American Horror Story – Could It Be… Satan?

By: Kelly Kearney

On this week’s “American Horror Story” we are blessed, or maybe cursed, with Michael Langdon’s backstory and how he landed in a school for exceptional boys and eventually went on hunting for witches. Tying together the storylines from Murder House, Coven and now Hotel, the episode goes back to the pre-apocalypse days when Cordelia, Myrtle and Zoe’s positions of power were under threat from their fellow Warlocks and their new golden boy, Michael.

Devil Mama

Last week we learned that Miriam Mead (Kathy Bates) was not only a robot but she was molded in the image of someone who Michael Langdon (Cody Fern) loved and trusted. This led to Mead turning on her partner in crime, Wilhelmina Venable (Sarah Paulson), by putting a bullet in her chest under the orders of her creator and controller Langdon. The story continues with Michael giving Mead a peek into their past, a past he blocked from her programing for her protection…or so he claims.

In a flashback we find out that Ms. Mead was a Satanic foster mother who killed three of her husbands and now makes poisoning jokes over dinner with her pride and joy Michael. Mead is the one person whose been loyal to Langdon and his darkness so the two are close, like any Devil Mama and son of Satan would be. After an argument with the local butcher (David Atkinson), who refused to sell Mead a goat’s head for her Satanic ritual, Michael loses it and murders the man with his own cleavers. Defending his Mama lands him in the local jail on murder charges, but his destruction doesn’t stop there. The detective (Brendan McCarthy) investigating his crimes is gruesomely beaten by some unseen and malevolent force until his head literally explodes like a smashed watermelon. The jailhouse murder was all caught on tape and manages to make its way to the Hawthorne School for Exceptional Boys. This tucked away, underground school for male warlocks resembles Mrs. Robichaux’s Academy but with a hyper masculine spin. Hawthorne, which actually is the current Outpost Three, is run by a council much like the Supreme and her witches run Mrs. Robichaux’s. Like the girl’s school in Louisiana, Hawthorne is led by Grand Chancellor Ariel (Jon Jon Briones) and he is fascinated by the video of Michael’s powers. The other warlocks who sit on the board, like Chablis (Billy Porter) and John Henry Moore (Cheyenne Jackson), fear Langdon is dark and uncontrollable but Ariel wonders if Michael is the Alpha Warlock mentioned in their ancient prophecies. The Alpha will rise to power and defeat the Supreme catapulting warlocks from second class witches to the leaders of the planet. To say these men are jealous of female power would be an understatement and the Chancellor hopes that Michael is the answer to their prayers. He heads to the jail to talk to Langdon and it’s not long before he breaks the teen out of jail and whisks him away to the underground boy’s school where he is welcomes with open arms. After a month, the shortest time in the school’s history, the Council of Warlocks decides to test Michael’s powers to determine what level of warlock he is. A level 4 is the highest rank for magic wielder and while the group thinks Langdon might be one, they themselves have never seen a level 4 warlock. If he is indeed a level 4, the Chancellor will have good reason to ask Cordelia (Sarah Paulson), The Supreme, to put him through the Test of the Seven Wonders.

Devil Boy Gets a Gold Star

Testing Michael’s magic skills goes better than the warlock’s thought it would. Not only does he crush each obstacle presented to him, he almost kills all the sitting board members while doing it. The first two tests go smoothly with Michael far exceeding their expectations but when asked to turn water into snow, Michael’s powers turn deadly. What was a simple magical task of water to snowflakes turns into an inside blizzard so ominous it almost freezes all of his superiors to death. While the majority of the board thinks Michael is a loose cannon who can not control his powers, The Chancellor sees Michael as the key to stealing the throne from Cordelia. In fact, the warlocks call a meeting with the witches who are none too pleased to be summoned to the sweat sock smelling underground locker room known as Hawthorne, especially since Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) was testing the magic skills of three new recruits who appear to be extremely powerful. Cut to the present and when Cordelia wakes Coco (Leslie Grossman), Dinah (Adina Porter) and Mallory (Billie Lourd) and we learn that the Supreme put them under an identity spell for their protection. It’s clear the talented witches Zoe was testing are the three undead women in Outpost Three.

Back to the flashback and dressed in their finest black, Zoe, Myrtle (Frances Conroy) and Cordelia enter the Hawthorne school to discuss Michael. Ariel breaks the news that he thinks he found the mythical Alpha which sends the witches on a feminist tirade over the very real fact a man can not be powerful enough to usurp the power from the Supreme. Something about his testosterone blocking his ability to master witchcraft sends Ariel into a dramatic huff and he accuses Cordelia of only caring about her girls and not the witch/warlock community as a whole. He even tries blaming her for the death of Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) and that’s when the pieces of the “AHS” universe start to fall in place. Cordelia tried saving Queenie from the Hotel Cortez, a place she claims is a hell mouth and the devil’s playground. As hard as she tried, she could not rescue her voodoo doll witch from the clutches of the evil that controlled the Cortez. Leaving Queenie behind was her greatest failure as a Supreme, as heartbreaking as when she administered the Test of the Seven Wonders to Misty Day (Lily Rabe) that ended in the poor woman’s death. When Ariel demands she put Michael to the same test, Cordelia refuses to sentence the boy to a similar fate. Meanwhile, Michael’s eaves dropping on the entire meeting and the wheels in the devil boy’s head start turning.

Hotel Cortez

Convincing the Supreme to give up centuries of female power to a teenage boy will take a show of power like the witch world has never seen. Where Cordelia failed, Michael must be victorious, so he heads to the Hotel Cortez to collect Queenie. At first the witch is wary of the blonde haired, blue eyed boy who’s promising her a ticket out of Hell, but he proves to be legit when Queenie’s card playing partner James March (Evan Peters) tells her she better leave with him. March can feel the evil vibes rolling off of Michael so Queenie does what she’s told and together they walk out of the Hotel Cortez’s door.

Queenie wasn’t the only ace up Langdon’s sleeve. He also finds Madison (Emma Roberts) in her own version of hell – a big box Wal-Mart knock off store where she constantly has to deal with angry customers assuming she is Lindsey Lohan. It is a fate worse than death for the former actress but one she earned says Queenie. “You’re a stone-cold bitch and you’re exactly where you belong,” asserts Queenie. After Michael declines her desperate come-ons (not a lot of sexy times in Hell), he walks Madison and Queenie back to the Hawthorne school just as Cordelia, Myrtle and Zoe are exiting to leave. Flexing his magical abilities in the face of the Supremes’ greatest failure is too much for Cordelia as it literally knocks the wind from her witchy sails. The head witch falls down in shock as Queenie, Madison, Zoe and Myrtle try to revive their Supreme with Michael looking on with a devilish smirk. He’s proven his power is worthy of the Test of the Seven Wonders and it seems Cordelia knows she’s not dealing with your run of the mill Alpha Warlock. Michael Langdon is an evil so dark and all-encompassing it can only mean one thing…The Antichrist is here and none of them are safe.