AHS: Apocalypse, ‘Sojourn’ Review: A Bizarre, Painful Hour of Television

American Horror Story — hell, Ryan Murphy’s entire body of work — has been a bizarre balancing act between tones and genres that either works incredibly well or, more often than not, works for a bit before taking an embarrassing fall. But tonight’s episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse took this thread to new lows. Tonight’s episode, “Sojourn,” was a true disaster on every level, as the writers and cast tried to create a campy tone but ultimately proved to embarrass themselves repeatedly for an hour.

Once again utilizing an unnecessary flashback structure, this week’s episode focused on Michael’s uprising as the Antichrist — a transformation delayed, largely because he was hung up on his mother’s death. After failing to summon Satan in the woods, he loses his faith in The (Dark) Lord, stumbling into a religious service for a group of devil worshipers and scoffing at their beliefs. He’s eventually, however, inclined to reveal himself — especially after one worshiper seems to have something he’d like.

This entire first act of the episode is one joke repeated, ad nauseam. The writers clearly think it’s hilarious that the Devil worshippers do the exact opposite of stereotypical Christians, whether that be by committing terrible acts to feel better about themselves, or belt out the theme song from The Omen as a hymn.

But these jokes feel immature and silly, especially when they’re stacked on top of each other with no room to breath. Comedian Sandra Bernhard turns in a terrible performance as the head priestess of this congregation — though, the dialogue she’s given do her no favors. Through some of her lines, we see that even the Satanists hate Trump, and fear global warming, but these lines of dialogue feel like desperate attempts to seem relevant.

But nothing could prepare us for the second act of tonight’s episode, which somehow makes the first half seem like a camp classic. In this segment, Michael meets two Satan-worshiping, drug addicted tech bros who design high-tech sex toys whilst sporting bowl cuts (no, I’m not kidding). These characters, played by Evan Peters and Billy Eichner, are recruited by Michael to design a robotic version of his mom — the same character we met at the start of the season, now with far more Oedipal overtones than was initially made clear. These 30 minutes are so bizarre, and make so many ill-advised creative choices, that it almost feels like a hallucination, or a fever dream.

AHS‘s broad characterization of tech bros is so cartoonish that it never quite lands, with dialogue so cringe-inducing that it becomes the scariest thing of this season by default. Peters and Eichner use every possible euphemism for masturbating and having sex within their brief onscreen appearance, and virtually none of it lands. This also marks Peters’ worst miscast on the show since his turn in Freakshow, and it remains to be seen why Ryan Murphy insists on casting Eichner as a series of misogynistic straight men this year, but he should stop.

Another terrible moment finds these two bros snorting cocaine from plastic measuring cups, which doesn’t even seem possible but, furthermore, turns the film into a Jim Carrey movie for some unknown reason. And, most disturbingly, this episode’s sole “horrific” moment found a nameless female character, whose sole purpose is to sexually gratify both men, is killed off in a brutal way for a cheap laugh. For a show that seems so interested in being a progressive series with important messages, the writers could afford to learn more about intersectionality.

The sole bright spot of “Sojourn” is Sarah Paulson’s brief appearance at the end of the episode, where she reprises a former role from earlier in the season. While her appearance feels random, she’s a welcome presence in this horrible hour of television. Paulson is an absolute master at reading AHS’s tone, and she somehow manages to shift mid-scene whenever needed. She’s too good for this show.

Apocalypse has been a mixed bag, with far more camp than the series is used to, but a story that seems to really be going nowhere. This was a painful hour of television to watch, made even more upsetting by the fact that it did not further the overall arc of the season at all. With only two more episodes left, American Horror Story better kick into high-gear soon — otherwise, it might stand out as the worst season so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I10xJ1DONXI