'American Horror Story: 1984': Episode 3 shocks us with nurse Rita's unexpectedly twisted and dark reality
This article contains spoilers for episode 3: 'Slashdance'.
Fifteen minutes into the third episode of 'American Horror Story' season 9: '1984' and Ryan Murphy is already throwing curveballs like never before, leaving fans and viewers flummoxed. Seriously, the whole Nurse Rita twist was too much to bear, and fans are rightfully asking where exactly is the episode going with this? Who is Nurse Rita? And what's up with sticking that syringed needle in Brooke's neck? Luckily, all the answers are here!
In the aftermath of the group being separated in the last episode's cliffhanger, with two different killers attacking them, the Broke-Ray-Chet-Rita group managed to escape their antagonist -- the Night Stalker. But as the boys and the girls got separated, and Brooke wanted to leave to unite with the rest of the campers -- Trevor, Xavier, and Montana -- Rita ends up attacking her by sticking her with what she later reveals is a horse tranquilizer.
Worry not, the explanation arrives right after in the form of a flashback where Rita is revealed to be a serial killer specialist, who travels around the country speaking to serial killers and cracking them to get impossible confessions out of them. In the flashback, she is able to convince Dr. Hopple that speaking to Benjamin Richter, aka Mr. Jingles -- who was already admitted into the asylum -- will get them the confession that they so desperately need.
In her chat with Jingles, Rita is able to inspire him towards redemption by making him believe that recommitting his murders at Camp Redwood (which was then about to reopen) would help them figure out how a serial killer's mind works, or why he commits the crimes that he does. Rita convinces him that finishing what he started would be a breakthrough for science, and she is the one who orchestrates the entire escape plan -- from staging the suicide, asking Jingles to murder the guard, and even providing him with the outfit to escape.
Rita doesn't stop there; she ambushes the actual Nurse Rita on her way to the camp and even helps hiding her as a hostage, thus becoming the nurse herself. And if that twist wasn't enough, Murphy is also probably having a laugh at us expecting Margaret Booth -- Jingles's only survivor from his first round massacre -- to be his aide this time around, when it was actually the innocent-looking nurse!
'American Horror Story: 1984' airs on Wednesdays at 10 PM/9 CT only on FX.