American Horror Story: Coven – Burn, Witch. Burn! Review
Zombies, witch immolations, and a pair of particularly bad, murderous mothers. It must be American Horror Story!
American Horror Story: Coven continues to cruise on its broom in the right direction. It’s fascinating how the writers are continually creating inner factions and feuds within the Coven and outside. The older actress’ on the show—those being not the students enrolled in the school—remain in heated confrontation, teaming up and scheming against each other. For a show about witches, essentially outcasts, it’s interesting that the real threats are coming from within, as opposed to outside forces. This could be a reflection of feminism; something that creator Ryan Murphy said he was aiming to tackle this season. The witches’ battle royal against each other may be an analogy for the women’s real enemy in each other. Instead of using commonality to forward feminism, lots of women get caught up in slut shaming, policing other females, and other forms of self-oppression. Conceivably, this is something that AHS is trying to showcase. Another big theme that was present in this episode was the relationship between mothers and daughters. Daphine and Fiona essentially spend the episode grappling with the fact that they were terrible mothers to their children. In a flashback, we see the true wickedness of Daphine on display again, and it’s a nice contrast to the victim that she portrays in the present day storyline. She comes face to face with her daughters again, only in zombie form, and executes them, teary-eyed. Daphine states that this may be the only kindness that she has ever brought her daughters, and we empathize with her sadness after only being about 30 minutes removed from watching her threaten to stuff her daughter’s mouth with shit. That’s a truly incredible feat. Fiona has to recount her wicked ways at the bedside of her blinded daughter. The hospital sequence was one of the most ominous scenes of the season so far without offering up many shocks. The flickering lights, hazy lack of focus of the camera, and the random old man that tells Fiona “you didn’t throw the acid but you might as well have,” all contributed to make the scene delightfully unsettling. The verbal fight between Hank and Fiona was great fun, watching the pot call the kettle black about who doesn’t care about Cordelia, and when Fiona leaves, and Hank grabs Cordelia’s hand, she sees his infidelities, which should stir some new drama up for next week. The zombie attack on the house was fun, but nonessential. Only one extraneous character was affected, but we did get to watch Zoe in her best scenes of the season so far. In what may have been the best ever homage to Army of Darkness, Zoe defeats zombies effortlessly with the help of a chainsaw. When the spinning blade runs out of gas, she discovers her new powers, which are pretty vaguely presented, but Marie Laveau comments on the power that she feels. The best part about all of this was that there was no trace of the Kyle-Frankenstein storyline, which still happens to be this reviewer’s least favorite thing happening on this show. Be honest with yourself, isn’t all the other drama brewing way more engaging? My favorite part of tonight’s episode was the climactic ending, with Fiona manipulating Queenie to help rid the Coven of Myrtle. It’s still unclear whether Myrtle was behind Cordelia’s acid bath or not, but Fiona makes the Council see it her way and has Myrtle burned at the stake. I was sad to see such a formidable opponent of Fiona just tossed away so soon, but my moment of mourning was cut short by the appearance of Misty, who in the last moments of the episode brings Myrtle back from the dead. It seems the roster has stayed in tact. So what new attack will Marie Laveau bring down on the Coven? How will Myrtle resurface to challenge Fiona, and how will Cordelia deal with her new disability and her cheating husband? Will Zoe start emerging as the new Supreme and will that put her at risk from Fiona? American Horror Story: Coven continues to bewitch the audience with multiple interesting plot lines and a great ensemble cast. The season is just getting started and I can’t wait to see where we are headed next. Den of Geek Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
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Nick Harley is an entertainment journalist and alumnus of Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Nick also works as a Senior Content Specialist for the…