If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
Synopsis: After witnessing the Apocalypse, Coredelia must act quickly to stop Michael or face the end of days. (IMDB)
Writer: John J. Gray
Director: Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 40mins
Airs: Tuesdays at 10pm on FX Canada (Canada)/FX (United States)
As of late, American Horror Story have managed to turn what looked to be the beginning of yet another bad season completely around in very little time. Most of that observation is meant to be a lesson in patience, however, after Cult it became difficult to show AHS any form of grace or trust. But the past three episodes have been some of the best storytelling the show has explored in years and last night’s, Boy Wonder, only helped solidify that.
This episode begins in the past with a vision from Cordelia of what is to come. She has seen what the Apocalypse looks like and all of her girls killed at the expense of a white man who’s laughing maniacally at the entire ordeal. As a result of this, she sees fit to call for a drastic change to their previous way of life and admit Michael Langdon to attempt the test of the Seven Wonders. Myrtle attempts to talk Cordelia out of this decision by making reference to Mallory being highly skilled in the arts teasing the possibility of her becoming The Supreme one day.
There is also a brief flashback of Coco entering the Robicheaux School for Women and showing off her power of detecting gluten in processed food for rich housewives. It appears that the reason why they keep showing us these flashbacks is that they are attempting to set up who the next real Supreme will be by showing the only options available. Again, leaning on precedent, there is more here than we are being told and will hopefully be revealed later in the season. It would be nice to see Mallory become the new Supreme and outrank Coco but Murphy has shown that most of the time his stories aren’t that easily determined.
As Michael begins to prepare for the test, John Henry (Cheyenne Jackson), one of his teachers, has strong enough doubts that he leaves the Coven in order to gain more answers from Cordelia, however, thanks to Miriam Mead, who is still aligned with Langdon despite the last we saw her, he never makes it. It’s through Langdon and Miriam’s exchange afterward that we finally receive confirmation as to what his plans are; to be crowned Supreme Alpha and destroy their entire ranks from within so that he can do what he was put on Earth to do. If you’re a follower of the series, then you can already connect the dots as to how this prophecy will come into play. It’s been known since the first season that Langdon is the Antichrist and seeing the world as it currently is in the show, we also know that he at least partially succeeds in destroying the world.
Michael passes each test perfectly which leaves Cordelia to give him one final task of retrieving Misty Day from Hell which he does so with ease. The show did a clever job of masking Cordelia’s real intentions for requesting this but we come to find out that she is gathering her ranks in order to best combat Langdon. From the beginning, she sensed he was evil but did not know the extent of his powers until after the Seven Wonders. We are treated to an appearance and song from the White Witch, Stevie Nicks, who serenades the Coven and reaffirms to Misty why she is there. The entire scene felt out of place but was still a nice gesture finding a way to bring Nicks back onto the show. It did serve a purpose in distracting the others as Cordelia tasks Madison and Behold to go to Murder House in an attempt to get more answers about Langdon.
Boy Wonder continued to build off the strong momentum that Apocalypse has gained in the past several episodes. While it didn’t possess the shock factor of the previous two episodes, it’s very apparent that this season is experiencing a bit of a hot streak with three incredibly strong episodes in succession. The story didn’t seem to waste any scenes by attempting to do too much and resulted in a concisely and well-crafted narrative for this episode from start to finish not to mention leaving us in high anticipation for next week’s episode as we see Madison and Behold venture to Murder House and come face to face with Constance Langdon.
APOCALYPTIC THOUGHTS:
- BROCK WATCH: Meanwhile, he’s still out there somewhere….lurking
- Coco’s gluten power was hilarious but better not lead her to become the next Supreme
- Liked the callback to the Seven Wonders sequence from season 3
- Miriam didn’t have to cut the tendons. That is a huge pet peeve of mine, cut tendons. I almost threw up.
- Cordelia’s BDE when talking to Ariel was awesome and a great change from her ssn3 persona
- The children in Hell talking to Langdon was the most disturbing thing I saw (besides John Henry’s tendons) so far this season
- Cordelia’s gathering of her ranks leads me to wonder who isn’t making it out of this season alive? My money is on Myrtle.
- Madison has to be the worst diplomat to send to Murder House
- If Mallory can heal things, heal Brock’s face. (Not a question. A request.)
- Like the subtle Biblical reference to Langdon becoming the Alpha and eventually the Omega
- The CGI deer that Mallory healed looked way better than the metallic ball the boy’s Coven made in the last episode.
Score: 8/10
Trying my best to get all thoughts about TV and Film out of my head and onto the interweb.
