American Horror Story Asylum Recap – Episode 13: Madness Ends

And so the fates are decided…

Madness Ends

Okay, right off, I need to say, I HATED parts of this episode. Most notably the ending. However, there were plenty of parts that made my heart sing. Mostly though, I think FX nailed episode 13 of American Horror Story: Asylum. The title, Madness Ends, is certainly an apt one! Now, I didn’t get a chance to make notes on this episode like I normally do, so this recap will be a little all over the place.

Firstly, we find out what happened to the honeymooners – from Johnny’s (Dylan McDermott) perspective! Nice work there, because I always love to see things from a different angle.

And then we find out that episode 13 is really a ‘Where Are They Now?’ episode. We find Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) alive and well in the present day and being interviewed about her life. First off – the aging make up is SPECTACULAR. Well done to FX’s special effects department. She is still famous for writing her expose on Bloody Face, but is finally prepared to let the interviewer (and the world) know more about the real story behind the events that occurred at Briarcliff and ultimately with Bloody Face.

Even with FX’s cool special aging effects, Lana still had to do her own eyebrows…

So she finally ‘fesses up to not having the abortion and that she even kept tabs on Johnny as a boy. She weaves a wonderful tale about how much she really did love her son and how she knew a new family would be able to give him the love he needed.

Part way through this interview, Johnny hands Lana a glass of water. Nice touch FX, nice touch. It seems he has a job on the interview team. Wonder if Lana still recognises him as an adult?

So Lana also tells another little tale about her expose on Briarcliff. We get to see some cool Blair Witch-like footage as Lana sneaks into the asylum. There is a heart-warming scene where she rescues Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) too.

Except that just happened inside Lana’s head.

It seems Kit (Evan Peters) beat her to the punch line and rescued the poor woman after he started visiting his wife (and then Sister Jude after his wife died). So Lana has to run off and find Kit now. She takes her camera crew along for good measure. I am still HATING Lana right now! So I am fist pumping the air when Kit will only talk to her WITHOUT the crew. Go Team Kit!

Kit has many stories to tell about Sister Jude. It seems he adopted Jude as a grandmother figure to his children. There are some touching scenes here of a happily patched together family. There are also scenes of Jude flying off the handle and chasing down the kids to punish them. It’s a good thing they take her off to the woods and make her better.

And that is all that FX have to say about Kit’s children being special and part-alien. Really disappointed FX - your alien storyline sucked

There is more to Kit’s alien story line though. It turns out the poor man develops cancer. It’s terminal. The aliens seem to take pity on him though and take him away from all his pain.

So all my thinking about how this story line would end was for nought.

Jude eventually gets her kiss from the  Angel of Death (Frances Conroy) and while Kit doesn’t know what Jude was babbling about as she died, Lana sure did. And so, once more, all the time spent wondering how the Angel of Death would tie into a battle of good and evil, ends quietly and some what disappointingly.

This episode is truly all about Lana and we are reminded that the whole season was really more about her story than anyone else’s  It still doesn’t mean FX is off the hook for the Anne Frank (Franka Potente), Shelley the Nymphomaniac (Chloe Sevigny), that weird little psycho girl that offs her family and Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) story lines that amounted to zilch. Not only does Lana clear the air about Bloody Face and Briarcliff, we also discover the fate of the Monsignor (Joseph Fiennes). Thanks to Lana’s hounding him in relation to his behaviour in Briarcliff, the Monsignor (suddenly) feels guilt and does himself in. Poor Lana gets the blame for this by the general public.

This leaves me with nothing but the ending to talk about. If you are in Australia and have not seen the last episode yet, then I’ll give you a moment to walk away from the screen….

Here have a picture to look at before you go…

This picture has nothing to do with anything I’ve said so far, or anything yet to come…

Okay, now lets talk about that ending.

SPOILER ALERT:

FX I really HATED the fact that Lana killed Johnny. Hated it SO much. My gut reaction was how could a mother do that to her baby. Yes, I know she hadn’t seen him for such a long time and yes, I get that she would be having horrendous flashbacks to the Bloody Face days, but, still, it’s her son.

But, and this is why I have taken so long to write this recap, time has a funny way of putting every thing into perspective. After giving the episode 24 hours, and my mind enough time to process what Lana did, I now get how that would be completely within her character. Lana is honest and brutal and never swaying in what she wants. She is a true journalist in that regard.

So FX, thank you for letting me hate what you did at the end of episode 13, yet doing it anyway because it was the right thing to do.

What did everyone else think of the last episode? Did it live up to your expectations? Let me know in the comments below.

Now that I’ve killed some time, let’s check out the season return of AMC’s The Walking Dead…

(Photo Credits: FX)

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• ‘American Horror Story’ Finale: Sarah Paulson Defends Lana Winters, Talks End Of ‘Asylum’ And More (huffingtonpost.com)
• American Horror Story Asylum: Madness Ends (dawningcreates.com)