FX's American Horror Story: Asylum is considered by fans to be one of the series’ better seasons, in part because its storyline is more tightly focused than other seasons and because it truly lives up to the horror in the title. It’s also comprised of some of the series' most fascinating and ruthless characters, many of whom combine sharp intelligence with a willingness to do almost anything to ensure that the secrets of the Briarcliff never see the light of day.

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In this fictional world, intelligence is just another weapon that the powerful use against those weaker than they are.

Leigh Emerson

Leigh Emerson dressed as Santa in American Horror Story: Asylum

Ian McShane, in his only appearance in the show, brings his usual sinister energy to the character of Leigh Emerson, a murderer imprisoned in Briarcliff in the middle of the season.

What makes him such a compelling and frightening character is the fact that he clearly has the sort of intelligence that allows him to both commit gruesome acts and manipulate events so that he can get away with them. In fact, by the time series ends he’s managed to escape and commit even more terrible crimes.

Pepper

Pepper smiling at someone in American Horror Story

Pepper is one of the characters that actually appears in more than one season of the show, with her backstory revealed in more detail in Freak Show. She’s the type of character that has many hidden depths, and while people underestimate her, she has an emotional intelligence that many of the other characters lack.

When she’s returned by the aliens with her intellectual capacity increased, she uses it to cause the ruthless and cruel Dr. Arden a lot of agony, which leads him to dark places.

Shelley

A blurred image of Shelley in American Horror Story

Like many of the other inmates at Briarcliff, Shelley was imprisoned there under false pretenses, mostly because her husband wanted to get her out of the way. Time and again, however, she proves that she has the sort of fiery intelligence that allows her to survive when so many others bend and break under the pressure.

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In fact, she also knows just how to get under Dr. Arden’s skin, though unfortunately her intelligence backfires and leads to the sinister doctor subjecting her to torture and experimentation.

Kit Walker

Evan Peters as Kit Walker on American Horror Story Season 2 Asylum

As he always does with this series, Evan Peters portrays a young man struggling to understand the world around him, particularly since he is imprisoned because he is falsely convicted of killing his wife.

However, there’s a deep well of compassion in Kit, and it’s this rare form of emotional intelligence that both allows him to survive his time at Briarcliff and also to offer compassion, empathy, and a home to Sister Jude, even after all she’s done to him.

Oliver Thredson

Dr Oliver Thredson in American Horror Story Asylum

The Briarcliff asylum is full of villainous characters, but few are as bad as Oliver Thredson, who uses his power as a psychiatrist to commit truly horrendous acts of violence, especially upon women. It’s precisely because he’s so intelligent--he did manage to get an advanced degree, after all--that makes him such a sinister and compelling figure.

He knows exactly how to use the levers of power to get what he wants, no matter who he hurts or how badly.

Sister Mary Eunice

Sister Mary Eunice smiling in American Horror Story Asylum

When the series begins, Mary Eunice is one of the few people at the asylum who has any good in her, which makes her possession by a demon all the more tragic. Once she’s been possessed, she becomes one of the season’s most intelligent and ruthless characters.

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She successfully engineers all sorts of madness and terrible events, leaving a trail of destruction, death, and tragedy in her wake. It’s only when she’s murdered by the Monsignor that she is finally able to find freedom.

Dr. Arden

Dr- Arden looking serious in AHS: Asylum

There are many ruthless and terrible people in Asylum, but Dr. Arden is right up there at the top of the list. That being said, there’s no denying that he is also one of the season’s most intelligent characters.

For one thing, his experiments, horrifying as they are, can be seen as the sort of thing a mad genius would do. For another, the fact that he is able to continue to undertake them without any significant consequences, legal or otherwise, suggests that he knows how to wield power.

Monsignor Timothy Howard

American Horror Story Asylum Timothy Howard

The Monsignor is one of the season’s most reprehensible characters, especially because he makes such a show of being very pious. However, he also happens to be one of its most intelligent, because he knows exactly how to manipulate people into having them do what he wants.

A particular victim of his machinations is Sister Jude, and he ends up allowing the world to believe that she has died, when in fact she is imprisoned in her own asylum.

Lana Winters

Sarah Paulson’s Lana Winters is one of this season’s heroes, as well as one of her most likable characters, though she has to endure quite a lot as it goes on, particularly since Sister Jude is determined to break her spirit.

However, she shows throughout her time in the show just how intelligent she is, first by being able to survive with her spirit intact despite the horrible things that she endures and witnesses, but also because after her time in the asylum she goes on to have a very successful career as a journalist. Only a very intelligent person could accomplish that.

Sister Jude

Sister Jude looking angry in American Horror Story Asylum

As she did in the first season, Jessica Lange steals the show as Sister Jude, who rules Briarcliff with an iron fist and is one of the series' best female characters. She is fiercely intelligent because she knows exactly what she has to do to get inside the minds of the patients at the asylum in order to bend them to her will.

What’s more, it would take someone with a powerful intellect to survive as long as she did in her position, though it does turn out that she is a bit too smart for her own good, which leads to her betrayal at the hands of the Monsignor.

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