Lana Winters is one of those rare characters who comes along once in a lifetime, and is destined to become iconic, in one way or another. Lana (Sarah Paulson, in an award-winning turn) earned her fame and notoriety as a character who survived more than any one person ever should, enduring to the modern day when she faced a final showdown with her murderous son, becoming both a true survivor and a modern televisual hero. Lana suffers not one, but two brutal, shocking escape attempts during her trials as a result of Briarcliff, each respectively terrifying in their own respect. The first, seems like false hope granted by Lana's ingenuity - she escapes the lair of Bloody Face, only to get picked up by a raging, random misogynist (a scene-stealing William Mapother) and driven into a tree, where she is soon picked up and sent back to Briarcliff. The second escape, one engineered by the simply saintly Mother Claudia (the underused Barbara Tarbuck), and at the behest of a redeemed if mentally traumatised Sister Jude (Lange), has Lana walk out of the front doors of Briarcliff with Claudia and Thredson's confession on tape, in a sequence worthy of Hitchcock. All while her captor, Dr Thredson, stands by, talking to Kit (Peters) about the tape which will exonerate Kit and damn Thredson as the true murderer. Fortunately, Lana escapes into a taxicab, thanks to a sacrifice by foe-turned-friend Kit to keep Thredson distracted, allowing Lana to show him both the stolen tape, and a grimly exultant one-fingered salute to her once-captor. It's a wonderful, fist-pumping, triumphant moment that gives this story of true, unbridled terror, the pay-off it deserves, and jump-starts the final moment of Lana's flawed and heroic arc - taking down Thredson and Briarcliff once and for all, in a classic final act. There are way too many shocking, terrifying, or gruesome American Horror Story moments to cover in just one article - what are your favourite scary moments? Write them down in the comments below.
