American Horror Story: Freak Show – “Bullseye”

Our contest ends very late tonight. Hurry! Bleh!

–Count Spatula

First aired November 12, 2014.

With twins Bette and Dot (played by Sarah Paulson) out of the picture, Elsa (played by Jessica Lange) is on top of the world. She is preparing a lavish birthday celebration for herself and is ready to start her career in television to finally become a star.

Elsa’s new gimmick is strapping people to a wheel while she throws knives at them, and she’s already planning to bring members of the freak show on as television guests. It turns out she has a secret relationship with Paul (played by Mat Fraser), aka the Illustrated Seal, but he’s discontent with how casual it is. Paul begins to fall for Penny (played by Grace Gummer) the candy striper from the premiere, revealed to have a controlling/abusive father. After running into Dandy Mott (played by Finn Wittrock) at a store buying feminine products, Paul (correctly) suspects Elsa sold the twins to him. When Paul confronts Elsa, she vehemently denies it and is irate when he says other people also think she did something to them. She brings everyone to the main tent in the middle of the night to berate them for talking behind her back and demands someone be strapped to the wheel to prove they trust her. Paul volunteers and Elsa “accidentally” throws a knife into his gut forcing him to be bedridden. Penny escapes her father’s clutches and stays by Paul’s side as he slowly bleeds out. No ambulance is coming for him because Elsa pretended to call one to watch him suffer.

If Elsa fails at her singing career, she definitely has a shot at being an actress after that performance. When the truth inevitably comes out that she did in fact get rid of the twins, there will be serious hell to pay after such a fierce denial. I think the reason Elsa threw that knife into Paul is that he was able to see her for who she really is. While I’m sure Elsa does care about everyone in the show, she cares more about fame and realizes that the older she gets the less chance there is to get it. Right now, Elsa would sell them all down the river for a shot at the spotlight and Paul could see that, which made him a threat to her. And what better way to eliminate a threat than to take him out in front of everyone and make it look like an accident. You could even look at Elsa rescuing her performers as selfish at least in part because she wanted people who would bring in crowds to see her perform and make herself well known.

I could see why Penny would run away from home given her situation there, but I can’t believe she’d go back to the freak show after what she went through there. Basically, she went from one home where she was mistreated and abused to another where she was also mistreated and abused.

Meanwhile, Stanley (played by Denis O’Hare) is plotting with Maggie (played by Emma Roberts) to start killing and shipping people of the freak show for profit as museum exhibits. With the twins currently MIA from the campground, Stanley’s first target is Jimmy (played by Evan Peters). However, Maggie has started to grow fond of him and instead suggests they target Ma Petite (played by Jyoti Amge), billed in the show as the world’s shortest woman. They are shown luring her to an abandoned barn and drowning her in a glass container with formaldehyde, but it turns out to be another fantasy sequence. When the times comes, Maggie is unable to kill Ma Petite and brings her back to camp alive. She tells Jimmy the two of them should run away together and he agrees but says he needs to take care of some business first. Their trip came at the right time. Stanley is furious that Maggie didn’t deliver Ma Petite and has gone back to his original plan of killing Jimmy.

Stanley might get more results if he spent less time fantasizing about his plans and more time putting them into action. But once I saw that it was Ma Petite that Maggie targeted I figured there was no way she would go through with it. For one thing, Maggie has been outright against killing anyone, and Ma Petite looks so much like a young child that it would have been especially hard to kill her. So far, these two have been all talk and no action, I want to see them execute some kind of plan already. Whatever they end up doing, it’ll have to be fast. Stanley can’t keep up his act of being a Hollywood agent for much longer without giving anyone offers. In fact, I don’t understand why he doesn’t just pick somebody from the show, say he is going to give them a reward of some kind and, once they’re away from the camp grounds, kill them. He has this great alias and yet isn’t using it to its fullest potential. That is baffling to me.

Over at the Mott mansion, Dandy is enjoying the company of Bette and Dot and even claims to be in love with them. His mother, Gloria (played by Frances Conroy), is all for Dandy having them for company but refuses to accept the idea that he could publicly date them. Bette is delighted with the lavish lifestyle the Motts can offer while Dot is more hesitant to let her guard down. However, after reading an article that doctors successfully separated two conjoined babies, Dot realizes that by kissing up to Dandy she could use his money to fund her own operation to be separated from Bette. Of course, his usual whiny attitude becomes an issue when the twins won’t do what he wants at his command.

After reading Dot’s diary and realizing how much she hates him, Dandy comes to the conclusion that he wasn’t put on the Earth to love but to kill. The doorbell rings and it turns out to be Jimmy, who’s come looking for the twins. Dandy lets him in while hiding a knife behind his back.

How the hell did we end up in this love triangle between Dandy, Bette and Dot? That was so random, especially since the episode opens with Dandy in love with them after, what, a few days? Just last episode he claimed to be incapable of love, so I would have liked to see how these girls won him over. I was glad that by the end he came to his senses (in a manner of speaking) and reverted to his serial killer persona. Without that aspect, Dandy is just a whiny, spoiled brat without much else going on for his character. I’d be waiting (again) for him to suffer a horrible fate.

While I can appreciate Dot wanting a separate life from her sister, I don’t see it as a possibility, considering the way they’re joined.. At best, if Dot or Bette managed to survive the procedure, they would be left with one arm, one leg and very few organs, depending on how many they share. Dot’s just going to have to accept that, in order to stay alive, she and Bette have to learn to live together. As for the cliffhanger with Jimmy, Dandy will likely  either just let him take the twins or hold them all hostage in his basement.

Quotes & Thoughts

“I liked Dora better.” “Well, hindsight is 20/20, dear.”

The going rate for laughing at Dandy’s horrible jokes is $10 per joke. I would need at least double to spend any time with that guy.

“It’s an abomination. Science should never subvert the will of God.” “Is that what you think we are? God’s will or God’s cruel joke?”

Paul was treated very rudely when he went into that shop. Looks like the townspeople are over being grateful to the freak show for saving them from a serial killer.

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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