American Horror Story: Asylum- Series Finale (spoilers)

That face.  That Sarah Paulson old face is exactly how I've felt this whole season.  Meh, and a little angry.  And then, THEN, they have the audacity to give us a beautiful ending AND the biggest "OH SHIT" moment of the season.  Not only was it a great script, but it was GORGEOUSLY filmed.  It was so beautifully filmed that I got distracted by the cinematography at points! Now, they focus a bit heavily on Lana, I was hoping to get a bit of Sister Mary Eunice again as she was the best plot of the season, but I guess we can't get everything we want.  This season has been a total inverse of last season, the season itself kind of sucked while the ending was epic, where as last season was epic with a suck ending.  So here is the "Madness Ends" recap.

The episode begins with a flashback to the first episode.  Oh great, Adam Levine is back.  Whatever.  Anyway, it's exactly the same as the first episode, only from the perspective of Dylan McDermott (whose name btw is apparently Johnny).  He enters Briarcliff listening to a book on tape, his mother's voice reading her novel about the Asylum.  He hallucinates something wicked, seeing through the rotting structure into the past, his mother in that crazy bath thing telling him how much she hates him, his father as the goodly Dr. Threadson who tells him of all the love he missed out on.  Then he smokes some weed and chops off Levine's arm.

Flash foward a bit to Lana, older, wiser and apparently a super celebrity of Barbra Walters fame, in a Dateline type interview setting.  Now we all know how I feel about special effects makeup and I give her old age make up and A.  It was  bit rough around her lips, but that turkey neck they had going was genius.  Anyway, her life seems to have been absolutely charmed in her post bloody faced years, she even has a hot lady lovahh she proudly shows off as an out gay woman in 2012.  The interviewer wants to start with Bloodyface, but Lana refuses and they move on to Briarcliff.  We see Lana's original filming of the story she used to shut Briarcliff down.  Again amazing cinematography jumping from the 1970s camera to real time.  We see how bad Briarcliff has become.  Lana finds Jude in worse condition then ever, but then, pulling her off the filthy bed, she whispers "Lana Banana" with a slight smile.  Right in the feels... Then we find out, that's all a lie, Lana never found Jude.  That was just the ending she was hoping for.  Lana does end up getting Briarcliff shut down, then tries to expose the now Cardinal for allowing the awful human experiments of Doctor Ardin to happen under his nose.  The Cardinal ends up committing suicide, he knew all the things he had done, but you can't help feeling a little bad.

But what really happened to Jude?  Turns out Kit has the answer.  Kit says he'll talk to Lana, but not with cameras in his face.  She agrees.  After Alma passed, Kit started making regular visits to Jude.  In a touching sequence he brings her back to life from the hell she was living, and eventually he brings her into his home.  She detoxes, and falls in love with his two gorgeous children.  Unfortunately it isn't all fun and games, Jude does freak the fuck out, but Kit's alien babies take her into the woods and she comes back all better.  They live happily for 6 months until Jude falls ill and passes happily at the lips of the kind of pointless this season angel of death.  It's touching though to see what Kit does for this woman who put him through hell.  It's beautiful, really.

We then find out that Kit's kids grow to be a successful and amazing, just like he and Grace thought they would be.  He and Lana become incredibly close, which again is beautiful seeing as Lana was a total twat to Kit in the beginning.  Kit remarries and seems to live a normal life.  He ends up getting pancreatic cancer and "disappearing" which I said in conjuncture with Lana because it was so obvious.  Kit's up there with the aliens.  Happy ending?

Meanwhile at some point during the episode "Johnny" the name they apparently gave McDermott hands Lana some water.  After this happens, Lana confesses to lying about her son's death.  She tells a story about going to see him as a child and defending him from a bully.  When the interview ends Lana knows that her son is there and totally foils his plan of scaring the shit out of her.  The have a calm conversation about his feeling abandoned.  He pulls out a gun, putting it to mommy's head, but just like with Threadson, Lana is too smart.  She baby talks him into giving up the gun... THEN SHOOTS HIM IN THE FUCKING FACE!  WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.

But that's not even the biggest Oh Shit, of the night.  The show then reverts back to the first time Lana goes to Briarcliff and has words with Sister Jude.  Jude says something about looking into the face of evil and the zoom in on Lana's face.  Lana then leaves.  Now, reading preliminary blogs, people seem to be thinking this means that Lana made the whole thing up and was never confined, doing this all for fame.  That makes sense as all the people who would corroborate the story are dead.  But I have another theory, because there is too much detail.  For example, why would Sister Mary Eunice matter?  Or any of the plots that didn't actually involve Lana like the Aliens or Santa Clause murderer.  I think... I THINK that Lana was the real devil.  Whatever possessed Sister Mary Eunice originated not with that kid from the flashbacks of Dexter, but with Lana.  Just some food for thought.

All and all even this epic ending doesn't make up for the lackluster, choppy season, but well done anyhow.