Overall Score
Rating Summary
For our review of the last episode of American Horror Story, click here.
Synopsis: As twilight broaches, the survivors brace for a final brawl. (IMDb)
Looks like American Horror Story is back to its typical ways…
This week’s episode, entitled Red Dawn, marks the first real low point of the season and seemed to be guilty of committing, well, nothing in terms of narrative progression or anything truly interesting.
First, we are shown a flashback four years before the events of 1984 as Donna Chambers discovers her father’s true nature of being a serial killer. In an effort to spare her the shame of what she’s witnessed, he kills himself leaving her with the motivation to attempt to study and cure those that habitually kill others. From the beginning, this story felt undersold as we barely spent enough time getting to understand her family dynamic and were left to make sense of Chambers’ past and present. We quickly jump back into 1984 as The Nightstalker rises from his gruesome murder at the hands of Mr. Jingles to reveal to Donna that he is, in fact, evil incarnate.
As the remaining survivors decide that two of them should take a boat across the river to find help, Margaret and Chet are chosen to which Margaret seizes the opportunity to kill Chet by drowning him in the middle of the lake. After Donna emerges with the truth of why Mr. Jingles is at Camp Redwood, Xavier chases her off in anger as Brooke also runs away after seeing glimpses of Ray wandering the camp.
This led to Brooke and Ray having an emotionally heartfelt discussion of their pasts and what they want from their futures before engaging in some awkward ghost coitus. This was character depth that came too little too late to actually matter with either of them. With Ray, his revelation of having imposter syndrome came after we saw a one-sided perspective of his background story just before his death and only confused the full image of who he really was. Brooke’s confession suffered similarly but also left room for her to actually realize her dream because, well you know, on account that she’s actually alive and Ray isn’t.
As morning draws near, Montana is finally able to confront Brooke about her true intentions towards their relationship which leads to a catfight that spills out into the main campgrounds. With perfect timing, the very kids that Margaret had been preparing for (and seemed fabricated up until that point) arrived onto camp just in time to watch Brooke murder Montana and be whisked away by the police. Oh, and Xavier was killed in a similar fashion by Margaret who once again was able to blame someone else in order to survive. The episode closes as The Nightstalker and a reincarnated Mr. Jingles speed away from Camp Redwood in what looks like to be a murderous duo of epic proportions while Xavier, Montana, and Ray are left at Camp Redwood to make sense of their new situation – some twisted form of purgatory.
Red Dawn was not a good episode. It felt rushed at every turn, which is not a concept that American Horror Story successfully manages to avoid each season but in this case, it came across as if it was compelled to close off the Camp Redwood story quick enough to pivot the remaining episodes of this season to take place in other locations. This might not be a poor maneuver as the concept of continually running for help in various buildings was getting tiresome, however, the last ten minutes of this episode seemed to be delivered in double-time to make way for the next phase of the season. This is nothing foreign to American Horror Story but it was easy to hope that 1984 would mark a change in the show’s narrative operation and direction by allowing more time to develop characters that we can actually become attached to (but this didn’t happen here).
If previous history of American Horror Story shows otherwise, we can still hold out hope that a show like this can learn to be better even if it is its next-to-last season.
PARTING THOUGHTS:
- “I have breathed the fire of 1,000 white suns” – Xavier. C’mon man, it was just set on broil
- “It’s your fault my future’s in radio.” – Xavier
- Where was this Ray a couple of episodes ago?
- The Nightstalker is bordering on becoming a farce
- Ghost Coitus…..ewww
- According to the 80s Horror Trope Handbook, Chet cannot really be dead even after suffering from these symptoms – impaled, stabbed, concussed, blood loss, adrenaline shot
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Trying my best to get all thoughts about TV and Film out of my head and onto the interweb.
