S01.E05: Ba'al

[TexasGal]

Quote

A wife does the unthinkable for a chance at a successful pregnancy.

Airdate: 08.05.2021

[Anela]

I’m watching this, and wondering if the girl at the clinic, is involved with her husband.  Drive her crazy, get her money, run off together.  

okay, that was too easy to guess.  And the rest couldn’t happen to a better bunch of a-holes.  

Edited August 5, 2021 by Anela

[SHD]

7 hours ago, Anela said:

I’m watching this, and wondering if the girl at the clinic, is involved with her husband.  Drive her crazy, get her money, run off together.  

okay, that was too easy to guess.  

I definitely thought something was off with the girl at the clinic, but I never guessed the two twists. I really liked this one - probably my favorite so far. I was expecting a Rosemary's Baby type thing and was pleased it went a different route.

[Chaos Theory]

Well…that got twisted really fast.    I thought it was going to play like Rosemary’s Baby but I like the twist that the husband was just a big old jerk and was just messing with the wife and making her crazy.   Billy Lourd was really good in this.  I thought the ending was really good.   I loved the twist that the wife wanted to have the demon’s baby.  Which is probably the most American Horror Story this new series has been yet.

Edited August 6, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[Anela]

The girl was just too nice and helpful.  The husband was too nice, as well. When he came home in the makeup, I figured they were messing with her. 

[Madding crowd]

Finally an episode that was creepy and not just gory. I didn’t like Billie Lourd before but she was good in this.

[Black Knight]

Hmmm, seems like AHS casting has been mining Marvel's Runaways. Virginia Gardner was a lead on that show, and the drive-in episode featured Rhenzy Feliz, another lead on that show. I miss Runaways, so it's nice to see the actors again.

I figured the husband was evil, but the way it all worked out with the wife turning the tables was unexpected.

[sashayshante]

I enjoyed this. AHS is best when it's creepy and dark. Anyone else catch the way Lourd's character was dressed? I got Mia Farrow circa Rosemary's baby/Sharon Tate vibes. I'm also pretty sure the basement from this episode was the Murder House basement.

I'm still in the "Billie Lourd can't act" camp, though. Murphy's very obvious nepotism/favoritism has ruined this and most Muprhy projects for me.

 

[Avaleigh]

I thought this one was okay. Not bad or anything but for me this was the weakest entry so far. To be fair though I just had my first baby almost two weeks ago so that probably had an impact on how I viewed the characters and overall plot. They make it seem like she's suffering from postpartum depression and then at the end she suddenly wants to have another baby with a demon? Like that's going to make her life better and is some kind of yay moment for the character? I guess.

On 8/7/2021 at 6:53 PM, Black Knight said:

I figured the husband was evil, but the way it all worked out with the wife turning the tables was unexpected.

I knew the husband was evil and figured that the wife would turn the tables on him. What surprised me was that all the friends were in on it and contributed to the gaslighting plot. I thought that was cool and liked seeing how each friend had their role to play. 

I liked seeing Billie Lourd play a character who didn't require that monotone delivery she has a tendency to give with most of her roles. 

[AnimeMania]

35 minutes ago, Avaleigh said:

I thought this one was okay. Not bad or anything but for me this was the weakest entry so far.

I felt the opposite, all the previous episodes seemed like they were written for teenagers, by teenagers. No twists or turns, fairly straight forward. Ba'al felt like somebody put some effort into writing a script that people couldn't easily guess the ending. This seemed like a true horror story, while the other episodes seemed like gore for the sake of shock value.

[Black Knight]

10 hours ago, Avaleigh said:

They make it seem like she's suffering from postpartum depression and then at the end she suddenly wants to have another baby with a demon?

Wasn't the husband drugging her?

Plus she did spend time in a legitimate mental institution being treated by legitimate doctors, so if she did have a real postpartum issue, maybe that sorted it out. Also obviously it meant her husband couldn't drug her anymore.

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

Wasn't the husband drugging her?

Plus she did spend time in a legitimate mental institution being treated by legitimate doctors, so if she did have a real postpartum issue, maybe that sorted it out. Also obviously it meant her husband couldn't drug her anymore.

Yes. he switched her medication.

[Avaleigh]

11 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I felt the opposite, all the previous episodes seemed like they were written for teenagers, by teenagers. No twists or turns, fairly straight forward. Ba'al felt like somebody put some effort into writing a script that people couldn't easily guess the ending. This seemed like a true horror story, while the other episodes seemed like gore for the sake of shock value.

Obviously this is subjective, but for me I felt like the first couple of episodes were specifically written for fans of AHS so I enjoyed that. I agree that the first four episodes weren't full of twists but I still thought they were fun and that's really why I've responded to AHS over the years. Ryan Murphy and his crew (mostly) know how to tell a horror story in a fun way. This episode was probably the least fun for me and didn't have as much humor as the other stories.

All this being said, I don't think this new series has been a home run by any stretch of the imagination. Hopefully the back half of the season will be even better. 

2 hours ago, Black Knight said:

Wasn't the husband drugging her?

Plus she did spend time in a legitimate mental institution being treated by legitimate doctors, so if she did have a real postpartum issue, maybe that sorted it out. Also obviously it meant her husband couldn't drug her anymore.

I guess I don't understand how she got from wanting to claim her life back to wanting to have a baby with a demon. It seemed like such a weird leap. Even more strange to me was that it felt like it was written in a way where we as the audience are supposed to be rooting for this and all I'm thinking is 'what kind of mother wants to have a demon hanging around her baby?' Again though, I'm probably feeling hyper sensitive right now and that's why I'm over thinking it.

[Black Knight]

2 hours ago, Avaleigh said:

I guess I don't understand how she got from wanting to claim her life back to wanting to have a baby with a demon. It seemed like such a weird leap. Even more strange to me was that it felt like it was written in a way where we as the audience are supposed to be rooting for this and all I'm thinking is 'what kind of mother wants to have a demon hanging around her baby?'

Well, in regards to part of what you wrote, we know she really wanted kids. After her husband's horrendous betrayal, she may have been thinking that she isn't going to be able to trust a man for a long while, if ever again, and she had an opportunity to get one more kid first. And she and the demon specifically agreed that his getting her pregnant would be the condition for her releasing him. So he wouldn't be hanging around the baby.

But for the other part of what you wrote, I didn't personally get the feeling that we were supposed to be rooting for this. I think we were supposed to think she has a screw loose, and that it's intended to make us look back on the more "hell yeah" moment of all those gruesome murders she ordered and maybe feel more disturbed about those than we were originally.

[Avaleigh]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

But for the other part of what you wrote, I didn't personally get the feeling that we were supposed to be rooting for this. I think we were supposed to think she has a screw loose, and that it's intended to make us look back on the more "hell yeah" moment of all those gruesome murders she ordered and maybe feel more disturbed about those than we were originally.

This makes more sense to me. I suppose it's ironic that she's more emotionally disturbed now even though she's no longer being fed the wrong medication or being held against her will. 

[Black Knight]

Yeah, it raises the question of whether she always had a questionable moral compass/screw loose or if her husband's betrayal broke something in her. It's hard for me not to be influenced by seeing Billie Lourd's other characters in Ryan Murphy's stuff, but writing-wise for this episode specifically I don't really remember anything in the early scenes that hinted at darkness in her.

[MaggieG]

On 8/8/2021 at 7:37 AM, sashayshante said:

I'm still in the "Billie Lourd can't act" camp, though. Murphy's very obvious nepotism/favoritism has ruined this and most Muprhy projects for me.

I'm also in that camp. I thought she was terrible in this but I did enjoy this episode more than the others. I was thinking maybe the husband was bad but I didn't see the twist that all the friends were in on it coming, so I was pleasantly surprised. 

[tennisgurl]

That was pretty creepy in a very Rosemary's Baby kind of way, just with a few twists. Most notably is that, while everyone (including her husband) were manipulating Rosemary into having a demon baby with magic, it turns out that everyone here (including her husband) were manipulating Liv into not having a baby and then they started faking magic...until of course karma bit them all in the ass because Ba'al is real after all, and pretty pissed. I thought this was better than the last episode, but I think it could have been a bit better with just a bit more work. Some of the character stuff was pretty wonky, especially after the twist, and I think the end could have used a bit more pop, but overall I liked it. I figured on the husband being evil quickly, but the friends I didn't see coming.

Edited August 12, 2021 by tennisgurl

[Mattipoo]

This was an episode I think appealed more to old school AHS fans. I liked the story but think the terrible acting by Billy Lourde, and especially the actor who played the husband ruined it for me. Someone like Sarah Paulson could have really done the role justice, along with perhaps Matt Bomer or Finn Wittrock as the husband would be perfect.

So it seems all the friends are helping the husband with his devious plan, but what about the therapist? Was she in on that too, since I don't remember seeing her when they were celebrating?