Ravish Me Red. American Horror Story: Asylum, S2 Ep. 3, “Nor’easter”
Air date: Wednesday, October 31, 2012, 10pm ET/PT, on FX
Rating:
A possessed Sister Mary Eunice wreaks havoc in the asylum
As if this show couldn’t get any more macabre, the writers have to go and add a storm in “Nor’easter” to creep us out even more. When you’re in the dark, it’s harder to see things and whatever goes bump in the night could just be your overactive imagination. But for Sister Jude (Jessica Lange), her torment is very real, and what she sees is not an illusion, at all. In fact, what she sees gets right up in her face. Yeah, ghoulish! Not only that, but she’s tormented by an enormously sinful past.
You may recall that last week, a demon escaped a patient’s body. If you can figure out who is possessed now, then why can’t Sister Jude? She was in the room when Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) fainted. It must’ve been a delicious change of pace for Rabe, because she grabs hold of her possessed character Sister Mary Eunice and plays her with a malevolent glee that chilled me to my bones. The way she slaughters a Spanish-speaking patient in “Nor’easter” with a pair of scissors—the scene was infused with ludicrously luscious spurts of blood—was just obscene. (Did you catch that quiet hiss?) I gasped and, for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. Rabe was superb.
Sister Jude has words for Dr. Arden
Dr. Arden (James Cromwell) just gets more sinister. It’s obvious he yearns for Sister Mary Eunice from the way he “leers” at her, as Sister Jude tells him. But when Sister Mary Eunice confronts him in a lewd manner, spreading her legs and telling him, “You know you call me in here just so you can undress me with your eyes. Imagine sucking on my rosebud tits,” oh, that was a hilarious scene. It’s not meant to be, I don’t think; rather, Satan is having a ball inhabiting Eunice’s body, putting on red lipstick for Dr. Arden (which was meant for Sister Jude), hungrily drinking altar wine, teasing Sister Jude with his knowledge of her grievous transgression in 1949, and flouting Sister Mary Eunice’s sexuality. Cromwell practically roars with fury, bemoaning Sister Mary Eunice’s loss of purity. After all, this is the reason he lusts after her, and Sister Jude knows it.
The more I see of Shelley (Chloe Sevigny), the more I like her. When she tells Grace (Lizzie Brocheré) she wants to escape with her and Kit (Evan Peters), she invokes Anais Nin’s Delta of Venus and expresses a yearning to flee to Paris and flaunt her sexuality “without apology.” I couldn’t help rooting for her. To help with the escape plans, she volunteers herself as the scapegoat, and she’s the one who gets caught. What Dr. Arden does to her is unspeakable. I was truly horrified, because, what will become of Shelley now? Will she become one of the doctor’s guinea pigs?
Shelley wants in on the escape plans
Not only that, but Dr. Arden takes the red lipstick and defaces the Virgin Mary statue, and repeatedly says “Whore!” The disgusting doctor is obviously displacing his anger, but this blasphemous scene caught me a little by surprise. Sure, the writers annihilate the character of the Catholic Church (which, on some fronts, I don’t blame them for), but I think they took this a little too far. For me, praying to the Virgin Mary when I was young brought me a lot of solace so it upset me to see her defiled in such a manner. In a broader context, though, the Virgin Mary is just an unfortunate victim of circumstance, like the patients and the nuns who reside at the asylum.
Kit and Grace secretly plot their escape
Sadly, I didn’t get my Pepper (Naomi Grossman) fix. We see her here and there, but she only utters “Pepper pee!” during movie night. Please, writers, give us more Pepper!
What will become of the trio who tried to escape? What will the possessed Sister Mary Eunice do next? Will anyone find out where Shelley really is? So many questions, and if the brisk pacing of the show is any indication, we’ll get our answers quite soon.
American Horror Story: Asylum airs Wednesdays, 10pm ET/PT, only on FX Networks.
LIKE the show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americanhorrorstory.
Follow American Horror Story: Asylum on Twitter: @AHSFX
You might also like to follow co-creator Ryan Murphy @MrRPMurphy, Director/Producer Brad Falchuk @BFalchuk, Dr. Thredson @ZacharyQuinto, Lana Winters @MsSarahPaulson, Spivey @MarkConsuelos, and Kit Walker @tweetsonurface.
Photos ©2012 FX Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Juana
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