American Horror Story: Asylum, S2 EP 5, “I Am Anne Frank, Pt. 2”

Air date: Wednesday, November 14, 10pm ET/PT, on FX

Rating: ★★★★★

Dr. Thredson and Sister Jude don’t see eye to eye

What a punch to the gut this episode is! Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) is crumbling under the withering eye of Dr. Arden (James Cromwell), and Dr. Thredson (Zachary Quinto) isn’t quite who you expect him to be. I was simultaneously horrified and sickened. How much worse can it get? Plenty worse, let me tell you.

You know who I didn’t expect to see again? Shelley (Chloe Sevigny). Even with no legs and looking quite monstrous, she’s determined to get the hell out and sic the authorities on Briarcliff. After being dispatched to the woods by a puzzlingly mellow Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe), she shows up in an unlikely location. I trust her presence will be known before long. Will it be Shelley who brings down Briarcliff, Lana (Sarah Paulson), or someone else?

Lana may have successfully escaped Briarcliff, but her ordeal isn’t over yet—an even worse hell awaits her. Red wine isn’t all Dr. Thredson has in mind:

“You’re gonna write about this. You’re gonna win a Pulitzer Prize. I just know it, Lana.”

Quinto surprised me when he revealed the doctor’s true nature. Here I was, thinking Thredson was just an inexperienced professional in over his head at Briarcliff but Quinto had me fooled. He portrayed Thredson as sympathetic, and I was convinced he was on Lana’s side. His concern isn’t just “my story,” as he tells Lana that’s what he wants her to write—he has other plans for her. So much for him being the moral compass at Briarcliff; his stand against sterilization of female patients without their consent falls on deaf ears.

Dr. Arden assures Charlotte’s husband his wife will be taken care of

Poor Sister Jude. Having to deal with the hideousness of Dr. Arden drives her out of Briarcliff and straight to a bar where she finds comfort with a stranger. But before that, she meets with Mr. Goodman (Mark Margolis), a Nazi hunter, to find out the truth about Dr. Arden. She may feel defeated now, but I’m almost certain she’ll get her revenge against the ruling patriarchal scum of the asylum. Surprisingly, after sharing a tearful story about her childhood with Frank (Fredric Lehne, who you may recall as the Yellow-eyed Devil on Supernatural), he gives her a pep talk, recognizing her as a smart woman capable of great strength. I love this little scene; it’s such a gem because here’s a man giving a nun rather high praise—which is not something that happens at Briarcliff—and they’re not words you’d expect to hear from Monsignor Howard (Joseph Fiennes), who is a complete coward.

So, wait, Anne Frank (Franka Potente) isn’t really the Anne Frank? Color me surprised (not). She’s actually Charlotte Cohen, a wife and mother, who’s handily diagnosed with “postpartum psychosis” by Dr. Thredson. Sister Jude applauds Charlotte for fooling her with tales of life as a concentration camp survivor, but even if it turns out to be a fabrication, it doesn’t mean her accusation of Dr. Arden being a Nazi war criminal is also false. She’s definitely right about the depraved doctor, and I’m counting on Mr. Goodman to expose the truth.

Will Grace come out of a horrifying procedure intact?

Grace (Lizzie Brocheré) just breaks my heart. Her conversation with Kit (Evan Peters), where both of them imagine they can touch each other through the cell walls, is sorrowful. He’s saved from solitary confinement, but she is not—she undergoes an inhumane procedure and, in her stupor, sees Kit’s dead wife and a twisted alien creature. When she tells Kit later that his wife is really alive, I believe her. It doesn’t seem possible she would be, but I think she is. Call it instinct.

I have to comment on the odd juxtaposition of the song “It Could Be A Wonderful World” during the scene of Sister Jude in bed with a stranger, mixed in with a slide show of other horrifying scenes. This seems to be a portent of even more depravity yet to come.

American Horror Story: Asylum airs Wednesdays, 10pm ET/PT, only on FX Networks.

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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.

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