Before I say anything else I would just like to say “I FRIGGING LOVE FRANKA POTENTE!!”. This week’s episode, the first in a two -parter sees her first appearance on the show and it looks like she is going to really stir things up.
Yet again the entire cast put in a fantastic performance but this episode definitely sees Potente, who plays a character claiming to be Anna Frank, really take the reigns of leading lady away from Jessica Lange’s Sister Jude for the first time.
This is an episode which uses the well established horror trend of playing on horrific historical events which still have a strong psychological and almost supernatural hold over the cultural psyche of the audience.
It was only really a matter of time before the American Horror Story anthology touched on the events of World War 2 and the holocaust and it was a bold move, this subject matter is hardly something audiences have never seen before, not just in horror but in almost every other genre imaginable.
However where it could have fallen into the ludicrous the show again manages to skate expertly away from the danger, playing on the cliché or in this case the well known event, making a commentary on it but never letting it fall into the bizarre or the formulaic.
The scene when Anne confronts and accuses Dr Arden (James Cromwell) of being a Nazi soldier who had a major role in the concentration camps, is totally shocking and yet so totally right in terms of story progression. In hindsight is is amazing that I, and at least some of my friends, did not suspect that there may be a Nazi element to the entire story.
Franka Potente’s performance throughout is excellent, making it completely believable that she has convinced Sister Jude of who she is but also leaving a slight nagging doubt in the back of the viewer’s mind.
In the closing scene of the episode it is great to see her give Dr Arden a bit of a taste of his own medicine, with it looking as though his world is slowly beginning to crumble beneath his feet, and I won’t deny I kind of enjoy him getting shot in the leg.
Anne Frank?: Franka Potente makes her AHS debut as a woman claiming to be a holocaust survivor
Elsewhere, the rather odd and kind of creepy relationship between Dr Thredson (Zachary Quinto) and Lana (Sarah Paulson) continues to develop and gives us easily the most unnerving, uncomfortable and heart-rendering scene of the episode.
The Doctor offers to help Lana get out of the asylum but tells her the only way is to undergo “Aversion/Conversion” therapy for her homosexuality.
I must say the scene is seriously distressing to watch as a gay person, and I assume just as unsettling for straight viewers. It really shows the barbarity of the treatment, with Lana being given a chemical to make her throw up when she views erotic pictures of women, and is forced to masturbate while touching a naked man.
The way Zachary Quinto delivers the line: “You are doing a good job Lana, we are all rooting for you,” is totally creepy, twisted and repulsive and yet really throws into light how backwards the whole idea of viewing homosexuality as a mental illness is and for that matter how barbaric a lot of treatment for many other mental illnesses was and is.
Another great episode, I can’t wait to see whether Dr Arden is finally brought to justice, whether Anne Frank is who she says she is, and whether everything is going to be blown wide open.
Owen Jack Williams 