American Horror Story: Asylum Episode Four
Episode four of American Horror Story: Asylum delved a little into the mysteries behind some of the intriguing characters on the show, leaving viewers with more questions and piquing our interests about conspiracies and possibilities. And even though it is set in 1964, some of the themes the show hits on are still relevant today.
In the opening, Sister Jude is being summoned to check out a new patient that arrived with no forms of identification. The woman is Jewish and has been put in Briarcliff for attacking some men at a bar when they made anti-Semitic comments.
Soon we see that Dr. Arden has not finished with Shelley yet. She is still on the table in his laboratory, her amputated legs merely stumps, but this week she has changed some. Her skin is covered in boils and Dr. Arden injects a needle with an unknown substance through her temple into her brain. Cringe-worthy moment, indeed.
Dr. Arden’s obsession with Kit’s extracted implant has Kit strapped to a table and the doctor attempting to discern if the implant has made its way back into him. He smacks Kit around and takes multiple x-rays of his body in order to find the implant.
The reason Grace has been hospitalized comes to light when she tells Kit that her stepsister claimed she murdered her father and stepmother. The real killer was a man who wanted their farm, claimed Grace, and she was able to hide from him and escape his wrath. Kit tells her he believes her and they have a tender moment.
Dr. Thredson has developed quite the concern for Lana, so he offers to administer conversion therapy in order to cure Lana of her lesbianism. Lana finally agrees to try the therapy, and Dr. Thredson starts an iv, giving her morphine, making her ill. As she is sick she is forced to look at pictures of pretty women in the hopes that her brain will make the connection between looking at women and being ill and it will cause her not to have the desire anymore. Dr. Thredson takes it one step further when he has a young man come into the room and undress in front of Lana. He has Lana touch herself and look at his genitals, and eventually touching both herself and the boy at the same time. She is not able to handle this and becomes sick again. But to give Lana some serious credit and show her strength and determination, she is still willing to continue.
Another thing Dr. Thredson does in this week’s episode is to tell Kit that he may have committed those crimes and his mind may have came up with the story he presents in order to be able to deal with the atrocities. This serves to set up doubt about Kit and to play with Kit’s mind.
The new patient is sitting in the common room when Dr. Arden walks in. Her reaction is to attack the doctor and claim that he is a Nazi war criminal. When Sister Jude questions her about her actions, the woman claims to be Anne Frank and provides a story to back up her claims. She says that she recognizes Dr. Arden from the time she spent in Auschwitz. He had been a sinister man. Sister Jude believes the woman and takes her information to Monsignor Howard.
Kit and Grace have a romantic moment in the kitchen before they’re caught in the act. The consequence of their actions, handed down by none other than Sister Jude is sterilization for the both of them. Once they are separated, Sister Mary, who is still possessed, hands Kit Grace’s file and he sees that she didn’t tell the truth – that she really did murder her family.
Sister Jude’s suspicions of Dr. Arden are strengthened when two officers show up to question Dr. Arden about his involvement with a young prostitute. She takes this information to Monsignor Howard who blows her off saying that he knows that she was drunk on movie night and how the alcohol is impairing her judgment. Cryptically we see Monsignor Howard calling Dr. Arden after Sister Jude leaves and telling him to do any ‘housekeeping’ he might have.
Later on, Lana is in the common room when Dr. Thredson approaches her to tell her that he is sorry the therapy didn’t work for her, but that he wants to take her with him when he leaves. Something about Dr. Thredson doesn’t sit well with me. I hope that we will have answers soon.
Kit goes to Sister Jude and breaks down asking for her to help him find God in order to rectify and find out if he really did commit the murders.
In the end, Dr. Arden has Anne Frank with him in the laboratory. When she continues to tell him that she knows about his involvement as a Nazi war criminal, he threatens her and locks her in. She pulls a gun on him. Shooting him in the leg, she hears a sound coming from a neighboring room. When he is forced to give her the keys, she opens a door and finds Shelley on the ground, begging to be killed. She is covered in blistered skin and apparently in a lot of pain, as well, as her grotesque form crawls and scoots in the floor.
Considering this episode had ‘Pt. 1’ in the title, this is such a wonderful tease to know that we have even more twisted goodness to look forward to next week and hopefully some answers about what we saw in episode four.
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Posted by Amber Keller
on Wednesday, November 7th, 2012. Filed under Dark TV, Headline.
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Tags: ahs, american horror story
