‘American Horror Story: Freakshow – Episode 9’ Review
Stars: Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Frances Conroy, Michael Chiklis, Denis O’Hare, Even Peters, Emma Roberts, Minn Wittrock, John Carroll Lunch, Patti Labelle | Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk
This episode starts with Dandy getting a reading from Maggie, who tells him more or less that everything will be OK. After he tips Maggie $100, Dandy leaves only to be confronted by Jimmy, still drunk and mourning Ethel’s death. Ending up with his face in the dirt, Jimmy is threatened by Dandy, who is looking to take everything from him for taking the twins away, and after Jimmy fails to perform for the desperate housewives of Jupiter, Dandy turns up on their doorstep.
Elsewhere the twins are found by Stanley and Elsa, who tell the twins that there’s a group of Jupiter citizens hunting freaks and that the twins need to go into hiding in a barn (one we’ve seen before). Stanley also tells Bette and Dot that he’s arranged for the doctor who performed the op on the Brody twins to come down and work on them, leading the two to discuss their true feelings about each other.
As with all Dandy-centric episodes, I love it. I love the range to calm and calculating, to psychotic, to utterly charming and high bred. By far one of my favourite TV characters (as you might have guessed if you’ve been following my reviews), every time I see him my attention peaks up a bit. However, even with his brilliance, the interaction between the Twins really stole this episode, and their realisation of their love for each other. Sarah Paulson outdoes herself in this episode and tugged on more than a few heartstrings.
Brushing aside Paul being able to now fully walk around in no pain whatsoever as if he was never knifed in the gut by his boss/former lover, we also have Dell planning to commit suicide with guilt for killing Ma Petite and his hidden homosexuality (which he indulged with Stanley) and taunted by visions of Ethel. It’s an interesting development, but again with the twins and Dandy’s madness, it’s more filler for an already packed episode.
With 4 episodes left to go and a lot of storylines to resolve, I’m eagerly anticipating how this is all going to work out. I’m secretly hoping Dandy kills everyone in his Twisty mask in one big blood fuelled rampage, or at least Stanley so he gets his comeuppance, but I have a strange feeling that might not come to pass. Either way, I’m excited about this show again and looking forward to the rest of the season.
***** 5/5
