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Grace Bertrand is an observant patient at Briarcliff Manor and an ally of Kit Walker. She is a character in Asylum portrayed by Lizzie Brocheré.

Background[]

Grace spent her childhood in France until moving to America at the age of nine. Grace was constantly raped by her father at night, and reported the abuse to her stepmother, who insisted that she keep quiet about it, bribing her with candy. Knowing that there was only one way to escape his advances and wishing to punish them both, she murdered her stepmother and father with an axe. Having been witnessed by her stepsister, who refused to believe her father had forced himself on his daughter, Grace's stepsister testified that Grace had murdered them without cause, and as a result she was committed to Briarcliff.

Personality and Appearance[]

Grace is an intelligent, frank girl. She considers escape hopeless, but seems to know better than anyone how to survive under such dire circumstances at Briarcliff. Like Kit, she denies any guilt for her alleged crimes and speaks sanely enough to be believed. She is also spiritual, showing sign of believing in karma and higher beings.

With blue eyes and short, brown hair, she possesses a waifish beauty and speaks with a French accent.

Story[]

Kit meets Grace in the asylum's common room and she warns against fiddling with the phonograph.[1] After his fight with Spivey lands Kit in solitary, she volunteers for kitchen duty as an opportunity to get close to him. Through the lone window's bars, they share a cigarette and bond over their alleged sanity. Grace and Kit's talk of escape in the common room is overheard by the newly-confined Lana,[2] who informs Grace of the secret tunnel beneath the asylum and agrees to help her escape, so long as Kit is not told of the plan.

Later, Jed's exorcism triggers a power outage, giving Grace and Lana ample time to escape. When Lana refuses to include Kit, Grace attempts to escape with him instead but their escape is cut short by Lana's scream for the orderlies which leads to their recapture. As punishment, Grace and Kit are to be caned together but Kit takes full responsibility for their actions, accepting Grace's punishment along with his own.

Grace is again approached regarding an escape plan; this time by Shelley.[3] They make their exit, with Kit, on movie night. Lana catches up and Grace, still stinging from her betrayal, is the one deciding who stays or goes. When they get outside, without Shelley who stayed behind to distract the orderly, they are forced to return after meeting the creatures feeding on a fellow inmate. They make it back to their seats in the common room just in time to avoid the wrath of Sister Jude.

Grace shares her story with Kit[4] claiming that she saw a man murdering her father and ran into a closet to hide from him as he chased her, only to find herself in the company of her dismembered step-mother. She further alleges that the man was the lover of her stepsister and that they had framed her for the murders. After Grace and Kit are caught having sex by Frank, Sister Jude suggests sterilization as a fitting punishment. Kit, after reading her file, accuses her of lying about her past. She then informs him that she killed her father after years of molestation and her step-mother for bribing her with candy to keep quiet.

Grace talks to Kit[5] from her adjacent solitary cell while they both fantasize about the other being in their room. Sister Mary Eunice arrives to release Kit, saying that Sister Jude changed her mind about the sterilization. Grace learns to her dismay that she has not received the same reprieve. An extraterrestrial visitation occurs in her room, and in "the light" she encounters a naked and pregnant Alma before she is subjected to surgery. Kit comes across her bleeding vaginally and calls for help, assuming that Jude went through with the sterilization. Kit is taken into custody by the police, while Grace attempts to tell him that Alma is alive. However, she is too weak to yell out to him.

Suffering in the infirmary, Grace has a near-fatal hemorrhage.[6] Shachath offers to end her suffering and Grace accepts but before she can receive the Kiss of Death Grace is successfully resuscitated by the nuns. Arden takes her into his office and injects her with an unknown substance after he is accused by Sr. Mary Eunice of issuing Grace's sterilization. The substance suddenly makes Grace appear to be healthier and she sits in the kitchen of Briarcliff. She pleas with Sister Felicity to let her stay and Kit shows up to help her escape. The nun returns and attempts to call for help but is attacked and killed by a creature that followed Kit from the woods. Kit disembowels it with a piece of kitchen equipment. Frank comes in and attempts to shoot Kit but Grace saves Kit by jumping in front of the bullet. Shachath returns and Grace receives the kiss of death, exclaiming "I'm free" as she dies. Frank prays over Grace's corpse, vowing to make things right.[7]

A pregnant Grace appears in Kit's hallucination, where they share a Christmas dance. Arden wheels Grace's corpse down the death chute and the room fills with a bright light. The aliens come in and abduct Grace's corpse.[8] After Dr. Arden figures out that aliens are following Kit and his sexual partners, Arden "kills" Kit temporarily to see them. Upon doing this, he follows bright lights and finds Grace being tended to by Pepper. Grace is seen naked and is a long way through her pregnancy and places Arden's hand on her stomach.

In spite of Arden's harmful intentions towards Grace following her return, Pepper claims that Grace and her child are under the protection of the extraterrestrials, who also built upon Pepper's intellect in order to make her a fitting guardian for Grace. Later, while looking for Arden's Sodium Pentothal™, a confused Dr. Thredson finds Grace giving birth, with Pepper as the midwife. Utilizing Grace and her healthy baby as a bargaining chip in return for incriminating evidence against him, Thredson shows them to Kit, revealing that Grace is alive and that she has borne Kit a son, whom they later name Thomas.

Grace, Kit, and Alma are shown living happily with their children. However, Grace sees her experience with the aliens as spiritual, believing the children are miracles who the Aliens will return for some day. Alma, however, thinks that the aliens are evil and full of malice, she wants to forget and has become paranoid and psychologically shaken by the experience. A conflict inevitably arises and Alma kills Grace with an ax in a moment of madness. Alma is later committed and dies in Briarcliff.[9]

Related Characters[]

Thomas Walker[]

Thomas is the son of Grace and Kit and is named after his great-grandfather, Thomas, from his mother's side. He has a half-sister named Julia and is the godson of Lana. Lana mentions that he grew up to be a Law professor at Harvard. Thomas develops a bond with Sister Jude (Judy) after he and Julia cure Jude of her 'illness'. Before Judy dies, she tells him to do something that he loves and not accept a job just for the money.


Notes[]

  • Grace has been absent in two episodes overall throughout the season. The first is The Origins of Monstrosity and the second is Madness Ends.
  • Grace's story may be a reference to Lizzie Borden, who famously murdered her father and stepmother with an ax in 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts.
    • Like Grace, Borden had red hair and interestingly, she shares her name with Grace's portrayer, Lizzie Brocheré.

Quotes[]

  • To Kit Walker: "What you put out into the world comes back to you."
  • To Lana Winters (after she mentions a way out of Briarcliff)
    Then you're full of shit.
  • To Lana Winters: ""Screw you Judas bitch!""
  • To Shelley: "Why? So you can screw more guys?"
  • Grace Bertrand: "I'm free."

Gallery[]

References[]

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