American Horror Story: Asylum - Tricks and Treats

Bye

We're two episodes in.  Does anyone know what this season is supposed to be about?

The episode opens back up in present day.  Teresa is running from Bloody Face, the most lazily named serial killer of all time.  She runs back to Leo, who is in pretty bad shape as he's bleeding from his missing arm.  She starts to try to drag him to safety but he's too heavy I suppose.  She manages to get into the cell with the doggy door and close the door behind her.  And then she watches Bloody Face stab Leo in the chest over and over.

Could this be the end of Adam Levine?

Spoiler alert: no.  Rumor has it, Ryan Murphy will be keeping him around a little longer even though he serves no purpose whatsoever.

Wendy is regretting having Lana committed to Briarcliff.  She resolves to recant tomorrow.  Well guess what Wendy, tomorrow never comes!  Bloody Face breaks into her house while she is taking a shower.  I suppose we must now realize Kit isn't Bloody Face, since he is committed to Briarcliff as well.  Bloody Face lunges at her.  She says, please no, I'm a school teacher, the kids won't understand.  Yeah, ok.  The guy wearing a face on his face is going to listen to reason.

Meanwhile, Lana is keeping notes about what happens to her in Briarcliff.  She is denied phone calls and so forth.  Sister Jude finds the notes she is keeping in her pillowcase and confiscates them.  Lana calls out that she doesn't need those notes, she has a good memory.  When will these people learn to keep their traps shut?

Sister Jude approaches Dr. Arden saying that Lana is experiencing pain from the memories of her indecent past, blah blah, and would he recommend electroshock therapy to relieve that pain?  Well of COURSE he would, he's a sicko who is keeping some creatures out back.

Kit is brought in to see a therapist, Dr. "Zachary Quinto" Thredson.  Dr. Thredson states the Kit's killings were meant to be a purging of racial guilt that was brought on by him marrying someone who wasn't white.  Kit says some mumbo-jumbo about aliens and I hate this alien stuff.

Kit talks to Grace and says he can't continue to pretend he's crazy.  Guess what kid, you're not pretending.

Dr. Thredson confronts Sister Jude about the conditions at Briarcliff.  He finds them barbaric.  They show a delightful montage of Dr. Thredson skulking about the place, peeping into all the rooms.  He's appalled that they are using electroshock therapy to treat homosexual urges when the current accepted practice is behavior modification.  GET IT???  He's the "progressive" one but it's still ridiculous by today's standards!  Oh, 1964.  Never change.

Sister Jude excuses herself to speak to a family.  Well Thredson doesn't want her speaking to a family so he barges right in.  The mother and father speak about their son, he is depressed for days and then in an instant he will become manic.  Sounds like he's bipolar, right?  Well, well, well, he also hears voices.  And to top it all off, he ate the heart of one of their cows.  And P.S., he's possessed by a demon.

Lana speaks to Grace about trying to escape.  She knows they can escape through a tunnel.  Grace says they have to bring Kit with them, but Lana says, no, he is a murderer.

Then we get a backstory for Chloe Sevigny, and... just no.  Useless character to the max.  She tries to seduce Dr. Arden so he will let her go outside, but he cannot be seduced.  Furthermore, in the last episode the patients were outside anyhow so I don't know what she's so desperate about.

Dr. Arden invites a prostitute to his home for dinner.  He wants her to behave like a classy woman and talk about opera and drink wine.  Then he makes her dress up as a nun, and while she's dressing, she finds some photographs that MAY suggest that perhaps Dr. Arden is Bloody Face.  Hmm...

They start an exorcism on the possessed boy.  His inner demon reveals some backstory for certain characters.  For example, Thredson was adopted, and Jude was a prostitute in her "younger years."  I don't know what years those were.  I think they might have considered hiring a younger actress for that flashback.  Also one time Jude hit a girl with her car and probably killed her but never got out of her car to check.  Cool.

The exorcism causes a power failure which causes all the cell doors to open.  Lana and Grace start to escape, but then they find Kit and he tries to come along.  Lana says no, so Grace says she and Kit will find their own way.  Lana calls the guards for help, saying that Kit is escaping.  So no one gets to escape.  Way to go.

The possessed boy dies, but not before giving Sister Mary Eunice a meaningful glance.  She faints. And now she's possessed.

If I had to describe this show in a word: GRATUITOUS.   I'm not on board with this mess.  Maybe it's more outrageous than last year, but where are we going with this?

At least, so far, not every character is detestable.  But I'm sure once we see more of these people, we'll start to hate them.

What did you guys think?  Do you think this "season" has promise?

Picture Credit: FX