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After the previous two seasons of American Horror Story that divided and turned off fans completely (that would be ‘Roanoke’ and ‘Cult’), the series seems to be going for a sort-of reset to lure disappointed viewers back with a new season that promises to be one of the series’ biggest crossovers yet, bringing together the seemingly unrelated ‘Murder House’ (Season 1) and ‘Coven’ (Season 3). And after watching the first episode, many viewers are scratching their heads wondering how this will come to be.
That’s because the season premiere, aptly titled ‘The End’, literally begins with the end of the world as we know it. Major cities around the world are hit with nuclear missiles, plunging the world into chaos, death and nuclear winter. So how do the storylines of Seasons 1 and 3 work into this? It’s unclear at the moment, but American Horror Story has always been one of those shows where you have to get through the set-up of the first episode — since every season starts fresh — before you know where the story is going.
Right at the beginning we’re introduced to many familiar faces, most of them from ‘Cult’. Leslie Grossman and Billy Eichner are paired up again. Grossman plays socialite Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt, and when we first meet her she’s having her hair done by Mr. Gallant (Evan Peters), with her assistant Mallory (Billie Lourd) at hand. Everyone’s cell phone alerts sound off with the warning of an incoming ballistic missile. Coco gets a call from her parents in Hong Kong telling her to get to Santa Monica airport to a private jet reserved for their family. The call is cut short when Hong Kong is destroyed. Coco and Mallory make it to the plane, and Mr. Gallant and his Nanna (Joan Collins) also show up having overheard the conversation. Brock (Eichner) is stranded in traffic, so Coco releases him from their ‘contract’ telling him that they are now free to see other people. Yes, this season is working to be a bit more comedic, however dark the humor may be. We are left to assume Brock does not survive the blast.
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Less than an hour before the blast, we are also introduced to the Campbell family. Timothy has just learned he’s been accepted to college when the warning comes. And with that warning, two agents from ‘The Collective’ arrive, SWAT team in tow, to take Timothy to safety as he’s been targeted as genetically predisposed to survive the nuclear holocaust (thanks to a DNA ancestry submission). The rest of his family is not so lucky. Timothy is taken to a shelter where he meets Emily, just minutes before the facility is rocked by the blast.
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After the dust has settled, the two are taken to an outpost, a former boys school buried deep underground. Although that seems to be a strange location for a school. The facility is run by Mrs. Wilhelmina Venable (Sarah Paulson), assisted by her right hand Ms. Miriam Mead (Kathy Bates). There are a few others who have been designated as the elite (or ‘The Purples’ based on the clothing they are to wear while in the shelter): actress Dinah Stevens (Adina Porter), Andre (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) and his parter Stu (Chad James Buchanan), along with Coco, Mr. Gallant, and Nanna Gallant. Poor Mallory has been relegated to being a Gray, one of the ‘worker bees’ who tend to the facility and the Purples. (And only because Gallant refused to do Coco’s hair if he was a Gray). Mrs. Venable has one hard and fast rule — no unauthorized copulation.
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Life below ground consists of sitting around and listening to the same song over and over again, ‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft’ by The Carpenters, and eating meals of jelled cubes which are said to contain all of the vitamins and nutrients they require. And they have enough sustenance to keep them going for 18 months. Maybe. Venable actually has a second rule — no one is to leave the facility lest they bring a stray radioactive isotope back inside. Someone has apparently violated that rule and Ms. Mead scans the guests with a Geiger counter, targeting Gallant and Stu as the potential carriers. After a thorough (and violent) scrubbing, Gallant is clean but Stu is still radioactive, leading Mead to shoot him in the head right in front of Gallant.
Surprisingly the group’s next meal is — stew. And the stew has some odd bones in it, even though Venable claims it’s chicken. Andre finds what he thinks is a finger bone and comes to the conclusion that the stew is Stu, but Nanna Gallant doesn’t care because it’s delicious (and the first real meal they’ve had since arriving). It turns out Mead just turned up the settings on the counter which can make anyone ‘seem like Chernobyl.’ And it seems Venable and Mead have some sort of personal relationship beyond co-workers as the two don some purple clothing of their own, even though Venable claims to be beyond that class. The two seemed to be like kids playing dress up, knowing they’d be in big trouble if they’re caught.
One day the music suddenly changes to ‘The Morning After’ by Maureen McGovern giving the group hope that if they just ‘hold on through the night’ and ‘keep on looking for the light’ they’ll be able to leave the shelter. But to what? After 18 months, nuclear winter has set in, and the other outposts have been breached and overrun by whatever is still living in the outside world. And then a mysterious young man arrives, apparently from The Collective, flashing a badge with the name Michael Langdon (Cody Fern). And the bells and whistles go off for the longtime viewers of the series.
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Langdon is the grandson / adopted son of Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange), biological son of Tate Landgon (Evan Peters) and Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton), last seen at the end of Season 1 when Constance left town with the child. There was obviously something … special about the boy, and now here he is all grown up, coming to evaluate The Purples to determine which ones will be taken to a new, safer facility and which will be left behind to suffer the same fate as his horses (which were suffering radiation sickness and dispatched by Mead, tossed over a cliff where something below dragged them into the woods). But there is a chance all of them will make it, but Michael hasn’t revealed any details as to how that determination will be made (nor how he’ll get everyone back to the other facility since he no longer has horses). And that’s where the premiere ends.
So … are you on board or did you find the first episode frustrating? There certainly are a lot of puzzling things presented here, namely the Victorian-Gothic chic wardrobe worn by The Purples, not to mention Michael’s horse and carriage straight out of Dracula. And why should we care about any of the people, aside from perhaps Mallory, inside the shelter? None of them have come off as particularly pleasant, but at least love seems to be blooming for Timothy and Emily, one kiss at a time. But how does all of this tie into ‘Murder House’ and ‘Coven’? For the uninitiated, Michael Langdon is assumed to be the Anti-Christ so is he there to truly save those deemed worthy, or is he taking them all straight to Hell? Which may be a better place than they are at the moment. We know we will see the key cast members from the past seasons — including Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, Taissa Farmiga, Emma Roberts and the other Coven members, Frances Conroy and, yes, Jessica Lange — but in what context? Only time will tell.
What did you think of the season premiere? Are you on board with the concept, will you wait it out to see how it comes together or have you thrown up your hands and given up? Sound off in the comments below!
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