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It’s not the end of the season, but it is the end of ‘Red Tide’, Part 1 of this American Horror Story: Double Feature, and the lingering question is will it be as unsatisfying as almost all of the final episodes of AHS have been? As great as the show can be, it always has a problem sticking the landing. Since this part of the season is just six episodes and has a smaller cast than usual (credit to the pandemic for that), there aren’t too many loose ends left to tie up after the loss of three main characters in the previous episode. And at just 37 minutes, minus commercials, this has to be one of the shortest AHS finale episodes ever.
We start with a gruesome discovery in the bay as a trawler is about to head out to sea. Believing they are going to come across Karen’s body, the captain of the boat actually discovers they have hit the body of the police chief. The state sends Trooper Jan Remy (hi, Dot-Marie Jones!), to bring this matter to the town council, stating that she is there to investigate a murder. And none of them seem to care, with chairman Martha Edwards telling Remy that this is just ‘winter stuff’. Once the weather turns warm and the tourists return, everything will be back to normal. Unwilling to just drop a murder case of a fellow officer, Remy is told point blank by Holden Vaughn that if she persists, then the matter gets into the papers, and it makes its way to the New York media and the next thing they know ‘the gays’ will stop coming to the island. They depend on the summer to pay for the winter and this police officer is not going to jeopardize that. After she leaves, Holden promises Martha that he’ll take care of the situation.
And he goes straight to Belle, Austin and The Chemist, warning them to clean up their mess or the next thing they know all the curbs in front of their homes will be painted red. Belle and Austin blame those ‘Hollywood people’ for stirring up trouble, and for that man giving his own daughter the pills (prompting Belle to wonder if the QAnon ideas that those people are satanic baby killer is really true). But feeling the hammer about to come down on them, Belle hatches a plan.
Harry, meanwhile, announces to his daughter and Ursula that they are off the pills for good. He’s written five years of material in a few months, and his latest opus is a crowning achievement he can never top. But Alma isn’t to thrilled with the news since this will affect her violin career. Harry assures her that she was good before she took the pill and she will be good after, and she says she’s okay with that. But the expression on her face says she’s not. Not even Ursula can change his mind. But Harry discovers the back door looks to have been broken up, and racing upstairs he finds baby Eli missing, a note in his bassinet from Belle demanding an audience with him and Alma … or the baby dies. Ursula says she’s not going but Harry and Alma must, but she has a plan.
While they go to Belle’s house expecting to be murdered, Ursula heads to the cemetery to try to reason with the pale people, telling them she has a new and improved pill that will restore them to how they were before they became what they are now (interestingly, we didn’t see Doris among the group). While Harry is trying to prevent Belle from feeding on the baby, they are all surprised when the pale people burst through the doors and windows, and in quick and gruesome fashion tear chunks of flesh out of the necks of Belle and Austin. Fearing they’re next, Harry is surprised to hear gunshots and get splattered with blood. Ursula arrives in the nick of time to finish off the pale people, commenting that they were all dumb enough to fall for her spiel. The Chemist has saved the baby, and now Harry believes they can return to their normal lives. Alma has a different idea and attacks and kills her father. She and Ursula are going to pin all the carnage on Harry.
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Three months later, Ursula, Alma and The Chemist are living the high life in Hollywood, but there has been a spate of police officer involved shootings of other police officers … who have themselves become pale people, attacking innocent tourists in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard. Seeing the latest incident on the news, The Chemist reveals to Alma that she’s been giving the pills to the officers with the worst human rights records, doing her own little part for Black Lives Matters. Alma isn’t sure that’s the best use of her talents but whatever floats her boat.
Alma has an audition for first chair with the Los Angeles Symphony (after feeding on a street hustler Ursula brought home for her), and impresses the panel enough that it’s down to her and an older young man named Rory. He tells Alma she’ll never get the job because her age will make her the center of attention, and people will only come to a performance to see her, and that the symphony can never play a piece that doesn’t have a violin solo for her. Alma is a liability, and even though she knows she’s better than Rory, she feels that he may be right. So … when the panel comes back with their decision, Rory has gone, stepped out for a smoke according to Alma. But they find his body at the bottom of a stairwell, his neck ripped open.
Ursula needs more clients and is the special guest at a scriptwriting seminar where she gives her pitch about this little black pill she has that will unleash their creative juices. The man conducting the seminar, Jack Krenski, is apoplectic with what Ursula is doing, saying he was not aware that she’d be handing out these pills. She quickly put Jack in his place, remidning him that he’s only sold one script in his entire career — a failed Orion Picture Stallone flick in 1988. She asks the group if she’s going to listen to this hack or to the agent who is on the top in Hollywood. They all take the pill. So does Jack. But …
There doesn’t seem to have been any talent in that room as The Chemist and baby Eli sit in the car, watching Hollywood devolve into pure chaos. It seems that perhaps Ursula did not make it out of the room, and we have no idea where Alma is. The Chemist tells the baby that it’s time to move to the next city, create a new pill that might make them live forever, and that ‘mama’s here’. Ursula narrates the final moments, noting that history won’t remember most of them, but at least they’re now leveling the playing field and that at least the pills can show the public exactly who has real talent.
So, not a terrible ending, but a little too ambiguous for my tastes. But maybe this and next week’s ‘Death Valley’ will somehow come together in the end? You never know what to expect with American Horror Story.
What did you think of the season premiere? Sound off in the comments below!
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