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First things first, apparently I was wrong about Sarah Paulson’s participation in this season’s American Horror Story, which was a bit disappointing but it was still nice to see Finn Wittrock back after the teaser at the end of the previous episode had us all wondering exactly who he would be playing. And it didn’t take long to find out.
The finale took a 30 year time jump from Margaret’s failed concert in 1989 to a 2019 in which no one even knew what Camp Redwood was … except for the character played by Wittrock. Finding the place in ruins, it wasn’t long before he encountered Montana and was baffled by her questions about his cell phone and what year it was. Then he recognized her and was stunned that she hadn’t changed in all those years. She tried to warn him that it wasn’t safe for him there since they hadn’t seen another living soul in years, but he said he had to stay to find out what happened to his father. Yes, Finn was playing Bobby Richter, or as Montana affectionately dubbed him, ‘Jingles Jr.’ And then Trevor appeared and the pair had some fun with Bobby trying to prove that they are indeed ghosts by asking him to kill them. He wouldn’t so they did and in something that was straight out of Beetlejuice, they were outside the door when he tried to run out. It was pretty funny. And then they related everything that had happened since that ill-fated concert.
This may have been one of the best finale episodes because while it had a lot of story to wrap up, it didn’t feel rushed, especially since most of the characters were already dead. We learned that Bruce was still trying to exceed Richard’s number of kills but was foiled by the ghosts when he was about to take Number 7. And they managed to roll him off of the camp property before he died so there was no chance he was coming back. Richard was a more difficult problem being a servant of Satan. Since he’d been resurrected already by the Dark Lord, he had the freedom to leave the camp, so the group, who over the years grew tired of all the killing and formed an actual community, had to keep killing Richard over and over again in shifts, never letting him out of their sight.
But while they may be dead, these ghosts are still horny and we finally got to see the ghost of Bertie the cook, now on her shift with Chet who apparently swings every which way. Deciding to test the waters with a more mature woman, the two were distracted and didn’t see the black mist envelop Richard and release him from the bindings. He got away and nearly killed Bobby but, even with a knife in his back, he managed to get away, directed to seek out the medical director at Red Meadows Asylum. We also learned that Trevor had stopped the concert from happening by blocking the entrance with Kajagoogoo’s bus, and Margaret had shot him three times just outside of the camp entrance, purposely so he wouldn’t be able to return to Montana. As he lay dying just a couple of feet from Montana, a surprise Good Samaritan showed up and helped Trevor across the boundary … Brooke. When Montana asked why she helped, Brooke said, ‘I’m not like you.’ That is what actually turned Montana from a vengeful killing machine to the almost hippyish peace and love entity she is now.
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Bobby makes it to the asylum and is nearly given his own padded room until he mentions his name and the director happens to overhear him. Guess who the director is? Yep, Donna. She doesn’t go into many details about how she knows his father but she does reveal that she and Brooke went to the camp so Brooke could kill Margaret (who, by the way, had also killed her assistant Courtney after bringing her the news of Trevor’s actions at the gate). As she told Bobby, once that camp gets a hold of you, it doesn’t let go and she feared that would also happen to him. But Brooke and Margaret did get in a scuffle that ended wit Margaret stabbed and Brooke shot. Donna, working with the spirits, unleashed them to finish Margaret off and the plan was for her to also get what she deserved and not return to the property.
In a hilariously gruesome scene our of Monthy Python and the Holy Grail, the spirits exact their revenge by chopping off her arms and feeding them into a wood chipper, the gore being shot across the property line. They did the same with her legs and torso saving the head for last. Fearing she would be dead by the time her head was detached, but Montana said the brain lived for about 30 seconds after decapitation so they were good. But were they?
With Brooke dead, Donna returned to her life and Bobby assumed it was she who had been sending him money all these years but Donna had no idea what he was talking about. They traced the routing number of the check to a small town in Portland and waited to see who would be making the monthly drop at the post office. They were surprised by who they saw and followed the mystery person home. Knocking on the door … Brooke answered, not looking 30 years older at all thanks to her dermatologist husband and leaving behind all those years of rage and revenge. She had been sending Bobby the money. But Donna was pissed that Brooke had never let her know she was alive, leaving her with 30 years of guilt for leaving Brooke behind. Brooke admitted she had called, many times, but never had the courage to say anything, always hanging up when Donna answered. Trying to contact Donna brought up a flood of memories of Camp Redwood and she just needed to move on. Donna wasn’t mad, she just wished she’d been a part of her life. But how did Brooke get out of the camp? Turns out Ray found her and got her across the boundary while someone in camp called for an ambulance. When she recovered, she just headed north to get away from the pain and memories.
So why help Bobby after what his father did to Brooke and everyone else? Brooke saw Benjamin as a ray of hope. He did get out of the camp, he made a life for himself in Alaska, a wife, a baby, but he got pulled back to the camp just like she did, and she didn’t want Bobby to get pulled back too. She just wanted him to be free of that awful legacy. As for Donna, she told Brooke they are bonded for life because they both got away. They are both the ‘final girl’.
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But Bobby was determined to go back to Camp Redwood and find his father. Instead he found Margaret who explained that she actually died a second before they mulched her head so she’s just been lurking around camp because, in her head, she was always meant to be the ‘final girl’. No one had seen Benjamin since he was pulled into the lake, but Margaret said she knew where he was. Bobby reluctantly followed her and was nearly murdered in the process, saved by his father who plunged Margaret’s knife into her ear. But he knew she’d be back so they had to go. But Bobby grabbed his father in a hug and Benjamin asked why he came back because he’d never been a father to him. Bobby said he was wrong, he did what any good parent would do by sacrificing himself to protect his child. He had to come back and say thank you. Ben told Bobby that he would always love him and that was all that mattered but he had to leave the camp and forget about the place. And again I have to give a shout out to John Carroll Lynch for his wonderful performance here. Taking his character from the fearful Mr. Jingles to this man who gave up everything for his son is some masterful work (and credit goes to the writers as well, and Ryan Murphy for wanting to give Lynch this big, meaty role after making him such a fixture in the series as Twisty the Clown). Hey Emmy voters. Pay attention!
And Margaret was back, stabbing Ben, allowing Bobby a chance to run. But he was stopped in his tracks by the woman in white, his grandmother. She was able to stop Margaret by slashing her throat. She told Bobby he looked just like her Bobby would have had he grown up. Seeing all the other spirits, she told them to kill Margaret, and Montana told Bobby to get out of there and never come back, but keep telling their ghost stories so they aren’t forgotten. The 80s will never die. Bobby made it out of the camp and as he stopped to catch his breath he felt, again, like he was being watched. Behind him just inside the entrance was his family, back to see him one last time and send him on his way.
I know this season, like pretty much all seasons of American Horror Story, had its fans and detractors but this was one of the most satisfying in my book. I loved the way the first five episodes paid homage to the classic and not-so-classic 80s slasher films, and then how it changed for the last four episodes and gave us a really satisfying and even emotional conclusion. I have to say this is one of my favorite seasons ever and now I can’t wait to see what Murphy, Falchuk and company have in store for Season 10 (which may … or may not … be the last).
What did you think of the finale? Sound off in the comments below!
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