[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/American_Horror_Story_Asylum_Poster_7456.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Taking OnlySaneMan to terrifyingly literal levels.[[note]]Left column, from front to back: [[MadScientist Dr. Arden]], [[DemonicPossession Sister Mary Eunice]], [[IntrepidReporter Lana]] and [[LipstickLesbian Wendy]], [[FreudianExcuse Dr. Thredson]], [[SerialKiller Bloody Face]] (behind the window). Middle column: [[KnightTemplar Sister]] [[NunTooHoly Jude]], [[ReallyGetsAround Shelley]], [[SinisterMinister Monsignor Howard]]. Right column from front to back: [[DeadStarWalking Leo]], [[AlienAbduction Kit]], and [[OnlySaneMan Grace]].[[/note]] ]]

->''"If you look in the face of evil, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters evil's gonna look right back at you]]."''

At the completion of the first season of ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'', it was announced that the creators planned to have a whole new cast and story for the next season (and seasons after that), effectively telling an all new American Horror Story. Later on, they confirmed that some of the first season's actors would return in new roles.

Season two of ''American Horror Story'', titled ''Asylum'' is set in the [[BedlamHouse Briarcliff Institution]] in 1964, and deals with the administration of the asylum, led by Sister Jude, and its two newest inmates, Lana Winters and Kit Walker. Kit has been accused of being the SerialKiller Bloody Face after his wife's disappearance, but Kit claims that he was abducted by aliens. Lana was going to write an expose on Briarcliff, but Sister Jude got her institutionalized on the grounds that Lana is gay. Meanwhile in the present, the ruins of Briarcliff are still being stalked by Bloody Face.

Among the returning cast members are Creator/JessicaLange, Creator/EvanPeters, Creator/ZacharyQuinto, Creator/SarahPaulson, Creator/FrancesConroy, Creator/LilyRabe, and Creator/DylanMcDermott. The new cast members include Creator/AdamLevine, Creator/JennaDewan, Creator/JamesCromwell, Creator/ChloeSevigny and Creator/JosephFiennes.

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!!''American Horror Story: Asylum'' provides the following tropes:

* AbandonedHospital: Part of the series is set in the present. Unsurprisingly, the hospital was worse with inhabitants.
* AbortedArc: Dr. Arden extracts a living alien computer chip from Kit's neck, and the thing later is said to want to reunite with Kit somehow. Despite that set-up, nothing ever comes of it.
* ActorAllusion: Creator/JessicaLange mentions having dealt with "even bigger monsters", a reference to her role in ''Film/KingKong1976''.
* AlasPoorVillain: Sister Jude and Dr. Arden are both rather pitiful figures by the time their respective stories end.
* AlienAbduction: Kit's backstory. Other characters end up being snatched as well.
* AloneWithThePsycho: Happens so often it might as well be the season's title. Zig-zagged in "Spilt Milk," where the psycho finds himself alone with (and at the mercy of) the victim.
* AloofLeaderAffableSubordinate: Sister Jude, who runs the Briarcliff asylum is very stern and traditionalist in her management style. She treats the patients cruelly, using techniques that are considered harsh even by the standards of TheSixties. Her NumberTwo Sister Mary Eunice is kind and warm, if a little meek. A flashback shows her befriending one of the patients.
* AmbitionIsEvil: Lana, Sister Jude, the Monsignor, and even Dr. Arden all play to some shade of this or another.
* AnArmAndALeg: Leo's arm gets torn off within the first five minutes of the very first episode.
** Dr. Arden assures his latest "patient" of his surgical pedigree after "clipping her wings." Brrr.
* AntiVillain: All of them, with the (possible) exception of [[spoiler:possessed]] Sister Mary Eunice.
* TheAnticipator: In the episode ''Spilt Milk'' [[spoiler:Lana]] plays the Anticipator trope straight; [[spoiler:Lana]] is having an interview in the final episode. Unbeknownst to the TV crew someone is hiding amongst them. [[spoiler:Bloodyface, Lana's son, is among the crew masquerading as a worker]]. After the crew leaves, someone stays behind, and tells the hiding person to emerge. [[spoiler:Lana, who knew Bloodyface was there all along, tells him that he can come out now, as she anticipated his presence.]]
* AnyoneCanDie: Big time. To give you an idea, every character in the poster on this page, bar [[spoiler:two]] are dead by the end. [[spoiler:And one of those two survivors is abducted by aliens, leaving only one still around and confirmed alive.]]
* ArtShift: Some flashbacks are shown through old film reels as if they're home movies, such as Anne Frank's and Sister Mary Eunice's respective flashbacks, giving an eerie vibe.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Grace is seemingly resurrected by the aliens after being shot. Though, she soon ends up dead again, for real this time, courtesy of an axe-wielding Alma.]]
* BadSanta: "Unholy Night"
* BatmanGambit: Dr. Arden invokes this in Episode 9/"The Coat Hanger", where he deduces that since he would never let a subject die mid-experiment, the aliens wouldn't either and will intervene should Kit's life be in danger.
* BathSuicide: How [[spoiler:Timothy Howard]] dies when [[spoiler:Lana goes public with her Briarcliff documentary.]]
* BeautyInversion: Elaborate prosthetics were required to transform Naomi Grossman into Pepper.
* BedlamHouse: Briarcliff Manor. They could have called it ''BedlamHouse: TheSeries''.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Despite being in a horrible setting filled with villains, [[spoiler:Dr. Thredson remains surprisingly nice. It's because he's serial killer Bloody Face.]]
* BigBadEnsemble: Out of the various antagonists, the two greatest threats are SerialKiller Bloody Face and [[spoiler:the Devil possessing Sister Eunice. While both are taken care of before the final episode, Bloody Face's influence remains the primary source of conflict.]]
* BittersweetEnding: Most of the bad guys get punished...but so do most of the good guys.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Sister Jude starts out as the season's power-mad antagonist, but shortly emerges as a surprisingly sympathetic figure. In fact, nearly every villainous character becomes at least briefly more sympathetic when confronted with an even more potent evil.
* BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Kit and Alma have to hide their marriage to avoid retribution from the neighbors.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Really, just what are these aliens even doing? Anybody's guess, really.
* BodyHorror: Dr. Arden apparently got his degree in Body Horror.
* BookEnds: [[spoiler:Kit's story both begins and ends by being abducted.]]
* BoomHeadshot: Four different named characters get it this way by series end.
* BreakTheCutie: This is practically Briarcliff's job. Lana gets it, Kit gets it, Sister Eunice DEFINITELY gets it, and even Sister Jude gets a little of it.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Defied. Johnny tries to pull this on Lana, but Lana is ready for it.
* {{Camp}}: While the first season was a standard haunted house story with several homages, ''Asylum'' revels in the number of {{Horror}} stories it can cram into one setting and play them without irony.
* CastingGag:
** Creator/ZacharyQuinto played Sylar, a scarily calm SerialKiller with parental and abandonment issues, on ''{{Series/Heroes}}''. Here, he plays Thredson, whose origin story, extensive crimes, and clear lack of remorse makes Sylar look positively angelic in comparison.
** Creator/BrookeSmith played Catherine Martin in ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', and was imprisoned by a serial killer. Here, she plays a shrink who helps [[spoiler:Johnny Thredson with his urges to skin women]].
** Creator/JessicaLange received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of a wrongly institutionalized woman in the 1982 film ''{{Film/Frances}}''. Here, she plays Sister Jude, who runs the insane asylum. [[spoiler: By the end, she's a patient there, who's been wrongly institutionalized for years]].
** Several of the recurring actors from season 1 (''[[Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse Murder House]]'') take on new characters for season 2 (''Asylum''), with character arcs that mirror/relate to their previous role.
*** In ''Murder House'', Creator/ZacharyQuinto played a CampGay ghost. In ''Asylum'', he is a psychiatrist on the cutting edge of homosexual conversion therapy.
*** In ''Murder House'', Creator/JessicaLange's [[spoiler: daughter is killed by a hit and run drunk driver.]] In ''Asylum'', she plays a woman who [[spoiler: dons the cloth of over the guilt of her own drunken hit on run of a young girl]].
*** In ''Murder House'', Creator/EvanPeters plays [[spoiler: an outwardly innocent kid who is actually guilty of committing a Columbine-esque massacre.]] In ''Asylum'', he plays [[spoiler: an outwardly guilty kid who is actually innocent of being a serial killer]].
*** In ''Murder House'', Creator/DylanMcDermott played a psychiatrist [[spoiler: treating an AxCrazy mass-murdering patient.]] In ''Asylum'' he plays [[spoiler: an AxCrazy serial killer whose first major on-screen action is to murder his psychiatrist]].
*** In ''Murder House'', Creator/FrancesConroy plays a ghost tormented by her inability to pass on. In ''Asylum'', she plays the Angel of Death Shachath, guiding others peacefully into the afterlife.
*** In ''Murder House'', Creator/SarahPaulson plays a medium who immediately indicates that she's a RichBitch. In ''Asylum'', [[spoiler: her character eventually morphs into one.]]
* CentralTheme: Sanity; guilt; duplicity; ambition; science and religion both corrupted in similar ways by people seeking to control others and with selfish and sadistic motives.
* ChekhovsGun: The shock therapy machine.
** The candy apple Dr. Arden offers Sister Marie Eunice. At first it just seems like a simple gift or at most a bit of Eve-and-the-Serpent symbolism. [[spoiler:Her shy reaction to such a simple indulgence is how Arden confirms she's possessed later: offering her something even someone with much grayer morality would find troubling (the earrings, along with their backstory).]]
* ChekhovsGunman: As noted in [[http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/12/06/american-horror-story-ryan-murphy-unholy-night-exclusive this article]], minor character Pepper disappeared as a subtle hint that the aliens are real.
* ChekhovsSkill: When explaining who she is, Anne Frank says she survived for years in Germany as a pickpocket. She later uses these abilities to lift a gun from a police detective.
** [[spoiler:deconstructed when it turns out she's not really Anne Frank but a delusional house-wife (probably).]]
* TheCloudcuckoolanderWasCorrect: One of the inmates claims to be Anne Frank, and identifies Dr. Arden as an escaped Nazi. She is very much not Anne Frank. But she's right about Arden being a Nazi.
* CorruptChurch: Sister Jude, the Monsignor, and [[spoiler:Sister Eunice once she is possessed]]. Mother Superior Claudia is benevolent but hushed up by the archdiocese to protect their image.
* CrapsackWorld: Murder House was downright ''pleasant'' compared to Briarcliff.
* CreepyChild:
** Jenny, a little girl left at Briarcliff who was present for multiple murders and seems emotionally unaffected. Worse yet is by the end of her appearance, she's clearly becoming a budding serial killer.
** Thomas and Julia, [[spoiler:Kit's children born with alien intervention]], are benevolent, super intelligent children who seem to know way more than they're letting on.
** Notably averted with Johnny. Despite [[spoiler:a history of killing and skinning animals, and growing up to do the same with humans]] he comes off like an ordinary kid who gets bullied a lot.
* CrisisPointHospital: Briarcliff Manor originally started out as a hospital for tuberculosis patients, where it quickly became known as one of these during TB epidemics: overcrowding and death were so common that Dr Arden reports that they'd sometimes end up disposing of more than a hundred corpses a week. Worse still, the virulence of the disease meant that some of the victims actually included members of the nursing staff. A combination of public apathy and a high death toll meant that it was safer to simply cremate the bodies on site rather than burying them, to the point that a specially-designed "Death Chute" was built to transport bodies to the crematorium. Eventually, the development of antibiotics gradually made TB-exclusive wards obsolete, prompting the Catholic Church to have Briarcliff redeveloped as a mental hospital... but thanks to Dr Arden's work, the Death Chute still gets plenty of use.
* CureYourGays: The pretense for committing Lana.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to the first season, ''Asylum'' is much darker in setting, the characters suffer much more, and most of them are liable to end up dead.
* DaydreamSurprise: In Episode 7/"Dark Cousin", Sister Jude runs a razor down her forearm and bleeds to death, only to reveal it was all in her head.
* DeadlyDoctor: Dr. Arden.
** [[spoiler:Dr. Thredson, in Bloody Face mode, is also just as deadly.]]
** [[spoiler:The new Bloody Face A.K.A. Thresdon's son thinks that Thredson being a doctor was what made him such a good Bloody Face, and he wonders aloud if he himself should go to medical school as well.]]
* DeathByDespair: [[spoiler:Alma struggles being incarcerated without Kit and their children, and later dies because her heart stops without warning.]]
* DeathByIrony
** [[spoiler:Dr. Arden, a former doctor from a Nazi concentration camp, kills himself by climbing into a crematorium. ''Alive.'']]
** [[spoiler:Grace, killed in the same manner in which she killed her parents - by axe murder.]]
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The views of homosexuality, miscegenation, and sexual freedom are a far cry from today. For example Kit has to hide his marriage to Alma for fear of violence from the town folk.
** Played with in the case of Dr. Thredson's views on behavior modification and corporal punishment for homosexuality, as he finds it too severe despite it being commonplace at the time.
* DemonicPossession: One of the patients is brought to Briarcliff because his parents think he's possessed. Turns out they're right, and in fact they've just delivered a huge problem to the asylum.
* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:When Lana initially escapes Dr. Thredson's home, she flags down a car and jumps in. As she talks with the driver, it becomes clear that he has a serious grudge against women, and it's revealed that he recently murdered his wife, and kills himself by eating his gun. The car crashes, and when Lana comes to, she's back at Briarcliff.]] Even Lana's reaction to this isn't terror so much as "...[[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe Well, fuck.]]"
* DisposableSexWorker: Averted; it seems like Dr. Arden is going to rough up and possibly kill the call girl he hires, but instead she nails him where it counts, gets away, and sics the police on him.
** Possibly played straight with Pandora, the postpartum prostitute who visits [[spoiler:Johnny, in order to help play out his mommy fantasy.]] The last we see of her, she's getting strangled, although we never really find out what actually ends up happening to her.
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted with [[spoiler: Sister Mary Eunice and the Monsignor.]] It was, however, implied that the audience was supposed to be appalled not simply because there was non-consent, but because a vow of chastity was being broken.
* DontFearTheReaper: The Angel of Death, who always comes reassuringly to ease the pain.
** It's inverted in an interesting way though: the [[spoiler: possessed Sister Mary Eunice]] is ''terrified'' of Shachath since she's a powerful angel who never fell. Though the angel of death never attacks the [[spoiler: possessed Mary Eunice]], she does [[spoiler:ultimately cause her death by telling the Monsignor about her, and takes both the sister and demon.]]
* DoomedByCanon: [[spoiler:We already know that Lana won't successfully terminate the pregnancy even before we find out she's pregnant.]]
** [[spoiler: Naturally, there could have been a twist that the child was a different one, for instance by Lana being forcibly impregnated once more. In the end though, this was not the case.]]
* DoubleAgent: Dr. Arden plays both sides in "Unholy Night."
* DramaticIrony: Lana backs out of her professional abortion, stating that she doesn't want any more killing. The audience knows that this is rather self-defeating.
* DramaticThunder:
** Two occurrences during the "Nor'Easter" episode, neither of which are serious. The first one is when Sister Jude confronts Dr. Arthur about giving Sister Mary red lipstick, and the second is when the group is about to watch ''The Sign of the Cross'' and Jude drunkenly mentions that she heard that Creator/CharlesLaughton might have been a whoopsie.
** PlayedForDrama in Episode 9 when during the coathanger abortion scene.
* DrivenToSuicide: The members of the church were not having a good year.
** [[spoiler:Monsignor Howard slashes his wrists while taking a bath]].
** [[spoiler: Sister Eunice enlists Monsignor Howard to assist in her suicide when she has a brief break from the literal Devil inside of her.]]
** [[spoiler: Sister Jude fantasizes about killing herself. The way Shachath talks to her hints that this has happened before.]]
** [[spoiler: Dr. Arden's reason for living was Sister Eunice herself. After she killed herself, he found that he had nothing to live for any longer. He climbed atop her body as it slid into the fire of the crematorium.]]
** There's some irony in that suicide is considered one of the worst sins anyone can commit, [[spoiler: yet everyone in the church either kills themselves or considers it (with the exception of Mother Superior.) Sister Eunice and Monsignor Howard also die "outside a state of grace" and cannot be buried the way Catholics are supposed to be buried.]]
* DroppedABridgeOnHer: Almost the entire cast?
* EnfantTerrible: The [[RavenHairIvorySkin little girl]] left at Briarcliff by her mother.
** [[spoiler:Lana and Thredson's son, who admits to spending his pre-teen years skinning animals both dead ''and'' alive.]]
* EnemyMine: In Episode 8, Dr. Arden agrees to help Sister Jude. He also saves both Kit and Grace, albeit for his own purposes. Sister Jude and Lana eventually rescue one another as well.
* EndOfAnAge: The season chronicles the end of the Catholic Church's control of Briarcliff Sanitarium. By the end, most of the characters' stories have come to a permanent end, and the world is a very different place than when the season began. The final scene, a flashback to the first episode, is a poignant reminder that things have changed irrevocably, for better or worse.
* EpicFail: The Monsignor uses almost this exact term after his failed exorcism attempt, which given the period setting [[BlackComedy pretty funny]].
* EvilDesiresInnocence: Psychopathic MadScientist Dr Arthur Arden is drawn to the naive and sweet-natured Sister Mary Eunice, not only trusting her with his secrets but playfully offering her a candy apple, taking great delight in watching her struggling with the temptation to have a bite. By contrast, when Mary is possessed by the Devil and tries to seduce Arden, he's repulsed, bringing his MadonnaWhoreComplex to light. As the possessed Mary becomes more openly villainous, Arden only grows more despairing and more fearful of her - to the point that he's reduced to Mary's slave in all but name.
-->'''Arden:''' I admired her purity. Her innocence. I never had any, even as a boy. Now it's gone. It's been taken from her.
* EvilVersusEvil: The story has many antagonists, each with their own agenda. The primary one for the first half of the season is the fight between Sister Jude and Dr. Arden over control of Briarcliff.
* {{Expy}}: Bloody Face is a combination of Ed Gein (one of history's most infamous grave robbers who exhumed and skinned many corpses and had severe mommy issues) and [[spoiler: [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]], because his civilian identity is the court-mandated psychiatrist.]]
** Dr. Arden is an expy of the real life Nazi Josef Mengele [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele]] who had an obsession with twins and actually did the things Dr Arden is stated to have done like bringing sweets to the children's barracks as an excuse to identify people he wished to perform these cruel experiments on as well as much worse and like Dr Arden escaped capture and prosecution by changing his identity.
* EyeScream: A flashback to Kit being abducted [[GoryDiscretionShot cuts away]] just before a needle enters his eyeball.
** We also get that delightful icepick lobotomy scene.
* FaceDeathWithDignity:
** [[spoiler:Grace.]]
** [[spoiler:the possessed Sister Mary Eunice.]]
** [[spoiler:Sister Jude]].
** [[spoiler:Kit, faced with a terminal cancer, refuses to be a burden to his children. Of course, in the end he doesn't "die" as much as he is finally taken back with the aliens...]]
* FacialHorror: His name is Bloody Face for a reason.
* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: The Monsignor.
* FanDisservice: Zachary Quinto's beautiful rear end turns out to be a rather unwelcome sight. [[spoiler:Because it happens as Thredson is raping Lana, in a very dark and uncomfortable scene.]]
* FetishesAreWeird: Both generations of [[SerialKiller Bloody Face]] have a breastfeeding fetish. One of them attempts it with one of his victims, the other hires a prostitute for that purpose. It's used to show both of them as {{Psychopathic Manchild}}ren with mommy issues.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Lots of foreshadowing is present in the cast poster: the noose around Arden's neck with the end held by Sister Eunice, Leo's positioning on the bed ([[spoiler:showing only one arm]]), Monsignor Howard possibly giving last rites to Shelley, the blue coat, and ([[spoiler:Bloody Face being in Dr. Thredson's shadow]]).
** During Sarah Paulson's name in the credits, electricity can be seen passing behind her name briefly. [[spoiler:Her character receives shock treatment to scramble her memories very early in the series]].
* FirstEpisodeTwist: Lana is committed in Briarcliff against her will. And Second Episode Spoiler: Sister Mary Eunice gets possessed by the devil.
* FlayingAlive: Bloody Face's MO.
* FlippingTheBird: Lana does this to Bloody Face [[spoiler: when she's leaving the asylum with his confession tape.]].
* GambitPileup: There are several villains in the show, with all their plans colliding. Sister Jude is a Nurse Ratchet Expy who wanted to use brutality and Old Tyme Religion to cure people, even if they don't need curing. Dr. Arden is an mad doctor who wants to create perfect humans, even if his only results have been cannibal monsters. Bloody Face is a serial killer who wants...well, you can figure this one out on your own pretty easily. The aliens want to keep kidnapping and studying Kit and his lovers/children. The Devil is just in it ForTheEvulz, not to mention the SerialKiller who dresses up like Santa Claus, the mechanic framed for a crime he didn't commit, the intrepid journalist, the Angel of Death, the Nazi Hunter, the axe murderess and the mysterious woman who claims to be Anne Frank. Season Two is a very good example of this trope.
* GayGuyDiesFirst: Wendy barely makes it past the credits. [[spoiler:However, Lana makes it out of Briarcliff and Bloody Face's home alive and, if you count Jude's death from natural causes and Kit's disappearance, is the sole surviving main character at the very end.]]
* GenreRefugee: Period MedicalHorror? Makes perfect sense. A deranged SerialKiller? Yeah, that follows with the first season. Explicitly supernatural demons? Well, there's only a short jump from "ghosts" to "demons". [[spoiler:''[[HistoricalDomainCharacter Anne Frank]]'']]? Well, okay, as an AlternateHistory setting, that's a plausible if somewhat unexpected possibility. [[spoiler:'''''[[TheGreys Grey aliens]]''''']]? What the fuck, Murphy?
* GenreShift: From the spiritually neutral ghosts of the first season to the notably different [[spoiler:sci-fi aliens]] and explicitly religious demons of the second season.
* GenerationXerox: [[spoiler:Present day Bloody Face grew up in almost identical circumstances to his father and, after discovering his lineage, wants to emulate his father's skills.]]
** [[spoiler: They even die the same way: a BoomHeadshot by Lana.]]
* GoAmongMadPeople: Several of the inmates were sane, only becoming unhinged due to their association with Briarcliff.
* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Interestingly zig-zagged. Lana subverts this when she fails to abort her unwanted child in "The Coat Hanger", but when given the chance of a more sterile and safe backroom abortion after she escapes, she plays it straight by backing out at the last minute.
* GothicHorror: Deeply flawed characters in an insane asylum run by people abusing both religion and science to their most inhumane extremes with occasional visits by enigmatic beings beyond human comprehension pretty much fits the bill.
* HeelRealization: Sister Jude, eventually.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Sister Eunice does this by allowing herself to be thrown down three stories to save Briarcliff from the demon who possessed her.]]
* HidingBehindReligion: Sister Jude fesses up to this in "Dark Cousin."
** Monsignor [[spoiler: later Cardinal]] Howard is willing to cover up a LOT of abuses in order to get to Rome and become the first Anglo-American pope. Jude even calls him out on his blatant ambition, saying he's managed to convince himself of his own excuses.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: [[spoiler:''Anne Frank.'']] Yes, ''that'' one.
* HonoraryUncle - Kit's kids call Sister Jude "Nana" (an affectionate term for grandmother)
* HumanResources: Used in a light-hearted-albeit-creepy fashion in the Christmas episode; due to a shortage of decorations, Sister Mary Eunice decorates the tree with ''clippings of patient hair and dentures.''
** The lampshades, of course.
* ILoveTheDead: Bloody Face does seem to have a thing for his cadavers.
* InsaneEqualsViolent: Though to be fair, Briarcliff is specifically meant for the ''criminally'' insane.
** Invoked by Pepper's brother-in-law. [[spoiler: She's in Briarcliff for murdering and mutilating her sister's child. Her brother-in-law actually killed the baby and accused Pepper, who's not shown to hurt anyone.]]
* InterrogationMontage: Inverted in "The Coat Hanger." A small number of officials, plus the Monsignor and Dr. Arden, question Leigh about why Sister Jude would try to kill him.
* IronicEcho: [[spoiler:After current day Bloody Face is revealed to be Thredson and Lana's son, he mentions that he was placed in an adoption/foster system that didn't work, and blames it for his condition. Several scenes later, and Thredson warns Lana she needs to keep the baby as ''the adoption/foster system doesn't work, and it's the reason he is Bloody Face''.]]
* JackTheRipoff: There are not one but several modern day Bloody Face copycats.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Thredson's point about the foster care system turns out to have some weight to it.
* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:Grace]].
* KnightTemplar: Sister Jude is utterly convinced of her righteousness. She is also the coldest thing to run a mental asylum since [[Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest Nurse Ratched]].
* LikeParentLikeSpouse: [[spoiler: When Dr. Thredson kidnaps Lana, he explains he captures women because he wants bodily contact with someone like his mother, who abandoned him. A few episodes later, and Thredson is shown raping Lana.]]
** [[spoiler:Also invoked with modern Bloody Face, who hires a lactating prostitute to pretend to be his mother.]]
* MadScientist: Arden, of course.
* MadonnaWhoreComplex: ''Dr. Arden.'' At one point, in a truly bizarre scene even by the standards of this serial, he puts makeup on a statue of the Virgin Mary, calls her a whore, then pushes the whole thing over.
* MaleGaze: The camera spends a rather long moment focusing on Grace's naked behind during "Tricks and Treats".
** In this case it's really more of a female gaze, since Lana is the only character in the hydrotherapy room with Grace. She is a lesbian, after all.
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Kit and Alma.
* MarryThemAll: [[spoiler: Kit and Grace return home with their child after escaping the asylum to find Kit's presumed-dead wife -- along with her child, Kit's daughter. Good thing he's already accustomed to having an unconventional marriage.]]
* MeaningfulName: "Dr. Arden" comes from the Latin verb "ardeo, ardere," meaning "to burn." This foreshadows his [[spoiler: death by cremation oven.]]
* MoodWhiplash: "The Name Game," where yet another dull and dreary moment in the common room segues into a bizarre ''Series/EliStone''-esque [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment song and dance fantasy number]]
* MoralityPet: Sister Eunice for Dr. Arden. Interestingly, he's entirely aware of this, and in fact it's the entire basis of her appeal for him.
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Dr. Thredson appears helpful but given the period even his holistic approach is...creepy. Dr. Arden, of course, is straight out of his pointy little mind.
* MurderByCremation: [[spoiler: Dr. Arden climbs on top of Sister Mary Eunice's dead body and rides into the cremation oven with her, killing himself.]]
* MurderTheHypotenuse: Averted -- [[spoiler: Alma kills Grace,]] but out of paranoia and repressed trauma rather than jealousy.
* NameDrop: In Lana's present-day interview, the interviewer casually mentions a number of her controversial exposes and interviews over the years, including a prison interview with Bernie Madoff.
** They also mention Creator/HeathLedger.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Bloody Face.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nice going, Lana.
* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: Used by [[spoiler: possessed Mary Eunice]] while forcing herself on [[spoiler: Monsignor Howard]]. An interesting variant, since she's using it to hurt him, while she herself doesn't care.
* NoYou:
** In "I am Anne Frank part 1" when sister Jude doesn't believe "Anne Frank"'s story.
--> '''Sister Jude:''' Your story is indecent.\\
'''Anne Frank:''' No, you are indecent! You have a Nazi war criminal working here!
** In "Unholy Night", when Sister Jude confront a possessed Mary Eunice.
--> '''Sister Mary Eunice:''' You made a big mistake coming back here.\\
'''Sister Jude''' No, you made a mistake. And I'm about to send you back to the hell that made you.
* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler: Johnny finally confronts Lana and in the end, she kills him.]]
* OhCrap: Lana noticing the lampshade at Dr. Thredson's, [[spoiler: which is made out of human skin.]]
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Evan Peters' Boston accent that he affects for Kit is strong at times and then will totally disappear at others.
** Other viewers have noted that Jessica Lange's Boston accent sounds just as wobbly.
*** Though with Lange it seems more deliberate, as her accent picks up the strongest when the character is drunk or suffering some kind of overwhelming emotional turmoil, implying that she represses it in her day-to-day life to sound more professional.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Well, they're a little creepy, anyway. But they seem to be on the level. Except, well, [[{{Satan}} that one.]]
* {{Polyamory}}: Kit [[spoiler: fathers a child with Grace]], only to discover [[spoiler: Alma and her baby are back from the dead.]] It's not ideal, but he tries to make the best of it.
* PreserveYourGays: [[spoiler: Lana. She]] makes it to the end of the series and is public about [[spoiler:her]] sexual orientation in the current day sections.
* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Creator/ZacharyQuinto, Creator/SarahPaulson and Creator/LilyRabe. Inverted by Dylan [=McDermott=].
%%* RapeAsDrama: Twice.
* RedHerring: [[spoiler: The Raspers' nature implies a possible origin of Bloody Face. But they've nothing to do with him, and really exist only to underscore Arden's evil.]]
* ReligiousHorror: Much of the horror comes from religious [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocrisy]] (Sister Jude, Dr. Arden, Monsignor Howard), evil forces existing [[OutsideGenreFoe outside out the Catholic cosmology]] (the aliens), and [[{{Satan}} the devil]] himself.
* RightThroughHisPants: Granted, they're in an abandoned asylum, but Leo only removes his jacket for sex despite Teresa stripping [[MostWritersAreMale right down to her underclothes]].
* SanitySlippageSong: [[spoiler: Sister Jude]] has endured guilt, addiction, betrayal, defiance, and realizing [[spoiler: her]] hero's true nature. After a particularly severe therapy session, they appear borderline catatonic until staggering over to the common room's jukebox, selecting [[TitleDrop "The Name Game"]], and hallucinating a cheery song and dance number featuring the inmates.
* ScareChord: Though the show itself makes effective use of it, a few exist in the title sequence.
* SceneryPorn: The last two episodes [[spoiler:after Lana and Kit get out of Briarcliff]] start to look more like a sweeping biopic rather than a horror finale.
* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Dr Thredson and the devil are introduced in the second episode.
* ShaggyDogStory: In truth, a lot of these plots just kind of peter out by the end. Dr. Arden's monsters, for example, really never did much of anything.
* ShoutOut: There appears to be some kind of naming theme going on, as one of the patients at the asylum is named [[ComicStrip/ThePhantom Kit Walker]].
** Lana's expose of Briarcliff is very similar to Geraldo Rivera's news segment on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_sYn8DnlH4 the notorious Willowbrook State School.]]
** Two musical pieces used in the background of the first episode "Welcome To Briarcliff" are both tracks composed by Pino Donaggio for the film Carrie.
** Bloody Face is a walking tribute to classic SlasherMovie villains. In addition to taking some inspiration from HistoricalDomainCharacter Ed Gein, his mask made from human skin recalls Leatherface of ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'', his [[spoiler: profession as a psychiatrist]] recalls Franchise/HannibalLecter, and his [[FreudianExcuse parental issues]]--both in [[spoiler: Oliver Thredson's [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas desire to find a mother figure]]]], and [[spoiler: Johnny Thredson's desire to follow in his father's footsteps]]--recall Jason Voorhees of ''Franchise/FridayThe13th''. Even [[spoiler: Johnny Thredson]]'s origins as [[spoiler: the ChildByRape of a doctor and an incarcerated patient in a mental institution]] are more than a little bit similar to Freddy Kreuger of ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet''.
** Death Proof: Sister Jude calling Lana Lana Banana
** Leigh Emmerson's backstory has shades of Billy from ''Silent Night Deadly Night'' (holiday trauma, killer Santa) and ''Les Miserables'' (stealing bread)
** Emmerson misquotes R.E.M's Shiny Happy People though retaining the basic idea of the song.
* TheSixties: Where most of the series takes place.
* SoundtrackDissonance: "Dominique" by Sœur Sourire, the French song that plays relentlessly in the asylum.
** The pleasant-sounding orchestral piece that plays during the lobotomy scene.
** BilingualBonus: "Dominique" is a song from the 60's written by a group of French nuns, also used in a Gen2 episode of {{Series/Skins}} with [[CloudCuckoolander Pandora]]. Besides the very light-hearted tone, the lyrics are about a joyful, pious, innocent man (Saint Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order) who goes around everywhere spreading the word of God. This obviously contrasts sharply with the characters of Sister Jude and Sister Mary-Eunice, and accentuates the already jarring SoundtrackDissonance. Then there's the fact that the song has become something of a {{Camp}} hit in contemporary France because of the phrase "Dominique-nique-nique..." being repeated at each chorus; "niquer" being one way to say "to fuck", the song sounds like "Dominique fucks, fucks..." and thus tells a very different story.
** We hear about half of the movements from Gabriel Faure's "Requiem" throughout, usually associated with Dr. Arden or the Monsignor. The ones used are: the Introit, Sanctus (during [[spoiler: Leigh's baptism]]), Libera Me Domine, and In Paradisum (when [[spoiler: Arden mutilates Shelley]].
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Grace]].
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: Lana is rather good at this.
* ThoseWackyNazis: A woman claiming to be a still-living Anne Frank shows up and accuses Dr. Arden of being a death camp doctor. [[spoiler:She isn't really Anne Frank. But she's right about Arden.]]
* TraumaCongaLine: [[CrapsackWorld A lot]] of characters have shades of this, but from the moment we see him Kit probably gets it the worst.
* TrespassingToTalk: [[spoiler:Lana]] breaks into Thredson's home and casually lounges on an armchair with a gun awaiting his entrance. It becomes a LightswitchSurprise once he crosses the threshold.
* UnreliableExpositor: In "Continuum", the Monsignor promises to [[spoiler: return for Jude, and she finds herself top of the patient hierarchy and best friends with Pepper. Cue the return of the Dark Angel/Shachath as an inmate, and Jude soon discovers several years have passed, the Monsignor is now a Cardinal and left over two years ago, the escapees have forgotten her, Pepper is dead, and everyone is calling her Betty Drake.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Sister Jude.
* WhamEpisode:
** "I Am Anne Frank, Part Two": Sister Jude cracks up, the truth of Anne Frank's identity is revealed, Grace meets the aliens, Bloody Face's true identity is revealed, Kit is arrested, a lobotomy is performed, and we finally get some clue who Dr. Arden really is.
** "The Coat Hanger". [[spoiler: In the present day, the new Bloody Face is revealed to be the son of Thredson. In 1964, Lana discovers she is pregnant with Thredson's son, Jude is admitted to Briarcliff and forms an alliance with Lana, and Arden, after realising the aliens are real, teams up with Kit to make them return. This works, resulting in the reappearance of the previously-disappeared Pepper, and the previously-dead Grace, who is now pregnant. Also, Leigh crucifies the Monsignor, and the episode ends with him begging for help from The Angel of Death.]]
* YankTheDogsChain: Between the fake-out escape, car crash, and re-incarceration, "Dark Cousin" is just an excuse to mess with [[spoiler: Lana]] even more.
* YouMonster:
** Sister Jude says this to Kit when he is brought into Briarcliff.
-->'''Sister Jude:''' Your story about little green men? No, never will do here.\\
'''Kit:''' They weren't human. They were monsters.\\
'''Sister Jude:''' All monsters are human. You're a monster.
** Timothy Howard calls Dr Arden a monster after he discovers what he had done to [[spoiler:Shelley]].
** Bloody Face has the audacity to call Lana a monster after she claims that [[spoiler: she aborted their child]]. This comes from a guy who's a serial killer, a rapist and a necrophiliac.
* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Arden expects Sister Eunice to be disgusted when [[spoiler: he gives her ruby earrings swallowed by a Jewish woman in a concentration camp.]] If anything, [[spoiler: the devil/demon]] is just fed up with his sanctimonious attitude.
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''Dominique, 'nique, 'nique, s'en allait tout simplement, routier pauvre et chantant...''
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