'American Horror Story:Coven' 3.09 "Head" Review
The first two seasons of American Horror Story dealt almost exclusively with a contained setting be it the infamous murder house populated by both the living and dead, or Briarcliff Manor the torturous mental asylum at the center of last season. Part of the reason why Coven seemed so exciting at first had to do with the idea of several locations and of several factions of an impending witch war. It didn't take long however for the show to spend way too much time with a set group of characters at Miss Robichaux's Academy and short-change a number of other characters and stories introduced in the first couple of episodes. Throughout the winter finale, 'Head', a number of these backseat storylines were given the chance to shine but this late in the game is it enough to save what's been a fairly weak season of American Horror Story?
There are four episodes left when the series comes back in January and there still isn't a great deal to be excited about plot-wise this season, but perhaps that's because Coven is being treated more as a showcase for its characters than for its overall story. At this point, there's little reason to care about the Supreme mystery, or how the war on women witches will end when both plots seem to have fairly forgone conclusions. While there have been shocking acts this season, the conclusion of most storylines have actually been fairly predictable. What worked best about this episode was how it decided to just give us scenes that worked on their own to entertain, enlighten and build character. The exposition scenes involving The Corporation couldn't hold a candle to the fabulously macabre revenge Myrtle Snow put forth against former Council members Pembroke and Quentin. Now more than ever American Horror Story is committed to giving us more memorable moments than a traditional plotline. Frankly that's what made this episode one of the better ones of the season.
That said, if you do still care about the Supreme mystery storyline it seemed as though they subtly dropped one hell of a potential game-changing hint tonight. This is something I started to notice when the promotional photos for this episode came out that while Myrtle looked like Hell warmed over last week...this week her skin looked far better. Not only that but she is now capable of some extremely delicate magic when she gave Cordelia back her sight with the 'donated' eyeballs. Myrtle raved about the hippie swamp witch who knew nothing of what she could fully be capable of, and she claimed to Fiona that there were secrets in the flames the likes of which no one else could know of. It makes one wonder if the witches that have died and been resurrected are indeed on another level than they were in their first lives. It's similar to when Buffy died and was brought back that another slayer was called up in her place. I wonder if we're dealing with a scenario where because Misty's ability seems to shift the rules it's also creating a scenario where if witches are rejuvenated by her then they become something far more powerful. A potential spoiler for the entire coven structure of one Supreme ruling over all. It would be highly amusing if because this woman came into their lives that they were able to cast aside the old ways in favor of a modern coven where power is shared and very potent throughout its members. An entire coven of Supremes taking their line to the next level.
It's especially clear at this point that the women must join their considerable forces together
in order to survive. The metaphor of achieving ultimate sisterhood in a male-dominated and predatory world is pretty heavy-handed this year as evidenced by the cold open of young Hank and his father on their first hunting trip together. An exercise in showing that all kinds of hatred is learned, not naturally felt as we see later on with Hank's continued issues with his particular family business. In fact the entirety of The Corporation storyline exists to give the ladies the only kind of enemy they could truly put aside all their differences and their egos aside for--men who wish to quash the existence of women with power. If you remove the pretense of magic and other tenets of the occult from the story then this is basically a group of men who do not believe women should be allowed any inkling of stature that could put women above them--that is simply unthinkable. Due to the fact that The Corporation seems entirely male-driven it is then to Marie LaVeau's eventual peril what happened when she became involved in their misdeeds since the show considers her actions as having turned against her own kind--women not tribe or coven--an ultimate sin. She was put into the position of a woman that didn't consider the bigger picture and now that a man has destroyed her world embracing the idea of the sisterhood is the only thing she has left. When I mentioned above that a foregone conclusion is likely with this storyline I'm referring to the consequences of this team up. It likely will be that only together these women will be able to defeat their enemies...and then have plenty of time to return to back-stabbing one another.
Ultimately that's the thing about this show taking on too much of a preachy overtone with its thematic issues. They want to have it both ways and this was especially evident in the scene of Hank's slaying of Marie's tribe while elsewhere Delphine seemed to have a breakthrough in her bigotry. It always seemed as though both sides would suffer great casualty once the witch-hunters took control of the battle. It also was extremely uncomfortable to watch especially the attempted juxtaposition of this slaughter with Delphine's tears of regret. If you consider this as objectively as possible then Hank's violent rampage was a necessary evil in order to push story forward in the final episodes. Marie is a character who will be important to Coven and at this point in the war she needed to be joined with other people with power. Focusing on the visual of it however is a far harder thing to forgive. Whoever made that decision in the editing room made a mistake as this came off another mixed message for a major Coven theme. It was as though the white woman realizing she was wrong held some kind of profound triumph to be found within it while just downstairs mass murder occurred purely as a means of getting from point A to point B of the Coven story. I had a feeling that drawing the initial battle lines along sides of race would lead to something like this and I don't think that just because Marie seeks sanctuary with the 'white witches' (her words) that people will just let the massacre of so many African-American characters slide. Let's hope that Misty Day makes a house call to Cornrow City or there will be an even bigger issue here with this creative choice.
For the most part however, the winter finale held the kind of excitement to it that's been missing for most of the year. I can't wait until January to see what Ryan Murphy and his team have these amazing performers do next even if the season three plotlines themselves aren't much to anticipate on their own. Now that we're this far into the season it's for the best to try to sit back and enjoy the glamorous lunacy unless they get pushy with the themes again because part of what made season one a batshit wild ride was the fact that the themes of adultery, family, and forgiveness didn't overpower the stories they were given to play out in. So let's hope we get more over-the-top then soapbox in the coming episodes.
Posted by Keysha C. at 10:47 PM
Labels: American Horror Story, American Horror Story:Coven, FX, Reviews, TV
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