to Rupert Murdoch to be a celebrity judge and a minor part on an awesome TV show that makes him seem disingenuous. Perhaps it’s the look in his eyes that is both miraculously smarmy and blank at the same time. Whatever it is, go Bloody Face, go!!
As Bloody Face lunges towards the hot wife, Levine suddenly throws himself against the attacker, knocking Bloody Face down and allowing wife-y to do some stabbing of her own. As the couple are about to flee, Bloody Face shows up again and shoots them. Then there are two Bloody Faces (or is that Bloody-Facei) who remove their masks and reveal themselves to be… Bro 1 and Bro 2 who seem to be doing this for kicks until… a THIRD Bloody Face shows up!! Which means… we’ll have to wait until next week to find out if this beast’s savage soul can be tamed with some light FM adult contemporary rock.
But for now, we’re back to 1964 where a storm is about to hit Briarcliff and everyone is going to have to hunker down and learn to get along for one night. All except Monsignor Timothy who has yet to really make an impact this series and who I guess on this particular evening is away at some kind of conference or bed and breakfast. But no matter, Sister Jude has a super fun night planned for all the inmates. They’ll be screening Cecile B. Demille’s The Sign of the Cross which, from Sister Jude’s description, sounds like a religious version of The Avengers.
But of course, all is not well in the humble asylum. Sister Mary Eunice isn’t quite herself, what with being possessed by the Devil and all. She seduces Dr. Arden, teases Sister Jude with her hit and run past, and kills a particularly religious inmate. Then, for all intents and purposes, she sits back and let’s the humans do all the work. Which, to be fair, is pretty deliciously eeeeeeeeeeeeevil. Of course, no one truly suspects what’s going on with Sister Eunice, as they’re all too worried about their own vices.
Lana makes an attempt to get a message to her girlfriend, Wendy, via Dr. Thredson. The doctor attempts to pass on the message but finds evidence of Bloody Face’s return and tells Lana. Lana is more determined than ever to escape this place and does so with Grace and Kit while Shelley (Chloë Sevigny) provides some, ahem, feminine distractions. The trio make it out while Shelley is caught by Dr. Arden. The three are chased by Dr. Arden’s evil zombie mutants and wind up running back into Briarcliff for safety. All this happens while Sister Jude hits the church wine and winds up sleeping off the rest of the episode in her bed.
In the final scene of the episode, Dr. Arden rouses Shelley and admonishes her for being a bad girl and says that Sister Jude and the others believe she’s run off during the storm with the religious patient that Sister Mary Eunice took care of before. He then reveals how he plans to keep her there, he’s amputated her legs. The camera give us a few nice pans of his handy work and we’re left with the credits.
This episode gave a terrific sense of how each character is trapped (except Monsignor Timothy, where the heck is that guy?!). Whether it’s by their past, their physical impediments, or the fact that they can’t outrun evil mutant zombies, they are all in it together. The episode also illuminated how skewed everyone’s priorities are. Neither the religious nor scientific factions are able to understand that Sister Mary Eunice is the Devil, or their hands are tied by administrative tape and they can’t step outside of their guidelines. It’s going to be a bleak winter, best get cozy now.
