'American Horror Story': Rude awakenings

Bing: "American Horror Story: Asylum|Franka Potente

It wasn't a perfect episode, and in fact was at times either problematic or melodramatic. But, as always, there was much to absorb and consider once its 40-plus minutes were up. So without further, "I'll swallow your soul!" here are the five things we learned from "The Diary of Anne Frank, Part 1":

It's unlikely "Diary of Anne Frank" will stir up too much scandal, given the show's innate theatricality. But you can understand how a portion of tonight's audience might have found certain characterizations in questionable taste. Franka Potente ("Run Lola Run") enters Briarcliff claiming to be the real Anne Frank, having survived and lived in secret to avoid demystifying her influential memoir. She also experiences a "Marathon Man" moment when encountering Dr. Arden, whom she accuses of being a former Nazi war criminal and torturer of women in Auschwitz (as depicted in black-and-white camp flashbacks). Sister Jude is skeptical, but she loathes Dr. Arden. Plus, the evidence against him mounts, especially when detectives come inquiring about a prostitute who claims to have escaped the not-so-good doctor's clutches and found his SS paraphernalia. The episode concludes with Anne and Arden (or whomever they really are) squaring off in his operating room, a gun in her hand, bullet in his leg and hideously disfigured Shelley pleading for a mercy kill. The whole storyline, nevermind as a two-week arc, is audacious, and makes for provocative drama. But the decision to bluntly reveal Arden's past as a Dr. Mengele proxy feels unsubtle at best, indelicate at worst. As for Anne, her appearance could be another one of Satan's manifestations for all we know, meant to further manipulate Jude and Arden toward mutual annihilation. We'll wait until "Part 2" before casting judgment, but this is certainly the closest "AHS" has come to not merely using history as its own lesson, but possibly trespassing on material that's just too raw. 

Sister Jude, and Jessica Lange's portrayal, continue to be the preeminent pair of reasons for tuning in. Next in line might be Sister Mary Eunice's emergence as devil incarnate and Jude's primary antagonist. But she could also be regarded as the emotionally volatile Briarcliff administrator's greatest ally. Over the past couple weeks, we've observed as Jude confronts her own sins (running over that young girl 15 years ago, for starters) and begins to see the truly wicked—the Monsignor, Dr. Arden et al—for what they are. In the process, she's developed a slightly less tyrannical approach with her inmates, even appearing sympathetic to both Anne and Kit. In one terrific scene, Jude and her Mother Superior walk the grounds, discussing male clergy's stubborn pigheadedness (no doubt a metaphor for our current macro-political gender dilemma) and the deepest healing qualities of faith. Satan definitely has the Sister where it wants her, but she might prove grittier and more redeemable than even Beelzebub imagined.