Last night’s episode of American Horror Story: Freak Show, “Pink Cupcakes,” was not very good. This was a concern of mine going into the episode, which felt very disjointed and all over the place, after last week’s excellent “Edward Mordrake (Part 2)” — that sadly wrapped up major storylines and killed off the season’s main antagonist just four episodes in. (Although Ryan Murphy says he’ll be back, as we mentioned earlier this week.)
I wasn’t a fan of the fantasy sequences, which were clunky and confusing as to whether or not they were flash forwards or just Stanley’s wishful thinking. To me it felt like, hey, there’s not a whole lot happening in this episode so here’s some stuff that could happen. Haha J/K Bette and Dot weren’t really dead, but we sure made you think they were! Foreshadowing character deaths that don’t actually happen is a cheap way to elicit shock out of viewers.
Plus, it made me question whether or not other scenes in the episode were based in reality, such as the dismemberment scene — which I’ll get to shortly — and Elsa’s performance getting heckled. Neither of those scenes made sense in the context. At the end of the last episode the townspeople were seen rejoicing at the freak show, so their gratitude must have been pretty short-lived if they returned later that night to heckle and throw sh*t at the performers. Was it just Elsa’s insecurities manifesting, or did that really happen?
On the plus side, Gabourey Sidibe is back! So hopefully we’ll be seeing more of her next week.
Dandy Is Not Good At Telling Lies
When Gloria comes down and finds the body of Dora on the floor, Dandy is like, “Oh no! Someone’s broken in and killed Dora!” But Gloria’s not having it. Which introduces one of the few interesting tidbits of last night’s episode, that Dandy’s absent father was also a murderer. Whether he was apprehended or disappeared on his own is still unknown. Ryan Murphy really seems to enjoy the trope of offspring of serial killers growing up to be serial killers themselves.
Esmeralda Attempts To Warn Jimmy
Esmeralda is clearly not on board with Stanley’s plan to murder everyone in the freak show and sell their bodies to the Mütter Museum, and obviously she’s in love with Jimmy but can’t be with him because she’s a fraud. This whole plot contrivance is being held together with Elmer’s Glue, at best, as it seems all too obvious that Esmeralda or whatever the hell her real name is will eventually turn on her partner.
Desiree Is All Woman
Which one of Shakespeare’s tragedies is about a guy who tries to sleep with his stepmom who he doesn’t really know is his stepmom after getting rebuffed by his true love and then he accidentally miscarries his half-sibling? At any rate, after almost doing the deed with her husband’s son and suffering a medical emergency, Desiree — who has somehow never been to a doctor in her life — finds out that she’s not a hermaphrodite after all, just a woman with an “enlarged clitoris.” *Google Image searches “enlarged clitoris”*
Oh. So That’s Why Del Can’t Get It Up.
I guess in hindsight it makes perfect sense both why Del is attracted to women with, err, manly features but then still can’t get it up for them because they’re still just women with manly features. And if you thought we were going to get away with just one salacious homosexual character this season, you obviously forgot this was Ryan Murphy we’re dealing with here.
Dandy Has Gone Full Murder
Where do I even begin with this? So Dandy has decided that he’s a full-blown murderer now, and while it made sense that he killed Dora, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to his second victim. Of course, other than that it’s a super convenient plot contrivance to frame Del for the murder of his lover, since they were last seen arguing at the secret gay bar. Is Dandy going after the gays because they’re considered deviants of society and their murders won’t be taken seriously? Or does he have some personal vendetta, as suggested in the scene in the school bus? A back story would be helpful here, because “Let’s have Dandy kill Del’s boyfriend because that will move the narrative forward” isn’t cutting it for me.
As I mentioned before, the dismemberment scene was also confusing. Did Matt Bomer really wake up after being stabbed in the back and chest like twenty times and having his arm cut off, or was that a fabrication of Dandy’s quickly dissolving grip on reality? And more importantly, did no one ever tell him you’re not supposed to dissolve bodies in a bathtub? That’s Murder 101, there.
Elsa Gives Dot And Bette The Boot
Jessica Lange’s Elsa is by far my least favorite Jessica Lange American Horror Story character yet. Fiona, Jude, and Constance were all evil to varying degrees, but at least they were cunning about it. Elsa’s very clearly getting played and her way of dealing with it is getting rid of the twins. Which, by the way, telling full-grown women that they’re being taken out for a beauty regimen and then dropping them off at some random person’s house doesn’t really work the same way you’d tell a small child they’re going out for ice cream and then taking them to a dentist. But I don’t know, for some reason they go along with it, if the previews for next week’s episode are any indication.
(Gifs via lost-ruins and Wir Sind Alle Freaks)
