Plot: A deadly carny superstition causes the freaks to refuse to perform on Halloween. Ethel (Kathy Bates) finds out some news that changes everything. A woman claiming to be a fortune teller arrives at the show. Dandy (Finn Wittrock) plays out his new role with his clown friend.
Normally I watch and review American Horror Story episodes in advance but I was told that this season would be different. With Freak Show, there would be certain episodes that would not be sent out to reviewers. We will not know which ones or when but, this latest episode, “Edward Mordrake: Part 1” would be one of those episodes. There was no explanation given as to why it will be this way, so my assumption, based on what little I knew of the episode, was that tonight’s episode would involve something huge. My assumption was correct.
Wes Bentley joins the cast as Edward Mordrake, a freak from the mid 1800’s with a face on the back of his head. The face whispered to him, things only he could hear and, despite many attempts to kill it, the face wouldn’t die. He was institutionalized and escaped, only to join a freak show. When the people only stared at him in fear, Edward snapped and murdered every freak in the show one Halloween night.
Performing on Halloween only draws the ghost of Edward Mordrake out with murderous results, which keeps the freaks from agreeing to perform when the Tattler twins suggest dedicating Halloween night’s show to Meep’s memory.
Emma Roberts is Maggie Esmerelda, a phony fortune teller who joins the freak show in order to have easy access to the freaks. She and her partner, Stanley (Denis O’Hare) are con artists, who have been given a generous offer should they deliver new pieces to a museum of oddities. Her powers of observation and manipulation easily land her a job with Elsa (Jessica Lange), who wants nothing more than to be the star.
Jimmy (Evan Peters) has an infatuation with the beautiful Maggie, much to the dismay of Dot (Sarah Paulson), who is in love with Jimmy.
Twisty (John Carroll Lynch) finds himself a new victim in the form of a trick or treater.
Elsa performs my favorite Lana Del Ray song, which I recognized immediately from the tiny teaser of the tune played during Maggie’s reading. I literally sat straight up in bed and said “Oh my God…she’s going to do Lana!” Despite the extreme censorship of the song for cable and Elsa’s rough German accent, it wasn’t a horrible performance.
Performing on Halloween, however, calls upon Edward Mordrake, who cannot leave until he takes the life of a pure freak to join his ghostly freak troupe.
Wes Bentley is fantastic as Mordrake. The only thing I hate is that his character isn’t a permanent one. I cannot wait to see more of him next week.
Emma Roberts playing innocent just comes off as bad acting. I prefer her as the bitch character like in Coven. It just seems to fit her better, as if she isn’t trying as hard.
Dot is really proving herself to be the bad twin. I feel horrible for Bette more and more with each passing episode as Dot gets more and more mean towards her. If only Bette could do something about it without harming herself in the process.
Kathy Bates steals the show as Ethel, who finally has a bigger role in this episode. As hard as she is to look at, she really is a good person, trying to do right and give her son a decent life to the best of her ability.
This week’s episode is the build up to the, no doubt, insane episode we have coming at us next week. Someone is set to die with Mordrake’s arrival next week but there are no clues given as to who it will be. We only know who it will not be. I would love for it to be Dell (Michael Chiklis) but that seems too obvious and easy. If I had to give a guess, I would say it will be either Amazon Eve (Erika Ervin) or Desiree (Angela Bassett). I suppose we will find out next week.
Rating: 7/10
===========================================================================================================================================
Ann Hale is the horror editor for Pop-Break.com and a senior contributing writer, reviewing horror movies and television shows. She is also the American Correspondent for Lovehorror.co.uk. Ann attended East Carolina University, majoring in English Literature. She is a collector of Halloween (the film) memorabilia and is a self-admitted opinionated horror nerd. You can follow her, her collection and her cat, Edward Kittyhands on Twitter and Instagram @Scarletjupiter
===========================================================================================================================================
