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Episode 6: The Origins of Monstrosity

By Christine Petralia

Images courtesy of FX Networks

November 23, 2012

Episode 6: The Origins of Monstrosity (Aired November 21, 2012)



The plot moved a little forward in this episode, but not too much. We did learn a little more backstory for Bloody Face and Arden. But I felt it stalled a little bit.



The sixth episode starts in the present day again with the cops being called to Briarcliff about three imposters who ‘he’ killed. We can only assume it’s Bloody Face.



Meanwhile, back in 1964, Sister Jude gets the confirmation she needs that Arden was at Auschwitz, but she needs to get a fingerprint to solidify the suspicions. And over in Dr. Thredson, er Bloody Face’s home, we learn that his mother abandoned him as a child and he grew up in an orphanage. He developed his obsession with skinning women while he was in med school. He tells Lana Winters, who he has chained in his basement, that she is the ‘one.’ The one who will replace his mother, in a weird sexual way. But when she disobeys and tries to escape, he is disappointed, puts on his mask and starts to kill her. In an attempt to save her life, she mind-tricks him and convinces him to keep her alive.



Over at Briarcliff, Msgnr. Howards is called to a hospital, where a patient was brought in with what they think is TB. He is called to give her her last rights. When he enters the room, he realizes it’s Shelley and he kills her. He knows immediately that it’s Arden’s work and confronts him. It is here we learn how Howards and Arden first met, and how Arden convinced Howards to let him stay at the asylum when he took it over and how Howards ‘funded’ his work. When Howards threatens to reveal the horrors that Arden has been doing, Arden blackmails him. Howards then goes to Sister Jude and fires her, knowing that she will soon find out the truth about Arden and himself and bring everyone down. Or at least I can only assume that’s why.



As Sister Jude packs her things, Sister Mary comes in to say good-bye. Sister Jude asks her for a bottle of liquor, as she plans to get that fingerprint from Arden to prove she is right, if it’s the last thing she will do at Briarcliff. While Sister Jude is with Arden, Sister Mary is dancing around in her office wearing Jude’s red lingerie and she answers the phone from the Nazi investigator. She proceeds to head to the man’s hotel room to kill him and stop the investigation. When Jude arrives, the man says he was killed by a nun. Of course, Sister Mary runs to Arden to let him know and basically tells him that she’s on his side until he double crosses her.



In a side storyline, I guess in an attempt to reveal a little bit more about Sister Mary, a child, Jenny, is brought by her mother to Briarcliff because she is frightened of her. Her mother says that Jenny is different than her other children, and she believes Jenny killed her friend Josie in the woods. Jenny told her mother and police that a man with a beard in a brown coat actually killed Josie.  Jude tells the girl’s mother that Briarcliff doesn’t have a children’s ward. However, the woman leaves Jenny at the asylum. Jenny spends some time with Sister Mary, who tells her that the devil is inside of her and things Jenny shouldn’t be stifled. A few hours later, after Jenny’s mother picked her up, Jenny is telling police that the bearded man in a brown coat slit her brothers’ throats and then stabbed her mother in the back, strangely with a similar knife that Sister Mary was using earlier.



The episode ends back in present day. The cops find the three teens dressed up as Bloody Face and our honeymooner with one arm dead. The find the arm holding a ringing cell phone. When the answer, Bloody Face lets them know that he didn’t kill the man with one arm, only the teens. It is then they realize that the man with one arm is a honeymooner and wonder where his wife is. Flash to her on a table with Bloody Face over her.



What I was trying to figure out during the whole episode was if Thredson/Bloody Face was in his late 20s in 1964, that means he would be pushing 70 in present day. Could he still be killing for that long? Or maybe it’s not the same guy? I’m also not really sure where the little girl Jenny fit into the whole plot. I’m hoping we see more of her in the rest of the season, because it would be a shame to just have a random little girl serial killer in one episode.

As I said, I feel this episode was more informational and a filler, rather than an episode to get the story moving along. It’s a shame because last week’s was pretty awesome. I really would have liked to see some more of the Kit and Grace storyline this week. But next week’s previews show some of that, so we’ll see.

 

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All works created by Christine McGrath; Centereach, New York  All Rights Reserved 2024

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