Perhaps evil is the crucible of goodness... and perhaps even Satan - Satan, in spite of himself - somehow serves to work out the will of God.
Well, the last episode was incredibly touching. I think it was one of the most heart-warming horror stories I've ever seen.
I have a weakness for stories of redemption and forgiveness, and American Horror Story certainly delivered.
Jessica Lange plays Sister Jude, a Nurse Ratched character, cruel to the mental patients entrusted in her care at Briarcliff Manor. She prescribes electric shock therapy to patients, whips them with canes, and commits a mentally healthy reporter against her will. That's all in the beginning of the series. In the end, she's the beloved nana to the children of one of her former patients, Kit Walker. She's rescued by him, lives with him, helps take care of her children, and he's there at her death bed.
How did we get from point A to point B?
Well, first we learn that Sister Jude isn't a simple monster. She's a fractured soul who sought a religious haven after believing she killed a child in a hit and run accident.
Then the devil himself comes to Briarcliff. Possessing a nun, he causes more shit to happen in a place that was already really shitty.
With events orchestrated by Satan, one thing leads to another and sister Jude becomes a patient at Briarcliff. The cruel treatments she gave to the patients is now given to her. Through her horrific experiences she learns what she did in the past was wrong.
She apologizes to the reporter she had committed, and helps her to escape. She becomes friends with some of the patients she used to abuse. She also becomes severely mentally ill herself, not from a biological brain anomaly but as the result of her mistreatment.
With the help of Kit Walker, a former patient, she's cured and becomes a decent human being. Well, and there also might have been aliens in the woods who helped with her treatment as well.
For the most part though, I think it was mostly Satan who saved Judy Martin's soul.
She sought salvation for the hit and run accident, tried to find it with God, some nuns and a Monsignor at Briarcliff, but that all turned out to be hell....with or without Satan. Then Satan comes along and does the actual saving.
Are we to believe that Satan did it on purpose? Deep down is he a good-hearted soul who wants to help people with a little tough love? Probably not. Although I do kind of like that idea.
What I think is that it's probably more unintentional.
I think evil can lead to good.
Not always.
Sometimes when bad things are done to people, it makes them worse human beings. Evil begets evil. But other times people change for the better after experiencing something horrible. American Horror Story also had an example of the former. Dr. Oliver Thredson's abandoned at birth and raised in an orphanage. This becomes his excuse for being a serial killer who skins his victims alive. His son suffers the same fate, and he too uses it as an excuse to murder random women.
Whether we believe in Satan or not, I think most of us can agree that the evil in our society can't be blamed on Satan alone. We do most of it to each other. We hurt each other, and we never can predict the consequences. We'll ridicule someone not knowing whether they'll laugh it off, hide in their room and cry, slash their wrists, go on a shooting spree, or rise up and form an anti-bulling organization that helps others.
Although I'm very touched by Sister Jude's transformation, and fascinated by the idea that Satan kind of gets the credit, I think it would be better if we could more often better society with kindness and compassion rather than wicked tough love.
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