Last one, everybody. (Well, until October, that is.) We begin at the beginning with
Johnny breaking into the ruins of Briarcliff in the modern day. He wanders
about while listening to a recording of Lana’s book read by Lana herself. He
sees visions of the inmates, including Lana telling him he never should have
been born and Thredson saying how much he loved Johnny and how Lana stole that
love from both of them. Who should arrive but Leo and Teresa, the randy
newlyweds from the first part of the season. We see the opening scene, this
time from Johnny’s perspective as he hides in the cell that Leo eventually sticks
his arm into. We all remember what happens next – arm in, Johnny decides what
the hell and hacks it off with a machete before heading after Teresa.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Act I! In the modern day, an aged Lana sits in her
extremely well-apportioned home preparing for a Barbara Walters-style interview
on her life. Lana’s partnered openly to a professional classical musician and
seems to be doing splendidly. The interviewer wants to talk about Bloody Face
for the Kennedy Center honor she’s being given, but Lana’s not too keen on
talking about that subject, understandably. But she does agree to talk about
how she finally took down Briarcliff. Flashback to 1970 and Lana leads a camera
crew through the death chute into the asylum. We see an extremely dank,
overcrowded and filthy Briarcliff with inmates wandering freely. Patients are
naked, covered in sores and generally utterly gross and the filming is all very
Willowbrook: The Last
Great Disgrace and, honestly, really cool to watch. Finally finding an
orderly, Lana demands he take her to Sister Jude. Lana recounts wishing she
could have found Jude in the depth of the asylum and freed her from it, but she
never got the chance. Jude was long gone by the time she got there. Meanwhile,
she needs a break before going on and asks for some water. A production assistant
hands her a bottle. Lana thanks him and we see the assistant is Johnny.
Proof that the reality of deteriorating mental health care is far scarier than aliens, ghosts, demons and the Catholic Church.
Act II! Sometime in the early 1970s, Lana visits Kit in
his house shortly after airing her exposé on
Briarcliff. Lana demands Kit tell her who Betty Drake is, confessing that while
going through the mess in Braircliff she discovered the files that showed
Monsignor faked Jude’s death and gave her the new identity. The files also show
that Kit checked Jude out in 1971. Kit confesses that he used to visit her
while she was drugged and unresponsive, eventually reasoning that getting Jude
out was the one thing he could do for her. He brought her home to detox from
the drugs they put her on and she slowly began to recover some of who she was.
Jude would occasionally relapse, however, believing she was back at Briarcliff
and becoming violent until one day, during a particularly bad fit, the children
calmly took Jude’s hand and led her into the woods, after which Kit said she
was never the same again, becoming calmer and happier. Kit concludes that Grace
was right, the kids are special. Jude spent six months becoming a surrogate
grandmother to Kit’s children before becoming sick. In her final moments, we
see Jude lying in bed with the kids. She tells Julia never to let a man tell
her that she can’t be anything that she wants and that Thomas should find
something that he loves and do something important with his life. Kit sends the
kids outside to play, telling Jude that he’s here and he’s not going to leave
her alone. Jude smiles and tells him, “I’m not alone – she’s here for me.” We
see that the Angel has been in the back of the room this whole time. The Angel
gently tells Jude they’ve been doing this dance for many years, is she sure she’s
ready? Jude asks for a kiss. The Angel moves closer to the bed, wings unfurled and
leans in and the entire scene is just ridiculously touching and beautiful. And
that’s the end of Sister Jude.
And a flight of creepy anachronistic angels sing thee to thy rest.
Act III! The interviewer asks Lana about her next success
after Briarcliff – taking down Cardinal Howard. Lana recalls hunting down the
former Monsingor in New York in a parking structure and asking him about his
role in hiring Arden, detailing the human remains of the zombie inmates that
they’ve since discovered. Monsignor drives off, but apparently couldn’t escape
the guilt and he is found later in his bathtub, wrists slit wide open. “Lies
are like scars on your soul, they destroy you,” Lana ponders. Then she tells
the interviewer about her lie that she’s propagated for years – that her baby
died in childbirth. She admits that she gave him up to the state, although in
the mid 1970s she suffered remorse and managed to hunt the baby Johnny down to
a schoolyard, where he was being picked on by some bullies. Lana intervened and
helped young Johnny, touching his face tenderly before Johnny ran away. Lana
says she thought about him often, wondering where he is now. Of course, Johnny
is sitting in just the other room listening. Lana says she found some comfort in
becoming Godmother to Kit’s kids who have done well for themselves becoming a
law professor and a neurosurgeon. Unfortunately, Kit developed pancreatic
cancer when he was 40. His decline was apparently slow and painful, but strangely,
he disappeared one day without a note or any evidence. Three guesses as to
which extraterrestrial force was responsible. Finally, the interview is over
and the film crew clears out leaving Lana alone in her home. Lana pours two
stiff drinks and says to no one in particular, “Why don’t you come out now?” Turning
around, Johnny emerges from the other room. “Let’s get this over with, shall
we?” says Lana.
Act IV! Turns out Johnny got onto the crew by getting
stabby with one of the early delivery staff. Johnny says this isn’t how he
pictured this happening, but Lana says she always knew it would come. Lana was
warned about him recently when two cops sought her out after a series of
murders occurred in what was Thredson’s old home, now Johnny’s. Johnny says he
suspected who Lana was that day on the playground, dreaming most of his life
that she would come back for him. Then one day, on eBay, he found the recording
of Thredson confessing while Lana threatens to abort the baby growing in her.
Hearing Lana speak so coldly about getting rid of the life inside her while
Thredson begs for her to keep it alive, Johnny began to hate Lana because at
least his father always wanted him. Johnny pulls a gun and points it at Lana’s
head, saying that this will make his father proud of him. Lana gently touches
Johnny’s hand and says that his father was a monster, but she knows that he isn’t
because even if Thredson is a part of him, there has to be a part of her in
Johnny too. Lana cradles Johnny, moving the gun away from her. “It’s not your
fault, baby,” she tells him. “It’s mine.” And that’s when Lana uses the gun to
shoot Johnny in the head, just like she did his father, stone cold killer style.
Cue obligatory hand-wringing about who is the real monster, etc. etc.
Flashback
to 1964, the first meeting between Sister Jude and Lanat. Lana would also like
to interview Jude, but Jude says no, she’s certain they’re not destined to meet
again. “You don’t know what I’m capable of,” Lana says. “Just remember,” Jude
advises her, “If you look in the face of evil, evil’s gonna look right back at
you.” And with that Sister Jude leads Lana out of the building before heading
back into its depths as Dominique begins to play.
