AMERICAN HORROR STORY: BAD MEETS EVIL

I have very mixed feelings about the finale. On the one hand, I loved the dialogues, the acting and how the episode was shot and directed, so from that point of view if it can't qualify for being called a masterpiece, then at least it's gotta be a very fine work of art. I adore Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, all the episodes he's directed are unbelievably great. On the other hand, in terms of story development the ending left me somewhat disappointed, as it lacked some mind-blowing twists, like those in the middle of the season. You know, like it all was "just a dog's dream" sort of thing, only better.

Anyway, in the beginning they decided to go back to the very first episode and show us what the hack cut Leo's hand off. Johnny Morgan enters the abandoned Briarcliff, listening to the voice of his mother reading her book about the place. Leo and Theresa were unlucky enough to check the mad house at the same time. I totally get the maniac - if you're peacefully getting high in the God forsaken ward and you see the hand with an iPhone reaching out from the food hatch, your first instinct is to fucking cut it off! And so he did. ("The impostors" haven't been mentioned, so I guess we have to treat them as a natural disaster of some sort, because their appearance in the show was somewhat meaningless.)

After this small excursus to the recent past, we get to see the glory of Lana-banana, as she's preparing for an interview with one nosy reporter. Lana Winters, a diva in her seventies, lives in the beautifully decorated spacious house with sketches and portraits of herself (by Bono and Andy Warhol) on the wall. She's a famous writer and interviewer, and now it's her turn to tell the truth about her life.

Lana begins her lifetime story with how forty years ago she realized that television was the future (plus she didn't have to invent horrible details, like those in her book, to impress people) and became a TV reporter. Her first serious story, the one that actually made her famous, was about the atrocities taking place in Briarcliff. She sneaked in through the secret passage with her filming crew and made a report about unattended insane people rolling in own feces, which apparently was what her audience needed. Lana says she had a very clear (vulturous) vision of how she wanted this story to end: she planned to "save" Jude on camera. Unfortunately for Lana, her halo didn't get to be that bright, because Jude's been already saved by somebody a little more humane.

So after a small research Lana came to Kit (with the crew) to ask where is Jessica Hyde if Betty Drake, released for his care, was actually Sister Jude. She was. He took her home a couple of months after that chat with Lana at the bookstore. Jude still was quite insane and one day, when she had a huge meltdown, Kit's miracle babies took her to the woods and got her cured. She still died six months later surrounded by Kit's loving family.

Cardinal Timothy Howard also died: he cut his wrists after Lana confronted him with questions about Arden's experiments. Kit married some hippie, but in his forties he got cancer, and the aliens took him shortly after. His children got to be important people. As for Lana's own kid, Johnny, he was sitting in the next room, listening to Lana's confessions and eating eclairs in a very butcherly manner.

She knows he's here; the police have warned her about a maniac on the loose. So she comes clean about the lie she told a long time ago, in her very first book about Bloody Face. Her rape baby didn't really die, he was adopted, and she even went to see him once in the seventies.

When the interview is over, Lana closes the door behind TV people and asks Johnny to come out. It was nothing like he planned: she was prepared. She asks him how he found out who he was. Turned out he felt she was his mother this one time she met him. After that he bought that confession tape on eBay and realized she never loved him.

Johnny puts a gun against Lana's forehead and so it's time for her to do what she's always done best: to manipulate. She tells him he is better than his father, she knew it since the first time she saw him. That was pretty much enough for Johnny to collapse and put the gun down.

"I've hurt people, mom", he says crying.
"It's not your fault, baby", she replies and points a gun at her son. "It's mine", she continues and blows his brains out.

And then the story goes back to the first episode again to reveal a part of conversation between Sister Jude and Lana. Jude predicts Lana of what's ahead of her and warns:

"If you look in the face of Evil, Evil's gonna look right back at you"