American Horror Story Season 2 Ending, Explained

If there’s any ending that needs to be explained, it’s season 2 of American Horror Story: Asylum. Ryan Murphy’s hit FX series started with a bang that left fans desperate to see where he would take the story next. They were expecting more spooky shenanigans. Instead, Murphy & co. gave them serial killers, religious trauma, and aliens. . . Oh my!

The Curse of Briarcliff Manor

Many cast members returned for American Horror Story: Asylum, but so did the theme of ‘awful things happening inside of a terrifying building’. Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson) left Briarcliff Manor as an escaped mental health patient. She later returned in season 2 as a talented journalist on a mission to expose the horrible truth of that awful place.

In the end, all the doctors and nuns who brought suffering to their patients endured their own special brands of hell. Dr. Arden (James Cromwell) was ousted as a Nazi war criminal. Monsignor Howard (Joseph Fiennes) took his own life. The formidable nun Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) was the only who eventually went peacefully with Shachath (Frances Conroy), the Angel of Death, at her side.

Bloody Face: The Beginning

At this point, we can only assume Murphy’s obsession with serial killers started with American Horror Story. He was the mastermind behind Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, but he started with the Gimp Suit Man before moving on to Dr. Thredson (Zachary Quinto) in season 2.

Sister Jude used the Bible to dehumanize those in her care. Dr. Thredson turned into Bloody Face and routinely used Briarcliff patients as victims of his sick games. His rape of Lana, for example, leaves her pregnant with a child who later becomes Johnny Morgan (Dylan McDermott), Bloody Face 2.0.

In the end, Lana puts stops his reign of terror in modern-day Massachusetts to an end with a bullet in his head. I don’t think that needs any further explanation.

What the heck was that ending?

Now, bear with me because this is where things get super weird. The stories of American Horror Story: Asylum mostly focus on mental health, Christianity as a force for evil, and power-hungry villains. So, how does that explain the aliens?

Well, they appear sporadically throughout season 2. Kit Walker (Evan Peters) ends up finding out his wife Alma (Britne Oldford) was abducted. He marries again and then accepts her as a sister-wife to his new spouse Grace Bertrand (Lizzie Brocheré).

Related: How Many Seasons of American Horror Story is Evan Peters in?

If you think that’s weird, then you’d be shocked at where the story took them afterward. Alma kills Grace, she’s admitted to Briarcliff where she dies, and Kit takes her home for a burial. Then, get this, Kit ends up abducted by the aliens one last time while dying of pancreatic cancer.

Fans, till this day, still don’t know what to make of the ending of American Horror Story season 2. It’s hard to explain when it seems all over the place. One thing for certain, though, is that it never got boring and there was always something to talk about. No matter how hard it was to explain.