The plot thickened on last night’s American Horror Story: Freak Show, as the pieces are being laid in place for the conflicts that will ostensibly drive the season. Or being that this is American Horror Story, conflicts that will drive the next couple of episodes before Ryan Murphy is like, “Oh look! There’s something shiny over there!” One thing I forgot to mention in last week’s recap was the scene in which the freaks all fell upon the body of the detective seemed like a nod to the ending of Tod Browning’s film Freaks. This week’s episode contained a much more heavy-handed nod as all the freaks gathered around the table chanting “kill the copper” which was I guess the closest thing they could come up with to “gooble gobble.” Good thing no one investigating the detective’s disappearance was around at the time, LOL!
RIP Really Stupid Toy Store Employee
What’s this? A blood trail with a creepy wind-up toy robot walking through it? I should definitely investigate further instead of RUNNING LIKE THE WIND since there’s a serial killer on the loose and my boss is the sole business owner refusing to close up shop. We all knew this kid’s ass was toast the second he told the diner waitress that “Mr. Hanley says we stay in business even though we haven’t seen a customer in days,” but come on. THERE IS A SCARY CLOWN AND HE IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU WITH A KNIFE. Oh for f*ck’s sake, I give up.
Del Toledo Is The “Happiest Man On Earth”
Strongman Del Toledo and his three-boobed wife Desiree Dupree were finally introduced in last night’s episode. Because literally everyone on this show is a murderer, Toledo and Dupree came to the freak show in part because they’re on the lam from Chicago because Del killed some perfectly nice gay man who was trying to cure himself by having sex with his hermaphrodite wife, which sounds reasonable to me. I was a little confused as to what parts were going where in that scene, but that’s okay.
Hey, Nice Clown! I’ll Just Bring Him Home To My Total Sociopath Of A Son
Two episodes in and I’m already perpetually confused as to why people aren’t alarmed by a gigantic dirty clown covered in dirt and blood, wearing what appears to be the scalp of a lesser clown and a horrifying smile mask. There’s a serial killer on the loose, but no way this guy could be a suspect! Everybody loves a clown, right? Good thing Twisty had the foresight not to kill Gloria Mott right then and there, so he could help cure her son’s serious medical condition of nearly turning to dust with boredom. On that note, I would like to point out that last week I stated how excited I was for Twisty the Clown to horribly murder Dandy Mott, and now they’re well on their way to bromance. I still think there’s at least a 50% chance that Dandy Mott will die at the hands of Twisty the Clown, but in the meantime this certainly is an interesting turn of events.
Also was anyone surprised that Dandy Mott drinks cognac out of a crystal bottle? I wasn’t.
Can We Just Get Pepper Some F*cking Meatloaf Already?
Because Jimmy has appointed himself the Martin Luther King Jr. of freaks (don’t call them that), he decides that a good idea would be to take them all to the diner for a fun day out on the town. This was not a good idea. Paul the Illustrated Seal, who I hope never dies because I love him, starts eating the abandoned food of another customer who leaves in disgust and Pepper starts losing her sh*t over meatloaf. Then Del shows up and beats the crap out of Jimmy, who does not yet know that Del is his father who tried to murder him as a baby — despite having uttered the line dripping with foreshadowing about “knowing what it’s like to have grown up without a father” earlier in the episode.
A Word About Ms. Bates Accent
During the premiere of Freak Show my husband started bitching about the otherwise wonderful Kathy Bates accent, and at the time I ignored him because he’s the type of person who will dislike someone solely on the ground he thinks they have an annoying laugh or something. But no, after having watched the second episode, I will concede that this accent is not very good. What the hell is going on here? It sounds like a mixture of Canadian, Midwestern and Southern at some times, and then like something out of Twin Peak’s Black Lodge at others. Please tell me her accent is somehow a plot that still needs to be introduced, because otherwise I’m as a loss.
Twisty The Clown Is Not Very Good At Giving Presents
Even though he’s a horrifying, murderous garbage clown, I’m starting to feel kind of bad for old Twisty. It seems like what he really wants is companionship, or possibly an audience? Unfortunately he still needs to learn that you don’t make friends with salad disembodied heads of toy store employees who you’ve recently murdered. You know what else you don’t make friends with? A GAPING, ROTTING HOLE IN YOUR FACE. Homeboy needs to kidnap an oral surgeon.
RIP Meep :(
Jimmy learns the hard way why you don’t play a player and gets poor sweet chicken-head biting Meep arrested by trying to frame Del for the detective’s murder — which he would have easily been acquitted of since he didn’t even arrive into town until well after the fact. Oh well. Speaking of dumb decisions, when the police bring Meep into the station, they concede that he probably wasn’t the one who committed the murder, but “probably knows who did.” Excellent theory, now let’s toss him in with the general population who will in no way beat to death a tiny murderous freak. High fives all around.
Now It’s Dot’s Time To Shine
This week’s musical number featured Dot singing Fiona Apple with a traumatized Bette, complete with moshing and crowd surfing, because I guess that happened in the 1950s. Just roll with it. Elsa’s motivation for bringing Dot and Bette to the freak show was of course to draw people out to highlight her own act, so this new revelation that Dot can actually sing is a game changer — coupled with the fact that Del, who had effectively taken over the freak show, has Bette and Dot billed higher than Elsa. This has also affected Dot’s ego in that she’s now transformed from the personality embodiment of a cat with tape stuck to its feet to a much more pleasant narcissistic diva. On the plus side I am very interested to see how a knife fight between conjoined twins with two heads turns out.
