AHS: Freakshow "Edward Mordrake Pt. 1"
Thursday, October 23, 2014 at 8:42PM 
AHS rips its own plotlines off for this new episode (guest starring Wes Bentley)How do you make an episode in which almost nothing happens almost half-again as long as episodes where lots of things happen? I know not but Hollywood is getting very good at it lately what with all their supersized TV episodes and two part movie finales for quadrilogies where a trilogy (or less) would do.
In "honor" of the bloating, we're going svelte with a briefer rundown .
Plot: A con artist and his protege arrive at the freakshow with nefarious plans. Bette and Dot still hate each other. Bearded Lady gets bad news. And, finally, ripping itself off completely Freakshow reboots Coven's Danny Huston plotline about a ghostly mass murderer from the past being unintentionally summoned to visit our makeshift family of weirdos.
Episode MVP: Kathy Bates. Ethel visits a doctor and learns she only has a year to live. Immediately gets hammered and then recalls her tragic story of exploitation. Special shout out to Kathy Dietch, the actress playing Ethel's younger self in flashbacks who's done a great if thankless job this season.
Musical Break: Jessica Lange sings after being conned by the newly arrived "spiritualist" Esmeralda (Emma Roberts) into believing there's still a chance for stardom. Lange has now sung twice in a season in which they've hired Patti Labelle and given her zip to do. Now, that's freaky.
Body Count: Unknown. Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley), a man with two faces, massacres an entire circus freakshow in old timey flashback before hanging himself. And a group of birds are decapitated to piss me off on my couch. Enough with the decapitated birds Miss Julie Ryan Murphy!
Movie Reference: A visual homage to a classic moment from John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) via Twisty the Clown.
Episode Grade: D+
That's it for this week but for a NSFW bit after the jump...
Best Entrance: We're introduced to six new characters: the important ones (i.e. credited famous actors) are con artist Stanley (Denis O'Hare) his protege Maggie Esmeralda (Emma Roberts), and a museum curator (Celia Weston - yay!). We also meet three characters who may or may not show up again in future episodes but are not credited on IMDb for the episode: a little girl who is scared of clowns, her brother whom Twisty abducts to add to his collection of imprisoned tortured children, and a man whore that Stanley has hired to play Viking dress up.
We'll give him Best Entrance because he looks good doing that ... and because he gets a really weird exchange with Stanley from a strange comment about a sword (Um, Thor uses a hammer not a sword) to the strangely drawn out moment when he's asked to remove Stanley's pants.
Viking Whore doesn't look pleased or scared exactly but also pauses/struggles to not register anything when he isn't quite prepared for what he sees. In Stanley's reaction shot, Denis O'Hare starts with a smug smile which quickly fades into some sort of resignation. Self-loathing? Annoyance? Indifference? It's a really weird scene if this is meant as some sort of inconsequential sex joke. Hey, it might be -- you never know in an episode with this much needless padding!
On the other hand the scene is odd and deliberate enough that at first i thought the hooker's murder was imminent. Perhaps Stanley is also a freak but if so what exactly is going on underneath his clothes? You never know in a show where characters brag about having three titties and a ding-a-ling, you know?
Reader Comments (12)
Patti's Woody Woodpecker impression was fantastic. No one kills Patti without a fight.
Other than that, i was kind of shocked at how there's so many different things going on yet nothing's happening. If Jessica Lange had to sing an LDR song, I would've gone with Young and Beautiful (which could *totally* work for her character if treated right) but I could see how they would go with Gods and Monsters. I did laugh because OF COURSE an LDR song summoned a dead man.
Plus, I kind of loved the Phantom of the Opera realness going on. A "ghost" with a disfigurement coming in with all that smoke being utterly enchanted by a woman singing. Not only that but Emma Roberts telling Elsa that a man will come to help her career is like Christine's father telling her that he would send her an Angel of Music to help her with her voice.
"and do i dream again, for now i find, the phantom of the freakshow is there! inside my mind..."
I'm really pulling, after the Reddit AMA earlier this year, that Denis O'Hare's character is diphallic. Think of the absolute FIELD DAY Ryan Murphy could have with that.
Jessica Lange's musical number was perfection.
A rather dull episode, and a lot of padding, although Kathy Bates killed it, again, as usual, with her scenes.
Ryan Murphy has been quoted as saying this, so it might not be a SPOILER but...
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one character is supposed to have a 13 inch penis. We can only hope for visual proof.
^ Yes, he said that about the character, and that Denis O'Hare was delighted. ;)
I think the plotting has been excellent this year - they're taking their time and not cramming in twelve thousand different things on top of each other; I really love this season so far. But then I adooooooooore Dandy, he might be my favorite thing this show's ever done, so I might be a little bit biased. But seriously, let's not yell at the hyper-active Ryan Murphy for not being hyper-active enough, we've seen where that can lead. And come on that scene with Kathy Bates at the doctor! So many tears. And Angela Bassett being threatened with spousal abuse! I expected to see her counting her change in the back of a limo by episode's end. And Wes Bentley's fey little Poe cartoon accent, and the wonderfully old-fashioned special effects they created his two-face with - I could go on and on listing the great things in this episode (EVAN PETERS IN THAT OUTFIT) without even getting around to the naked Viking inspecting a giant penis.
Think I'm with JA on this one. It was definitely not a plot intensive episode, but a lot of the individual scenes were great - anything with Bates or Dandy, plus that hypnotic production number. I also really liked all the Mordrake stuff - his history, his entrance, his scene with Ethel, and I'm pretty sure it's not just my resurgent Wes Bentley infatuation talking. I like the world Murphy has set up this year, and I'm happy to just luxuriate in it for an hour.
This season, AHS has built a completely immersive atmosphere where danger is truly palpable. The washed-out sunny exteriors contrasting with the technicolor sets and interiors has a disorienting effect--keeping us a bit off center and off our guessing game.
Jessica's hypnotic number spun a glittery web of voodoo, but she caught something I think she's gonna regret. I love this setup for Esmerelda to suffer Elsa's glorious wrath!
I love every single actor in this series and still hate it deeply. It's SO bad.
Emma Roberts is always very appealing on here -- she should work on translating that charisma to her film work.
Kathy Bates has no vanity! My God, she's really going for it this season. If they gave her an Emmy for a lot less last season, she'll get it again.
JA -- you have a point. i should be more patient considering the horrifying alternative.
forever/seisgrados -- awww, that's too bad that that's already spoiled too. it's like they leave no surprises on TV/Film anymore. everyone is willing to say everything before we see it.
I'm new to this post (the episode was shown here only last night) but you missed at least one more movie reference: Bette (or was it Dot) "having just washed her hair".