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Lots of talk of origins this week. Sylar Thredson ends up blabbing his whole sad backstory to Lana, which boils down to: "Never had a mommy. Will you be my mommy?" Lana eventually tries to escape, angering Sylar. He decides she's like all the rest so he might as well kill her like all the rest. But she thinks quick and convinces him she understands him like a good mommy would. So instead of killing her, he merely starts breastfeeding on her.
Monsignor Howard is called in to perform the last rites on a wretched creature that's been in the news recently, but when he gets there, he finds the Shelley Thing. After recognizing her, he has a flashback to his first meeting with Dr. Arden, back when Briarcliff was a tubercular ward. That's when the monsignor was convinced to let Arden stay on and continue his groundbreaking "research." After Howard STRANGLES SHELLEY TO DEATH WITH HIS ROSARY BEADS to keep her from talking, he huffs and puffs his way into Arden's office, full of WTF. Arden is indignant about how Howard knew what he was getting into, and we get a window into just what Arden is doing. Apparently, he's injecting patients with a combination of syphilis and tuberculosis in order to create superhumans that could survive the impending nuclear war with the Soviets. Hey, so remember how we haven't seen Spivey in a while? It's because Arden has been turning him into "the stage in human evolution." Which mostly means melting his face off like Shelley. Howard is HORRIFIED but he's in too deep to take Arden down now, so instead, he decides to shove Sister Jude out to a job in Pittsburgh.
Sister Jude has one last card to play, however, as she takes a bottle of cognac and two glasses to Arden to toast to his besting of her. Really, though, it's a gambit to get his fingerprints, which Sam Goodman needs as the last bit of proof that Arden is indeed Hans Grouper. But before Sister Jude can get the prints to Sam, he's visited by Devil Eunice, who needs Arden around so she can rise to power. By the time Jude gets to Sam, he's bleeding out in his bathroom, though he manages to croak out that one of Sister Jude's nuns did this to him.
All this, plus an evil little girl is admitted Briarcliff, bonds with Devil Eunice, and murders her family. And in our modern-day timeline, the "real" Bloody Face has murdered the three teen wannabes, called the cops to see his handiwork, and abducted Mrs. Channing Tatum.
Featuring Orphan, as performed by demon-child Jenny; the Blue Velvet "Mommy" scene as performed by Sylar Thredson; and the "You Don't Own Me" scene from The First Wives Club, as performed by Devil Eunice.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Ah! A return to the present day, however briefly. It's not like I'm hugely into these framing scenes, but I don't like to be left hanging. Speaking of which! We open on footage of police investigating the run-down remains of Briarcliff while we hear the sound of a 911 call mad supposedly by the "real" Bloody Face -- i.e. the one who charged those punk kids a few weeks ago. "I've been a very busy boy," says the voice -- the voice of Dylan McDermott, I should say, so I guess that's where his role fits into this season. "You'll know my name when you see them," Dylan Face continues. "They were imposters." The cops snoop around Briarcliff until one of them feels a drip of blood on his head, looks up, and sees the three imposter Bloody Faces, in full costume and mask, hanging head above the foyer.
CREDITS.
Back in the '60s, Sister Jude is back at work after her barroom sabbatical, meeting with the troubled mother of a deeply troubled young girl. Jenny, the girl, is waiting downstairs with her coloring book, her hair in braids as befits any bad seed. Jenny's mom tells Sister Jude that her daughter always seemed like an adult, even as a baby. She never cried, not once. She tells the story of the time Jenny and her little friend Josie went out to gather leaves and Josie ended up dead in the woods with a giant pair of scissors through her heart. We see a flashback to the occurrence, with monotone Jenny telling her mother, "I tried to stop him. But he was bigger than me. And he said he would kill me too if I didn't stand very still and be quiet." She describes a tall, bearded man in a brown jacket to the police, but her mom tells Sister Jude that weeks later, she found a lock of blonde hair in Jenny's pocket.
Sister Jude is moved. She tells Jenny's mom about her dream of one day running a children's ward at Briarcliff. Such is the grand, perverse complexity of Sister Jude that she honestly wants a children's ward as a way to do good for children, despite the fact that we all know what a living hell such a ward would quickly become. Anyway, they don't have a children's ward yet (though, hi, remember when she was prepared to treat that little possessed boy back when she figured he was a chronic masturbator?). She says prayer is her strength and her ally in a situation like this. Jenny's mom begs Jude to just meet with Jenny. She just needs to know why. "Where does this evil come from? Could she have been born that way?"
Perfect time to transition to Lana, who is just waking up in her comfy little bed in Sylar Thredson's murder dungeon. He's got it made up to look like Lana's room at home, complete with framed photos of Wendy, so for a few moments when Lana is still half-asleep, she imagines that she's home and safe and maybe the last several weeks have only been an awful dream. Thredson -- and I do mean it when I call him Sylar Thredson, as Zachary Quinto has decided to ease back into his old Heroes persona to play this different murderous psycho -- is across the room in the kitchenette, cooking up a delicious-sounding Croque-monsieur. Honestly, between the bedroom set and the kitchen and the pristine white tile, this murder dungeon is nicer than most studio apartments. And Croque-monsieur? I'm just saying, Lana, there's a bright side to this whole situation.
Anyway, Lana starts screaming, but of course the basement is soundproof, like, duh. Thredson says tells her he disposed of Wendy's body where nobody will find it, as it wouldn't do to have the body crop up now that Kit Walker has confessed to all those killings. He presents Lana with the sandwich and tomato soup and deems them the perfect "mommy" snack. Which gives him the opening to delve into his whole sad saga about how his mother abandoned him and left him to grow up in the "system" of orphanages and foster care and the abuse and neglect found therein. Pretty standard serial killer stuff, but that's what this show is all about: taking our iconic depictions of horror and throwing them back at us with the volume turned WAY up.
Thredson continues talking about the orphanage, how they never allowed any unnecessary touching or affection, so obviously that became his pathology. Lana does a good job of connecting with him on a human level, complimenting him on the sandwich and saying she, too, knew what it was like to be abandoned, when she was at Briarcliff. Rather than see through this very basic attempt to gain his favor, he just giggles like a child and says that Lana is "the one," just like he thought. He tells her that he was always very self-aware; he knew there was something wrong with him. That led him to study psychology and in medical school to have his first "breakthrough." This breakthrough came in the form of him staying around after class, getting naked, and climbing atop the cadaver that he says represented his mother. Classic. The sexually perverted mommy's boy. I may not be the biggest fan of the guy's acting chops, but I'll now give a thumbs-up to the casting of Quinto. His irrepressible gayness brings that Anthony Perkins element into this whole storyline, which is as intrinsic to the archetype as anything else. We have always loved our queer monsters.
Thredson explains for the dumb ones in the audience that he realized what he'd been missing all those years: touch. "Skin-to-skin contact." But that cadaver was cold and smelled of formaldehyde, see. He tells Lana about the Harlow studies, where monkeys were used to prove that primates seek tactile comfort from mother figures. Anyway, that cadaver could not satisfy his cravings, and so we see him embark upon a series of murders, collecting women, removing their skin while they were still alive. The only one we actually see Thredson murder is the librarian -- the same flashback footage we saw when Thredson was trying to convince Kit that he committed the murders. We don't see Thredson kill Alma, however; which makes sense, because she's with the aliens. See how much sense that makes?? Thredson tells Lana that all that "work" is now behind him. And why? Well, it appears he's now found his "Mommy."
Back at Briarcliff, Sister Jude gets a call from Sam Goodman. She tries to tell him, yet again, that she's taking him off the case. "Anne Frank" wasn't Anne Frank at all, just some crazy woman. The thing is, as Goodman tells her, crazy or not, she got it right. Dr. Arden IS Hans Grouper, SS officer and Auschwitz doctor. Sister Jude is thrown. Goodman says the last thing he needs to officially prove it is a fingerprint. He tells her to be very careful -- Grouper is dangerous AND a flight risk. Just get the print and bring it directly to him at the motel. Sister Jude hangs up, and while you might expect Dr. Arden to be standing right behind her, it's creepy-little-girl Jenny. Which might be worse. She explains that her mother kissed her on the cheek, told her to be good, and left her there. Sister Jude goes to find Sister Mary Eunice to babysit this disconcerting little creature, which is obviously the best decision of the week.
Elsewhere, Monsignor Howard has been called to the hospital -- a real hospital, with natural light and non-creepy people walking the halls. The hospital administrator greets him, and we learn that Howard has been called to perform last rites on a patient, that several other area priests balked at the request due to "the news reports," and that no one knows what is wrong with this female patient, though she did test positive for TB. Howard is slightly surprised that there are still new cases of TB. The monsignor is warned that the sight of this woman is "quite shocking," and I should hope none of us were all that surprised when Howard entered the room to find the Shelley Thing in the bed. Lord knows how he manages to recognize her with her face all deformed like it is, but he looks down at her wheezing face and says, "...Shelley?"
After the break, we flash back to 1962, in the waning days of Briarcliff's incarnation as a tubercular ward. Monsignor Timothy Howard is let in to meet with the ward's chief doctor, Arthur Arden. The origins of monstrosity, indeed. The contrast between the ward then -- sunlight streaming in through the windows -- versus now, when it's a filthy, despairing room filled with the sounds of French singing nuns, is stark. Even with beds upon beds of patients dying of TB, this still feels happier. Arden is rather chilly toward Howard, understandably so since this is the man who bought his hospital and is kicking him to the curb. He points Howard toward one patient, a former nurse, who won't make it until morning "if she's lucky." Howard performs last rites on this poor soul while Arden stands behind him and rolls his eyes.
thing we know, the two men are loading this woman's sheet-covered body into a container bound for the incinerator (this would be the tunnel that, years later, Kit and Grace and Lana would try to escape from). Arden speaks ruefully of the thousands of patients who died within these walls, cremated and long since forgotten. He refers to them as "wasted opportunities" and makes sure to pointedly drop mention of his "research" to Howard. Research that will now end with the purchase of Briarcliff. Howard is intrigued enough, so Arden goes on: he's working on an "immune booster," a bacterial cocktail or sorts that would actually make people impervious to most disease. The step in his research, of course, is human trials. Howard imagines it would be tough to find volunteers, but Arden tells him that there are certain people whose lives "otherwise serve no purpose." By contributing to his studies, these people would be contributing to the greater good. "A good that would not go unnoticed," he says, "even by Rome." Ah, the magic word for Timothy Howard.
On that very word, we are thrust back into present day, where the good Monsignor has just finished choking what life was left in the Shelley Thing out of her. With his rosary, of course. Much like last week's lobotomy, I'm surprised it's taken us this long to get to Death By Rosary. Howard is, of course, very sad that he had to do that.
With that same rosary in his hand, Howard storms into Dr. Arden's office and points a dramatic accusatory finger in the old man's direction. He says Sister Jude was right in calling him a monster. "Why do you look for the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye while ignoring the plank in your own?" Arden asks, confirming once and for all that he's a huge Godspell nerd. Howard tells him he saw what he did to Shelly. It's at this point that my blood runs cold and a realization washes over me: Joseph Feinnes is trying to do an American accent. He has been all along! Oh God, I can't even look at him! He says "Shelley" like a man without teeth! Anyway, Arden defends himself by basically saying that Briarcliff is a receptacle for human waste and evolutionary failures, so he is making their dumb lives count for something.
We see a bit of a flashback to mere days ago when Arden catches pervo Spivey spying on Devil Eunice through a hole in the wall. He claims that while he feels that he has conquered his indecent-exposure problem, Sister Mary Eunice requested that he "come watch her flash her pussy," which earns him a blow from Arden's cane and, presumably, so much worse.
Back in the now, Arden exposits to Howard (though really for us) that his experiments with a viral combination of syphilis and tuberculosis (fun!) have produced results "unseen in history of medical science." He's taken these people who were "less than men" and made them "more than human." He invites Howard to his lab where he can observe Spivey, and when he gets there, of course, Spivey is basically the Elephant Man. Arden, however, refers to him and his brethren as the "stage of human evolution." Which... I knew Jean Grey. Jean Grey was a friend of mine. You, Dr. Arden, don't get to swipe dialogue from Jean Grey.
Anyway, apparently the whole idea is that Arden wants to prepare the human race for survival when the Russians end up launching their nukes, so he decided to nudge the species along and make them impenetrable now rather than waiting for natural selection to do its thing. Howard is repulsed, but obviously he can't do anything or else they both go down in flames. Arden also makes mention of how "everything" will come to light if Howard blows the whistle, implying that the Monsignor has something else to hide that we don't know about yet. And look -- whatever. Can't we all just bond over the fact that Dr. Arden has done away with Marc Consuelos once and for all? Arden instead wants Howard to focus on the threat they both have in common, which I guess means Sister Jude.
Elsewhere, in the best room in the house, Devil Eunice and Orphan Jenny are cooking by candlelight. Jenny is explaining in that monotone of hers that her mother left her here because she thinks she killed her friend Josie. Eunice asks if she did, and Jenny says no. Eunice: "Did so." She tells this little girls that she knows everything: "I'm the Devil." With a sparkle in her eye. She tells Jenny that dumb old Josie totally deserved what she got. "She didn't even like you. She only played with you only because her mother told her to." She tells Jenny that she has the gift of "authentic impulse" and not to let them kill it.
Then Devil Eunice kind of surprises me by going into a story from her youth. Eunice's youth. I like this idea that Devil Eunice isn't a completely separate entity but rather an infusion of evil into Mary Eunice herself. She recalls for Jenny how she wasted so much time trying to be a good girl and get people to like her. We cut to home-movie footage of Mary Eunice at a teenage pool party, where the awful mean girls tricked her into taking off her robe and standing naked in front of everybody, boys included. Oh, how they laughed.
Back in the kitchen, Devil Eunice sniffs away a tear and tells Jenny to never be a victim like she was when she "retreated" to God. "You know there's no God right?" she tells her. Just a bunch of crap to keep you from becoming what you are. "Look where God got me," she scoffs, "taking orders from some mean old bitch who drinks and wears trashy red lingerie under her habit." Jenny giggles, as should we all. But then she despairs that they're going to lock her up and not let her have any fun, forevermore. Devil Eunice just tells her not to be a whiner. "You're smarter than they are," she says, and commands her to learn how to defend herself. At this, she lays down the knife she's been chopping veggies with and nudges it in Jenny's direction.
Sister Jude is in her office, just getting off the phone with Jenny's mother. It seems that Jude has convinced this poor woman to come back and retrieve her bad seed, but Monsignor Howard doesn't even get the whole story, as the sour look on his face makes Sister Jude trail off. "What is that expression on your face, Timothy?" she asks, knowing something's up. He tells her that Briarcliff has become a burden for her, and that he's contacted Father Bernard in Pittsburgh. He's holding a position for her at their home for wayward girls. Jude looks heartbroken, asking of she's being fired. Howard only tells her she's lost her way and that he's booked her on a flight out of Logan on Friday morning. Sister Jude knows it's Dr. Arden behind this, and Howard yells at her that Arden's not the issue. She yells right back that Arden is entirely the issue, and also that she was right about him. Howard won't listen, of course, and tells her to pack her things.
Sister Jude is in her room, packing up, when Devil Eunice arrives with word that Jenny's mother came by and took her hellspawn daughter home. Jude's fighting back tears now as she explains Monsignor Howard's decision. My favorite part is Eunice's reaction to Pittsburgh. PITTSBURGH! "But what will become of us?" Eunice says in her closest approximation to innocence. They hug, but behind her back, Devil Eunice is picking up that red nightie from Jude's drawer and then hastily putting it back down. Amazing. "I won't leave you to the tender mercies of Dr. Arden," Sister Jude resolves. She sends Eunice to retrieve the cognac she keeps in the kitchen and two "very clean" glasses. Not that I wouldn't want these two bitches to drunk it out, but lady's got a plan.
Back at Sylar's Swinging Sixties Pad, our guy gets a phone call from Kit, who still seems to think Dr. Thredson is a guy who's going to help him. He keeps talking about how he knows Alma is alive now, because of Grace (hey, I wonder how Grace is going with all that bleeding she was doing last week?), but Thredson is just stonewalling him. Finally, after a billion hours and a dozen lightbulbs over his head that burned out from frustration, it finally dawns on Kit that Thredson never intended to keep him off of Death Row. He calls Thredson a fake and a liar, and Thredson starts to Sylar out, all "STOP CALLING ME THAT!" He slams the phone down.
All this time, Lana is downstairs, taking advantage of her alone time by working to cut herself loose from her chains. She's managed to find something to make a cut into, like, one link, but it's slow going. After Thredson hangs up on Kit, he storms downstairs, fuming. Lana catches that he's talking about Kit and sounds a bit too eager to hear about him, which arouses Thredson's suspicion. He then clocks that she's sweating and her heart is racing. He pulls back the covers and sees the broken chain link. Betrayed, he tells her she's just like his mother, ready to abandon him. "They're all the same!" he despairs, despite Lana's protests to the contrary. But since Lana is like all the rest, he's going to kill her like all the rest. He dons the Bloody Face mask, approaches her with a scalpel, telling her it's all her fault.
Meanwhile, back at Briarcliff, the best thing is happening. With Sister Jude off with her cognac, Devil Eunice has commandeered her bedroom, put on her red negligee, and is dancing around to "You Don't Own Me." Total sensory overload. But also, and here's why I think this show is sneakily brilliant, think about what's happening here: the demon is wearing Eunice, who is wearing Sister Jude's clothes, all the while singing this song about liberation to the crucifix on the wall and taking off her symbolic nun's ring. That's a lot going on in one campy scene reminiscent of The First Wives Club. The phone rings, interrupting this good time. It's Sam Goodman, and Devil Eunice sees an opportunity: "This is Sistah Jude."
Sister Jude took that cognac to Dr. Arden's office, and is offering a toast to the victor. He's bested her, and she'd like to think of herself as a good sport, so she pours him a drink and offers a toast: "To your impressive single-mindedness." Arden is still incredibly wary of Sister Jude, and he refuses to drink alone, even if she would rather abstain. But she relents, as some occasions warrant an exception. They clink to Arden, "and to God's will." He makes sure she drinks first, but once she does, Arden drinks as well. There was nothing dangerous in the cognac, of course. It was the super-clean glass that Sister Jude wanted. Clean enough to pick up Arden's fingerprints.
In his motel room, Sam Goodman is working on his evidence wall when there's a knock at the door. It's not Sister Jude with the incriminating fingerprints, though. It's Devil Eunice, who whispers that Sister Jude doesn't know she's here. Aw, Sam. Good knowing you.
Sister Jude doesn't make it to Goodman's motel until after the commercial break, and by then it's far too late. He's lying on the bathroom floor with a shard of glass in his neck, blood everywhere. Sister Jude freaks out, not only at the carnage but also at the realization that her one shot as besting Arden is bleeding out in front of her. With the little bit of life left in him, he's trying to say something. "Arden did this," she says, but he tells her no. "A nun," he chokes out. "One of yours."
Speak of the Devil, she's back at Briarcliff, presenting Dr. Arden with all of Goodman's evidence on him and his life as Hans Grouper. He tries to defend himself against the accusation, calling Goodman and his like nothing but self-hating, money-grubbing Jews. He cries out that he's not a monster, he's a visionary. Dropping his façade of wicked control, Arden seems almost tortured by the fact that he has to carry out his work in secret. Eunice tells him he doesn't have to make a case to her, and he starts to get suspicious. Why is she covering for him? He's not so delusional to think that she's in love with him -- though you can see the hurt on his face when he says that. Devil Eunice merely tells him that he needs to trust her. "This is the beginning of a whole new era," she says. She kisses him softly on the cheek and promises that everything will work out.
Across town, Jenny is explaining to the police about a man in a beard and a brown coat, who threatened her to keep quiet. The victims this time? Jenny's mother and siblings, and sticking out of her mom's back is that kitchen knife that Devil Eunice so suggestively presented to her. "He said he would kill me too, if I moved a muscle," she monotones, all while twirling a lock of hair in her hand.
Thredson's still in the Bloody Face mask, cutting open Lana's blouse with his scalpel, talking her through how most of the women scream when he first cuts into their skin, but don't worry, shock soon takes over. Comforting! She tries to talk her way out of it, and it's not like Thredson is unmoved. He actually sheds some tears as he talks about the high hopes he had for her. See, he's had his eye on her since before Briarcliff, when he scoped her out in the press pool, waiting for Kit Walker to be marched to his arraignment. We see a flashback where Lana talks to another reporter about delving into the psychology of these so-called monsters, finding out what in their lives happened to make them this way. He thought she'd understand him. "I do understand," she trembles, but he doesn't believe her anymore. "That's all right," she says, taking another angle and he cuts through her bra straps. "I don't want you to feel guilty. A mother's love is unconditional." She talks about how he never had that, and everyone deserves it. She calls him her "baby." Transparent as this attempt is, it actually works. Thredson takes off the mask and commences weeping. Then he looks at her, deranged, and says, "Baby needs colostrum." How ... specific. As Lana braces herself for horror of another kind, Thredson descends upon her to suckle from mother's breast. Still alive, though, Lana. Small victories.
We're back in the present day for the final scenes, as the dead imposter Bloody Faces are lowered from the ceiling. Also discovered is the dead body of Adam Levine. They find his arm in the room, holding a cell phone that is currently ringing. Detective Grayson answers the call and it's of course Dylan Face. Grayson asks if he killed these people, and Dylan Face replies, "Only the imposters." He hands up just as Grayson gets the report that Adam Levine wasn't alone -- he was traveling with his bride. So where is she? Cut to Mrs. Channing Tatum, on a slab somewhere with Dylan Face (presumably) hovering over her. Until week!
Joe R hopes Lily Rabe is constantly performing "You Don't Own Me" at karaoke. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.