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On American Horror Story: Apocalypse, it’s the end of the world as we know it, but it doesn’t seem like anyone is feeling fine. There are pretenses, of course, but it seems the only two survivors who are at least accepting of the situation, and willing to play along to protect their own hides, are former talk show host Dinah Stevens (Adina Porter) and Evie Gallant (Joan Collins). The arrival of Michael Langdon (Cody Fern), an alleged representative of The Cooperative, has given the group a senes of hope … and dread because there’s a chance that not all of them will be whisked away to the safety of a highly fortified bunker now that all the others have been breached. That notion is not lost on Mallory (Billie Lourd).
But some are becoming restless in the bunker, none more than Timothy (Kyle Allen) and Emily (Ash Santos), whose feelings for each other a growing every day. And not only are they growin attached, but they are growing suspicious of all the goings on especially now that Langdon is there. The first clue that something is afoot is the appearance of snakes in Emily’s room. Where did they come from if everything on the outside is dead or dying from the nuclear blasts? Did they just burrow far under the ground and find their way into the ventilation system? Whatever the cause, Ms. Mead (Kathy Bates) welcomes them as a new source of protein. None of the assembled ‘guests’ are too keen on eating snake soup, but they don’t have to worry about that as the snakes magically reassembled themselves and sprang back to life. Where they went after slithering away is anyone’s guess but I’d be sleeping with one eye open from now on.
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But perhaps there is another snake in their midst, one that walks on two legs and is promising them safety. But only if they meet his requirements to be worthy of saving (and Coco is none too pleased that she spent $100 million for the chance that she’ll be left behind). Langdon will question each of those left in the bunker and Mr. Gallant (Evan Peters) volunteers to go first, something he may eventually regret. The questioning reveals more about Gallant’s character and his relationship with his Nanna — he hates her guts. She’s never really accepted him. She disapproves of his homosexuality, but even more, she resents the money she’s spent on him to keep him out of trouble, including three stints in rehab and the bankruptcy of three businesses. Gallant would love nothing more than to see Evie dead, and frankly, she feels the same way. But during the interview, Gallant reveals his proclivities to more extreme sexual gratification and wonders aloud if Langdon himself is gay. That promptly ends the session, but Langdon promises they will continue at another time.
Gallant believes that time has come when someone shows up in his room — the Rubber Man from season one! Gallant thinks it’s Langdon and the two engage in some rough sex … which Evie spies as she hears the sounds of passion coming from her grandson’s room. She wastes no time in reporting the unauthorized fornication to Ms. Venable (Sarah Paulson), and she and Ms. Mead take Gallant to a sort of torture chamber where Gallant is lashed for refusing to tell them who he was with. That ends rather quickly when Venable looks down and realizes Gallant is enjoying the whipping. They leave him shackled and Langdon appears, telling Gallant that he would not fuck Gallant if he was the last man on earth, which he very nearly is. That cut to the bone more than the whip did. But if the Rubber Man was not Langdon, who was it?
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If you remember back to season one, aka ‘Murder House’, the Rubber Man was eventually revealed to be Tate Langdon, played by Evan Peters. Tate was a ghost bound to the house but he was able to impregnate Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton) who bore a son Michael, the child of a spirit and a human, a supernatural being who may be the Anti-Christ. But in the AHS universe, a ghost is bound to its location but for one night, Halloween, and we know the next episode takes place on that special day. So is the Rubber Man once again the spirit of Tate Langdon, and if so, does that mean Evan Peters was literally f-ing himself?!
Whatever it means, the Rubber Man paid another visit to Gallant’s room and he once again believed it to be Langdon. He even went along with the rough foreplay, throwing the rubber-clad figure on the bed and jumping on top. But he surprised his partner with a sharp object to the heart, several times. But when Langdon appeared at his door, Gallant looked back to the bed and saw … Nanna, apparently quite dead now. But is this more of Langdon’s influence? We don’t know yet if what we, and Gallant, saw was real or not yet but I hope this isn’t the end for Joan Collins.
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There were a couple of other key events this week:
- During Venable’s interview, Langdon asked her to disrobe to reveal the one thing that makes her most uncomfortable. Being the prude she appears to be, it seemed like he just wanted to make her vulnerable by undressing her, but pulling the zipper of her dress down revealed what looked like a hump on her back, possibly a spinal deformity which would explain why she walks with a cane.
- Timothy and Emily found a somehow working laptop that belongs to Langdon, and on it they discovered Venable’s rules about no copulation are entirely her own, not The Cooperative’s. She’s playing her own game at the Outpost and that’s also one of the reasons Langdon is there. She never expected anyone from The Cooperative to visit the outpost, so she’s made her own rules and that may come back to bite her in the ass.
- Timothy and Emily take the chance to have sex since the one kiss a week rule is no longer working for them. Of course they are discovered by Mead and dragged to the torture chamber, but they fight back and in the process Mead is shot … revealing that she may not exactly be human, as we see a blinking light inside and strange white liquid leaking from her wound. It reminded me of Ash and Bishop from the Alien films when they were revealed to be robots
- While this episode was titled ‘The Morning After’, the radio’s song choice for the survivors was ‘Time in a Bottle’ by Jim Croce, which later changed to ‘Gold Dust Woman’ by Fleetwood Mac fronted by a very distinctive Stevie Nicks… who of course is part of the witches coven from season three, and who will make an appearance this season.
- Evie tried to pass herself off as 52, to which Coco replied, ‘You were 52 when Elvis took his last shit!’
- If there’s no infrastructure due to the blasts, and one would assume all electrical grids would have been fried as well, how does Langdon have a working laptop and what is it connected to … not to mention what powers it?
Within the first two episodes we’ve had a lot of references to season one, so with the third Halloween episode, can we expect to finally have some ‘Coven’ crossover?
What did you think of this episode? Who is the Rubber Man this time? Sound off in the comments below!
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