Monday, January 8, 2024

American Horror Story Asylum- Episode 7- Dark Cousin


**This post contains spoilers**


The Story-
A patient named Miles (Tongayi Chirisa) is struggling to fight the voices in his head. Cracking under the pressure, Miles attempts to take his own life. After the failed attempt, Miles comes face to face with The Angel Of Death (Frances Conroy). Miles, feeling hopeless and unwilling to fight his demons, accepts the angel’s kiss of death.

Sister Jude is lost with no hope left to clear her name after Sam Goodman’s murder, and Sister Mary Eunice is about to make things worse. 

Lana begins to lose hope for escaping a vile Dr. Thredson. Meanwhile, upon learning about Grace’s failing health, Kit makes a risky decision to return to Briarcliff. 

My Thoughts- Frances Conroy’s arrival as The Angel Of Death perfectly fits with the direction the story is going in. Grace, Lana, and Jude are all broken. Each one of them is stuck in a nearly impossible dead end situation. They’ve lost all hope, especially Grace. Grace was the only one to not outright refuse or second guess accepting the kiss of death.

Conroy does a good as the angel. She’s not some scary or intimidating figure. The Angel Of Death is a soothing presence. She puts emphasis on not judging whoever calls her, because she wants to provide comfort in their final moments. The Angel’s black wings spreading wide before she delivers the kiss is an amazing visual. Yes, death can be a somber experience, but the way it’s done with the angel, you get the impression it’s a peaceful release for someone, who can’t fight through the suffering anymore.


Dr. Thredson continued to sink to new lows. After raping Lana, Thredson basically decides to end their one sided arrangement. He gives Lana the choice of dying by slitting her throat, or strangulation. Luckily, Lana manages to fight off and finally escape Thredson after a struggle.

But Lana’s triumph is short lived once she finally reaches the outside world. Lana thinks she’s finally been rescued by a man who happened to be driving, when she reached the road. But the man is bitter about a divorce from his wife of ten years, and he hates all women, and he scolds Lana for burdening him with her rescue. The driver shoots himself, and as he dies, the car crashes, knocking Lana unconscious.

Lana leaves one nightmare to return to another one, when she wakes up imprisoned in Briarcliff again. Lana pleads with Sister Mary Eunice to listen to the truth about Thredson’s true identity as Bloody Face, but unbeknownst to Lana, Mary Eunice is not someone who she can trust. 

Mary Eunice finally reveals to Jude that she was the one who killed Goodman. And to add to her devious plan, Mary Eunice intends to frame Jude for Goodman’s murder, leaving the news article about the girl she hit in Goodman’s hotel room. To make matters worse, Mary Eunice coldly offers Jude a way out in the forms of a knife and Kentucky bourbon.

Jude finally gets some much needed positivity in her life. The girl she hit on her bike is actually alive. Not only is she alive, but she’s a mother and working a job as a nurse. The setup for this scene was perfect. You have Jude ready to give this teary eyed apology to her parents, but the girl shows up healthy and alive. The apology and trying to lift that burden of guilt was supposed to be Jude’s final task in life before she accepted the Angel Of Death’s kiss.

Grace suffered a lot in this episode, and it would only get worse. Dr. Arden agreed to fix the damage done by the aliens, but honestly, Arden didn’t do it out of the kindness of his heart. He was trying to cover his own butt. 

The reunion with a returning Kit was short lived, as Grace sacrificed herself to save Kit from a gunshot from Frank. Grace had practically been begging to be put out of her misery, so she finally accepted the Angel’s kiss.


Dark Cousin is a somber episode. Grace and Kit finally thought they had a second chance to escape, but now Grace is dead and Kit is stuck in Briarcliff again. 

Another big takeaway is Sister Mary Eunice is clearly holding all the cards now. Using her powers, Mary Eunice was quick to remind Dr. Arden who’s really in charge after he slapped her. It’s also going to be interesting to see how things play out between Mary Eunice and The Angel Of Death or Shachath. For a moment, Shachath almost brought out the real kind hearted Mary Eunice, and you know they will cross paths again.

They’re clearly making an effort to build sympathy for Jude here. The flashback from 1949 showing how she was kicked out of the band for being an unreliable mess was a downer. But in a weird twist of fate, she happened to crash her car outside of a church surrounded by nuns. Jude had found her calling, but does someone who was so cruel and power hungry really deserve redemption?


Rating-8/10

No comments:

Post a Comment