This is the crossover episode “American Horror Story” fans have been waiting for. The fourth episode of “Apocalypse” is, not counting the opening sequence, told in flashbacks, with half focusing on Langdon’s rise to power, and the other half catching audiences up on what the Coven has been up to since the end of Season 3.
The episode starts with Langdon (Cody Fern) talking with the robotic Ms. Mead (Kathy Bates) about the woman he based her on — a Satanic worshipper who took a young Langdon in.
As Mead proclaims her allegiance to Langdon, the witches, Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts) and Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy) talk with the newly revived Coco (Leslie Grossman), Mallory (Billie Lourd) and Dinah (Adina Porter).
Cordelia (Sarah Paulson), Mallory (Billie Lourd) and Madison (Emma Roberts) in ‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse.” Photo courtesy of hypable.com
Mrytle tells Mallory she’s under an identity spell, so she can’t remember her past, and that she’s basically a female Harry Potter. Langdon and Mead come down the stairs and he tells the witches they’ll wish they were still dead.
After that, the rest of the episode takes place three years before the bombs were dropped.
The J.K. Rowling parallels get even more apparant as before the bombs, Outpost was an all males warlock school called Hawthorne. It’s basically Hogwarts, with John Moore (Cheyenne Jackson in his fourth season of “AHS) essentially being young Dumbledore. Who needs “Fantastic Beasts 2” when they’ve got this?
Moore and the other warlock teachers watch security footage of a short-haired Langdon, going full “Matilda” on the detective interrogating him, telepathically killing him. The quartet of Warlocks contemplate if they should have Langdon become “Alpha 4”, the male equivilent of the witches’ Surpeme.
In the flashback to three years before the bombs, Langdon (Cody Fern) is an inexperienced warlock with much shorter hair. Photo courtesy of hypable.com
Langdon gets visited by one of the teachers (let’s call him Hagrid) who tells him he’s a warlock and takes him to Hawthorne School. With the short blonde hair and boyish bewilderment (like Harry exploring Hogwarts in “Sorcerer’s Stone”), Langdon is really seeming like the son of “Murder House’s” Tate. Random shots of him had me momentarily thinking I was watching Evan Peters instead of Cody Fern.
Langdon performs tests for the four warlock teachers and proves he can basically do anything. He can levitate, telaport, reach into a mirror and pull out anything he wants and control the weather. Those seem to be all of the qualifications one would need to start the apocalypse. Young Dumbledore, Hagrid and the other two teachers decide they need to have Langdon attempt to perform the Seven Wonders (from “Coven” and Fleetwood Mac) to see if he’s the Supreme.
And with that, we’re into the Coven half of the episode! At the end of “Coven”, the new Supreme Cordelia announced to the world that witches were real and young witches started flooding to Miss Robichaux’s Academy. Season 3’s Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) is now teaching at the New Orleans Academy and notices Mallory also has above average abilities. As Cordelia and Zoe discuss this, Mrytle tells them a council has been called at the Hawthorne School.
Zoe has a newfound confidence in this episode that Farmiga has never shown on this show before. It’s nice to see her switching it up, after playing almost exclusively the young, lovesick teenager.
The Coven go to what will become Outpost and meet with young Dumbledore and the other warlocks. They discuss gender politics, race relations and the fate of the other witches from Season 3. Cordelia says she won’t administer the Seven Wonders on Langdon after losing Misty Day to it and talks about the fate of Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe).
Queenie has been stuck in the Hotel Cortez since her cameo is the fifth season, “Hotel.” Similarly to “Murder House” all the souls who have died in the hotel are stuck there forever. She’s playing cards with James Patrick March (Evan Peters’ character in “Hotel”, based on infamous murderere H.H. Holmes) when Cordelia comes to attempt a rescue. She tries to bring her out every door and window, but not even Cordelia’s powers can get Queenie out of the hotel.
Cordelia’s lisp really comes out when she cries, and I’m loving it. Also, the Hotel Cortez sounds much more ominious and scary as Cordelia describes it than it did in all of Season 5.
Langdon decides to travel to the Hotel Cortez and, by his side, Queenie is able to escape. He brings her with him to Hell to find Madison Montgomery, who was killed by another Evan Peters character in “Coven.”
Madison’s (Emma Roberts) personal Hell is working a deadend retail job. Photo courtesy of Hypable.com
In “AHS” Hell is personalized for everyone. Former movie-star-turned-witch Madison’s personal Hell is working customer service at a Bed, Bath and Beyond where she’s mistaken for Lindsay Lohan. She’s prodded by her manager and told to go fold towels, where Landgon and Queenie find her and somehow bring her back to Earth.
Madison and Queenie’s interactions are great and seem straight out of “Coven” with Madison pretending to be happy to see her, and Queenie saying she told Langdon that Madison was exactly where she belonged in Hell.
Cordelia tells the council that she’s not administering the Seven Wonders and the coven walk out. There’s something endlessly satisfying about watching these three high-fashion witches strut around in slow motion as its set to music.
When they walk out of the underground school, they’re greeted by Langdon, with Madison and Queenie by his side. Cordelia faints at the sight of her revived students and the episode ends.
“Could It Be … Satan?” was by far the best episode of “Apocalypse” so far, and it’s one of the few episodes throughout the eight seasons that managed to organically tie the anthology stories together. Watching a young, inexperienced Langdon really underscored that he’s Tate’s son, which made his section of the episode feel like a “Murder House” sequel, while the latter half felt like a genuine “Coven” part 2 with a “Hotel” crossover. We’re usually lucky to get a reference to another season about once a year, but interconnecting three within one episode made for an amazing hour of television.
The trailer for next week’s “AHS” teases Cordelia’s vision of the apocalypse and seems like it will once again mostly be a flashback. I’m totally fine with that, because I found this week’s episode to be infinitely better than anything involving the survivors at Outpost.
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