The Keep Up: American Horror Story EP4
THE KEEP UP
American Horror Story: Coven
Episode 4 – Fearful Pranks Ensue
By Steve Wood
This was a very impressive episode; finally we have some puzzle pieces filled in regarding the history of the coven and the voodoo queen. Something big is about to go down, and it will happen very soon.
This show has been dark in the past, but the cold open with this episode was one of the more sinister things this show has been able to pull off. The screen cap above will let you know what I’m talking about, just look in the middle of the trees, that’s a young black boy who was lynched by a group of white men, doesn’t get much darker than that. This boy was the son of one of Marie’s employees, and when news of the lynching reached them, Marie made sure the men responsible paid, and they did.
Here comes some backstory, turns out that the old Supreme, the one that Fiona killed, made a peace offering with Marie, basically they split the town and agreed to not step over each other’s boundaries. When someone delivered the Minotaur’s head (which was still alive) to Marie’s salon, she came to the realization that the truce she once made with the witches was now over, and they need to pay for what they’ve done. We see Marie beginning a similar ritual that we saw earlier in the episode, which was raising the dead from their graves; this will come to play at the end of the episode.
Everything is in shambles back at the academy, Queenie basically died for a minute before Fiona revived her, and she also ended up decapitating the Minotaur. It would have been nice to see how exactly Fiona did that, because he didn’t seem too shabby in the toughness department. At any rate, we at least got to see LaLaurie make amends with Queenie, and hopefully get over her blatant racism and discriminative attitude. The academy is then visited by the council, well, three representatives of the council. You might remember Myrtle Snow from the first season as the older maid, Moira, and the Angel of Death from season 2. These three showed up at the academy to investigate the whereabouts of Madison. Myrtle interrogates each person in the house, but spends extra time with Fiona as we learn they have a serious history with one another. Basically Myrtle always suspected Fiona was the one who killed the previous Supreme, and her line of questioning dives right into that subject. After a while, Cordelia sticks up for her mother and lets everyone know that Madison could not be the new Supreme, because she had a heart murmur, and the Supreme has to be someone is perfect health. This leaves us to wonder who the next Supreme will be, my money is on Zoe.
Zombies, we have fucking Zombies knocking on the door of the academy, one of whom is LaLaurie’s own daughter. We saw in the cold open that Marie can raise the dead, but I don’t think anyone was really expecting this to be her revenge on the witches. As LaLaurie is handing out candy to the kids, another knock on the door reveals some of the best looking zombies I’ve seen in a while, there are a lot of them heading directly for the house, and the next episode should be awesome.
There were some other interesting facts this episode, like what is going on with Cordelia’s husband? He is not only an adulterer, but a cold blooded murderer as well? I was completely taken back by the scene with him and his fling in the hotel room. So is he changed because of the fertility ritual, or is he not who he says? With how nuts this show can be, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is some sort of witch hunter who only got close to Cordelia to figure out the details of the coven. That might be a stretch, but it would be awesome. Kyle also has a brief segment in this episode, mindlessly banging his head against the bathtub, then leaving the house nowhere to be found. I don’t know what the plan is with Kyle, but he is serving no purpose at this point. Madison is still dead, but is being kept by Spalding, who is having tea parties with all of his dolls, this scene needs to be seen to appreciate.
All in all, this was the best of the season, I find myself saying that every week, but that’s how a show should progress. We’re still building up to an all-out war between voodoo and witchcraft, and I give the edge to the voodoo practitioners at this point.
EPISODE RATING – A+
BAT-SHIT CRAZY RATING – A+