Holy Freaking Clowns! Last week’s episode of “American Horror Story: Freak Show” was a shocker. Twisty is gone; taken by Edward Mordrake and his merry band of dead freaks. The good people of Jupiter are celebrating. They think they’re safe but, Jimmy, Maggie and you, my dear lot lice, know the show ain’t over yet. Is there a clue in that cup of coffee the cop handed Maggie? Oh, yes there is!
Specimens
The American Morbidity Museum is hosting an event; a night of discovery; a revealing of human anomalies. Museums survive on the special events that they host to bring in sponsors, new members and publicity. The museum I worked at, The Academy of Natural Sciences brought in the crowds with traveling exhibits featuring live animals. Our neighbor, The Franklin Institute with Body World and our other neighbor, the Mutter Museum… well that little gem has all the human anomalies you’ll ever want to see, every day of the week. The people who built the set for the Morbidity Museum might have used the Mutter Museum for inspiration.
Stanley (Denis O’Hare) has big dreams. He intends to have his pick of anomalies from the sideshow and sell them to the Morbidity Museum. There is one little problem. They’re not dead. He weaves a tale of stardom for both Elsa and the twins, separately of course. While Elsa is upset that Stanley is looking for acts for television and not MGM; she thinks television a passing phase, Dot and Bette are ready to star on their own musical series; The Tattler Show.
We get to witness just how Stanley plans to do in the twins and hence the title of tonight’s episode; pink cupcakes. Bette takes a bite of the poisoned confectionary and dies. Dot is next by Stanley’s hand.
Momma’s Boy
At the Mott Estate, Gloria (Frances Conroy) is puzzled by Dora’s (Patti LaBelle) late delivery of breakfast. Dora won’t be making any more meals for that wack-a-doo family. She’s deader than a door knob thanks to Gloria’s sociopathic son. It seems that Dandy’s lust for blood runs in the paternal side of the family; like father, like son; inbreeding to keep the money in the family has had a bad side effect.
Gloria is very talented at hiding her son’s bloody mishaps. Does she send for a psychiatrist to treat Dandy? No, she just has the gardener dig a trench for her flowers and the body. Another one of Dandy’s horrid acts hidden. I’m wondering how many trenches that gardener has had to dig over the years. Dandy wants to be an actor. He exercises and makes acting faces. He’s a freaking nut case.
Desiree
Tonight we had the pleasure of seeing a bit more of the talented Angela Bassett as Desiree Dupree, and learning her backstory. After Jimmy’s search for Dell leads to a spur-of-the-moment grab fest for him and Desiree, she’s in need of a doctor. Ethel Darling takes her to the kindly town doc, who tells them some shocking news. Desiree had a miscarriage. Yes, indeed! Desiree is really a woman and her ding-a-ling and triple delights are a side effect of too much testosterone. Desiree is not only all woman, but she’s able to have children.
Dell who is very much in love with male prostitute, Andy (Matt Bomer of the “White Collar” series), isn’t too happy with the news that his wife is not a man. Dell, we find out, is only with Desiree because she had a ding-a-ling.
Conclusion
Tonight’s episode was more about the women and the bad things done to them by the men they love. Maggie is a con artist and she knows that Stanley plans on killing a few specimens to make money, but she’s fallen for Jimmy (Evan Peters) and he for her. She tries to warn him about Stanley. I’ve watched Evan Peters grow as an actor in the four seasons of “American Horror Story.” No matter what part he’s given each season, he is always my favorite character. This year he looks manlier; more grown up.
Thankfully, for Bette, Dot and we viewers, Stanley’s plan to feed them poisoned pink cupcakes fails because the girls are watching their caloric intake, but they are not out of danger yet. Elsa upset that her song did not wow the crowd, delivers the girls to the Mott Estate. She’s jealous of the attention they received from Stanley.
Back in the 1950’s a gay man had to hide his same sex preference from the public. One way to do this was to marry a woman and have a family. Dell is gay, but he likes Desiree just as she is. Not because he loves her, but because he thought she was a man. He pays a visit to the kindly doctor who will perform the corrective surgery to make Desiree a complete woman and, crushes the doctor’s hands.
Gloria receives a call from Dora’s daughter Virginia. I was wondering when Gabourey Sidibe would make her anticipated entrance. Gloria asks Virginia, who grew up in the estate and with Dandy, if she was a good mother. Virginia tells her that she doesn’t remember Gloria ever being there. Nannies raised the bad seed. Gloria, like most rich women, didn’t dirty her manicured hands changing diapers; that’s for the hired help to do. Maybe, that’s the reason that Dandy is busy killing another unsuspecting victim and someone dear to Dell; say goodbye to Andy.
Clues are all over the place, my little lot lice. Ryan Murphy, the show’s creator, said in a recent interview that there is a connection between all four seasons, and the upcoming fifth. That top hat on Maggie’s coffee cup and on the restaurant’s menu is one, and Pepper (Naomi Grossman) is another, but we’ll have to wait for more clues to figure it all out.
