American Horror Story Season Premiere Recap: Welcome to the Nuthouse!

Everything we learned from "Welcome to Briarcliff," the first episode of the FX horror hit's second season

By Jenna Mullins Oct 18, 2012 3:00 AMTags
AMERICAN HORROR STORY, Sarah PaulsonMichael Yarish/FX

Spoiler alert: Don't continue reading if you haven't watched the season premiere of American Horror Story: Asylum. You have been warned, so don't continue reading and then complain in the comments about spoilers, or else we will send Bloody Face after you.

Welcome to the asylum! Why don't you pull up a chair and stay awhile. Hey, where ya goin'?

Briarcliff is certainly not a place you want to find yourself at for longer than a sneeze, as the season premiere of AHS: Asylum proved with vigor. However, as viewers, we definitely want to stick around to find out what happens next, because with all the creepiness and scares came questions and mysteries within the walls of the institution. Here is what we know so far about Asylum after one hell of a first episode:

Past or Present, Briarcliff Is Terrifying: We saw in the beginning of the episode and at the end of the episode that modern-day Briarcliff is still haunted by either the ghost of Bloody Face or a copycat that's holing up in the asylum. The Lovers (Adam Levine and Jenna Dewan-Tatum) are separated, one is pretty much dead, while the other comes face to face with the killer himself before the screen fades to black.

Briarcliff in the 1960s is no picnic either. It's a sanitarium for the criminally insane, but the people in charge are quite possibly sicker in the head than the patients! Sister Jude (played to perfection by Jessica Lange) uses a cane to whip people into shape, and when she's not worshiping God and blaming all mental illnesses on sin, she's worshiping (and lusting after) Monsignor Howard (Joseph Fiennes). She's already seduced him in her imagination, and she has the red negligee under her robe to prove it.

Dr. Arden (James Cromwell) is not as into helping the patients as he is experimenting on them. And we also learned he's behind whatever is in the woods surrounding Briarcliff. Human? Monster? Half and half? We're not sure yet, but we do know they have a ferocious appetite, one that is kept at bay by buckets of flesh thrown to them by Sister Mary (Lily Rabe), who will do anything to please her superiors.

Aliens Exist! Maybe: Kit Walker (Evan Peters) is taken to Briarcliff because he is not only suspected of murdering his young wife (an interracial marriage, by the way, that they kept secret) but he is thought to be the infamous Bloody Face, who has been going around town decapitating women. What Kit and the viewers witnessed is what looked like an alien invasion, but we weren't sure if it was a hallucination until Dr. Arden removed what can only be called a microchip insect from his neck. Surely the doc wasn't hallucinating also. Does that mean that Kit was telling the truth?

Once You Get Committed, You Don't Get Out: While all the madness is happening within the asylum, Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) is doing her best as a reporter to infiltrate Briarcliff and get the inside story on what really happens there. Sister Jude catches on to her ploy quite quickly, but Sister Mary sneaks her in after Lana catches her feeding something in the woods. Desperate to keep that little ritual a secret from Sister Jude, Sister Mary takes Lana to the men's ward, where she is attacked by someone (or again, something). When Lana wakes up, she is strapped to a bed and is now a patient of the institution. Her disease? Homosexuality.

Sister Jude makes sure Lana's girlfriend Wendy (Clea DuVall) doesn't come looking for her by promising to out the couple and thus leading Wendy to lose her teaching job. Unless, of course, Wendy signs a form consenting to Lana's treatment, which she does. Welcome to Briarcliff, Ms. Winters.

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Burning Questions

• Who is Bloody Face? And who or what attacked the Lovers in present day?
• Did Kit really see aliens, or was it all a hallucination?
• What is Dr. Arden feeding out in the woods?
• What happened in Sister Jude's past that makes her lust after Monsignor Howard so strongly?
• Is Kit's new friend Grace really innocent, or is she loony like the rest?

What did you think of the first episode, Horror fans? Stick around because we have scoop on the second episode coming your way very soon. Until then, have a good night's sleep!