From the very first instalment , American Horror Story : Apocalypsehas felt like a return to rare form for the series — in with child part because this season incorporates a number of character from previous seasons , but also because this story has always had a singular focus . Theapocalypse is coming(or is already here ) , and it ’s something no one wants except for the Antichrist .
While many of us were sell on the idea that this American Horror Story was give way to comprise each and every previous time of year of the series , it ultimately boil down to being a encounter between thewitchesof Coven and the newly - adult spawn of Satan we first met in the show ’s first season . Wild as that assumption is on paper , it ’s worked ( and then some ) on the screenland , and last Nox ’s finale , “ Apocalypse Then , ” was a arresting reminder that , as tiring as American Horror Story has sometimes been in the past , there ’s still a fuckton of legerdemain to be mined out of the enfranchisement .
The beauty of American Horror Story : Apocalypse is just how planned out and capsulise the entire season has been — something that becomes readily apparent as the events of the season ’s coda unfold . What start as a drab story about a gaggle of weirdos doing their damnedest to survive in the world after an all - out atomic war finally became a rather absorbing testing of the nature of king structures , and the idea that power is something one must be willing to relinquish for the sake of the greater goodness .
With Michael becoming strong enough to kill enchantress and overlook human race to obey his will , the coven understands that the only possible way to save the world is to travel back in time to prevent Michael from ever ascending to power . But knowing that Mallory is the newly - ascendent Supreme of the coven is what makes their fight against Michael so perilous . As per the rules of American Horror Story ’s conjuring trick , a Supreme can only truly come into her office once her predecessor is dead . But Cordelia Goode is still very much alive and understandably wants to persist so , partially because of her care of what ’s to come in the afterlife , but also because she has the deep desire to champion her fellow crone until the very end .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNd0Jr6H4Ro
Sarah Paulson ’s performances have always been a consistently rattling aspect of each season of American Horror Story , but there ’s an emotional depth to Cordelia ’s story in this particular sequence that feels trenchant : Her death is the one thing that might just give humanity a fighting chance to be saved . While she does n’t speak it in this particular installment , that ’s a conception that makes you call back just how ego - soak up and harmful Fiona Goode ( her mother , limn by Jessica Lang ) was while she was live . While Fiona reveled in the big businessman that comes along with being the Supreme , Cordelia recognizes the responsibilities that come along with the deed of conveyance and the need for her to be willing to give herself for the greatest of commodity — a quality of true strength and leadership .
Before the episode gets around to its gratify climax , it also direct one of the debatable view of the season , share with race in a way that ’s adequate part surprising and satisfying . Coven ’s plot explore the feud between the coven of preponderantly white-hot witches and Marie Laveau ’s group of black adult female who practice voodoo is something that never quite factor out into Apocalypse , give that the consequence of her original season left Marie trapped in hell .
In Marie ’s billet , Apocalypse introduced Dinah Stevens as the new reigning vodoun queen and , sinewy though she is , her part throughout the season was mainly to act as an antagonist towards her fellow witches , which came across as petty and pocket-size - minded feed the season ’s interest . Once again , Dinah opt to align herself with Michael in his net face-off against the witches , but in what can honestly be describe as one of the best television twists of the season , Cordelia explains that Dinah ’s front is all part of her own great architectural plan to bring Marie Laveau ( and , hem , Angela Bassett ) back to the human race of the living .
In her own final battle with Michael , Cordelia willingly stab herself in the chest , a fateful blow that enable Mallory to tap into her true power and figure herself back in fourth dimension to a point before Michael was fully cognisant of his own destiny . Because this is a finale , of course Jessica Lang reprises her role as Constance Langdon , Murder House ’s original antagonist , and we see that even she was ineffective to tolerate Michael ’s ( her biological grandson ) presence .
For all the pain and suffering Mallory and her fellow witch move through for stop Michael , the way they end up quit him is decidedly campy in dependable American Horror Story mode . Mallory perpetrate up to Michael ’s menage , run him over with her motorcar , back up up , rolls over him again , and then makes sure to do it one more time to ensure that he ’s a mutilate mess when she drives away . He dies , the future change for the better , and the world … well , it ’s saved . For the time being , at least .
On the whole , American Horror Story has never really coquette in narration with felicitous endings , but Apocalypse ’s finale was a break from chassis . Even though the show ’s been regenerate for multiple seasons ( meaning that more bad shit is become to happen the world ) , Apocalypse gave a number of the series ’ franchises a fitting closure that retrospectively enriches the seasons we first fit them in . For all of American Horror Story ’s failings , Apocalypse come to remind us all why we first latch onto the show in the first season , and in a truly wizard direction , breathed newfangled life into the series that ’ll leave you at least partly activated to see what happens next .
Angela BassettHorrorRyan Murphy
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