James Cromwell’s bald head is just one of many disturbing things “Nor’Easter” offers.
A storm is coming to Briarcliff Manor, but we aren’t just talking about the nor’easter of the title.
Granted, there is an actual storm on this week’s episode of American Horror Story: Asylum (very oddly coinciding with Superstorm Sandy and airing on Halloween night, no less) but it’s pretty clear from the very beginning that we aren’t talking about a little wind, rain and lighting — nope, we’re talking about a whirlwind of aliens, human-devouring monsters and a big slice of Satan for good measure.
“Nor’easter” goes for the whole Asylum heap of crazy, bashing every little bit into one 40 minute rock block. This episode might just be the best amalgamation of supernatural insanity the show has ever done — each character is dealing with their own issues, but over the course of the episode, every single one of these motivations affects another character’s journey.
Sure, there are still some laughable moments (I’m looking at you, Dr. Arthur Arden, and everything you say and do) but I have to give props to the writers of this episode for its positively labyrinthine plot development.
At the eye of our storm is the once pure and docile Sister Mary Eunice, now possessed by the devil and intent on completing some as-of-yet unclear goal. It’s clear that actress Lily Rabe is having a great time playing this role — her leap from simple little nun to manipulative, sex-crazed demon over the past three episodes has been quite a sight.
In “Nor’easter,” Sister Mary seems intent on driving Sister Jude into madness while widening the rift between her and Arthur. To accomplish this, Sister Mary attempts to seduce Arthur, who can’t handle the idea of her being impure and runs her out of his office.
It’s an odd parallel to his homicidal tendencies towards prostitutes, but when we see Arthur destroy a statue of the Virgin Mary while shouting “whore,” we can only assume there is a bit more to his bizarre choices than meets the eye. Our assumptions, however, aren’t good enough, which just makes Arthur that much more confusing of a character.
Sister Mary’s torturous treatment of Sister Jude is possibly the most interesting dichotomy on the episode. Sister Jude blindly trusts Sister Mary (like a lamb?), never assuming that she is the one dredging up all of Sister Jude’s sinful past.
Between being given a copy of an old newspaper recounting Sister Jude’s hit-and-run circa 1949 and receiving a creepy phone call from the young girl she murdered, Sister Jude is driven back to the alcohol she gave up when she became a nun.
Sister Jude’s torture brings us to one of the things AHS does best, which is to use horror as a vessel to give us some actual internal turmoil. Not every character is a well rounded creation (hello again, Arthur), but the fact that Sister Jude is battling addiction and guilt alongside aliens and God knows what else adds a hell of a lot of depth to Asylum.
With the dangerous storm (the real one) fast approaching, a distressed Sister Jude plans to distract the inmates with a film. Of course, she picks Cecil B. DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross (because it’s the dirtiest black and white movie about Jesus and because this is AHS), leading to Sister Mary’s awesome line about not wanting to miss the part where the Christians get eaten.
The film draws all the right pieces together — it’s the perfect time for Kit Walker, Lana Winters, Grace and Shelley the Nymphomaniac to make their escape, all while igniting every bit of crazy that Briarcliff has to offer.
It starts with Sister Jude’s incredible drunk monologue (thank you, Jessica Lange), before each character screws with another character’s plans.
Finding out from compassionate Dr. Oliver Thredson that her partner may have been killed by Bloody Face (thereby clearing Kit’s name), Lana decides to join the others in their escape attempt.
This is where things get truly out of hand — Sister Jude momentarily encounters Kit’s aliens, leaving her disoriented and out of commission (the alien looked pretty cool from what I could see). Elsewhere, the escape attempt fails when the group is stymied by Arthur’s disgusting garden creatures.
Worst of all — and to be honest, the scariest thing Asylum has given us yet — is the fate of Shelley, who martyrs herself in order to protect the escape party.
At first, Shelley uses her nympho skills to distract a guard, but when she makes her own run for the door she encounters Arthur, who takes her back to his office for sex.
Again, I’m completely confused about Arthur — last week, he could only get it up by hogtieing a prostitute dressed as nun, yet now he’s willing to screw and/or rape with a tart. Yes, we get that he’s completely evil, but his motivations and desires are contradictory (or simply ill-explained).
Either way, Shelley’s nymphomaniac pedigree has led her into this rape scenario, which she fights against with all her might, in polar opposition to her actions just moments before. Unlike Arthur’s actions, however, this turn of events actually makes sense (she is motivated to escape) and has a bit of dramatic irony to it.
Both of these scenes push basic cable to its absolute limit: Shelley’s “distraction” is the closest we’ve ever come to seeing a full-on blowjob on basic cable and her attempted rape is shot at a decidedly wide angle, pretty much showing us everything (that’s AHS for you).
In spite of that, the most horrifying moment comes at the very end of the episode, when we find out that Sister Jude and the staff believe Shelley has escaped. Unbeknownst to everyone, she has been taken by Arthur, who has (disgustingly) removed her legs to keep her from running.
It’s shocking, sickening and, worst of all, the most plausible scare ever on Asylum.
The “Nor’easter” storm may have passed, but it’s pretty clear that a much larger tempest is rustling through the leaves. With any luck, Asylum will keep evolving from week to week — it may be all kinds of far-fetched crazy, but even the most abstract horrors stem from primal fears.
Tidbits:
–The present-day cold openings are really getting old. That being said, we did get to see Adam Levine die for the third time, which must count for something.
–I sincerely hope that Arthur is just a red-herring and not the main villain. No disrespect to James Cromwell, but Arthur is far-and-away the most annoyingly awkward (read: poorly written) character on Asylum. He fills out a bunch of plot points and mad scientist clichés, and has a very important role in the science vs. religion dichotomy, but then again, he doesn’t really fit smoothly into the overall story. And honestly, Oliver’s troubles with science vs. religion are much more interesting than Arthur’s because he’s stuck in the middle between the two extremes of Sister Jude and Arthur.
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