“American Horror Story: Freak Show” Episode 4.8 – “Blood Bath;” Starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, and Frances Conroy; Written by Ryan Murphy; Directed by Bradley Buecker.
Oh-ho-ho, look who decided to show up. “Written by Ryan Murphy,” you say? I will admit to entering into cynical mode upon reading that particular title, and I will also gladly confess to being pleasantly surprised by the quality of this episode. Murphy and his laptop should hang around the carnival a little more often.
We open with a chain smoking Gloria on the shrink’s couch. A faceless doctor is making notes about Gloria but discussing
Dandy exclusively. It’s interesting to note that he marks “hospital – Dr. Wint…” on his pad since we know there is likely to be an “Asylum” crossover when Lily Rabe shows up, but the only connection I can make is that Asylum’s Sarah Poulson was Lana Winters. Gloria firmly states that Dandy is too vulnerable for an institution but their family is in dire need of help.
Back at the tents, a search party has recovered Ma Petite’s dress. There is no body to be found, of course, since it’s currently on display at the Morbidity Museum. The discovery wrecks the troupe, which now randomly features some new faces, as apparently Ma Petite was a mascot of love and purity. Even though for the past seven weeks we’ve really only seen her paint Elsa’s nails. At any rate, the official end of the young woman brings Elsa and Ethel to a vicious confrontation that, frankly, shocked the hell out of me.
I didn’t look at the clock until after this mesmerizing scene between Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates ended. It read 10:21. I’m conservatively estimating that the duel took about 15 minutes, and it was nothing short of a dramatic master class given by two of the most talented women in television. The chemistry, the tension, the love and the pure hatred was beyond tangible, you could almost taste it. And it left an aftertaste of schnapps and steel. I’m still googly eyed over how brilliant these actresses are. The scene also featured a glorious effect when Ethel shot through Elsa’s prosthesis, and that shot allows me to use two words I rarely get to type in an AHS review – it was simple and elegant.
The scene was not without its problems, however, namely during Elsa’s flashback. She had been violated, and then from her trauma she was sent into an anesthetic rescue but woke speaking fluent Italian, even though she likely would have had no idea that an Italian doctor (played by the Sax Man himself, Danny Huston) had saved her. It was a total show off moment, but it wasn’t enough to ruin the beauty of that duet between Lange and Bates.
The scene also left me wondering if Elsa had actually been protecting the twins, if she indeed suspects that Stanley is up to no good. She easily could have killed them, but instead left them at the home of what she believes to be simply a spoiled brat and his codependent mother. Ethel mentions that she has swept the twins to a location where Elsa will not be able to harm them, and then they are oddly neither seen nor mentioned for the rest of the episode. Through two funerals and a tar and feathering, no one mentions that they aren’t around, and I found that pretty problematic.
Spoilers ahoy, mateys.
The second funeral was for Ethel. Elsa launched a knife into Ethel’s eye and then teamed with Stanley to stage a suicide. Somehow Ethel’s funeral prompted the remaining ladies of the carnival to flip their Girl Power switch to “FUCK YEAH” and they decided that they should dish out a little justice to Opium Waitress’s father. Eve, Desiree, Suzy and Opium Waitress proceed to abduct and tar and feather said father, but they’re interrupted when Pretty Maggie provides a conscious. Angela Basset’s gleeful announcement of her plans to torture and kill Pop was another moment to witnesses pure talent and power. For all my (extremely valid and not at all bitchy) complaints about this show, I never fail to marvel at the level of skill of these performers.
But again, the scene was not without its problems. The duality the show has been preaching – that the norms are the actual monsters – was completely contradicted when the “prettiest” girl at the show provided the compass for moral decision making. I’m all for grey areas and portraying that anyone has the capacity for good and horror, but I’m more interested in consistency of theme and point of view when it comes to episodic storytelling.
Elsa missed Ethel’s funeral because she was out recruiting. She was at a spa of sorts, and returned to the Cabinet of Curiosities with a Fat Lady. When she implied to a drunken and angry Jimmy that he should seek solace in Barbara’s busom whenever he missed his mom, I somehow found it to be one of the most disturbing elements of the entire series. It had nothing to do with the Barbara’s size or appearance, I assure you of that. It was just somehow… unclean. And I actually mean that as a compliment.
Meanwhile, Dandy is being analyzed. I sheepishly admit that his Rorschach test positively cracked me up. It’s not that I don’t want to admit that the show made me laugh, it’s that his answers were horrific and depraved. But Finn Witrock’s delivery was so deadpan and bored that it just created perfect comedy.
He decides that therapy isn’t his cup of tea and returns home to entertain Dora’s concerned daughter. Gloria, the world’s worst liar, explains that Dora is out buying squash but her daughter is rightfully suspicious and vows to return with the police if her mother isn’t home soon. Gloria then makes plans to get poor, frail Dandy out of the country, but he wants no part of that either, so he puts a bullet in her head.
And then took a bath in her blood.
WHOAH did not see that one coming, AHS! Congrats, you made me make the “oh GOD” face.
I’ve made many mentions of the fact that not much actually happens in the average “Freak Show” episode, but my “poop or get off the pot” advice was taken to heart, yo. There were so many shake ups in this episode. It actually just serves as a misdirection, as I still can’t really tell you where it’s all going, but it certainly made for a good hour of television.
Yeah, I just said that. And I mean it. Because beyond the actual interest and enjoyment I had this week, the episode also had an actual theme. I’m having a hard time recalling another episode in any of the installments where a central theme was woven into so many different vignettes, but this episode was all about mothers. More specifically, terrible mothers. Elsa is Mama Freak, but she’s self serving and blinded by her lust for fame. Ethel was obviously more mother than sister of friend to Elsa, and in embodying that role she denied living any kind of life for herself. Desiree united all the ladies under a cause, but unfortunately that cause was to tar, feather, and castrate a dude. He might have deserved a punishment, but she endangered them all with her plan. And finally, poor Gloria. She was so deluded into thinking there was a shred of normalcy in her son that it cost her own life. It’s probable that she died with no concept of her own role in his decent, and was only aware of what she believed was the nobility of protecting him.
All in all, two enthusiastic thumbs up. I can forgive the slight of hand that tricks me into believing I’m watching something with a purpose when it keeps me glued to the screen like that. Here’s hoping that the next few weeks follow suit.