CC Screen: American Horror Story 02×02 Recap “The Exorcist, The Doctor and The Getaway Plan”

The episode opens back in the modern day asylum, with Adam Levine and his wife being stalked by what we assume is Bloody Face, cos, well, he has a bloody face that looks like it’s made out of other people’s skin. Adam Levine ends up being hacked to death by him while his wife scrambles away into one of the cells (till death didn’t last very long, did it?).

Back in the 60s Lana’s lesbian lover, Wendy is feeling guilty for her confession leading to Lana’s imprisonment in the asylum. She decides to try and recant her statement to get her out of there, but before she can Bloody Face kills her. So there totally is a Bloody Face, who is separate from the alien abduction that Kit and his wife experienced. Interesting…

The asylum is having a room inspection, which uncovers notes in Lana’s room for her planned article. Unfortunately for Lana, this leads to Sister Jude asking the creepy Dr Arden to perform electro shock therapy on Lana. This is one of the darker moments in mental health history, and even Sister Jude looks disturbed by it.

Zachary Quinto is back for this season! This time as Dr Thredson, a court-appointed psychiatrist sent to determine Kit’s mental state. Kit’s (honest) confession that the aliens abducted him and his wife gets him a diagnosis of acute clinical insanity. At least he’s been saved from the electric chair.

Dr Arden meets Sister Eunice in the words and offers her a candied apple and insists she eat it, in a move that is reminiscent of Snow White. It’s also a bit sexual since he holds it while she takes a bite, and the whole First Sin and all that coming from an apple. Bro, she’s married to God! As they return to the asylum the nympho, Shelley, watches them from one of the windows.

In the common room Kit and Grace share a conversation about Kit’s psychiatric assessment and how he wants to escape. Lana listens with a slightly off look, her mind going in and out due to the electroshock therapy. She’s still scribbling notes down, trying desperately to remember what the electroshock hasn’t already blurred out.

Dr Thredson chides Sister Jude about the standards and practices of the asylum. She responds in kind, and it looks like Dr Thredson is going to wear his welcome thin very quickly. A family comes in with a teenage boy who seems to be possessed by the devil, speaking tongues, changing eye colours, and eating animals organs. Yum.

In another part of the asylum, Lana and Grace are having steam baths, a form of therapy rather than relaxation, which is more painful and uncomfortable than it sounds. Grace cuts herself free and lets Lana go free, giving Lana an eyeful as she goes. Lana offers her a way out, but Grace doesn’t want to leave without Kit, and Lana believes Kit is a killer.

Down in the kitchen, Shelley tries to seduce Dr Arden for a chance to go outside. She reveals that she’s always been super into sex, then she married a bass player who screwed around, and when she decided to get spit-roasted by some navy guys she was thrown into the asylum by her husband. Dr Arden flat out denies her, calling her a whore and walking away.

Monsignor has called in an exorcist for the possessed boy, Jed, while Dr Thredson tries to convince the family to send him to the county hospital. There are plenty of references to the Exorcist during the rest of the episode, especially with his arrival and the actual exorcism scene.

Moving away from the asylum, Dr Arden seems to have been ironic in the previous scene, since he’s actually hired a prostitute. And she just happens to look a lot like Sister Eunice. She tries to act like she usually does with johns, but Dr Arden gets all quiet angry and wants her to act like a lady, like oh I don’t know, Sister Eunice maybe. He starts to slice a fairly rare roast with a ridiculously large knife while talking about how she must feel ‘safe’ now that Bloody Face has been caught. HE’S TOTALLY BLOODY FACE, I CALL IT!

Devil Jed has sent the exorcist flying across the room and the Monsignor has to go say last rites for him, which means that Sister Jude has to babysit Devil Jed. On cue, his eyes start burning and he goes blind, causing Sister Jude to run into the room to try and help. Then Devil Jed reveals that Sister Jude used to be the ‘town pump’ and that she’s slept with a totally of 53 men. Damn, Sister, that’s some serious getting around you did. Not only that, but she ran over a small girl one time when she was drunk. I can see why she became a nun.

Things really start getting heated up in the exorcism room, causing the emergency procedures to activate in the asylum and all the doors to the cells to open. It’s the most perfect thing that could ever happen for an escape. Except when Kit meets Grace and Lana and starts to escape. Lana makes a decision, thinking that he’s Bloody Face, and starts screaming for the guards. And that stops Lana and two more innocent people from escaping the asylum.

In the exorcism room, Jed passes away from the stress of the possession on his body and the devil passes to Sister Eunice. Well, that’s going to get interesting.

Speaking of Sister Eunice, the prostitute Dr Arden hired is looking a lot more like her, since he’s made her don a nun’s outfit. She starts going through a box on his dresser and there’s a bunch of photos of women tied up, their faces not showing, and some bloody something or other that’s hard to see because of the black and white. Yeah, I’m going to reiterate the Bloody Face thing.

Dr Arden gets all pissy when he realizes what she’s done and he tells her to show him her ‘mossy bank’. Instead of sleeping with him she bites him, knees him in the balls and runs off screaming. Atta girl.

He returns to the asylum to find Sister Eunice sleeping on the bed with her dress bunched up. He slowly grabs the hem and pulls it down her leg, causing her to wake up. He cites protecting her modesty, but can’t help but get distracted by her partially open night dress. Then he pretends that he totally wasn’t looking while he stares at her chest describing the human body as a complex machine ‘full of…. Cogs and sprockets’. Yeah, I know what kind of cogs you’re thinking of. Once he leaves she has the most devious look she’s ever had and throws the covers back off, making the crucifix hanging on the wall shake.

Sister Jude has Lana in her office, and she thanks her for revealing Kit and Grace’s escape plan. But the way she’s thanking her lets you know that she’s not really thanking her at all. Instead, she gives Lana the choice of what cane she will punish Kit and Grace with. Lana picks the smallest one but Sister Jude doesn’t accept that, so Lana picks the next one along. Kit stops Sister Jude from punishing Grace by citing it as his fault, earning him all forty strikes. Ah, the price of chivalry.

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Jessica Barabas-Bui
Jessica Barabas-Bui
BRB, playing games.