DJariya

Synopsis:

Chapter 12 / Production #312 - "Go to Hell" (Airs January 22, 10:00pm e/p) - Cordelia's latest vision puts the Coven's future in question. With the end of Fiona's reign approaching, the girls manifest powerful new gifts. Queenie's search for Marie Laveau leads her to Hell and back. Written by Jessica Sharzer; directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.


Episode 12 of 13

Obey The D

This season started off great, but as many have already stated, it started losing steam about half way into the season.

Cordelia was giving me a Brian Peppers vibe with those eyes.

Adboy151

I know there was throw away line from Papa Legba about a time jump, but this seemed scattershot in trying to tie together an ending for next week. Felt stunted and dull as a result.

StealthStratos

The Fiona storyline didn't make a lot of sense to me. So Cordelia had a vision that Fiona was going to kill all the girls in the house and then skip town, right? How is it then that she was completely helpless as the Ax Man was grabbing her hair and throwing her around? Even in her deteriorating state, it seems that she's always been capable of defending herself. I didn't get how we're supposed to believe she's capable of slaughtering an entire household but doesn't do anything when a guy lays his hands on her.

And to echo what others have said, the storylines just keep going around in circles without any clear purpose. In one episode, two people are enemies and one gets killed. In the next episode, people are back to life and seem to forget their past feud.

As for who the next supreme is, who cares?

starseed1981

It sucked. Just like the last half of this season. Nothing going on now makes any sense.

PhantomStranger

Apparently it's going to end up exactly like season one, when they ran out of story to tell but needed to fill a few more episodes. The past few episodes have been watchable, but mostly for the stellar performances. It's clear the actors are enjoying themselves as they ham it up in horror style. Plotting is not a strength of this show's writing staff.

joeblow69

I'm glad I have low standards, because I've really been enjoying this whole season!

onebyone

Me too!! I have loved it all the way through.

I hope that vision of Fiona dying was faked and she will be back next week. That just doesn't seem like the right way for the Supreme to go out.

spainlinx0

I enjoy the campiness of the show, but it really did bother me that she's the fucking supreme and gets taken out like that.

johnnysd

Each season is largely the same cast, especially Jessica Lange, but different characters and events. Jessica Lange is back next year in a period piece

Coladar1

That was... interesting?

So... yeah... okay. I'm not so sure I 'get it', insofar as this season's point. We just lost all three primaries, two in Hell and one to Gators. I guess this season's ultimate plot is going to be the more things change, the more they stay the same/the young inherit the Earth.

Quite frankly, I was hoping for far grander things with Bates' character. It was awesome in its un-PCness, but instead she seems to have been a throw-away character... like so much else this season.

The resurrected 'guard dog' appears largely superfluous. The neighbor boy and his Sicko mother, likewise. The red-headed botanist, the rest of the council, cross-dressing tongueless doll loving butler, so on and so forth. Usually all of that serves to drive towards a conclusion or ultimate conflict, but here? Not so much.

(~×~)^~ for the witch hunters. What was the point? Set up as this centuries old organization, battling the witches, in the end wiped out in minutes by two witches and a newly mortal serial killing ghost?

I'll admit, during said serial killing ghost's death scene, I wondered whether we'd learn the witch hunters were right, and we've been on the wrong side all along... that AHS witches are pure f'ing evil, and destroying that order destroyed a balance/force for good. 'Cause every one of them looked goddamned demented stabbing the poor bloke. Likewise, during the future vision of carnage Cordelia had, at least a couple had bullet holes, right? Mayhap the last witch hunter hasn't been seen yet.

I don't think the new Supreme will be any of the young'uns, given every one of them has touted themselves as the Supreme. My guess, Cordelia. Either her or some other surprise candidate. Maybe the early plotline of her trying to get pregnant had a larger point, and she's carrying the new Supreme (or a reincarnated Fiona, who somehow did a spell putting a new body inside her daughter?)

Finally, wtf is with the witch population? One second, basically every witch is now in that house... or else the Supreme could be someone else entirely. But... the planet is 7 billion strong, and every one of those witches is American.

Then, the next second we've got the witch council trying Fiona coming from somewhere. We've got witchy Stevie Nicks. So... what gives? Are these the final witches left on Earth, or are there a great many covens out there? And if so, why is the Supreme having to come from this one?

marty888

I've basically given up trying to make sense of this season's "plot", and simply sit back and enjoy all the terrific performances and rambunctious excesses.

writer106

I wouldn't be surprise if the vision was fake. I can see a twist like that happening.

Coladar1

After last season, where I still don't have a clue wtf was going on with aliens in a 50's insane asylum, I'd do the same here - it certainly has had its moments, mainly in Bates' performance and character. But... I've got this huuuuuuge issue with the witch population. It doesn't make a lick of goddamn sense, and isn't nitpicking a small thread, but the very core concept of the entire plot is horribly at odds with everything else we've seen this season.

Stevie Nicks being a witch, witches council (and I am still wondering where they came from and why Myrtle doesn't return from whence she came, who sent them, who even had the authority above the Supreme to sentence the current Supreme to *death*!!! Now we've been shown the Supreme is the be all end all - so why in God's name was Fiona desperate to avoid being found guilty, scared of being burned at the stake, etc.? My God, she gets tried for maybe sort of murder, whereas the rest of the season every last damn one of them has murdered each other at this point? Huh? Fiona spent her entire life being an atrocious, absent Supreme - where were these 'leaders' and their trials then? Better still, where are these leaders *now*? Because no way were the three motley fools tribunal the ones who convened and had conferred total authority - they were sent by someone(s) else. And why the hell didn't Fiona just kill all three of them the second they showed up, instead desperate to be found innocent? All three of them ended up dead anyway, and only one was resurrected.), international witches, whatever. Even that, I can overlook. What I can't overlook is one moment Misty is totally freaking unknown to every character on the show, has been her entire life - 20+ years. Then... she could be the next supreme! So how the hell aren't there a million other witches out there, and how are we supposed to believe the next Supreme is going to be out of these four witches in one house?

Either I've *really* missed some massive plot point which explained/answered this, or the staff writers got too swallowed up in the hype of the show and stopped trying. Especially when, it is now quite clear, the entire freaking premise of the entire freaking season is going to be "the next Supreme." If it'd ended up being Fiona and the hunters, Fiona vs. Cordelia, Bates vs. Basset, or anything else, it could be overlooked. But when that very concept is what they spent all season working towards? There better be a damn good explanation in the finale that they avoided the entire season. Which there won't be.

johnnysd

It's a weird season because the first 4 or 5 episodes were so focused that it felt it had a very definitive story to tell but lately it is completely random and rudderless.. I actually think AHS would be better with less episodes per season.

Raul3

Of course she can't be dead. Do you really think Jessica Lange won't be in the finale? She's the star of the show.

But yeah, probably the worst season of the series.

Osiris3657

This.

Still an entertaining show, but after 2 excellent first seasons, this was a step back.

Coladar1

Ohh, Fiona is dead, make no mistake about that. The Fiona we have watched this entire season is dead, gone, never to return.

Now then, I pray they do what they'd sure as hell better do - explain her soullessness. I said it before, if they just slipped that in without explanation to complicate the Papa deal, they all need to quit their jobs. And remember this past episodes end? Papa says everyone comes to him in the end? Uhh... soulless husk dies, there ain't nothing to go down to Hell. Meaning, Fiona's story cannot be resolved, because as of now there's a meat pile digesting in gators and nothing else. There's a bloody good reason they endeavored to show Bates and Bassett in Hell, and yet Lange, supposedly dead at that point too, was nowhere to be found. This is why.

It also makes her death, the whole "I cannot love! I just wanted to feel something!" pay off. A soulless construct could never be capable of such passions. Poor, hapless, clueless Fiona-copy pawn had no idea what it was, or why Fiona made it. It thought it was the real deal, and thus Cordelia's vision of the *real* Fiona, standing over fake-Fiona and Cordelia's corpses, getting back the jewelry.

I think we'll find out what happened to her soul, and thus, a second 'Fiona'. I also love my earlier idea, wherein we learn Cordelia attempting to get preggers wasn't all pointless, either. Fiona sent her soul into an unborn baby, in Cordelia, thus Cordelia's new powers. Remember Fiona said this episode something like 'I can't give you powers, that was all you."? If Cordelia was seeping power from an unborn Fiona Supreme in her womb... it'd tie a lot of shit together that needs to be resolved.

But my money is on this Fiona being just a decoy, a clone spell soulless beast, and the real Fiona has been watching safely in the wings, never being dumb enough to put herself in jeopardy, this whole time. There never was a new Supreme - this was just a copy, imparted a small amount of real Fiona's gifts, and everything that made it think a new Supreme was coming was just a side-effect of being a soulless copy.

Either one would work in some ways, so I'm sure it'll end up being neither. But in retrospect, it *does* give this entire season a point. Much more than my first reaction, where it would've been 'The World Keeps Turning', shifting power from old to young. This season has been about one simple thing - clearing the board. Hunters, dead. Voodoo clan? Dead. Witchy elders who held court? Dead. Nan? Dead. Bassett and Bates? Now dead. Assume the vision still plays out... there's one person left standing. Fiona Goode.

PhantomStranger

They likely plot out the first six or seven episodes with an overall idea of where the story is headed, and then see how things have developed by that point. They've been absolutely terrible at tying storylines together, often undercutting a previous plot development for the sake of bringing a character back.

Paff

What pisses me off about the resurrection of characters is that they don't HAVE TO. This is American Horror Story. Each season is different. So if ya wanna kill off Misty, DO IT. Lily Rabe gets an early vacation, and comes back in Season 4 as a different character. The actors still have steady work if they want to do a multiple season contract, but characters can always die at any time, which I dunno, is kind of necessary in the genre of horror?

Coladar1

Yeah, absolutely here. This resurrection stuff is bull$#!t, severely undercutting *everything*.

After writing and revising my prior post, I'm certain things play out that way now. Let's say they do -

Did we see Bates' body? Bassett? If everyone but Fiona dies, will we see their corpses turned into, "Gator shit, which there ain't no coming back from."? If not, after the fade to black, who's to say some new witch won't get Misty's powers and just resurrect everyone... back to square one?

The resurrections were contrived, horribly reducing one's ability to feel any character is at risk. Jesus, right now the only one we know still can't come back is Fiona the Gator $#!t.

It was stupid, pointless. Write better stories so you don't have to resort to using cheap thrills, killing off main actors early, only to bring them back.

It's also why I have no faith they're going to be able to resolve this season with any degree of logic or quality.

skatefan20

Misty beating and slapping the CRAP out of one-note Madison. Easily the highlight of the season.

OUCH What a miserable, scary hell for both Laveau and LaLaurie. Reddick as papa Legba.

Maybe Stevie Nicks will join Cordelia and Myrtle Snow on the panel for next week's Coven Idol. This season had so many plotlines I haven't been able to keep track of all the powers/wonders each of the potential supremes have demonstrated up to this point.

For the most part I've enjoyed this season too. Though I'm with the general consensus that this may end up being the weakest of the three AHS seasons. There hasn't been quite the excitement or heightened suspense leading to the final hour.

I like my ghosts, zombies, vampires, witches, clones or other shows that revolve around fantastical creatures to have a fun camp factor and not take themselves too seriously. In this episode alone, someone's fate in hell is to be spent in the back of the line waiting for fried chicken!

I thought Ryan Murphy mentioned in an interview that he ended that plot point early in the season. Each of the three seasons of AHS has dealt with some weird pregnancy. I hope he absolutely retired the pregnancy stuff and doesn't resurrect it for the finale or the next installment (wherever that is).

Troy Stiffler

I can really appreciate all of the theatrical, stage-ey scenes. Not many (any?) shows can do it so well. The best shows on TV tend to downplay the acting and attempt to make it feel real. I really enjoy seeing Jessica Lange and Danny Houston act the way they do.

There's a lot of misfires with the supernatural storytelling. The ending for Delphine and the voodoo lady was very good.

I thought The Graduate nod was a very good, unconventional ending for Zoe. I thought they were going to leave it alone. Or possibly kill off everyone else, and leave Zoe as the unknowing Supreme. Oh well.

Troy Stiffler

Has Murphy hinted at Season 4's plot yet? Last year at this time, I think we already knew.

Josh-da-man

I've read a couple of rumors about a circus or carnival...