American Horror Story: Asylum - S2E10 - The Name Game

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It has been a few weeks since the show has aired, so you are going to want to check out what happened previously on American Horror Story: Asylum.

The very first thing we see is Dr. Arden fulfilling his promise to revive Kit. I’m a little surprised he didn’t just let Kit die, but I’m sure he only saved him for selfish, experimental reasons. Dr. Arden then goes to inspect Grace-you know, after the aliens returned her alive and pregnant-and we learn that the aliens have also given Pepper the ability to speak coherently and charged her with protecting Grace, which she does very well against Dr. Arden. I should take this time to acknowledge that the show has done a fantastic makeup job on Naomi Grossman, the actress who portrays Pepper.

It turns out that Monsignor Timothy is alive and kicking. You’ll recall Ian Mcshane’s murderous Santa Claus attacked and crucified the monsignor; the last thing we saw of him was when he was visited by the dark angel. The presumption was that she was there to take him to the other side, but she was actually delivering a warning; she informed him that the devil has infiltrated Briarcliff-in the form of Sister Demon/Sister Mary Eunice, of course. He has to confront her/it. That should be interesting.

Meanwhile, Judy Martin (formerly known as Sister Jude) is getting to know Lana; by “getting to know” I mean “existing along side her”, because they aren’t exactly talking to each other very much. Lana does do a bit of talking with Kit, however, and that’s when Dr. Thredson walks in, sits down, and fogs the entire area with smarmy creep dust. Dr. Thredson goes on to talk of how he will have to allow Lana to live after the birth of his child, which she is still carrying, because she has to breastfeed the baby (“The health benefits merit it.”); he also tells her she has “pluck” for wanting to hit him over the head with an ashtray, and he tells her she will need to resume her treatment. You know, her treatment for gynephilia (homosexuality). Zachary Quinto is way too good at creeping me the fuck out.

Then Sister Demon performs a “room check” on the female patients, during which Lana accosts her for hiring Dr. Thredson; this results in Lana being punished in some kind of “boiling treatment” that would seem to not be too good for a pregnant woman (we don’t see this punishment, only Lana being dragged out of the corridor). Next, Sister Demon inspects Judy’s room and “finds” a cucumber which she accuses Judy of stealing from the kitchen and using to “diddle herself all night”. Judy dares Sister Demon to punish her for this, and we smash cut to Judy strapped into a bed and begging Dr. Arden not to administer electroshock therapy on her. Of course, he doesn’t listen; he and Sister Demon zap Judy with more than the “recommended dosage”. This treatment causes Judy to-at least temporarily-lose her ability to communicate; she just wanders out into the patient common area where Sister Demon has installed a jukebox. She installed the jukebox, earlier, as a means of reminding Judy of her former life as a singer. In her confused/fried state, Judy starts up the jukebox and-following a “Do you know your name?” question from Lana-proceeds to perform a surreal musical number of Shirley Ellis’ “The Name Game”, complete with wardrobe and dance moves fitting of a 1960s setting. That was all in her head, though, and she’s actually still standing there drooling on herself; it was clearly meant to demonstrate just how far gone Judy is.

Away from this, Monsignor Timothy confronts Sister Demon; predictably, it doesn’t work. He tried to grab her head and recite some prayer, but Sister Demon ain’t having none of that. What follows is a rape scene where Sister Demon takes Monsignor Timothy’s “virtue”. That’s bad, yes, but then we see that Dr. Arden was watching the whole time. What the hell, Peeping Tom?

That’s not the last jacked up thing Arden does, though; he goes out to feed his zombie monsters (do you remember them?). Sister Demon catches up to him to tell him she thinks they should give Judy a transorbital lobotomy (to which Dr. Arden is like “I’m not doing that because I’m not your bitch.”) and asks what he’s doing; it’s pretty clear what he’s doing, isn’t it? He’s feeding his yard dudes. But wait! He pulls out a gun and shoots the monsters. Okay, I didn’t see that coming; maybe her question was warranted. He tells her that his experiment is over and puts the gun to his own head. He doesn’t pull the trigger this time, though. He’s apparently saddened by the fact that he has “lost” Sister Mary Eunice, even though I’m not sure he ever actually “had” her.

While Dr. Arden is out doing his whole “Maybe I deserve to die” dance in the field, Dr. Thredson swings by his lab to borrow some sugar… err… sodium pentothal (I think). He doesn’t find that, but what he does find is Pepper elbow deep in Grace and saying shit like “She’s crowning!” I’m going to assume Dr. Thredson beat a hasty retreat and got his nefarious wares some place else.

Following his previous encounter with Sister Demon, Monsignor Timothy pays a visit to Judy, who is still quite vegetative-she’s basically steamed broccoli-but he chooses to ask her for advice anyway; surprisingly, Judy manages to deliver some sound advice: she tells him to kill Sister Demon. That would seem to be easier said than done, wouldn’t it? As it turns out, not so much. Monsignor Timothy basically just berates the “devil” for not being able to completely rid Sister Demon’s body of Sister Mary Eunice, which causes Sister Mary Eunice to “come out” just long enough to allow the monsignor to hurl her over the third floor bannister. The dark angle shows up, again, and says she is there to take both Sister Mary Eunice and the “devil” inside her. You know she’s actually dead, too, unlike Monsignor Timothy; the dark angel popped her wings out and delivered the kiss of death. That means it is legit.

We see that Dr. Thredson actually did not run screaming away from Grace and Pepper; I should have known that his creeper ass wouldn’t have been fazed. What he did, instead, is hang around and wait for the baby to be born. Then the figured out a way to use it to his advantage. You remember how Lana and Kit managed to get Dr. Thredson to be uncharacteristically careless and spill the beans about all the murder he had committed? Well, Thredson remembers, and he trades Kit Grace’s baby for information on where Kit hid Thredson’s taped confession. Thredson attempts to retrieve the tape, but it turns out that Lana is not having any of that. She has moved the tape, and she tells Thredson to cut his shit out, or she will get it to the police.

Back in the common area, Judy is spaced out on the couch when she slowly starts to come back to her senses. She begins to name off different patients because she’s remembering them, and then one of the nuns pops up to talk to Judy. This is the time when Judy begins to ramble on about marrying the monsignor in the Vatican… okay, so she’s not completely back to her senses. One thing she is able to do is point out Lana; she tells the nun that Lana is not supposed to be there and asks her to help get Lana out. There have been like 19 different attempts to get Lana the fuck out of there, but since the season is nearing its end, I think this one may end up being successful.

Following the death of Sister Demon/Sister Mary Eunice, Dr. Arden had told the monsignor that he thinks they should cremate her, to be sure the demon is good and gone. Monsignor somewhat reluctantly agreed, and the episode closes with a scene of Dr. Arden wheeling Sister Mary Eunice’s body around the basement. What happens next is a bit of a shocker (everything Dr. Arden did in this episode was like a pinata full of birthday presents): Dr. Arden visibly laments the fate of Sister Mary Eunice, he crawls up on the gurney with her body, and they both go sliding into the incinerator. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that man is pretty damn dead, and I don’t need the dark angel’s fancy-pants, whooshing wings to tell me that.