List of American Horror Story: Asylum characters

American Horror Story: Asylum is the second season of the FX horror anthology series American Horror Story. The season's theme is sanity and the relationship between science and religion, and follows the antics that occur at Briarcliff, a Catholic-based asylum for the criminally insane in 1964 northern Massachusetts. Wrongfully imprisoned inmates, including alleged cold-blooded killers Kit Walker and Grace Bertrand, alleged nymphomaniac Shelley, and lesbian journalist Lana Winters, all scheme to escape while trying to make sense of mysterious extraterrestrial life. And a sadistic staff schemes to dethrone head nun, Sister Jude Martin. But things are not how they seem when an innocent nun and psychologist's dark secrets are uncovered.

The main cast includes veteran actors of the series Sarah Paulson, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Zachary Quinto, and Lily Rabe, with Lizzie Brocheré, James Cromwell, and Joseph Fiennes making their debut. Special guest stars include Ian MacShane and Chloë Sevigny. Other returning cast members who made brief appearances include Frances Conroy and Dylan McDermott.

Dr. Oliver Thredson (portrayed by Zachary Quinto) is a psychiatrist at Briarcliff whose approach to treatment creates conflict with that of Sister Jude's. He is first brought in to examine Kit to see if he is mentally fit to stand trial, and convinces him to plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty. Thredson quickly becomes appalled at the dated treatments practiced at the asylum. Sister Jude, having already taken a disliking to him, demands him to leave within two weeks after he accidentally implies that he had planted an old newspaper article on the young girl Jude believes she killed, despite the fact that it had actually been planted by the possessed Mary Eunice. Lana begins to trust Thredson, and asks him to deliver a letter to her girlfriend Wendy. Thredson tells her that when he visited Wendy to deliver the letter, he found her house empty. He decides to help treat Lana's homosexuality through the use of aversion therapy, but abandons the treatment when he concludes that she is sane. Thredson records Kit confessing to the murders, even though he doesn't believe nor remember that he ever committed them. After resigning, Thredson sneaks Lana out of the asylum, leading her to believe that he intends to help her reveal the horrors committed there. After the two arrive at his house, Thredson reveals himself to be "Bloody Face", and informs Lana that he has killed her girlfriend Wendy. Thredson tells her that he was abandoned by his mother as a child and yearns for a "replacement", believing that she is "the one". He keeps her locked up in his basement where he rapes her. After a failed escape lands Lana back at Briarcliff, Thredson reappears to thwart her plans of exposing his true identity. He explains that no one would believe her due to her mental history, and that he has destroyed all the evidence that could link him to the murders. Lana wants to kill him, but Kit says they have to wait until they can prove that he is the killer, so that Kit can be cleared. They put him in an abandoned storage space where Lana visits him in "The Coat Hanger". She informs Thredson of her pregnancy, but threatens to abort it if he doesn't admit to killing the three women. After finishing his confession, Thredson discovers that Kit had taped the whole conversation. Lana later escapes with the tape. Mary Eunice frees Thredson, and she offers him a permanent position at the asylum. Thredson reveals that he intends to murder Lana after she has given birth, only keeping her alive until after she has breastfed the baby. Thredson makes a deal with Kit to help get him out in exchange for the tape. After arriving home, he finds Lana in his house with a gun and she tells him that the police have in fact been given the tape. He seems relieved that his "secret" is out, scoffing Lana by explaining that he'll end up with a life sentence instead of the death penalty as he is certifiably insane. But Lana shoots him in the head, saying prison is too good for him. For his performance, Quinto won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie in 2013.

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