Contributor: Gregg Wright
Written by Ryan Murphy
Directed by David Semel
“The Origins of Monstrosity” doesn’t contain as many major revelations as I’d hoped, being the episode meant to explain Bloody Face’s backstory. There’s nothing terribly surprising about how Dr. Thredson came to be the way that he is. His origins have much in common with many serial killers. His mother left him at an early age, leaving him deprived of something that he badly needed. What’s unusual about Thredson is that he sought to understand his need through psychology, and has had hopes of fulfilling it.
Quinto does an excellent job in the role, and Sarah Paulson very effectively channels the horror and disgust at being trapped in the basement with a madman. But it does seem as though more could have been done to make Thredson stand out from the crowd of insane serial killers populating fiction. The psychologist angle is probably the freshest angle (though Hannibal Lecter, perhaps the most famous serial killer aside from Jack the Ripper, was also a psychologist), but Thredson seems far less self-aware and in-control than he did before his unveiling. Perhaps he simply feels more comfortable being himself around Lana?
What’s really curious is the scenes in which we jump back to the year 2012 to survey the aftermath of the violence at the abandoned Briarcliff Sanitarium. Bloody Face is the one to call the cops to the scene of the crime, and he wants them to know two things: these others are impostors, and they were the only ones he killed. The voice on the phone, talking to the 911 operator and then Detective John Grayson, sounds suspiciously like Dylan McDermott. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk certainly have done a remarkable job of fitting returning actors with the right roles.
The modern-day Bloody Face now has Teresa, the surviving female half of the ill-fated honeymooning couple, in his clutches. Is this new Bloody Face simply a copycat killer? Does he have the same mommy issues that Dr. Thredson had? He seems to retain Thredson’s fixation on women, at least. If Thredson’s backstory is slightly underwhelming, this is tempered somewhat by the fact that we have yet another Bloody Face who remains a complete mystery.
I suppose one might call this a “transitional” episode, in that comes just after a major turning point in the show and seems to be in the process of building toward another major turning point. It doesn’t quite have the pacing and forward momentum of many previous episodes (maybe even more so than the directly preceding episode). However, it is far from being filler. Perhaps the most interesting new information regards Sister Mary Eunice; or rather, the entity now possessing her. This entity claims to be not just a demon, but the Devil himself (or herself?).
I quite liked the dynamic between Sister Mary and Dr. Arden. Arden is smart enough to figure out that Sister Mary isn’t protecting him because she loves him. She needs him for some unknown purpose. Arden is apparently meant to play an important role in the beginning of a new era, which I’m assuming must refer to his research into improving the human race. Arden has been trying to make humans that can survive exposure to radiation (we’re in the Cold War here, after all).
Arden’s work has something of a noble goal, though it requires him to classify the patients at Briarcliff as human garbage. Arden’s work is not that far off from the Nazi’s twisted understanding of Darwinism, so it’s not surprising that he was once a Nazi himself. There’s an undercurrent to Arden that suggests that he’s really more interested in satisfying his own egomania and curiosity than in anything truly noble and beneficial to anyone other than himself, though that may still be a part of it for him.
The Monsignor Timothy Howard gets some much-needed expansion. In a freak coincidence, he’s called in to give the mutilated and dying Shelley her last rites. Recognizing her almost immediately, he quickly murders her with his prayer beads in an almost comically over-the-top shocker moment. The Monsignor isn’t just some psychopath, though. He’s given ample humanization here, and even expresses genuine remorse over Shelley and horror after discovering the depths of Arden’s work.
The aliens must surely play into all of this somehow. Their connection seems almost incidental at this point, but I suspect that there must be a lot more going on than we can currently see. Do they factor into the actions of the modern Bloody Face? Is “The Devil” aware of their existence? Do they factor into his/her plans? This season of “American Horror Story” remains a fascinating collection of elements, and it’s all still very enigmatic. I like that, but I’m looking forward to bigger revelations that will no doubt arrive in upcoming episodes. The previous season came together very well in the end, so I’m expecting the same here.
Score: 7/10