He may look like Pierce’s dad from Community, but he’s actually the farmer from Babe. And he’s here to exorcise you. Or something.
When describing the kinds of characters populating the titular asylum on American Horror Story: Asylum, off-kilter is just one of many applicable adjectives for all the different kinds of crazy.
It’s the perfect way to describe Asylum. Throughout “Tricks and Treats,” we are treated to the absolute best and worst that this series has to offer in equal measure – it’s just good enough to keep you engrossed and just silly enough to make you cringe.
“Tricks and Treats” starts with a quick update on last week’s present-day frame narrative, basically just letting us know that Leo is more or less dead, his wife Theresa is trapped in the abandoned Briarcliff Manor and that serial killing monster Bloody Face has an extremely bloody face.
We are promptly swept back to 1964, where reporter Lana Winters’ partner Wendy is distraught after committing Lana to the asylum out of fear of being revealed as a lesbian. At this point, Wendy is apparently murdered by the apparently ageless Bloody Face.
The present-day narrative adds a mysterious dimension to Bloody Face, but a show with so much going on (Nazis, aliens, demons, etc.), it so far hasn’t paid off enough to warrant its inclusion beyond the fact that its very existence fuels fans’ perpetual speculation. (A bad sign that it probably won’t pay off in an interesting way)
Moving past the initial cold open silliness, the main plot of “Tricks and Treats” presents itself. You never would have guessed it (sarcasm), but this week’s storyline sees the introduction of exorcism as one of American Horror Story’s innumerable tableaus.
At this point, it’s almost pointless to be surprised when a plot comes completely out of left field (remember “Piggy Piggy” from season one, guest starring Eric Stonestreet for no reason at all?), but what’s truly shocking about Asylum’s take on exorcism is that it’s actually very well done.
Last week, it was made clear that this season will focus a lot of attention on the dichotomy between religion and science. “Tricks and Treats” carries the torch well, introducing Dr. Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto, returning in a starring role this season), a young psychologist who is appalled at the state of Briarcliff Manor and its many out-of-date treatment methods.
Amidst his arguing with the Sister Jane, Oliver becomes embroiled in the case of a young man who has suddenly started speaking in tongues and eating cow hearts. Soon after, Oliver, Monsignor Timothy Howard and a wheelchair-bound exorcist attempt to remove the demon, despite Oliver’s calls for medical treatment.
This story is closely mirrored by Lana’s escape attempts, which are hampered when Sister Jane, in a moment of weakness, goes to Dr. Arthur Arden and asks for him to give Lana electro-shock therapy to cure her homosexuality (science at work!).
Jessica Lange, as Sister Jude, plays this scene beautifully, by turns disgusted with her actions and happy to teach Lana the word of God.
With Lana’s short term memory shot, she must rely on her new friend Grace for assistance in the escape, the only problem being that Grace is also devoted to helping accused murderer Kit Walker, who Lana detests.
The plots interweave very nicely, especially when the thrashing demon boy causes an electrical outage, giving Lana and Grace a chance to escape.
Asylum is ripe with impressive visuals and the escape attempt is one of the best on the episode, giving us impressively paced tracking shots down Briarcliff Manor’s corridors, awash in nothing but strobing red emergency lights and shadow.
At another point, Sister Jane’s past as a jazz-club whore and apparent hit-and-run murderer come to light as the devil warps her mind during the exorcism. The scene definitely tosses too many unexplored ideas into the air too quickly, but it was a cool way to let us know more about Sister Jane.
In a somewhat unexpected turn, the possessed boy dies and the demon escapes into young nun Sister Mary Eunice – what started out as a monster of the week seems to have joined the cast for the long haul.
All told, this part of Asylum gave us some of the best bits of American Horror Story yet – it was still batshit weird, hypersexual and mysterious, but there’s a strong sense on consistency in the Asylum style which made this half of “Tricks and Treats” a joy to watch.
On the other hand, “Tricks and Treats” also had plenty examples of what people hate most about this show. Worst of all was Arthur’s subplot about his sexual desires.
In one scene, Shelly the Nymphomaniac tries to convince the doctor to have sex with her in exchange for a few minutes outdoor air.
For starters, the scene clearly has no purpose besides introducing more about Shelly’s unfair situation and it feels like a cheap contrivance (even moreso than Sister Jane’s exorcism moment). There really is no precedent for her to suddenly tell her life story while hitting on Arthur.
Worse than that, the scene feels like the opening moments of a porno, and not in a clever, satirical or creepy way that could show off the show’s boundary breaking pedigree. No, the dialogue is just so poorly written in this scene that James Cromwell and Chloë Sevigny’s acting can’t save it from being totally cringe-worthy.
Sure, Shelly is a nymphomaniac and we could pretend all day that the scene was purposefully written in the “porno foreplay” style as a way to entice the audience, but honestly, it was just bad.
The trend continues later in the episode, when we witness Arthur inviting a hooker over to his house. The hooker isn’t prepared for his strange demands, and while putting on the nun’s outfit that Arthur has laid out for her, she discovers a set of photos of women in hogtied positions and then some photos of unclear gore and death inside of Arthur’s box of masturbatory items.
Freaked, she barely escapes – and the audience barely makes it back to the show’s main storyline. The side-plot about Arthur’s sex life isn’t entirely terrible, and it leaves some blatant clues (probably red herrings) about the identity of Bloody Face, but the dialogue and situational drama just feels lame.
Arthur, now sexually frustrated, finds himself unable to look away from Sister Mary Eunice, clearly still possessed, the next day. The scene ties the plots together nicely and helps me to forget how silly Arthur’s scenes were in “Tricks and Treats.”
In the end, I wanted to call “Tricks and Treats” the best episode of the series so far, but as per usual, it was held back by some off-kilter writing.
That being said, Asylum already feels better thought-out than the first season, and as the show goes on, I can only expect it to get crazier – and by extension, better.
diversions@umdbk.com
