Tonight on FX AMERICAN HORROR STORY:ASYLUM airs with a whole new episode called “Unholy Night.” On tonight’s show In a special Christmas episode, a murderous Santa wreaks havoc on Briarcliff. Did you watch last week’s premiere episode? We did and we recapped it here for you.
On last week’s show Sister Mary Eunice sensed an evil presence at Briarcliff. While Kit tried to reunite with Grace, Mary Eunice discovered that a dark force has invaded Briarcliff.
On tonight’s show FX is airing a Christmas episode. Sister Jude faces off with the Devil. Arden has a shocking encounter in the Death Chute. A murderous Santa wreaks havoc on Briarcliff.
Co-creator Ryan Murphy revealed about the episode, “The Christmas episode is a very interesting episode because when we were plotting out the season I really wanted to do a Christmas episode because I always thought, based on my research, that 1964 was a very interesting year in terms of the secular and commercial”
Tonight’s episode is going to be another spooky episode, which you won’t want to miss. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of FX’s American Horror Story – tonight at 10PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know if you are excited about the season 2 episode 8 of American Horror Story? While you wait for the recap, check out a sneak peek of tonight’s episode below!
Tonight’s recap: A mom and her son are out shopping for Christmas and stop to drop some money into the Salvation Army bin for Santa. They walk away and Santa’s confronted by and shot to death by a guy who thinks he’s setting the kids up for disappointment. He drills him with several bullets.
Little Suzy walks downstairs six days before Christmas and finds the Santa killer dressed in a bloody Santa outfit and finds him playing with her Dad’s train. They chat and she asks if he’s hurt – he tells her it’s not blood and asks her to take him to her parents. She does and they wake up to bloody Santa with a gun. He takes them downstairs and ties them up with Christmas lights.
He tells them he picked their house because of their decorations. He says they need more jingle bells and smashes the Dad in the head with a bell. He tells them he’s going to live a little rape and terror under the tree. The Dad says to leave the wife alone and Santa tells him he wasn’t talking about her.
He tells them they can pick which one of them he’ll kill first. The Dad begs for their lives and he shoots Dad first and then Mom in the head. The fate of little Suzy is not shown. BTWs, evil Santa is played by the always excellent Ian McShane – Blackbeard from Pirates of the Caribbean. Loved him also in Death Race and Deadwood!
At the nut house, they’re playing Christmas carols and dancing around when Sister Mary blows a whistle to get their attention. She says that Jude’s blackout on Christmas was bah humbug and she’s re-establishing the holiday. She says they have to improvise new Ornaments since Jude tossed out all the ornaments.
She has red ribbons in everyone’s hair and snips off the ribbon and a lock of hair and decorates the tree with them. I think she’s making some sort of twisted giant evil voodoo doll.
The security guard Frank is saying a prayer for poor dead Grace and he thinks he sees her looking at him. Arden confronts him and the guard says they should call the police. Arden asks if he’s ready to face punishment for shooting an unarmed woman (Grace) and he says he is.
Jude finds Mary Eunice and holds a straight razor to her throat. She threatens to kill Mary since she’s the vessel that’s holding her. Mary uses her evil powers to open the cabinet of canes and thrown them at Jude. Arden walks in and confronts Jude. Mary and Arden have Jude thrown out of the building by security.
Arden tells Mary that Frank wants to confess to the cops. Mary says she’ll take care of it. The door to evil Santa’s cell opens (his name is Leigh) and a present is tossed into the room. Leigh says he’s surprised to see Jude. Mary steps into the room and tells him Jude is gone and says Briarcliff’s under new management. She opens the gift box and shows him the Christmas suit.
Flashback to 1963, Jude is getting the inmates ready for a newspaper photo. Leigh asks Jude to take off his handcuffs. She reminds him he killed 18 people from 5 different families one Christmas. She tells him he can stay in cuffs for his whole life. He tells her he doesn’t want to be in her shitty picture. He says the photo is a lie about Briarcliff being nice and clean. She tells him instead the photo is a reminder to the public that without them, all those nuts would be out among them and says she’s going to put him front and center, shackles and all!
The photographers shows up a bit early and Leigh attacks the orderly handing out Christmas gifts and bites his face and neck while the photo of a bloody Christmas is being snapped. So that’s why Jude cancelled Christmas – makes sense!
Back in the present, Mary pulls out a nice, shiny new Santa suit. He tells her she doesn’t know what Christmas means to him. She tells him she knows all about how when he was jailed for petty theft at Christmas that he was raped by guards and they took his innocence and Christmas spirit. He tells her he knows who’s naughty and nice, who deserves to live and die. She holds out the suit and asks him if he wants to be a victim or the victor.
Arden finds Mary listening to Christmas carols. She tells him growing up she sometimes only got a tangerines and socks. She asked him if his Nazi childhood included Christmas. Arden tells her he brought her a Christmas present since she’s his family now – she says it’s so adorable. He tells her to open it up. He gives her a beautiful pair of ruby earrings – he took them from a Jewess in the camp who bragged about how rich she was.
He tells her she was always complaining about her stomach problems. He followed her to the latrine to get a stool sample. He found her picking through her own crap to retrieve the earrings. She told him she swallowed them every day – day after day – to hide them. Arden says she dies from internal bleeding from the rubies.
Mary tells him he was clever to have saved them and she’s thrilled to have them. He said he hoped she would be appalled and would throw back the shit-stained earrings. He tells her there’s nothing left of Mary inside her, nothing left of the sweet girl she once was. She tells him she has work to do and he’s either with her or against her and if he’s against her, even God can’t save him.
Lana’s throwing up and the young nun tells her that the cook forgets to wash his hands. I don’t think it’s food poisoning, I think Thredson knocked her up.
Jude’s gone to see the Mother Superior and asks her to get her back into Briarcliff. She begs her and tells her she’s got a higher calling. She says American has turned to blasphemy and that it’s all about Rudolph and nothing about Jesus. She rants crazy and the Mother says she’ll try to help.
There’s a call and Jude is told she has a visitor. It’s Arden. He tells her they got off on the wrong foot. He tells them that although their approaches are different, their commitment to Briarcliff is a match. He says she was right about Sister Mary – he says she’s in desperate trouble and he’s got no medical explanation. He says he’s there without her knowledge and Jude says that he’s afraid of her. He says he’s not, but he can’t babysit a deranged nun.
Jude tells him to go to hell. He tells her he doesn’t believe in God, but does believe in evil – says he’s seen it up close. He says his knowledge of evil is what made Mary so special to him, because she had a light inside her. Arden swears to do whatever Jude says to fix it.
Back at Briarcliff, the Monsignor unpacks a beautiful star that came from the Archdiocese of Boston and he wants it at the top of the tree. He tells Mary that she has revived the tradition nicely. He loves the tree. She decorated it with the hair swatches, plus dentures, IV bottles and more. He also applauds her inclusion of Leigh in his Santa suit and says it adds to the festive occasion.
Monsignor tells Arden that Mary’s quite a treasure. Arden says more than he could know. Mary asks Frank to bring the ladder so she can put the star on the tree before the entertainment starts – they’re going to watch Rudolph!
Kit and his pregnant wife are getting the tree ready. Then his wife is gone and it’s Grace. Kit apologizes and tells her if he hadn’t have come back, she’d still be alive. She asks him to dance with her. Kit’s awakened by a whispering Lana. She tells him there’s still a manhunt, that no one knows he’s there. She tells him that means no one knows either of them is there and Thredson will be coming for both of them.
Kit says Grace’s name and she says she doesn’t know where she is – she hasn’t seen her. He tells her Grace is dead. She says they have to get out of there. She checks his IV and says they’ve got him doped. She turns off the medication and tells him that Thredson is bloody face. She says he kidnapped her and took her to the place where he killed all the women. She says she’s got to get to the police so she can tell them before he destroys the evidence. Kit asks her if she’s really there and she says she is and she’s coming back for him.
Arden lets Jude into Briarcliff and he tells her that Mary is in the common room hosting the Christmas party. He asks if she needs help and she says no – that she’s the only one who can reach her – but she needs time. She asks him to bring Mary to her office and lock her in with her. She says she never thought she’d see the day they would work together.
Monsignor tells Mary that she’s a shining star. Frank is up on the ladder putting the star on the tree when Leigh knocks him off the high ladder and then attacks him. Frank beats him up and Mary tells them to take him to solitary. She tells Monsignor that it’s two steps forward, one step back. Arden tells her there’s a pressing issue in her office.
In another office, Lana scrambles to dial and then senses a presence in the room – it’s Thredson – who tells her he hopes she wasn’t planning on making a toll call.
Franks locks Leigh in his cell and turns to find Sister Mary. She asks if he gave him any trouble and he says no – she says she thinks he did and slashes Frank’s throat with the straight razor Jude had earlier held to her throat. Mary muses – I wonder how this got in the building, I hope we’re not looking at a rampage. Leigh looks on in glee.
Jude is praying in her office for strength when someone comes in – it’s not Mary though – it’s Leigh! She wants to know what he’s doing there and he says he’s there to open his present. Mary locks the door with them inside. Arden is there and asks her if his loyalty is no longer in question. She caresses his face.
Leigh approaches her saying – Ho Ho Ho. He goes for a letter opener. He tells her it’s all the sexy little nun’s fault. He tells her he has a fantasy about shoving a crucifix up her ass. He starts beating her while she cries for help. Mary and Arden listen and she asks if it offends his sensibilities. He tells her he finds it tedious and stalks away leaving Mary looking vexed.
Thredson yanks the phone cord out of the wall. Lana asks Thredson how he found her and he says she made the newspapers with her headline about lunatic escapee in a car crash. He tells her he’s been busy killing bloody face – that he had to throw away all his trophies and scrubbed all the blood away. He tells her he has to make the wrong right of her getting him to tell her all his secrets, that she confused him and did him wrong.
He tells her that he’s felt lost, but being so close to her now, he’s feeling like he’s found himself again. He tells her bloody face had to burn so he could be born again. He tells her bloody face will be born again with her skin. Thredson goes to drag Lana away and he’s bashed in the head. It’s Kit! He came to her rescue.
Back in Jude’s office, Leigh says it’s just the two of them. He spins her around and bashes her into the wardrobe and the doors fly open. It’s the collection of canes Jude used on the inmates, including him. There’s a brief flashback to her caning him while he howls in pain. He tells her after she beat him, the welts never healed because he was locked in the dark with no water or light. He tells her the marks are putrid now and oozing and that he’s going to make her lick them after he’s done with her.
He asks her if she remembers what she said to him – there’s another brief flashback – she says she’s going to soften him up so God doesn’t have to work so hard – and then starts beating him. Leigh strikes her again and again. He says there’s no God, but there is a Santa Claus and strikes her again.
Lana wants to kill Thredson, but Kit won’t let her. He says Thredson’s the only thing between him and the electric chair. Lana asks him why there’s still a manhunt, why they haven’t turned him in.
Arden’s wheeling a large cart down a stone hallway and there’s a crazy electrical light and whatever was in the cart is gone.
Leigh pulls off Jude’s wimple – looks like he’s about to rape her. She stabs him in the neck with a letter opener she purloined while he was caning her.
Lana and Kit tie up Thredson and stash him an unused storage room. They conceal him with a stack of dirty old mattresses. Lana tells it she’ll finish up and that he needs to get back to the infirmary before they notice him missing. As Thredson starts to come round, he sees he’s bound and gagged and tucked away. Lana whispers to him that someday she’ll bury him.
