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. Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange)
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| Jessica Lange |
Importance: Feeling burned out on the freak show life, Elsa sells her show to Chester (Neal Patrick Harris). She decides to give everyone one last party before she leaves. This includes killing Stanley (Dennis O'Hare) after discovering his secret. She also reveals that her wooden legs were connected to a character from American Horror Story: Asylum.She also helps Jimmy "Lobster Boy" Darling get new wooden arms.
Best Scene: As she is about to leave, there is one final moment between her and Bette and Dot Tattler (Sarah Paulson). While everyone else is out for revenge, they just want to say their goodbyes and hopefully leave on good terms. The results leave Elsa in a vulnerable state that causes them to discover that she has wooden legs. It is a simple moment and one that ties in gratitude for saving their lives at the start of the season.
2. Chester
Importance: With the freak show in his possession, he does his best to put it back together. The only issue is that his doll continues to haunt him and accuse him of murder. Things don't pan out and he ends up killing Maggie Esmerelda (Emma Roberts). This causes him to freak out and turn himself in for murder. He also has sex with Bette and Dot, who are becoming suspicious of him being a potential murderer.
Best Scene: In a very campy move, Chester decides to do the man in half trick. When Bette and Dot back out, Maggie comes up and volunteers. Things quickly turn south as Chester becomes more and more haunted by the doll. It throws off his concentration and ends up causing Maggie to be sawn literally in half and thus killed.
3. Dandy (Finn Wittrock)
Importance: Upon meeting up with Bette and Dot, he rats out Chester as murdering his former sex partners. With fear spreading, he waits for Chester to be out of the picture. Once he is, he sneaks in and decides to become the owner of the freak show. With everything in his power, the story comes full circle and his dreams that were at the offset of the season are becoming real. The only question now is where things can go from here.
Best Scene: In a shocking twist, Dandy comes into possession of the freak show. Elsa sells it to him and he is now in charge. His dreams that were present in the first episode are finally coming true. The question now is what the psychopathic man wants to do with the place. As he finds Stanley maimed in a box, he realizes that everything is going according to his already sadistic plans. The only question now is how the freaks will feel about him now owning the place under shoddy management.
4. Jimmy "Lobster Boy" Darling
Importance: With his hands cut off, the life of Lobster Boy is one of constant speculation. Does he just kill himself and make his life better? With all of his family dead, he has no reason to live. When Elsa can get him a pair of wooden hands, he finds a new reason to live. He has enough enthusiasm, at least for now. He has the choice to get regular hands but chooses to remain true to his roots.
Best Scene: In a moment that determines how Lobster Boy chooses to live, he picks up his hands from the craftsman. Could they be regular-looking hands? Nope. He decides to stick with the old tried and true, resulting in the same problems that he has always had. Of course, it also means that he has found some acceptance as the outcast that he has been his entire life.
5. Bette and Dot
Importance: With their growing love for Chester, they end up falling in love with him. They have sex and feel like they know him very well. They do not know that they have in store with his murderous doll and growing neurosis. When Dandy informs them that Chester is mentally unstable, they do their best to ignore him and thus put everyone else in harm's way. They end up saying goodbye to Elsa as one of the only characters on the show to not become murderous psychopath at some point in the series.
Best Scene: They have a heartfelt farewell with Elsa that unveils a lot of deep secrets about each other. Without these characters, the series wouldn't likely be what it was. Sure, Bette and Dot aren't the most interesting, but they do have plenty of sincerity and respect for Elsa when almost nobody else does. It is the one moment of honesty in a circle of problematic characters.
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| Emma Roberts |
Overall Thoughts
I know that this series needed to fill out a 13 episode run, but the last two episodes have felt almost unnecessary. At best, they are full of good ideas that could fit into one episode and are instead spread across two. For instance, the Chester story is really ridiculous and the season's low point. Yes, it sucks that he is mentally unstable, but his involvement felt completely useless save for killing Maggie, which had to be done somehow, I guess. Sure, there's moments of creepiness, but his lack of ability to add more to the general story makes it feel unwarranted. I am simply glad that he is gone. At least I hope he is.
Which is a bummer because the show's excessive love of horror continues to be visually interesting. For starters, the pre-credits sequence features one of the best odes to Freaks that the show has done this season. It looks atmospherically chilly and puts the horror in its place. Add in some flashbacks and a crossover and there's a lot of ingenious elements thrown into one pot and made into an episode that knows its place, but doesn't really feel all that much earned. True, we finally say goodbye to Elsa, but did it really need to take two episodes to do so.
On the bright side, there's a sense that something big is going to happen in next week's finale now. While the show has been timid to kill off characters, it has finally begun to knock off inconsequential characters with ease. It feels very rushed, but it does feel like it is hopefully setting something up for a brilliant, twisted ending. I don't know what, but with Dandy achieving his dreams, things cannot go well. With everyone wanting to kill someone, it seems like that we're ending in a bloodbath. I don't know, but it has come a long way from having a focused, singular killer at the start of the series.
The one relief of the episode is that there's a lot of catharsis in this episode that ends up paying off. For starters, Dandy finally gets the freak show after arriving in the premiere and being rejected. There's thoughts that maybe it could have saved him from going insane (or not, depending on your read of the freak characters). We don't know what he'll do with the show, but it cannot end too well for the characters. Meanwhile, we get that sentimental moment between Elsa and Bette and Dot that is earned because of how she has saved them. Otherwise, she has become a monstrous figure that nobody likes. In this sense, the show has managed to reel in the important elements while distracting with something unnecessary.
I don't really know what to expect from the finale. Part of me is just relieved to finally have it over. It has been one rocky mess with occasional moments of brilliance. The characters have a lot going on to note, but there's a wear and tear that is felt because it has to fit into a 13 episode arc instead of less. I feel like had there been less, the show would have been stronger. Otherwise, it is just strange in a violent and sexual way that is continually making certain characters unlikable. By the end, that may be the issue. If the show aimed to sympathize the characters from the beginning, they have done a pretty poor job in keeping that vibe alive. Is there any character really worth rooting for at this point?
Rating: 3 out of 5
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