American Horror Story: Hotel: Ten Commandments Killer Review

The origin of the Ten Commandments Killer is finally revealed in a gripping American Horror Story

This American Horror Story: Hotel review contains spoilers.

American Horror Story: Season 5, Episode 8

Well, the internet was right. Looks like John Lowe is the Ten Commandment Killer. I’ve gone back and forth on this from the beginning. Deep down I knew it was probably true but I really didn’t want it to be. American Horror Story has so few good characters and it can get tiring watching nothing but evil and depravity. I was really hoping that John could be Hotel’s moral center but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I really should know better by now, in the world of American Horror Story everyone has a dark side. And what a dark side John Lowe has.

It would be too easy to blame John’s descent into madness solely on the Hotel Cortez. The hotel and the ghosts within it certainly did their part to help him along, no doubt about it. Lowe is the Jack Torrance of American Horror Story: Hotel. The hotel permeates his very being until it starts to eat away at his sanity like a cancer. However, just like with Torrance in The Shining, the Cortez didn’t create John’s homicidal impulses; it just brought them bubbling to the surface. The darkness was always there, but he just needed to feel like he had permission to give in to it.

That’s essentially what James March gives Lowe: permission to give in to his base desires masquerading as a moral crusade. James March knows the dark truth about the human condition that we as a species enjoy violence and killing. People like John Lowe need to cloak this bloodlust in a false sense of justice but murder with a “good reason” is still murder.

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Now that the cat is out of the bag, it looks like Lowe is embracing his true calling. With five more episodes left and two more commandments/body parts to go it will be interesting to see what full on serial killer John Lowe will get up to for the rest of the season.

As for the rest of the episode, Evan Peters hamming it up as James March continues to be a high point of this season. Too bad he only shows up intermittently. We still have two dangling storylines with the vampire school children and Ramona and Donovan as would-be vampire hunters but honestly, this episode worked best focusing solely on John’s story. Intercutting between narratives would have killed the momentum. I’m sure we’ll get some info on both storylines next week. Seriously though, they better have a good explanation for why those kids have not turned all of California into a vampire apocalypse by now or I’m going to be very disappointed.

Random Thoughts About Tonight’s Episode:

  • Well, that explains the 2:25 on the clock all the time, it’s the time of day that March died.

  • “It’s my dick in a bag!”

  • James had The Countess kidnap Holden to push John over the edge, and then March later tells John to murder someone “for his only begotten son.” Does anyone care about Scarlett? That girl is going to have major self esteem issues when she gets older. “My parents favored my vampire brother.”

  • Vampires can be killed by being hit by cars? The vampires in this universe aren’t very sturdy.

  • Shout out to Ashley Madison!

  • “Death is your art!” Like the Joker in Tim Burton’s ‘89 Batman?

  • “It’s not true, it’s impossible!” Clearly John is channeling The Empire Strikes Back-era Luke Skywalker when he says this.

  • “What are you a Countess of?” “With those blue eyes? I’ll be the Countess of whatever you want.” No, but seriously you can’t just give yourself titles of nobility.

Rating:

4 out of 5