American Horror Story: Freak Show – “Blood Bath”

First Aired December 3rd, 2014.

Everyone is combing the woods after realizing Ma Petite (played by Jyoti Amge) has gone missing. All they find is her bloody dress and it’s assumed that she was killed by a wild animal, but not everyone buys that.

Ethel (played by Kathy Bates) immediately suspects that Elsa (played by Jessica Lange) killed Mat Petite after overhearing her conspiring to kill the conjoined twins, Bette and Dot (played by Sarah Paulson), last episode. She confronts Elsa and the two women have a vicious argument. Ethel then shoots Elsa in the leg, discovering her handicap. Elsa admits to getting rid of the twins because she wants to remain in the spotlight but claims she could never hurt one of her freaks. Ethel resolves to kill Elsa and then herself but, before she can pull the trigger, Elsa throws a knife into her eye. Stanley (played by Denis O’Hare) helps make it look like Ethel killed herself in a car wreck because of the pain of her cirrhosis and everyone mourns the death of another performer. With two people gone, Elsa recruits an overweight woman named Barbara (played by Chrissy Metz) and rechristens her “Ima Wiggles.” Jimmy (played by Evan Peters) takes his mother’s death very hard and starts binge drinking, pushing away Maggie (played by Emma Roberts) in the process.

Elsa has now officially crossed the line into the role of a full-on villain now that she’s proven she isn’t above killing anyone to get fame. I wasn’t expecting the death of a main cast member so early into the series and I’m sorry to see Kathy Bates go. Ethel was a complex and entertaining character. I felt the flashback to Elsa getting her prosthetic legs pulled focus from the showdown between these former friends. That flashback could have been a part of their conversation which would have left more time to explore the crumbling friendship between Elsa and Ethel. Introducing new characters this late into a season doesn’t always work because there’s less time to develop them, although Barbara/Ima Wiggles did get some backstory. If she’s going to be around for a while, I hope they make her a real character like they did with several of the other recurring ones. But wow, could they have come up with a more offensive name for her?

Gloria Mott (played by Frances Conroy) visits a therapist to discuss the actions of her son, Dandy (played by Finn Wittrock), like how he killed their pet cat as a child and how one day another child went missing while playing with him. The therapist (rightly) suggests Dandy come in for a session but Dandy thoroughly scares him with his gruesome imagery during the ink blot test. The Motts are later visited by Regina (played by Gabourey Sidibe), who is searching for her “missing” mother, Dora (played by Patti LaBelle). Dandy orders Gloria to kill Regina but she can’t bring herself to do it and instead books passage out of the country on a boat. She calls the therapist, who is afraid for her life, but Gloria dismisses him. Dandy overhears their conversation. He blames his mother for all of his problems and puts a gun to his head feigning a suicide attempt before killing his mother. The episode ends with Dandy soaking in a bathtub full of his mother’s blood.

So it turns out Dandy has been a psycho since he was a little boy. As an adult, we learn just how depraved his mind really is. Between Gloria’s stories and Dandy’s responses during the session, that therapist should have had Dandy in a straitjacket immediately. Regina would be smart to bring the police the next time she visits the house, hell, she should have brought them already. It was blatantly obvious the Motts were selling lies to her. If it were me, I wouldn’t have gone there alone. Another main character death this early in the season, while it happened sooner than I thought it was exactly the way I imagined Gloria going out. Her love for Dandy at first blinded her to the truth and later kept her from taking any action, so it was always a question of when it got her killed. I had some doubts before, but Dandy is turning out to be a pretty good villain for the season. Although he’s not the best at covering up his tracks; there’s plenty of witnesses and evidence that can lead back to him.

Ethel’s death sparked Desiree (played by Angela Bassett) to take a stand on behalf of the women in the freak show, especially their newest addition, Penny (played by Grace Gummer). The ladies want revenge against Penny’s father, Vince (played by Lee Tergensen), for disfiguring his daughter. They break into his home and bring him back to camp planning to cover him in hot tar and feathers before castrating him. Maggie hears Vince screaming and bursts into the trailer and tells the ladies that killing him would only make trouble for them. Penny decides that her father should get to live because she, the “Astounding Lizard Girl” says he can. Penny warns her father that should he ever show his face again, he won’t be as lucky.

It’s not like AHS has ever had a shortage of violence, so I was disappointed that the girls didn’t follow through with their plan to kill Vince. Aside from the fact that watching characters you love to hate meet a bad end not going through with the plan was bad for them all. Sure, Vince may not go to the police, but why take the chance. If they killed him and dumped the body, nobody would come looking. Maggie being the one to talk everyone down seemed out of place since she had almost no contact with all of these characters. It’s funny how Maggie went from scheming to sell them to the highest bidder to becoming the moral center of the group.

Quotes & Thoughts

“Do you think the others will cover for your murder?” “Next bullet’s for me. You broke my heart in two Elsa. I loved you, I gave my life to you, I defended you.”

This episode had all the elements of an AHS Christmas. Christmas Trees. Bloody deaths. Presents. Betrayal.

“Let me tell you something ladies, that girl, she’s every last one of us. But I say no more, not in my house! Any man that would do that, he needs to pay!”

The way things are going, everyone in the freak show will be heading for early retirement…six feet under.

If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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