American Horror Story – Forbidden Fruit

By: Kelly Kearney

The wait is over! After two weeks of teasing the viewers, the WITCHES HAVE ARRIVED! Madison (Emma Roberts), Myrtle (Francis Conroy) and The Supreme herself, Cordelia (Sarah Paulson), make their way to the Outpost after a tragic attack on the survivors that was all part of Venable and Mead’s diabolical plan. This was an episode full of glamorous parties, surprising discoveries and a resurrection from the dead that only a Coven could summon.

The Firestarter

We open on Michael Langdon (Cody Fern) holding interviews to decide who would make the ultimate survivor. Right out of the gate, it’s clear the Antichrist isn’t looking for people who are pure of heart to lead the human race, but those who have darkness lurking deep inside of them. Michael feeds off their darkness – the more awful, the more delicious and one by one he questions the greys and purples while testing the lengths they would go to steal a seat at the Sanctuary’s table. Maybe it’s being locked underground knowing everything and everyone you loved is gone or maybe it’s the cannibalism, but the survivors are starting to turn on each other. Andre (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) thinks his mother Dinah (Adina Porter) is too selfish and unworthy of this new life. Gallant (Evan Peters) has conveniently forgotten he killed his Nana (thanks to some mind games from Langdon) and Coco (Leslie Grossman) is far too shallow to be the kind of evil he is looking to rebuild the world on. Only Mallory (Billie Lourd) gives Michael a reason to delve deeper into who these survivors are when he pushes her to find herself. Mallory admits that she doesn’t know who she is but often feels like there is “a stranger inside of me trying to claw its way out.”  Sure, this stranger is so tired of being Coco’s personal slave, butt wiping and all, but the more Michael tries to touch on her anger towards the heiress the more Mallory backs away. It’s only when Michael pushes her beyond her limits do we see what Mallory is really capable of doing. Feeling trapped by Langdon and his relentless questions, Mallory’s anger ignites a room of flames that knocks Michael clean off his feet. Immediately, he demands to know who she is, these powers she has, while shocking to her, shock him even more since they rival his own. Without answering his question, Mallory runs from the interrogation, stunned over her fiery abilities.

A Carriage Full of Fruit

After his encounter with Mallory, Michael wants answers as to who this fire-starting Grey truly is. In a pentagram made of his own blood, he summons his father for answers. It seems Michael wasn’t choosing the best survivor but killing off a certain threatening bloodline that he assumed were all dead. Now that Mallory showed her true self, Michael is wondering if she could be one who slipped through the cracks. Covered in blood and chanting to his Devil Dad, Michael gets his answers in the form of a nest of poisonous snakes emerging from the blood smeared circle. It’s an omen that cannot be missed, the devil is in the Garden of Eden and the survivors are being hunted by his bastard son.

Speaking of survivors, Mead (Kathy Bates) the robot, meets with Venable (Sarah Paulson) and the two get on the topic of Miriam’s loyalty to the Queen of the Outpost as well as her programmed memories. Mead might not be human, but her memories certainly are real. Like the first time she went trick or treating as Rosie the robot from “The Jetsons” or her first date with a creepy boy from town and even her first kill as a government assassin that ended in a blood bath in the suburbs of Maryland. What stands out the most for Miriam Mead was a blonde-haired boy that she felt incredible love for but was never able to recognize his face. As a robot, Miriam never felt the love of a family, but Venable reminds her that she is her family and her duty is to protect her all the way to the Sanctuary, for which incidentally Michael said Venable wasn’t fit. Miriam is shocked by this news and the two women start to devise a plan to ensure they both make it through to the end. Mead starts plotting ways to fix her boss’s situation and wonders if they can kill all the survivors, Michael included, could they confiscate his computer and locate the Sanctuary? As long as they make it through the radiation and monsters outside the Outpost’s walls, they will be the lone survivors. After all, Mead is a robot and Venable is too mean to die. It’s a winning plan and since their options are kill or be killed, they both agree it’s their best course of action. It’s a heartless and selfish plan that will play out during an All Hallows Eve party and Venable is practically giddy with anticipation.

The party planning is cut short when the Outpost’s alarms go off indicating someone might have breached their protective barrier. Outside, a carriage whizzes past Brock (Billy Eichner) who managed to survive the fall out (although he’s seen better days) and is now searching for Coco and the shelter he knows she’s hiding out in. After killing a few cannibals snacking on a human leg, Brock follows the horse drawn carriage to the Outpost gates, a carriage that we soon learn is filled with apples. More biblical symbolism cluing us in that there is a war brewing between good and evil.

Inside the Outpost, Venable takes a bite out of the red juicy fruit thinking it’s a sign from the Cooperative about what’s waiting for them in the Sanctuary. Mead sees the apples as divine intervention and the key to their plan. After all, what’s a Halloween party without a little bobbing for poisoned apples?

Honey, I’m Home!

In need of some privacy to plot their party murders, Mead orders the Outpost guard (Erika Ervin) to tend to the carriage horses. While she’s outside, Brock makes his move by sneaking up to the guard and stabbing her through her protective suit. He lets the radiation do the rest, as he enters the Outpost with the dead woman’s electronic badge.

Inside everyone gathers to hear Venable’s news. After some careful consideration for all they’ve been through, the Outpost will be throwing a party. Attendance is mandatory and Venable expects them to wear a costume and treat this celebration as if it would be their last. After Stu’s Stew and the endless competition to make it to the Sanctuary, the survivors are excited about having a little fun and all head to their rooms to start planning their looks for the soiree. Coco has Gallant working on her aerodynamic hairdo while Mallory takes more abuse from her boss over the likelihood that she won’t be on the list of Michael’s chosen ones. The Grey is still shaken up over her fire-starting abilities and mentions it to Coco and Gallant, who assume the young woman has lost her mind. Coco even demands Mallory show her by lighting the fireplace ablaze, but when the assistant can’t summon her flaming magic, Coco laughs and orders her back to work.

After Venable hilariously upstages Coco’s costumed entrance, the festivities kick off with some music and dancing. They each pair off with a partner and Coco’s sashays her way to a mystery man who she assumes is Michael cluing her in that she’s been chosen for the Sanctuary. The mysterious masked man is silent and doesn’t let on to who he is, but after Coco makes him a sexual offer he can’t refuse the two wander upstairs to her room. On her knees and unbuckling his pants, the man’s voice rings familiar to the heiress and she pauses in horror. That’s right, her boil covered, radiated boyfriend Brock is alive and he’s so angry that Coco left him behind that he takes out a knife and stabs her in the face! The woman falls to the floor dead just as the party guests start bobbing for apples downstairs. Miriam notices not all the survivors are there, but the plan is already underway and both the robot and Venable have no idea that Coco and the Outpost guard are already dead.

Each apple is saved until the last survivor has bobbed for their prize. In unison, they raise their fruit in the air and all give thanks to gifts they’ve received. One by one, each of them take a bite out of the fruit as we find out that Mead took Langdon’s séance snakes and milked them of their poison and then injected it into the fruit. Death is quick, with all of them vomiting and foaming at the mouth as the poison makes its way through their blood streams. With the survivors all dead, Michael is next and the bot and her boss make their way to the Antichrist’s room where they find him waiting for them as if he knows what they’ve done. Of course, the evil man was hoping that Venable would show her true murderous colors, proving that she is the one true survivor worthy of the Sanctuary. News that she won this demented Hunger Games doesn’t change Venable’s plans and she orders Miriam to shoot Michael. With her gun raised, Michael stares Mead down until she turns the gun on Venable and blasts her in the chest! Miriam quickly finds out that she was under Langdon’s control the whole time. Not only that, but she was built as an homage to someone very important to him and that’s why Miriam can’t remember the faceless blonde-haired boy! Everything he did was to protect her…or so he says, but since when is the Antichrist so altruistic? Mead might be important, but she is not the reason he was determined to wipe out an entire planet just to end a certain bloodline. There is more to this story than the devil boy is letting on.

Coven

With bodies littering the floor of the Outpost, the doors fly open to reveal our beloved witches and their Supreme. Madison, Myrtle and Cordelia look fabulous dressed in black and it seems the radiation has had no effect on them whatsoever. The women cast a spell to search for who they call “our sisters” and it’s not long before they find a very dead Coco, Dinah and Mallory. With a whisper of air, Cordelia breathes new life into their bodies and resurrects the three from the dead. Madison saunters over to Mallory with her favorite greeting, “Surprise bitch! I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.” Indeed, we did, Madison…indeed we did.

Are the witches the “good” that’s been destined to defeat Michael’s evil? Was it their witchy bloodline that Michael was hunting all along? Where is Jessica Lang and can these witches raise all the dead? Find out next week when the Coven meets the Antichrist on another horrifying “American Horror Story: Apocalypse.”