‘American Horror Story: Asylum’ Episode 2.12: ‘Continuum’ Recap

In the Walker home, there are pictures on the wall of Kit, Alma, Grace, and the two alien children, a seemingly happy blended family. But that happiness is deceiving. Kit has killed one of the women — Alma? Or Grace? — with an ax. A child calls, “Daddy,” and Kit responds, “Daddy will be there in a minute,” looking dazed and covered with blood.

Grace is drawing obsessively as her son, Thomas, and Alma’s daughter, Julia, play with toilet paper on the floor. Kit comes home, talking about a march that is going to be “amazing.” He says they’ll march from Roxbury to the Boston Common with “thousands of people just like us.” Alma asks if Grace’s pictures are too much for the kids, and Kit takes his son. He looks at the picture and tells Grace that she is talented.

Finally alone in their bedroom, Kit tries to seduce his wife, and worries that he’s losing his touch when she doesn’t respond. Alma is disturbed that Grace seems to be growing more obsessed with aliens, and Kit says she’s trying to work through what they did to her in her own way. Alma says she is dwelling on the past because she’s unhappy with the present, and tells Kit to go to her.

Kit does as he is told, and Grace says she is drawing the pictures because their kids need to know where they came from. Grace says those aren’t the memories that she’s afraid of, and we get quick, short flashbacks of her killing her family. The two begin to make love as Alma listens from her bedroom. Noise starts, and it sounds like the aliens are paying the family a visit. But that’s not it, someone is trying to burn down their house, and Kit says he knows who it was. He says it was Billy Marshall and tells the cop that if he won’t find him, he’ll do whatever it takes to protect his family. Alma is crying, having believed that the aliens have come back for her.

Grace is talking to her son in French, asking him where he came from. He points up at the ceiling. Alma is upset that Grace is acting like the aliens were some kind of “religious experience.” They have very different opinions of them, and Grace says they will come back for Kit. Alma says things were better before her husband brought an ax murderer into the house. Grace asks if she wants Julia to grow up locked in the house and Alma slaps her. Kit comes in and wants a family meeting, but Grace says she’s done and takes her son and leaves.

Grace is drawing on the floor and Kit goes to her. She says that her life is more precious than she could have dreamed, and that she doesn’t want to live in fear and isolation and that Alma needs to understand that. Alma appears behind her and stabs Grace in the back with an ax — guess it wasn’t Kit after all! — and says that she wanted to bring the aliens back into their home. Kit pulls the ax out, and we’re treated to the opening scene again.

It’s 1968, and Jude is playing Candyland with Pepper and others. The Monsignor wants to talk to her, but she doesn’t want to see him. Timothy has been appointed cardinal of New York and tells Jude Briarcliff will be used as an overflow facility. He tells her he’s going to get her out of the asylum, but she’s skeptical. He says he will make her a believer.

Pepper and Jude are working in the kitchen when new patients are brought in. And who walks in but the angel of death, dressed as a patient. She tells Shacath she doesn’t belong there.

Jude tells Pepper storm clouds are gathering and Pepper says she shouldn’t put too much stock in the Monsignor’s promises. New patients walk in and one of them is Alma! Shacath is in Jude’s room, and says everything in the room belongs to her — including Jude. Shacath says there is only one way out of Briarcliff and that isn’t the front door. Jude tells her to stay away, and Shacath says she’ll change her tune.

Pepper says Jude looks “green around the gills” and Jude says she didn’t sleep well because of her new roommate. Shacath asks why Alma is sitting all by her lonesome, and Alma runs off. Shacath stabs a patient that didn’t follow her orders and blows a kiss to Jude. In Jude’s room, she is in full form and Jude says she doesn’t want to die. But when the orderlies come in, the woman they pull Jude off of isn’t Shacath. It’s another woman that looks nothing like the angel of death.

Jude is in her old office with a doctor who says she heard that Jude had a bit of a “dust up” with her new roommate. She says she doesn’t like her but the doctor says she didn’t like any of her five roommates in two months. Jude wants to talk to the monsignor, but Dr. Crump doesn’t know who that is. The doctor says, “You mean Cardinal Timothy Howard,” and tells Jude he was appointed two and a half years ago. Jude says she just talked to him, but the doctor says she is confused. She tells the doctor to ask Pepper, and Dr. Crump informs her that Pepper is dead. She died in the winter of 1966. Dr. Crump says she’ll up her medication.

It’s 1969, and Lana is holding a book reading and signing. Her book Maniac has been on the best-seller’s list for 10 weeks. She reads an excerpt that talks about her captivity in Thredson’s apartment. But wait — she talks about another woman, but Thredson suddenly appears and says that it never happened. Here’s Wendy — Lana called her her roommate, but didn’t admit that she was her lover. Thredson tells Lana she’s only interested in fame. Lana snaps back to reality and apologizes, saying she must have lost her place. A woman tells her that she’s incredibly brave and everyone claps.

Kit shows up to the signing, and Lana says she was sorry to hear about Grace. Kit says it would have been nice to hear from her, and Lana says it’s been so crazy and that she just sold the film rights to her book. The two go out for coffee and Lana asks if Kit saw her on Cabot. Lana then says her next book will be about Leigh Emerson, and Kit snaps and asks why she’s going to write about him. She says she found her voice and Kit says that she was supposed to take down Briarcliff and free Jude. Lana says she spun straw into gold to make a life for herself. Kit says he respects her and Lana says she could have been stuck in there with the other lunatics. Kit tells her to be careful and that she’s talking about his wife.

Alma wants Kit to bring the kids to the asylum, but she looks around and changes her mind. Lana says she had no idea Alma was there and Kit says she isn’t anymore. There was no warning, her heart just stopped. Kit says he failed her, Grace, and the kids, but that he’ll try to make it right. Lana says everyone is gone but them, and Kit says there is still one left — Jude.

The nurse asks Kit what he wants done with Alma’s body, and he says he’ll take her home and bury her on their land.

Jude fights off other patients so she can watch her “story.” Kit tries to talk to her and says he thought she was dead. Jude says they stole the rights to her story and tells Kit that she’ll fly out of the asylum one day. Kit says he doesn’t doubt it.

Lana says she went back to the asylum and that Timothy told her Jude hanged herself. Kit wants her to do what she said and get Briarcliff shut down. Lana doesn’t want to, saying that Jude made every bed in the asylum. Lana’s assistant interrupts and says there are more people waiting to get their book signed. She leaves and Kit gets in his truck. A man is watching him from a car.

In the present, Johnny Morgan is looking for Maniac at a bookstore that’s about to go out of business. The woman says the book isn’t for sale, and Johnny tells the bookkeeper that Lana was his mother. The woman tells him she read the book and the only baby Lana had was when she was raped by Bloody Face, but the baby died at birth. The woman shows Johnny Lana’s signature, and he says it’s the closest he’s gotten to her in months. Johnny says it is his destiny to get the book and that he’s going to greet Lana with it before shooting her in the face. The woman gives him the book, understandably shaken.

What did you think of “Continuum”?