B is for Brain
Bishop Marx sends the team to Cornell University where scientists have developed something being called the “God helmet.” Its full name is the Magnetic Tempororparietal Lobe Stimulator (MTLS), and while its primary function is to probe the regions of the brain via magnetic fields, it has also caused seemingly religious visions in the brain. These range from contact with God—giving the subjects a lasting sense of peace—to disturbing visions of Hell. The assessors test the helmet firsthand, leading to surprising and varied results.Meanwhile, Kristen’s husband Andy returns. The girls are overjoyed to have their father back. With Kristen it’s more complicated. Her work with the assessment team and the effects it’s having on her becomes a bone of contention.
Leland confronts Sister Andrea over her intervention in his exorcism and her enmity towards him. She fends him off, but warns David that he must be prepared for the coming confrontation.
Tropes in this episode include:
- The Bus Came Back: Andy makes his first appearance of Season 2.
- Continuity Nod
- The whiskey that Kristen drinks in the tub and the gags she and Andy wear in bed are both souvenirs from Sacred Trinity Monastery.
- Leland has figured out that Sister Andrea’s “holy water” was really ammonia.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Not only does David not experience any visions while wearing the helmet, he loses the visions he was already having. Sister Andrea warns him not to substitute technology for God.
- Dead Person Conversation: While wearing the helmet Ben speaks with his departed mother in the family’s Pakistani hometown. The conversation is interrupted by a spectral prostitute who turns into Abbey.
- Helium Speech: The Bouchard daughters are messing around with helium from the balloons before their dad gets home. He of course joins them.
- The Immodest Orgasm: When Kristen and Andy begin their reunion lovemaking, Kristen’s reactions are very vocal, although it’s ambiguous whether this is predominantly pleasure or pain from her burns. In any case, that’s when she gets out the gags and animal masks.
- Internal Reveal: Subverted. When Kristen is about to activate the helmet, David asks if he can go first. Once it’s going he sees her leave her house with the ice ax and kill Orson LeRoux. Except that all this is part of her vision. When David actually does put on the helmet he sees nothing.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- While creepy and sometimes malign, Sheryl has a point about how Kristen has had to change in Andy’s absence just so the family could get by.
- On the other hand, while Andy himself is increasingly becoming a wet blanket husband, he’s not wrong that something is off about Kristen.
- Mugging the Monster: A jerkass yuppie cuts in front of Kristen and Andy at the supermarket, not knowing that this petite housewife is both willing and able to kick his ass.
- No Name Given: The scientist overseeing the experiments goes unnamed, even though he has the biggest part in the episode outside of the regular and semiregular cast. This is in contrast to the interview subjects, who are at least named in the script.
- Self-Harm: Kristen’s cruciform burn marks turn out to be the result of her heating up crosses on the stove and pressing them to her skin. She seems to be chasing after the high she got after killing LeRoux.
