TV Recap: American Horror Story (Freak Show) - "Bullseye"

Come one, come all to the new weekly TV Recap of American Horror Story: Freak Show in which every Thursday I take a look at the latest happenings in Fraulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities. What will the fourth season of Ryan Murphy's anthology series bring and what will we remember from this delightfully oddball group of characters? Join me as I look at the Top 5 Characters of the week, recap important events, and share overall thoughts on the series as well as any other interesting tidbits worth of mention.

Top 5 Characters of the Week

Jessica Lange

1. Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange)

Importance: For the most part, this episode plays as he descent into madness as she questions how loyal everyone actually is to her. She goes paranoid after lover Paul the Illustrated Seal (Mat Fraser) reveals that he is having an affair with another woman, who is actually normal and lives with someone who hates freaks. When pushed to her limits, she tosses knives at Paul as he dangles from the spinning wheel only to end up killing him.

Best Scene: With all of her rage starting to spiral, Elsa decides to test everyone's loyalty by asking them to elect someone to strap themselves onto the wheel as she tosses knives. Paul, who has already had a promiscuous episode of events, decides to take the brunt because he knows that Elsa is really mad at him for everything. It doesn't end well, though it helps to relieve Elsa of her personal struggles inside.

2. Paul the Illustrated Seal

Importance: In his final episode, he goes through a series of motions. He is revealed to be having a relationship with Elsa that is rather intimate. He is also seeing a woman who has a very distinct perfume smell that when caught on him, gets Elsa all riled up and angry. Things don't end well for him as he tries to please both women, but ends up falling at the knife of Elsa in order to spare his coworkers any potential tragedy.

Best Scene: Much like Elsa's, this is one that serves as the lynch pin of the episode. His noble deed of risking his life in order to protect his friends comes after a series of struggles that put him at odds with her. He realizes that things could go horribly wrong, but knows that it is the right thing to do, in a sadistic sort of way. The results aren't pretty, but it makes the points clear for Elsa and finishes off her mad quest for power with a little piece of tragedy.

Emma Roberts

3. Maggie Esmerelda (Emma Roberts)

Importance: Things are moving forward for the freak killing... or so they seem. After Stanley (Denis O'Hare) gets on her case to murder someone, she convinces him that she will. This doesn't go too well, as she doesn't deliver on her promise. As she forms a heart for the freaks, she discovers that it is very hard to do things. However, since she couldn't do it, we're now on Stanley's schedule, who wants to kill Jimmy "Lobster Boy" Darling. Will that work out? We'll just have to wait and find out.

Best Scene: It is a cheat, but through a flashback, she reveals how she plans to drown a small freak in a tub of poison. She has it so cold and meticulous that it almost seems plausible. When she actually goes to do it, there's the freak acting all nice to her, which is very disarming. Still, she attempts to go through with it. The scene cuts before anything actually happens, leaving questions of what went down. In the scene, Maggie shows a sense of humanity as she changes her mind at the last second.

Sarah Paulson

4. Bette and Dot Tattler (Sarah Paulson)

Importance: After Elsa drops them off at Dandy Mott's (Finn Wittrock) place, they quickly become the fascination of the strange man's desires. He loves them. It is strange, especially as he acts creepy yet nice to his new guests. However, Bette and Dot are suffering opposing views on the manner as one wants to abuse Dandy's trust and get surgery in order to make them look less freakish. This rightfully frustrates Dandy, especially as they fantasize about these moments and even write about it in their journal.

Best Scene: Upon Dandy reading the news article about a conjoined twin being successfully separated, Bette and Dot begin to have opposing views on what is going on. Is he going to kill one of them in order to make them look more beautiful? It quickly seems like it. Still, with flashbacks, Bette begins to imagine a happier life without Dot's head. Along with journal entries, the fantasy begins to play out with the reality become more plausible with each passing minute. That journal entry however says a lot more than anything else that Dandy does.

Finn Wittrock

5. Dandy Mott

Importance: He isn't killing anyone in this episode. In fact, he seems rather complacent for the most part. However, that is only a temporary status for Dandy. He is in love with Bette and Dot at his disposal. He treats them like royalty and even finds a strange fascination in hanging out with them. However, things quickly south when he discovers that one is writing a diary about wanting to have surgery to remove the other head. He becomes annoyed and decides to return to his sadistic, violent ways in spades. He believes that he was put on this Earth to kill. Well, we'll just have to wait and see how that goes.

Best Scene: It looks like it is all over for Dandy. He has just discovered that the only women he ever loved want to abuse his power. They want his money. With that in mind, he turns to a monologue in which he reveals how sadistic and desperate he really is for love. What is going to go down? It's not entirely clear. However, he does have the knives and a whole lot of passion to kill something very, very soon.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Okay, I must admit that somewhere after "Edward Mondrake - Part 2," I have been steadily becoming less and less interested in this story. This is an especially mediocre episode in my opinion. Probably because it feels too much of a lull, but beyond Paul's heartbreaking story that lead to a death upon a wheel, there wasn't much that personally grabbed me. Dandy is still insane and Bette and Dot are still dreaming of separating. Maggie needs to kill somebody. What exactly happened of value? I felt that at most, Elsa's over the top nature was too much for the episode. It was necessary to make something happen, but I ended up finding the melodrama a little off putting in a tough way.

Looking at other people who have reviewed the episode, I am clearly in the minority here. I want to believe that this season is still good. There's plenty of solid moments, but I found myself not caring for large portions of time. It is a lot more of the same. Elsa's weirdness continues to be successful on a hit and miss ratio that I cannot quite tolerate. This feels like too much familiar for me to really get behind. 

Please, with the next episode, make something happen. I don't expect them to actually pull of the TV show thing, but I want to have the weird charm of the show back. The sympathetic angle works a few times, but I feel like there's something more that needs to be done. At most, this is a repeat of a lot of things in a more tolerable manner. To say the least, it was disappointing and the spinning wheel bit is about all that really kept everything on track. Even then, Elsa's choice to throw knives did get a little tiresome. We'll see how next week goes.

Rating: 3 out of 5