‘American Horror Story’ slogs through the tail end of its season as Kai builds new friends and foes as his reign begins to falter
“Because a sandwich is a sandwich, but a man-wich is a meal.”
Well guys, we’re officially in the middle of that big, fat backslide that American Horror Story runs into every season as it approaches its conclusion. It’s interesting to see how the buzzworthy Cult has slowly meandered away any goodwill as many of its viewers jumping ship. Comparisons are already being made over how AHS: Cult is towing the line for worst season yet. While I wouldn’t go that far, I can certainly understand how people have that opinion since so much of this season mucks around in the “real world.” Past seasons might have been pointless or boring when they hit their eighth episodes, but this year is different. When Winter nearly gets raped, it’s hard to not think about what’s going on in the world right now. So while this season kicked off with promise and a tongue-in-cheek sensibility about the mirror it holds to reality, the season is currently in freefall mode.
“Winter of Our Discontent” takes place a few weeks after the last episode, but there have been some rather seismic changes in that time. Ivy’s restaurant starts to become a haven for Kai’s army, as Beverly, Winter, and Ivy find themselves in the kitchen and the subject to their misogynistic ridicule. The irony is not lost on Winter and company that the female-friendly results of the very last episode are now completely forgotten. It’s frustrating to watch Kai’s army reap benefits, as they seem to embody none of Kai’s more altruistic ideals. It’s a fine parallel for how Trump brings a lot of the amoral population out of the woodwork and they believe that they have a soapbox.
However, none of this awareness makes this any less of a derivative bummer to watch. It also retroactively makes “Valerie Solanas” an even more pointless detour (so is that it for Frances Conroy, because wow, if so). Furthermore, Kai’s continued shtick of bullying his way into power is no longer interesting, it’s just upsetting. Especially when his threats reward him with his militia gaining control of the neighborhood, semi-automatics and all. I understand that the point of this season is to highlight how close this all uncomfortably brushes up against reality, but it’s turning into morose overkill as the bad guys continue to win.
“Winter of Our Discontent,” aptly enough, puts Winter in the spotlight as she needs to make an impossible decision here. Right from the start of things it’s been glaringly inevitable that Winter will have to betray Kai. Beverly and the rest of the group grow quite insistent that if they can knock out Kai, all of this madness will end. Winter reiterates that Kai is integral to their cause, but with how warped it’s become, who really cares? Even still, Winter still believes that they can help Kai find his way back onto the right path.
Obviously the group isn’t going to be able to pull off such a coup without Winter on their side and so she’s left to grapple with this choice of fratricide and whether Kai is even capable of rehabilitation. Even when Kai proposes the bonkers idea of Ivy giving birth to their Messiah with the two of them involved in a not-incest-but-incest threesome, she still follows his word! It’s only until things really get out of hand that she finally wakes up.
This season’s increasing tendency to lean on flashbacks sheds some light on Winter’s deep loyalty to her brother. Back in 2015, Kai and Ivy’s juvenile Internet trolling leads to them getting an invite from a Pastor Charles to a creepy place known as Judgment House. The whole thing comes off as a corny haunted house that’s run by a bunch of the alt-right with some help from Jigsaw, but then it starts to be clear that there’s some very real, disturbing horrors going on in Judgment House. In spite of the hackneyed nature of this flashback that borrows from many other better texts, “Judgment House” actually makes for one of the more interesting segments of the season. All of the neon colors of Judgment House help this material pop. This also seems to act as an origin story of sorts for Kai’s murders and it’s nice to see that he at least started from a place of justice before becoming corrupted.
Winter and Kai may go through some trials in this episode, but they’re not the only Anderson siblings that are out of sorts. Dr. Vincent finally comes to Kai and he claims to appreciate what his brother is doing. He’s even eager to help Kai spread his word. Kai seems genuinely happy to have won his brother’s approval, but it very well could have more to do with the fact that his big bro is now within his manipulating grasp. All of this happens to in fact be subterfuge as Vincent rallies together with Ally to take down Kai. Once Ally is able to get past how much Dr. Vincent has royally destroyed her life and what a large factor he’s been in creating this mess, the two are ready to do something.
While it was certainly nice to get a break from Ally last week, this new, confident version of her is leagues better. Now that Ally’s sure of her sanity and has a reliable sounding board, she’s actually able to do more than scream and be manic. It’s a little heartbreaking to see that Ally ultimately uses Vincent for ammunition, but she’s likely still holding him responsible for Oz being gone. It’s still unfortunate to see him have to go and there being yet another innocent victim this season. Ally doubles down on the bad-assery as she invites Kai over to dinner to parlay a deal. Early in this season I hypothesized that maybe Kai was actually elaborately trying to help Ally by getting her to conquer her fears. That wasn’t his plan, but it’s still inadvertently kind of come true. Ally points out how all of Kai’s manipulation has actually rid her of her many phobias and now she’s invincible, so to speak.
“Winter of Our Discontent’s” final scene is a lot to take in. There have been many episodes this year that have had their final act set in an execution chamber of sorts, but this time it’s particularly vindictive. I’m just happy that Beverly conveniently didn’t have to die, as she continues to say exactly what needs to be said and remains one of the few bright spots in this hole. The big reveal during the episode’s final seconds is sure to make some people groan or even laugh, but as dumb as it is, maybe an “awoken” Ally will topple this whole empire in the end. Valerie Solanas may get her vengeance, yet!
Kai says in one of his many speeches of nothing that when the circuit is complete, the power will flow. Well, there are so many gaps in this circuit that power is just leaking out. Here’s hoping it can fix it.
2/5
