Why All The Holes?

American Horror Story: Cult Recap and Review

Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of The CW Torch. So, we are about half-way through Season Seven of American Horror Story: Cult. If you read my "Most Anticipated TV Shows" blog-post, then you know that AHS: Cult made it onto that list. I was really intrigued by this season's theme, which is centered around fears and the current Trump Presidency/Election. However, as we are about half-way through the season, I will say that I am a bit disappointed in yet another season of American Horror Story. I've stated before, that Season Six of AHS, was not my favorite. But, I decided to add Season Seven to My Most Anticipated list, because I was hoping that it would be better than the last. While Season Six, American Horror Story: Roanoke, was just a mix of a whole lot of confusion. Leaving us with more questions than answers, by the end of the season. Season Seven, seems to be a season of predictability, which is why I am not all that into this season. I will continue on watching this season. But after the finale, I am not sure if I'll be continuing on with American Horror Story. And that's simply due to the fact, that I've just been completely disappointed in the last couple of seasons. It is a sad thing to say, because I have been so invested in American Horror Story, but sometimes shows just go on for too long, and need to end. Which is what I think needs to happen to American Horror Story. But, before I let go of AHS completely, here is a little recap of the last four episodes of Season Seven.

Episode Two: "Don't Be Afraid of The Dark"

• After Winter (Billie Lourde) takes Ozzy to see the murders of their neighbors, Ozzy begins to have night terrors of these clowns. Just like his mother Ally, which scares and worries Ivy.

• In the premiere, we saw Kai Anderson get beat up by a group of immigrant workers, after taunting them. Somehow, this jumping becomes a news headline, and Kai uses it as a platform for his campaign.

• Shortly after Ally and Ivy's neighbors are murdered, a new couple moves into that house. Harrison Wilton (Billy Eichner) and Meadow Wilton (Leslie Grossman), become Ally and Ivy's new neighbors. We find out that Harrison is actually a gay man who has an obsession with beekeeping, and Meadow only married Harrison, because they promised they would marry each other if neither of them were married by the age of 35.

• As Ally and Ivy get used to their eccentric neighbors, a break-in happens at Ally and Ivy's butcher shop, where there head chef has been killed.

• Ally's fears become more prominent after the break-in, and as a peace-treaty Harrison and Meadow give Ally a gun, from their collection, as protection.

• Kai Anderson shows up at Ally's house to get her vote for his campaign as City Council, but she does not trust him.

• At the end of the episode, while Ivy is working at the Butcher Shop, Ally and Oz are attacked by the clowns. In protection and fear, Ally accidentally shoots one of Ivy's employees, thinking he was one of the clowns. She did not realize that Ivy sent one of their employees to their home.

Episode Three: "Neighbors From Hell"

• Episode starts with Dr. Rudy Vincent (Cheyenne Jackson), in a therapy session with one of his couples. The wife, has a fear of being trapped in a small spaces, and let's Dr. Rudy Vincent aware that she has overcome her fear. After the therapy session, the couple returns home, and are attacked by the clowns. The clowns kill the couple, by trapping them in a coffin, the wife is literally being murdered by her worst fear.

• Protestors protest Pedro's death, Ivy and Ally's employee, outside of their restaurant. Ally is afraid to go into the restaurant with Ivy, so she waits in the car. But is interrupted by Kai, again, and promises Ally that he will dissuade the protestors and delivers.

• The Wilton's accuse Ally of Cultural Appropriation, as they are wearing Sombrero's. Later that night, a truck sprays green gas all around Ally and Ivy's neighborhood, which disturbs Ally. As they try to stop the truck driver, Ozzy's new Guinea Pig is killed in the microwave. Ally assaults and accuses the Wilton's of killing Ozzy's new Guinea Pig, after giving it to Oz as a gift.

• Oz finds footage of Ally being seduced by Winter on the internet, which devastates Ivy.

• Afterwards, Kai interrogates Harrison and Meadow, separately. When Harrison reveals his desire for Meadow's death, shortly after he reveals that Meadow has gone missing. And Harrison blames Ally for her disappearance.

Episode Four: "11/9"

• The episode starts off on voting day. Ivy and Ally are at the poles, and Ivy seems more excited about voting for Hilary Clinton than Ally does. Ivy obviously votes for Hilary Clinton, but Ally votes for Joe Stein. At the same time, Kai brings in a man who is extremely hurt. It just so happens to be the same man, who was working at the grocery store during the premiere. The man is a Trump supporter, and Kai makes sure that he gets his vote in. After voting, the man throws his sawed off arm in the air, and yells "Trump's America…"

• Kai hires Harrison as his personal trainer, shortly after the voting day, and eventually convinces Harrison to murder his boss. Who treats Harrison like dirt, because of his status as a gay man.

• Later, Kai takes special interest in Beverly Hope (Adina Porter), a news reporter, and offers her "equal power" in his quest for domination. He sends his cult to kill her rival reporter, Selena (Emma Roberts), as proof of his dedication to her. We find out that Selena has only gotten her stardom, because she's been sleeping with their boss.

• The day before the election, Ivy goes to a political rally where she is sexually assaulted by a man named Gary, who happened to be the same man from the election polls who sawed off his hand. Winter comes to Ivy's rescue and the two have lunch shortly after, this is before Winter eventually becomes Ozzy's babysitter.

• That night, Winter and Ivy chain up Gary, and abandon him in an abandoned building to prevent him from voting the next day. Winter tells Kai about what she's just done, and Kai comes to Gary's rescue. Offering a saw to Gary an hour before the polls close, and he subsequently saws off his hand.

Episode Five: "Holes"

• Kai's cult is growing in numbers, as Beverly lets Kai aware that her boss is compromising the footage of the clowns, and thereby hindering Kai's campaign.

• In order for this not to happen, the Cult break into Bob (Dermot Mulroney) house, filming their murder of him. The Cult includes: Kai, Beverly, Winter, Harrison, Detective Samules (Colton Haynes), Ivy, and Beverly's cameraman, RJ (James Morosini).

• Beverly believes that RJ is the Cult's weakest link, and let's Kai aware of her issues with him. Kai forces his Cult members each to shoot RJ's head with a nail-gun, to eventually kill their weakest link. Ivy struggles with this, but eventually still shoots RJ in the head, to prove her dedication to the Cult.

• Ally's fear of holes heighten, when Ivy and Oz leave her. She ends up finding Meadow in a burial site, after spying on Harrison making out with Detective Samuels. Meadow begs for Ally's help, but Ally leaves her in the burial site. Running back home, calling Ivy to tell her what she saw. Ivy doesn’t believe Ally, because of her fears.

• At the episode of the episode, we find out about Kai's worst fears, as Beverly investigates Kai. We find out that his mother had killed his father, who ended up in a wheelchair and became an extremely abusive jerk. Then Kai's mother shoots herself, after shooting Kai's father. We find out that Dr. Rudy Vincent is Kai's brother, who comes up with the plan to let their parents' bodies rot in their room. Kai tells Winter what happened to their parents, and she has a difficult time when seeing their bodies. This is the first time we see Kai at his weakest state, when he reveals his back story to Beverly. Finally seeing that Kai himself, has his own fear.

Episode Six: "Mid-Western Assassin"

In light of the events taking place in Las Vegas, the producers have decided to edit out some parts of the beginning of this episode. It was heavy with gun-violence, so they chose to edit that section out after filming it two months prior, in order to respect those who were affected by the events that happened in Las Vegas. The unedited version is available to watch On Demand, which I haven't seen. So, everything that I talk about for Episode Six, is what I saw on my recording of the live showing. All though, I am not sure how much they actually took out, because the episode was still heavy with gun-violence.

• At the beginning of the latest episode, Ivy is at a rally for the City Council Election. We hear Kai, speaking out to his voters, but do not see him on the stage. Suddenly, we hear gunshots in the middle of the rally, in the midst of "We are the wall!" cheers. As more gun shots sound, the camera stays on Ivy as she tries to get a better view of the shooter. She still can't see who the shooter is, but the cops can, as they all shout at the shooter to drop the gun. Ally is holding the gun looking shell-shocked, with Kai laying on the stage, seemingly unconscious and in the fetal position.

• After the credits, we flash back to a few weeks before when Meadow asks Ally for help. She reveals everything to Ally about the Cult, and everyone who is involved, including Ally's soon-to-be ex-wife. Instead of wallowing in her fears, Ally runs back to the Wilton's home, to save Meadow. While Harrison and Detective Samuels are in the middle of having sex, they hear a loud noise in the garage. Seeing Ally help Meadow escape their home, driving off to the Butchery on Main.

• At the Butchery, Meadow reveals her involvement with the Cult, letting Ally know about how she fell in love with Kai. He made her feel good and confident about herself, but it was all fake. As Meadow overhears Kai talking with Ivy, giving the same speech he gave to her. Making Meadow realize that she wanted out of the Cult, and that the only way to stop Kai is to kill him.

• Ally is still having trouble with the fact that Ivy is involved in the Cult, asking Meadow why Ivy would want to make her crazy. Meadow responds by saying, "Maybe she just hates you!"

• In another flashback, we see Ivy being introduced to Kai by Winter, to join the Cult. She reveals to Kai that her worse fear is sharing a bed with her crazy wife, after he forces it out of her. When she originally said her worse fear was seeing Trump as President, obviously Kai didn’t like that or believe it. Ivy tells the story of how Ally carried, birthed, and breast-fed Oz for three years. Ivy wanted so badly to carry their son, but she couldn’t because of a condition she had. At the same time, Ally shut down Ivy anytime she suggested to feed Oz using a bottle. Making Ivy feel unimportant as a mother in this relationship. She joins the Cult, because Kai promises that he'll get Ivy full custody of Oz.

• Finally, Ally is convinced by Meadow, that this Cult actually does exist, and they are targeting her. She drops Meadow off at Dr. Rudy Vincent's office, so that she can bear witness to everything the Cult has done.

• Ally then runs to get help from Sally (Mare Winningham), the write-in challenger for the City Council Election. Sally already see's what is wrong with Kai, and also convinces Ally that the only way to stop him is to assassinate him. Then the clowns come, Ally runs away from her fear, and Kai attacks Sally. He writes a suicide note on Sally's Facebook, which has already gotten some likes, and in the end shoots Sally to her death.

• The gunshot make Ally react, so Kai sends Ivy to see what the noise was. Even though Ivy is covered in a half Elephant/Donkey mask, Ally immediately recognizes the clown as Ivy. Ivy leaves Ally in the bathroom, and doesn't tell Kai that she was in the room.

• In conclusion, we find out that Meadow never actually left the Cult. And was instead seduced by Kai into a suicide mission, that would make him seem like the victim in this attempted "assassination," in order to gain more votes. At the end of the episode, we are back at the rally, now with a view on Ally. She sees Meadow in the crowd, seemingly suspicious, and tries to stop her. Because she realizes what Meadow is about to do, but obviously Ally was too late. Meadow shoots a girl who was in the way of her vision of Kai, then shoots Kai in the leg. Ally tries to stop Meadow, by taking the gun away from her, but Meadow says "This is the face of true love," as her last words. Shooting herself in the head, leaving Ally with the gun in her hand, making it seem like she was the shooter. The episode ends with Ally being arrested and Ivy crying to an investigator, with Kai going into an ambulance, waking up and smiling at us.

Review:

So, while American Horror Story: Cult's, central theme of fear, is very interesting, it is still a very predictable season. I already knew who the clowns were, before they were all revealed to us. Considering who Kai was involving himself with, and the fact that the clowns were using their victim's worse fears as way to murder them. When Kai was using fear as the major platform in his campaign. I also had a feeling that Dr. Rudy Vincent was somehow involved with the Cult, when he was playing with those smiley-faced pins at his office, while talking to Ally. And I wasn't surprised that Ivy had joined the Cult, because of her relationship with Winter. Even though this season isn't as terrible as American Horror Story: Roanoke, it still isn't gripping me enough. And I'm not sure if I will be continuing on with American Horror Story, once this season ends. The next season has to have a gripping enough theme, and honestly has to go all the way back to American Horror Story: Murder House and Asylum days, in order for me to continue being a fan. If the next season of AHS doesn't catch my eye, I'll definitely still support Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck. By watching American Crime Story, because the promo's for the Versace season look so good!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this review and recap of American Horror Story: Cult. I will be doing a review and recap of the last few episodes and finale, as AHS: Cult comes to a close. As always, here is a sneak-preview of next week's episode.

TTFN,

Chynna Williams @The CW Torch