‘American Horror Story: Asylum’ finale review: Did Lana survive meeting her son?

On the season finale of “American Horror Story: Asylum” we were brought back to the first episode where Teresa and Leo were on their honeymoon of horror at Briarcliff, but this time we got to see their experience from the perspective of the modern day Bloody Face, Johnny.  He was listening to an audio recording of his mother, Lana Winter’s, reading her book “Maniac” when Leo and Teresa came into the asylum, and after cutting off Leo’s arm, he took Teresa.  At this point Lana has written 6 books including a book on exposing the horrors of Briarcliff and is in a serious relationship with a woman named Marian, but her ego is still out of control.

During an interview, Lana reveals that she exposed Briarcliff, not because she was a crusader, but because she wanted to keep her fame at an all time high.  Lana went back to the asylum with a camera crew and showed the true horror of the institution.  She looked for Sister Jude since she is the person that would really give her story some weight, but when they go looking for her, they are disappointed to find out that she is gone.

Johnny has been looking for a way to meet his mother, and has some how managed to be part of the crew working on the interview with Lana.  When she asks for a bottle of water, he is the person to hand it to her and they have their first interaction – Lana is clueless as to who he is.

After Lana’s break she talks to the interviewer about her meeting with Kit after shutting down Briarcliff.  She revealed that she looked for any evidence about where Jude was and says that she learned that Jude’s name was changed to Betty and that she was released under Kit’s care months ago.  He tells Lana that he went to visit her a few times a week and eventually he brought her back to his house to live with him and his children.  After Jude went through detox she started to revert to the old Sister Jude we first met, cruel and angry, but with the love of Kit’s children Jude founed the peace that she was missing.  Things went well with Jude after that until eventually she fell ill and invited the angel of death to kiss her and take her life.

After closing down Briarcliff, Lana’s next exposé was on Cardinal Timothy Howard.  She cornered him about his involvement with Dr. Arden and his horrific experiments that happened at Briarcliff, but he continued to deny his involvement, and later when home and ended his own life.

Lana decides to come clean to the interviewer about the child she gave birth to, Johnny.  She wrote in her book that hedied in child birth, but really she gave him up for adoption. Lana reveals that at one point she went looking for Johnny and actually found him when he was just a child, being bullied by other children.  She saves him from being beaten, but says that it’s the last time she saw him, and that she has thought about him often.

She says that Kit got married again and asked Lana to be the god mother to his children.  His daughter ended up being a neurosurgeon and Kit’s son was a lawyer.  Kit ended up getting pancreatic cancer, but before he died, he just disappeared and no one could explain what happened – really the aliens had come back for him one last time.

After the interview is over and everyone has left the house, Lana knows she is not alone and that Johnny is still there.  She tells him that she knew from the moment she saw him who he was and that this day would come when he would come to kill her.  She asks who told him who he was, and he said that he felt something that day she saved him from the bullies in the playground and he knew she was her mother.  He said that he heard the recording of Dr. Thredson’s confession about being Bloody Face and Lana threatening to abort him while his father begged for her to save him.  Johnny says that he knew his father loved him and that he wanted to make him proud as he pulled a gun out on her.  Lana tries to sooth Johnny by telling him that she knows he’s a good person and let’s him know how much she loves him and he lowers the gun.  She takes the gun from him and shoots him dead, ending the reign of Bloody Face.

What did you think of the season finale of “American Horror Story: Asylum”?  Leave us a comment and tell us if you were satisfied with how the story was wrapped up.

Photo: FX