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| Lee Tergesen |
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
1. Stanley (Dennis O'Hare)
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| Dennis O'Hare |
Importance: He is the major character on this list with the least amount of screen time. However, after weeks of saying that he will seek his havoc on the freaks, he finally is unleashing a game. With the death of Ma Petite, he uses it as an excuse to get on Elsa Mars' (Jessica Lange) team and to start knocking everyone out left and right. Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates) gets her death staged as a motorized accident while Bette and Dot Tattler get their death by an off-screen "mercy killing." He is ruthless and while only lingering in the background of most scenes, it appears that he is finally getting his wish.
Best Scene: After Elsa kills Ethel with a flying dagger, she teams up with Stanley to stage an elaborate suicide involving a car. When Esmerelda (Emma Roberts) finds her body, the story gives way for a flashback on how the gritty incident was put together. It appears that despite Elsa's love for freaks, she is starting to find charm in the nihilistic magic of Stanley's crass and empty plan. He has worked his mind games on her and things are going to only get worse.
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| Jessica Lange |
2. Elsa Mars
Importance: With the death of Ma Petite getting her down and feeling like she is too far removed from the spotlight, she begins to seek revenge for her problems on the freaks. When Ethel tries to interfere, she slings a knife into her eye and kills her. She is losing control on the situation and needs to have her say. She is slipping and losing everyone around her in a tragic way. With a little back story regarding her legs, this is overall an episode where Elsa begins to lose faith in her show and finds romance in the dark side.
Best Scene: As Elsa begins to suffer to the temptations, Ethel interferes. She isn't happy that she had Stanley mercy kill Bette and Dot. As the argument escalates between the two old friends, they hold weapons to each other with intention of finishing the other one off. As stated before, this doesn't end too well for Ethel. She didn't die of any disease or even at the hand of Edward Mondrake. She died by the hand of the woman who plucked her from obscurity and gave her a home. It is a powerful, haunting moment in the season.
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| Finn Wittrock |
3. Dandy Mott (Finn Wittrock)
Importance: This is the episode where Dandy kills his mother. After trying to get a genius grant, he discovers that he is being sent to a shrink in order to cure his mental problems. It doesn't pan out to well. With visitor Regina (Gabourey Sibide) wanting to see her dead mother, he must control his perverse desires in front of the guests. However, things escalate and soon Dandy is all alone, forced to figure out his own life without his mother or anyone stopping him. He lost Bette and Dot and likely has a scorn out for some other people what is going to stand in his way next?
Best Scene: Earlier in the episode, Dandy asks a therapist about whether or not it was ethical to drink the blood of the enemies to get their powers or if bathing in it would do just fine. Taking that into practice, he decides to kill his mother and bathe in her blood. The moment is simple yet encapsulates his weirdness in a way that almost falls into Norman Bates territory. However, he is one of the few characters who is all over the place this season and its hard to know if he is a caricature or legitimately scary. However, he has made his manic presentation work so far.
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| Emma Roberts |
4. Esemerelda
Importance: She is there to comfort Jimmy "Lobster Boy" Darling (Evan Peters) after his mother dies. She tells him that he needs to be strong and be a man. If anything, she is a buffer for all of the freaks, showing more sympathy than anyone else in the episode. When it comes to Vince (Lee Tergesen) getting tarred and feathered, she tells the freaks that it is the wrong thing to do. She is the one saving grace in an episode predicated on killing as many people as possible. She even makes the tarring more of a sympathetic moment than it already was.
Best Scene: After hearing Vince scream from a great distance, she decides to run to his rescue. He is already tarred and feathered. The only thing left is for him to be castrated. At this exact moment, she runs into the trailer where the freak girls are doing their deed and convinces them to stop because that would make them full of remorse. As a result, Vince gets to live while there's a sense that the freak ladies won't ever get to have their revenge. It is a rather heartwarming antithesis to everything that has been going on in the episode.
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| Evan Peters |
5. Jimmy "Lobster Boy" Darling
Importance: How exactly can Lobster Boy feel significant nowadays? He lost his mother to a presumed car crash. Even Elsa is turning on him by hiring a fat lady to replace him as a show act. There's nothing really to keep Lobster Boy from losing his mind and doing some assaults. He is the most uncertain of the characters and is only being held together by Esmerelda's encouragement.
Best Scene: Upon discovering that his mother has died, he confronts Elsa about the situation and immediately falls on her bad side. In retaliation, Elsa hires a fat woman to be part of their show. While there isn't much of anything that happens, the brief interaction between the two is a little unsettling and shows just how sadistic Elsa is becoming in trying to put Lobster Boy in his place. It also reflects his jealousy and feeling of inferiority.
Overall Thoughts
Just like that, we're back in business. I am not entirely sure what has kept me from really enjoying the past few episodes, but they have been a slog to get through. While the previous one had a lot of memorable moments, I do feel like this episode finally kicks a lot of the lull into high gear and gives something worth investing in. For starters, there's an awful lot of dying going around. The world of Freak Show is getting dangerous and nobody is safe. The cynicism may rot into the scenes with an unrepentant glee, but it also gives the show an edge after being needlessly existential for a few weeks.
In this case, I like that the person with the most rational head is not a freak, but someone who seems to have been reformed after initially coming to assault them. Esmerelda wants justice deep down and cannot see anyone suffer. Even if her partner Stanley is in top sadistic mode this whole episode, she has changed her heart and it will only be sad when her words are overlooked in order to achieve more revenge. The scene in which Vince gets tarred is especially poetic, as she manages to prove a very strong point that nothing will be solved. Yes, Vince did irreparable damage to his daughter, but what good would killing him do?
Most of all, this gives the episode a conscience that was unseen at the front. What is the purpose of everything going down? With a lot of death, it rarely seemed like anyone was safe, let alone Vince who turned in a haunting performance last time. Still, whether it was the tragic farewell of Ethel or the death of Dandy's mom, there was a lot of moments that don't quite live up to Ma Petite's innocent death, but have a deep, personal feel because of how close to the characters we have become. The show has been excellent at doing a hat trick. After Twisty the Clown became a sympathetic folly, it changed the way that we looked at him. Now, we're starting to look at everyone different.
What is it all for? There's paranoia and long term history of revenge and regret thrust into the episode. Elsa seems to be too selfish to care ever again for those around her. She is in cahoots with Stanley because Stanley is her future. The episode may not play into too many juicy horror tropes, but it does allow for the drama and personal moments to come rich in between blood baths. If nothing else, the show has entered a compelling, gruesome period where anything goes and now that everyone is dying, it will be interesting to see what the third act consists of.
While I have gone back and forth on the series, I still feel like it has something underneath its tropes and weird outline. It has a visual pallet that is matched by a slapdash charm and a deeper, personal guilt to explore. While the freaks were once sympathetic outcasts, things have evolved into a richer persona full of operatic elements. It can be weird and sad within the span of 10 minutes. It may not be the most consistent, but when it hits the right notes, it makes me realize just how special the show can be. I am enthused for what's to come next. Bring it on!
Rating: 4 out of 5
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