American Horror Story: Asylum Recap: “The Name Game”

Recaps

By RJ | Thursday, January 3, 2013 | 10:25 am | 16 Comments
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in: American Horror Story, Recaps

Finally- a Ryan Murphy show featuring a musical number that I can tolerate. I was right- the mere absence of Lea Michele makes breaking out into song and dance seemingly tolerable, but we’ll get to that.

Please make this stop, Ryan Murphy.

Before the winter break, Dr Arden had convinced Kit to allow him to bring Kit to the brink of death to see if the aliens would reappear in some divine intervention and save Kit. This episode starts with Dr Arden reviving Kit just in time to save him from a serious case of oxygen deprivation to the brain. This is the episode where Dr Arden develops a conscience apparently. It almost makes all of those deaths as a Nazi doctor redeemable- wait, no it doesn’t. Are we honestly supposed to feel sorry for Dr Arden now? I haven’t had this much disdain for a German since I was tricked into getting my seats scotch guarded in a used Volkswagen I purchased.

Dr Arden lies to Kit about what occurred while Kit was “dead”- as he mentions nothing about seeing a fully pregnant Grace or a suddenly coherent and overly protective Pepper. Nor does he mention that the aliens will do whatever to prevent any harm to Grace and the baby, who we are led to believe is Kit’s baby. He even leaves out the overly explanatory exposition where Pepper tells Dr Arden that while she may look like a freak, she is otherwise sane and not guilty of any crimes. We’re 10 episodes in at this point and its time to re-write all of the characters make them sympathetic and look less like they’ve undergone multiple rounds of plastic surgery.

I have a feeling TBS is going to try to the same thing with the characters from “Cougar Town” when it debuts next week, but there is no amount of sympathy that can save Courtney Cox or Christa Miller from looking like plastic surgery train wrecks.

We also quickly learn that Monsignor Timothy survived being crucified but was now nearly helpless due to his injuries. Sister Mary Eunice is by his side, and vows to speed along his recovery. She was unaware that the Angel of Death informed the Monsignor, though, that Mary Eunice was indeed harboring the devil. This information could have been much more useful about six episodes ago. The Angel of Death assures the Monsignor that God will aid in ridding Mary Eunice of her possession, as he just needs to harness his strength. I’m not all that religious, but I imagine this is much like using the Force, and like most “Star Wars” fans, the Monsignor is undoubtedly a virgin too.

“I’m always about two episodes too late to the party”

Also, seeing as the Angel of Death was married to Dr Arden in a parallel universe (“Six Feet Under”), I feel like her time could have been better spent stopping atrocities at Briarcliff, rather than making out with dead people. Necrophilia is one of those few quirks that no one finds sexy, unless you’re in a Tom Petty video.

Pages: 1 2 3 4
RJ
About

I learned I was different in the third grade.  They would bring in our parents as tutors to help with difficult subjects like math, which is a testament to just how underfunded the California school system has always been.  Michael Weber's mother was tutoring me and one of my classmates in multiplication.  I did not care for the speed at which the lesson was progressing. 

I threw out a line from the most classic of movies, 'Back to the Future', when I simply stated "Let's see if these bastards can do 90!"  Michael Weber's mom was not impressed.

Its sad when the peak of your comedic career comes in the third grade, but I've never let that hinder me.  I still plug away at my boring day job while I dream of a day that I can tell the Michael Weber's moms of the world to suck it for not appreciating my sense of humor.

 

16 Comments

  1. 1
    plockness monster plockness monster
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 11:51 am

    RJ – have to disagree about the musical number. What the fuck was that all about? This was easily the worst episode of the series. On to reading.

  2. 2
    plockness monster plockness monster
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 1:27 pm

    I also thought Dr. Arden was going to try to have sex w/ a dead Mary Eunice!

    And I want to know what’s so special about Kit’s sperm.

  3. 3
    RJ RJ
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 1:31 pm

    That musical number was horrible and horribly out of place. I really just wanted an excuse to take a swipe at Lea Michele.

    I’m glad that I’m not the only one who has been jaded by television to the point where I assume that sex with a dead person is about to happen if someone lays on top of them.

    As far as Kit’s sperm being special, I can’t speak to that. I’m wondering if Lana is going to end up sleeping with him before the season is over just to see what all the phase is about.

  4. 4
    ChaCha
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 1:39 pm

    @RJ…Jukeboxes go further back than the 1930s, which is when they were starting to be called “jukeboxes.” So by 1964 there were probably a lot of used ones to go around.

  5. 5
    RJ RJ
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 2:27 pm

    The jukebox reference was only a joke. Fonzie pre-dated American Horror Story: Asylum by close to a decade and he abused plenty of jukeboxes in his day.

  6. 6
    juddfan juddfan
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 3:39 pm

    First, \Last Dance With MaryJane\ (I love name that tune!)

    Myself, I didn’t mind the musical number, only because it spoke to her state of mania, and it was a little bit fierce. I also can’t believe I will miss the devil nun and the Nazi doctor . . what has this show done to me!!!

    Loved Pepper, her dialogue was terrific, so kudos to the writers for that little monologue! I’m thinking the aliens revived Grace and put Alma’s baby in her to bring back to the asylum . . why . . . who can say?

    I was also glad, Judy had the good sense to free poor Lana Banana . . . who’da thunk!?

    Now that it’s almost over, I say why to the experiments! Except for giving an excuse for a completely awful and misogynist arc for Chloe’s character, it led to nothing. Guess Lana and Kit should have smuggled some meat from the kitchen and fed those things next time they tried to escape.

    I know Judy fantasized about the Monsignor, but they never had carnal relations, heh, right!? And I can’t believe three stories is enough to kill Satan . . . just think, Reagan turned her head all the way around and that didn’t kill her!

    The acting all around here is so amazing, I’m just blown away. They should all be lauded heavily!!! Judy going on about the Vatican, and marrying the Monsignor . . . shamazing!!!

    Thanks for the speedy cap, RJ!

  7. 7
    juddfan juddfan
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 3:40 pm

    oh, and a nice warm wet hug to ya all!!!

  8. 8
    Miss Molly
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 3:57 pm

    Nazis, aliens, cannibals, possession, exorcism, crucifixion, a couple of rapes and a botched coat hanger abortion … what else could they do but a musical number.?!

  9. 9
    Ed
    Posted January 3, 2013 at 5:57 pm

    That musical number was the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen on this show and that is saying something!

    Also don’t dis Lea Michell! She can go as long as she wants!

  10. 10
    cosmonala
    Posted January 4, 2013 at 6:53 am

    The Monsignor is not bright. The best idea he could come up with is seeking counsel from a woman who probably just drooled in the bread dough? Oy vey.

    I am not sure what the deal was with Dr. Arden. Was he in love with Sister Mary, or was it her innocence? And, why didn’t the Angel of Death visit him (which would have made him climbing on a dead body slightly less creepy)? Would her wings jump off of her body to join him and his hawk beak???

  11. 11
    plockness monster plockness monster
    Posted January 4, 2013 at 7:16 am

    I was under the impression that Mary Eunice raped the Monsignor. He kept telling her no, but she did it anyway. Thoughts?

    Cosmonala – I think Dr. Arden was in love w/ ME because she was so innocent. Shortly after the devil took over ME’s body (soul??), she tried to give him a blow job and he was disgusted with her. I def. think he put her on a pedestal.

  12. 12
    Cocodawn Cocodawn
    Posted January 4, 2013 at 9:55 am

    I think Dr. Arden committed suicide because of what Pepper said to him about his experiments being pathetic, not because of devil nun sleeping with Monsignor. He was most passionate about science and what he was doing, and to be told it was pretty much a joke was more than he could take.

  13. 13
    Liz
    Posted January 5, 2013 at 10:20 pm

    @plockness – I think she did rape him. I also think there’s a very strong idea in our culture that men can’t be raped by women, either because they are stronger physically or because they enjoy sex implicitly (whereas women are supposed to not like it as much or whatever). It seemed like the show was trying to play it that way (it wasn’t rape because he’s a man (or maybe simply because he was repressed (and a man) ) ) and so the rape aspect was basically brushed aside.

    I actually liked the musical number, because it was bizarre, and I thought the silliness of the number with the creepiness of the squalor of their situation was jarring in a good way. But I get why most people wouldn’t like it. It was pretty silly. I really hated Sister Jude’s hair in it.

  14. 14
    chaosbutterfly
    Posted January 8, 2013 at 8:18 am

    I loved the musical number…watched it like five times.
    Been trying to teach myself the dance too.
    Pepper’s face when they were singing her name was my favorite part.

    And I also think the Monsignor was raped.
    He did say no, and I also think she was physically restraining him through devilish powers. It looked like he was trying to lift his arms and couldn’t do it.

    I hope Judy’s brain isn’t rattled for good.

  15. 15
    yeknom
    Posted January 8, 2013 at 11:50 am

    I’m just gonna agree with Chaosbutterfly about it all.

    I loved Pepper’s monologue. Loved it more that someone so smart as he pictured himself (Arden) was completely put in his place by someone he thought was an imbecile. Loved the knock knock joke.

  16. 16
    Karyn
    Posted January 11, 2013 at 6:35 pm

    I just rewatched this episode and I really like the singing number. It looked like they wrete having fun filming it. And Pepper really rocked it out.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Human Verification: In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.