As ‘American Horror Story’ barrels toward its second season finale, major changes and developments are afoot in the show. As if that weren’t enough, last week’s episode may be one of the creepiest and most unnerving aired to date.
There’s just no two ways around it, episode ‘Spilt Milk’ is really icky. It starts off in the modern day, where Johnny (Dylan McDermott), the self-proclaimed son of Bloody Face, hires a lactating hooker so that he can breastfeed from her. Johnny has serious mommy issues. This will not end well.
Back in the ’60s, Kit and Grace have named their baby Thomas. Grace relays a rather horrific flashback to her experimentation by the aliens, and tells Kit that she saw his wife Alma die. Why are the aliens targeting the women in Kit’s life? Grace claims that their baby will be some sort of messiah who “will change the way people think.”
The Mother Superior, having heard Sister Jude’s story, helps Lana to escape from Briarcliff. Once free, she publishes her tell-all exposé and reveals Dr. Thredson as the real Bloody Face. As the police come to arrest him, Lana confronts Thredson in his home to gloat about his impending punishment and force him to tell her what he did with Wendy’s body. Cue an incredibly gross flashback involving necrophilia. Eww. Seriously, eww. Thredson then goads Lana into killing him before the police arrive.
With Bloody Face identified, Kit is released from Briarcliff. He blackmails Monsignor Howard into also releasing Grace and their baby. As they arrive at his home, they discover a quite-alive Alma waiting there with her own baby.
Lana goes to have a back-alley abortion (it’s not actually in a back alley, but you get the idea), but ultimately can’t go through with it. “No more death,” she intones. However, that doesn’t mean that she wants to keep the baby. Cut to its birth several months later, where Lana attempts to put it up for adoption. The nurse tells her that the baby is allergic to formula, and guilts Lana into breastfeeding it.
Having promised to come back for Sister Jude, Lana barges into Briarcliff with a court order and demands to see her. The Monsignor regrets to inform her that Jude committed suicide. Lana has trouble believing this, as well she should, because Jude is actually locked away in a hellhole dungeon in the basement.
In addition to the gross-out factor, this episode is also directed in an incredibly sytlized (I suppose some might call it pretentious) fashion involving weird camera angles, lens choices and elliptical editing. For this show, I think it works fantastically.
How is it possible that the season still has two episodes left? What still remains to wrap up? If this year’s finale is anything like Season 1, there’s little point in trying to predict what will happen, because the finale may bring us something totally out of left field.
