For over a decade, American Horror Story has explored different horror scenarios, and the season that is still widely regarded as the series’ best is Asylum, and a big part of this season’s horror is the reasons why each main character was sent to Briarcliff Manor – and here they are. The success of the horror genre in recent years hasn’t been limited to the big screen, as there have also been TV shows that have won critics and viewers over, and one of the most popular and successful ones is American Horror Story, created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.
As it’s an anthology series, each season of American Horror Story is treated as a self-contained miniseries, but as the show has progressed, there have been references and appearances of other characters and events in different seasons, making way for an AHS connected universe. Each season covers a different horror theme and setting, and in some cases, they have also included some horror creatures and characters, such as vampires (Hotel and Double Feature) and witches (Coven), but out of all seasons and themes so far, the one that continues to be regarded as the best American Horror Story season is Asylum, which took the audience into Briarcliff Manor to explore the many horrors that happened inside this terrifying place.
Set in the 1960s, American Horror Story: Asylum told the stories of some of the staff at Briarcliff – such as Sister Jude Martin (Jessica Lange), Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe), and Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell) – and its most notable inmates, particularly Kit Walker (Evan Peters), Grace Bertrand (Lizzie Brocheré), and Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), while also dealing with subplots regarding aliens and another one about a serial killer known as Bloodyface. Of course, most of the horror from AHS: Asylum comes from the stories of the inmates, who were committed to Briarcliff for different reasons, and in most cases, they should have never been there. Here’s why every main character in American Horror Story: Asylum was sent to Briarcliff.
Kit Walker
Kit Walker worked at a gas station and was married to Alma (Britne Oldford), though they had to keep their marriage secret as it was an interracial one. One night, as Alma prepared dinner, Kit heard a strange noise outside their house and was confronted with a blinding flash of light and an even louder noise, but when he returned to the house, the objects in the room began to levitate and he was pinned against the ceiling by an unseen force. After this, Kit had “visions” of grey humanoids around him, and as Alma went missing after this incident, Kit was accused of her murder as well as those of other women, as he was suddenly believed to be the serial killer known as Bloodyface. As a result, Kit was committed to Briarcliff and maintained his innocence even though the media was convinced he was Bloodyface, and once at Briarcliff, he was subjected to Arden’s experiments and later tricked by the real Bloodyface, Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto), into confessing to being the real killer. Kit was eventually freed when Lana proved Thredson was the real killer and killed him, and while he went through more struggles in his personal life after that, he was re-abducted by the aliens many, many years later and never came back.
Lana Winters
Lana Winters was a journalist who was in a committed relationship with Wendy Peyser (Clea DuVall), but they kept their relationship secret. When Kit was committed to Briarcliff, Lana seized the opportunity and went to Briarcliff under the pretense of doing a story on the bakery, but all she wanted was information on the supposed Bloodyface. Lana sneaked into Briarcliff at night in order to get to Kit, but she was caught and committed to Briarcliff by Sister Jude, who tricked Wendy into signing the papers to send Lana to the asylum. Once there, Lana was subjected to aversion therapy and electroshocks, and she was tricked by Thredson into thinking he would help her escape, but he actually kept her captive at his house, where he revealed he was the real Bloodyface killer and raped her. Lana escaped but ended up back at Briarcliff, but with the help of Kit and Mother Superior Claudia, she was released, killed Thredson and proved Kit’s innocence, and went on to write her exposé on Briarcliff.
Grace Bertrand
By the time Kit arrives in Briarcliff, Grace Bertrand had already been there for years. Grace grew up in France and moved to America with her family when she was nine years old. Grace was constantly raped by her father at night, but when she told her stepmother about it, she told her to not say anything to anyone and bribed her with candy. Grace then murdered her father and stepmother with an axe, and as her stepsister, who witnessed the murders, refused to believe her father did so much harm to Grace, she testified that she killed them without a cause, and so Grace was sent to Briarcliff. Grace fell in love with Kit and was abducted by the aliens before she was sterilized (as punishment for her relationship with Kit) and after being shot and supposedly killed. Grace was freed when Kit convinced Monsignor to let her and their baby go too, but when he returned home, they found his first wife, Alma, with her own baby. Grace, Kit, and Alma started a polyamorous relationship, which ended in tragedy when Alma killed Grace with an axe in a moment of madness, and as a result, Alma was sent to Briarcliff.
Sister Jude Martin
Sister Jude Martin went from antagonist to ally in American Horror Story: Asylum, and she was committed to Briarcliff after being the asylum’s stern head nun in charge of administration and discipline. Jude was the one responsible for Lana being sent to Briarcliff and for the many tortures the inmates went through, but after a series of events, such as learning that the girl she thought she killed in a drunk driving accident was alive, she decided to put an end to all the horrors at Briarcliff. Unfortunately, she was framed for the murders of Frank McCann (committed by Sister Mary Eunice, Arden, and inmate Leigh Emmerson), and she became an inmate of Briarcliff Manor. Jude apologized to Lana and became close to Pepper (Naomi Grossman), but she was constantly tortured and the administrators of Briarcliff faked her death in order to keep her locked up for the rest of her life – luckily, Kit started visiting her after the deaths of Alma and Grace and became her caretaker, and she lived with Kit and his children (who affectionately called her “Nana”) until she passed away of an undisclosed illness.