S04.E13: Curtain Call

[Tara Ariano]

The freaks rebel in the Season 4 finale. Meanwhile, Dandy prepares for his debut performance.

[Rhetorica]

As usual, American Horror Story left me with a smile on my face.

[Gemma Violet]

A disappointing finale.  At least we got to see Ma Petite again.  

[Blakeston]

Wow, Elsa - you really deserved a lot worse.

[Ms Lark]

And that's what I call a happy ending!

[mustbekarma]

I despised this episode with such a passion that I wanted to curse vociferously. However, I realized I don’t know enough nasty words to describe how much I loathed this ending.  I swear, I want to spend several hours on Urban Dictionary just to learn enough bad words to describe this steaming pile of …. (insert every known term for excrement in every language). I felt like that for most of the episode, and the ending didn't change my mind all that much.

 

All the freaks get shot by a stinking little pea shooter that in no way has enough bullets for the body count. Dandy only drowns. Really? REALLY! Why couldn’t they have sawn him in half? Dandy had too easy of a death.

 

Elsa gets fame and fortune. There is no way she was talented enough to pull that off, and I still don’t think she deserved one moment of that happiness after her despicable acts. I don’t care that she lost it all and committed suicide by Mordrake. Even a partially happy ending wasn’t deserved. I could go the rest of my life without hearing Jessica Lange sing in a German accent.

 

The only thing that made this episode is that at least Jimmy, the twins, and Desiree got a happy ending. Sure, they were murderers, but they killed Dandy, so that evens the score in my book.

 

I still can’t decide if Elsa joining the ghost Freak Show with Ethel, Ma Petite, and all the other freaks was wonderful or not. Or worth the price of admission for this season.  Elsa getting to perform to a full house for eternity with her family?

 

Nope, this episode wasn’t worth it to me.

 

I think this episode should have ended with Elsa getting to spend a hellish eternity with Mordrake. Dandy should have gotten to headline the show being sawn in half every night. OK. I’ll bend a little bit and they could just drown him every night.

Edited January 22, 2015 by mustbekarma

[English Teacher]

wtf?

[placate]

Why did Eve try to beat down Dandy?  I know she's strong and all but she had just picked up an axe in the last scene?  I don't care how strong she is, gun > axe > fist. Doesn't Desiree also have a gun?  She pulled it on Dell, why was she just hiding?

Edited January 22, 2015 by placate

[madhacker]

Wow I can't believe they went there with Dandy pulling off the mass shootings. But on the other hand, his comeuppance was absolutely delicious (and I'm not just talking about seeing Finn in just his undies)

 

I just hated the ending. I'm actually kinda glad Jessica's not returning. Hopefully next season will have Evan as the headliner, the poor guys earned it in my opinion.

Edited January 22, 2015 by madhacker

[English Teacher]

I truly thought dandy would be deemed the ultimate freak and doomed to spend eternity with Mordrake. This?

I repeat. W.T.F..?

[MarysWetBar]

When i was watching Dandy dusting everyone off so fast, I wondered how they were gonna fill the time. But of course they had to wrap up Elsa! I'll say better than Coven but not as good as Asylum. I sure hope some of the cast get other roles we can see them in. Loved Eve trying her best to off Dandy! Did anyone see Stanley get killed?

[ShadowHunter]

I hate that most of the freaks were killed by Dandy. That was hard to watch. When Jimmy found all of them it was just heartbreaking. I was so nervous he was going to get killed right then. I loved that Dandy was killed though he got what he deserved.

 

I am thrilled Jimmy and the twins lived and are together and with a baby on the way. So glad.

 

Desiree also got a happy ending which was good to see.

 

Elsa didn't really suffer enough which considering how she is Ryan's favorite is no surprise.

 

Good to see Edward and Twisty again but I would have liked to see more with them.

[Valny]

Not quite sure how I feel about the ending yet, but I didn't despise it. Maybe just expected something different for sure. I too liked seeing the happy ending that Desiree and Jimmy/Bette/Dot got.

 

But I liked all the stuff leading up to it. Did NOT expect and didn't see coming the bloodbath left by Dandy. I hate guns and it's always disturbing to see a massacre like that. I think I felt worse for Legless Suzy. I kept thinking hurry run run! even though I knew she couldn't.

 

I was really hoping it would be Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck(sp?) who would turn out to be the writers Elsa was going to rant to, that would have been fun to see. 

What was the name of one of Elsa's song/album that went gold that was so popular? It had a really funny name.

 

All the freaks get shot by a stinking little pea shooter that in no way has enough bullets for the body county

 

 

I was saying that too as Dandy kept shooting and shooting.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Valny

[RealityTVSmack]

Crap most Freaks are "dead by Dandy"...so to speak.

Dandy marries the twins! We find out it's fake, thank goodness.

Desiree says, "I ain't no maid," lol. Jimmy is there also as the butler.

Yikes their about to turn Dandy into a star attraction! Looks like he's Houdini...he'll drown! I have to agree with Desiree he was a star!?!

Looks like Elsa met a HOLLYWOOD casting exec...say what...Elsa has a star on the Walk of Fame? Her own TV show, The Elsa Mars Hour, lol. Magazine promotion for the Halloween edition. Hehehe...she never performs on Halloween..we know why...it would be the death of her.

Now that Elsa's reputation has been unearthed she decided the Halloween show will help her go out with a BANG!

Elsa Mars Holloween Spooktacular...bet all the dead freaks will show up for her death scene...an early misty death. Yep she's back at the carnival with Miss Petite...and all the dead freaks. She's the headliner once again! Love her welcoming/hugging scene with Ethel. :)

Jimmy is married to the twins and she's pregnant with twins and Desiree is married with two kids...nice touch.

Great finale...wonderful!

This is also the final season for Jessica Lang...I hope Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates continue next season.

Edited January 22, 2015 by RealityTVSmack

[Gemma Violet]

I think I felt worse for Legless Suzy. I kept thinking hurry run run! even though I knew she couldn't.

 

 

The strange thing is that Suzy and the guy with her (I forgot his name), who were the third and fourth people shot, did not react at all to hearing the first two gunshots.  Suzy was stirring in a pot or something when Dandy walked in.

[RazzleberryPie]

This was awful. I don't even think it would be better with a rewatch, because:

1) Dandy's magic gun had how many bullets? He'd shot about 8 by the time he got to the Fat Lady's tent. 

2) Elsa's legs were very, very real and flexible when she was falling on the floor crying at Doogie's real life husband in that lobby. While we're in Hollywood, I don't believe an unknown German woman in her 60s, who really is not entertaining, would sweep Hollywood off its feet and have such a successful career.

3) Not sure why Desiree gets a happy ending. She got on my nerves. At least we know why Theo Huxtable showed up.

4) Dandy got off way too easy.

5) WORST PART: Elsa got way too much of a happy ending. She really didn't have any redeeming qualities.

[Straycat80]

I was gasping as Dandy was blowing away all the freaks. I didn't think it would end that way.

I'm satisfied with Dandy's death, wish it would have been more terrifying though.

I'm glad Desiree, Jimmy and the twins had their happy ending.

So Elsa was not happy in Hollywood like she envisioned, so at the end she dies by Mordrake and lives forever in freak show heaven with all her friends/freaks where she is always the star.

I liked this season, it started off with a bang with Twisty the clown, the character story's were mostly good, there were some wtf? moments and episodes ; and the ending could have been better maybe

But after watching all five seasons of this series I've just accepted that this is one of these shows you don't try to make too much sense out of, it is what it is and that's it, the end.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Straycat80

[Valny]

Dandy marries the twins! We find out it's fake, thank goodness.

 

 Wait, that wasn't real?  At first I thought it looked like a fake out but then what about the part where they're eating dinner afterwards? Wasn't that real?

 

And I'm slow, someone explain that little flashback with Bette/Dot and Dandy outside and Jimmy is lurking around behind the shrubbery. What were they implying about that?

 

 

 

 

That was an interesting camera shot of all the dead freaks in the tent At first I didn't know where I was looking at because it looked like Penny was on the ceiling or a wall, then I thought she was on Elsa's wheel. Where was she? On the floor with the rest of them?

 

 In the wedding scene, I thought Dandy was marrying both of them, not just Bette.  What the hell Dandy?!  and shut up about your manhood and a threesome. Calling himself a stallion and the girls his mares. Ugh. And making a three headed girl.

 

Elsa's legs were very, very real and flexible when she was falling on the floor crying at Doogie's real life husband in that lobby.

 

  I was going to post the same thing RazzleberryPie. They were bending in a very unwooden way.

 

Elsa's dogs: Showbiz and Box Office.  :)

 

I knew I read an article where Lange sings one more song, so it was true.  What did everyone think of Heroes? Great looking white pants suit!

Edited January 22, 2015 by Valny

[RedheadZombie]

Well, that was awful.  I cannot suspend logic long enough to forgive the gun-of-the-never-ending-bullets, the fact that most of the others didn't hear gunfire, Desiree suddenly forgetting she has a gun and passively hiding away, and Eve being beaten down by a little prissy mama's boy.  And you can't make me RM.

 

And how RM thinks that killing off most of the freaks - the only people with even a modicum of goodness - is a successful wrap up ..... he's lost his mind.

 

To have Elsa achieve sudden fame (as a senior citizen!) and have a handsome and kind husband, yet be unsatisfied?  Of course.  She didn't like being surrounded by people kissing her ass because she held their fates in her hands?  That's no different than back at the freak show, IMO.

 

This season turned into a vanity project for Jessica Lange.  I didn't realize she was playing young - really?  I'm surprised they didn't show Elsa with children.  Fertility in this fantasy lands lasts far into your fifties, if you go by Desiree.

 

I want to know what kind of heinous crime was committed by the poor fools who will spend freak eternity, listening to a Marlena Dietrich wanna be warble nightly.  That's the most horrific part of all.

 

The only good thing about this finale - The Americans starts next week!

[LesleyJoy]

I felt very "meh" about this episode. It felt too much like they suddenly realized that they had to wrap everything up in this last episode. It's like they decided that killing everyone was the way to finish this up and then, realized they would have too much time to fill, so they stopped just before killing everyone. It seems that they then decided that the biggest twist they were going to give us was a "happy ending" to the whole thing.

[RedheadZombie]

Jimmy is married to the twins and she's pregnant with twins and Desiree is married with two kids...nice touch.

 

I got the definite impression that Jimmy married only Dot.  When he sat down, Bette turned her head away looking at a magazine, like she was giving them a little privacy, and he talked to and kissed Dot.  Bette never had feelings for Jimmy.

[ShadowHunter]

In a weird sort of way Stanley saved Jimmy because if he had not been off still recuperating and dealing with his new claw situation he might have been around when Dandy went on his killing spree.

 

Depending on what actors return and the story I might be out for Season 5. This was better then Coven but I feel the show will never be like the first 2 seasons.

[LesleyJoy]

"Elsa's legs were very, very real and flexible when she was falling on the floor crying at Doogie's real life husband in that lobby."

Yes! This drove me bonkers! Also, where were the metal brace bit that went on the sides of her knees? Panty hose isn't so thick and opaque to cover up the outline of the metal bracket thingies. The flexible ankles also took me right out of the whole "Elsa relearns to walk" scene with Massimo!

[RazzleberryPie]

This season turned into a vanity project for Jessica Lange.  I didn't realize she was playing young - really?  I'm surprised they didn't show Elsa with children.  Fertility in this fantasy lands lasts far into your fifties, if you go by Desiree.

 

I want to know what kind of heinous crime was committed by the poor fools who will spend freak eternity, listening to a Marlena Dietrich wanna be warble nightly.  That's the most horrific part of all

 

*Applauds all this* Ok so I totally didn't get that Jessica was playing "young." She would actually have been a little older than Marlene Dietrich. It would be torture to spend the afterlife listening to her warble pop songs in a bad accent. I was so unimpressed with Jessica singing. I'd forgotten about the songs, honestly, (selective amnesia? Jimmy and the Twins were good, though), and then she started singing again. 

"Elsa's legs were very, very real and flexible when she was falling on the floor crying at Doogie's real life husband in that lobby."

Yes! This drove me bonkers! Also, where were the metal brace bit that went on the sides of her knees? Panty hose isn't so thick and opaque to cover up the outline of the metal bracket thingies. The flexible ankles also took me right out of the whole "Elsa relearns to walk" scene with Massimo!

Sure did ruin that scene.

 

So is Chicken Stanley sqwawking around in a pen somewhere? Dandy didn't shoot him.

Edited January 22, 2015 by RazzleberryPie

[RedheadZombie]

And don't get me wrong - women in their fifties and sixties can still be sexy and desirable, Angela and Jessica are proof of that. 

 

ETA:  I was so bored at one point, I found myself admiring Angela's great ass, and I'm a straight woman.

Edited January 22, 2015 by RedheadZombie

[Dancingjaneway]

When Dandy shot Amazon Eve my heart broke. I really wanted her to be one of the freaks to make it out alive. I'm pissed that Dandy didn't get a brutal sendoff or a sendoff that he really, really would have despised. Elsa not getting her comeuppance was frustrating to watch. Amazon Eve would have had no problem knocking Dandy out cold there is no way that he had that much power over her. Also unless he can reload a gun with his mind he would have run out of bullets halfway through his massacre. I'm guessing the doc was nobody special because they never did reveal his face. I do have to say I did smile at the end seeing how Desiree got her family and seeing Ma Petite with Amazon Eve and Ethel in a "heaven" of sorts. This season had good moments and bad moments. This season also showed that RM needs to stop adding a ton of characters on top of what is already a sizable cast because either the new characters stories don't get resolved or they serve no purpose and take away from another characters story. It still isn't as good as the first season and I think RM needs to take a hard look at his current formula and do a major overhaul. 

 

ETA: Desiree(Angela) had some fantastic lines tonight. She was a hoot to watch. 

Edited January 22, 2015 by Dancingjaneway

[Valny]

What was the name of one of Elsa's song/album that went gold that was so popular? It had a really funny name.

 

I'll answer my own question. It was called Merry Christmas Knuddelmaus. It just thought it sounded funny the way the narrator said it.

 

on a shallow note, I didn't like the hairstyle they gave Elsa, I know she's not supposed to be young but it really aged her. And JL's neck was not looking good either.

Before Mordrake showed up, I thought someone was going to shoot Elsa during her song. Hah, he brought his green mist again!

[Blakeston]

While there were a lot of things that bothered me about this finale, I'm willing to defend it on a few points.

 

Re: the magic gun, we didn't see Dandy throughout the entire massacre - he had time to put more bullets in it. (That said, they should have included a shot of him reloading it, because the bullet issue was definitely distracting.)

 

And as for Desiree being fertile into her fifties, I don't think she's supposed to be that old. Angela Basset may be 56, but she sure as hell doesn't look it. I could buy that Desiree was in her early forties. (Especially considering that she'd had a tough life, and people seemed to age quicker back then.)

 

Women giving birth in their forties was more rare in the 1950's than it is now, but it happened. Lucille Ball is one example.

 

I'm more bothered by the implausibility of Elsa becoming a big TV star just because one studio employee had a granny fetish.

[Kierstyn]

I did not like this at all.  I feel like the whole show up until the death of Twisty was building in a great way, but after that point things went down hill in a big, awful way. There were just so many loose ends, squandered opportunities, and dumb decisions. The whole back half of the season felt lazy, as if the writers (does RM have a room to help him?) all collectively gave up and started half-assing it because they got obsessed by Minecraft or Fantasy Football or something.

Quote of the night at my house at 11:18 PM, from my husband: "well, I'm probably going to break my phone tomorrow, because I don't think I can possibly press the 'I did not like this episode' button on the Previously particle page hard enough to express how much I hated this episode without cracking the glass."

[TheDancinMonarch]

I have resisted the temptation to post about this season hoping that something would come along to redeem it.  Well it didn't happen.  This was a horrible kluge of crap and not even within miles of the previous 3 seasons.  Maybe they should go back to the asylum.

I have resisted the temptation to post about this season hoping that something would come along to redeem it.  Well it didn't happen.  This was a horrible kluge of crap and not even within miles of the previous 3 seasons.  Maybe they should go back to the asylum.

[RealityTVSmack]

I got the definite impression that Jimmy married only Dot.  When he sat down, Bette turned her head away looking at a magazine, like she was giving them a little privacy, and he talked to and kissed Dot.  Bette never had feelings for Jimmy.

That makes sense, lol.

[DB in CMH]

Nice send off for Lange, but shit finale to a shit season. Everything really did go downhill after Twisty, and then they backburned the new villian - Dandy - only to pull him back out at the last minute. I was SO bored during the final few episodes, and that has never happened before with AHS. Even with the ridiculousness of Coven, it was rarely boring. 

[blaase]

I liked this season and I liked the finale.  I am glad everyone ended up happy even in the afterlife, except for Maggie, Stanley and Dandy.

[Snookums]

I get that this was Lange's big sendoff and that she already went to hell last season, but....She finally gets what she always wanted? The family she treated like shit, half of whom were planning to murder her before their untimely demises at the hands of the sociopath mass killer she sold them to? Even in the afterlife freaks get a raw deal.

 

The bullets bugged me (and drove my husband INSANE--he kept yelling "reload, idiot!" at the screen) but what bugs me more is--how the hell this freak show was supposed to relate to the real world. This was ostensibly the main theme of the series, but the "real" world was left in the dust. Why does this giant show, with tons of rides and tents and props, never actually put on a show? They performed what, three times? Why are the cops harassing and killing the freaks one minute and not giving a shit about them the next? Why didn't we see more panic in town over the mass slaughters going on? And for God's sake, why didn't the farmer who rented them the field they camped in ever protest about the impromptu cemetery that sprouted there?

 

You can't show the freaks being castoffs with barely a tether in the real world and then have Jimmy (who was considered a mass killer) and his two headed bride settle down in a tract house.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Snookums

[Granimal]

Nice send off for Lange, but shit finale to a shit season. Everything really did go downhill after Twisty, and then they backburned the new villian - Dandy - only to pull him back out at the last minute. I was SO bored during the final few episodes, and that has never happened before with AHS. Even with the ridiculousness of Coven, it was rarely boring. 

Yes, totally agree on this. Elsa's ending was written more for Lange leaving the show than for any storytelling purposes. Elsa and Ethel exchanged a few lines of dialogue on what kind of ending Elsa would get. Even Elsa didn't think she deserved a happy ending at that point! I wasn't too bothered by her getting a happy ending because by this point I wasn't invested in the plot anymore and was thinking of how sweet it was as a goodbye to Lange. This is not how I should feel/what I should be thinking about during the show!

 

I was also bored by this episode. Didn't like any of it. Dandy goes from being capable of killing a roomful of people to being sent to the ground in one punch?  I know that the two are not mutually exclusive but it was just an odd direction to go in. Hated everything from that point on. There were many more interesting directions that they could have gone in.

 

Also, so many "mistakes" in this episode. When Bette was shown blindfolded in the tent Dot's head looked ridiculous. I'm talking Sarah Paulson sitting there with a mannequin head on her shoulder! And I never notice this kind of stuff, but this particular shot looked absurd. Perhaps this is a testament to how boring this episode really was.

 

I can fanwank the bullets away because Dandy was walking slowly and the camera kept cutting away, but I can understand being annoyed by it. At first I thought that they were setting it up for a long continuous shot where we wouldn't know who the last person to die would be based on the bullet count. Obviously that didn't happen.

[Xazeal]

This was the first AHS finale that left me thoroughly unsatisfied.

 

I'm glad Desiree got a happy ending, and I guess I'm not opposed to Jimmy, Dot and Bette getting one either. But even though I never felt strongly about Elsa one way or the other, there is no way in hell that the final half of the show should've been dedicated to giving her the perfect ending while openly disregarding all of her sins with a flippant "stars never pay". No.

 

Sidenote: Sarah Paulson still has not died once on this show.

[joelene]

Well I can but agree with the lot of you.

Dandy's death wasn't horrible enough. Don't care about Elsa. Dumb ending. Blah blah yada yada. It was mostly a yawn. Like Coven it started out pretty great but then it just became boring and stupid.

Although thumbs up to Finn down to his tighty whities again. Way up!

[aenea]

At least the finale continued the 'this really sucks' theme of the season- points for consistency to the producers/writers. I started working my way through the show in December, specifically to get to Freakshow- I'm a circus history buff, so it sounded great.  But when you watch all of the seasons together, Freakshow certainly did suffer in comparison (and I say that as someone who wasn't a big fan of Coven).  

 

I still can't figure out why TPTB veered away from the Twisty/Dandy storyline.  Yes, Dandy did a lot of damage in the finale, but he was considerably less scary and interesting than he was in the first half of the season.  After so much buildup about "OMG Dandy has control of the freaks and that's very bad!", he goes around shooting them?  That's something that anyone with a magically reloading pistol can do (especially since even though the fairgrounds are dead quiet, people are apparently too stupid to pay attention to gun shots).  It's not something that the Big Bad is supposed to do.  I was momentarily startled when Dandy shot Paul, but after that he seemed like he was just throwing a temper tantrum rather than being 'evil'.   And aside from early Dandy, Twisty was the scariest and saddest part of the season (at least for me), and I felt a bit cheated when he checked out so early.

 

And then there were the odd storylines, that either didn't make sense, or were interesting storylines or tidbits and only lasted for an episode or two.  Penny's forced sex at the orgy in the first episode. The police in Jupiter are apparently morons with a very short attention span.  How the freakshow keeps going without any customers, in a remote area. The museum storyline was beyond stupid- not only because it's apparently a teleportation centre that people can travel to and from instantly, but how are we supposed to believe that a well-known museum in the 1950s has a never-ending flow of new acquisitions, with no questions asked?  In the 1850s that might have been believable, but it certainly wasn't in the 1950s. Dell certainly cycled through storylines at a great rate.  He's great, he's competent, he's a bit kinky, he's gay, he's abusive, he's a murderer, he's struggling with father issues and not being a freak.  Angela Basset's storylines changed so rapidly that I can't blame her for just going over the top with her performances. Stanley's penis was apparently a red herring (or a red anaconda, from the sounds of it), and after taking up a lot of screen time over the entire season we never find out what happens to him.  Is he still in the cage, did Dandy kill him, how did he not die from so many amputations?  Jimmy must be the least bright of Evan Peters' characters on the show (which takes some doing, after FrankenEvan)- after a while I just didn't care.  The one really great thing that he did this season was to (very kindly) tell Bette and Dot that he didn't love them- that didn't last long. 

 

I didn't hate Chester (I've got a lot of tolerance for NPH), but why bring in a new character at the end of the season who doesn't really add anything to the show?  I'd hoped for a scene in the final episode where Sister Mary Satan walks him to an isolation cell beside Ian McShane in the asylum.  Elsa's storylines were just a mess.  Out of all of the 'films' of her that the studio could have seen, it was the 'maiming film' that turned up?  Why did the network even allow her to do a Halloween show?  Supposedly Hedda Hopper's expose had already run, so she wouldn't have been allowed on TV.  I'll watch Jessica Lange do just about anything, but given Elsa, I'm not sorry that she's not coming back next season.  

 

I do think that a lot of the actors gave stellar performances, which were a real pleasure to watch.  Michael Chiklis was fantastic, and Finn Wittrock blew it out of the park.  I do think that Evan Peters has had bad storylines for the past two seasons, but I'd be fine with Finn becoming the male lead.  Frances Conroy was as great as she always is,  and I'd love to see Mat Fraser and Amazon Eve in just about anything. I'm not going to be sad that Sarah Paulson is on the court show, or that Jessica Lange isn't coming back.   I just hope that the producers/writers concentrate on writing a good series, and less on stunt casting or going off in odd directions.  On the upside, we didn't have any antichrist/odd babies this year, so that was a plus :-)

[Chaos Theory]

The problem with the season is the same I had with Coven. No main or major story arc to follow. With Murder house you had everything circling around the Harmons with Asylum it was Kit and Lana but with Coven and Freak Show there was no coherent storyline. Every time something got interesting (Dandy and Twisty, Freaks vs The Town. Etc). The show veered off in another direction often to something far less interesting.

AHS is a fun show but it does need a story at its core to keep it solid.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[darkestboy]

Not a bad finale but prefered last season's to be honest.

Felt sorry for the rest of the freaks being killed by Dandy. However I did enjoy seeing Bette, Dot, Jimmy and Desiree team up and take out Dandy as well.

Glad those four characters got happy endings in this episode.

Elsa's fame and fortune seemed a little too easy so her performing and being taken by Mordrake and Twisty was a good twist though.

Nice that we got to see Ethel and Ma Petite once again.

Overall, fairly enjoyable, 7/10

[morgankobi]

I don't get why the maiming film would have killed her career (sex-tape, sure). Wouldn't the general public feel sorry for her/rally behind her after hearing what happened to her? It's not as if she would look like she was enjoying it.

[Dirtybubble]

Well HUUZZZAH the season is over.

 

This is gonna sound weird but I actually liked the scene with Dandy killing the freaks.  His calm, cool demeanor shooting each freak one at a time was well done on his part.  Even though I despised the Dandy character I'm now a fan of Finn because of this show and I hope he comes back next season!!  One thing that did kinda bug me about the scene when each freak was getting killed, some of them didn't even try to run away or fight back.  Come on Penny aka the lizard girl, hiding behind sheets, really??  And I too don't understand why Amazon Eve didn't just use the axe on Dandy.  It would have been so cool if she was the one to hack him up but one minute she has it and the next she doesn't...wth?

I was unsatisfied with the second half of this season, and I felt the finale was a letdown. Why would Mordrake let Elsa, who KNEW what she was doing, go to heaven while Twisty, who THOUGHT he was doing good (due to mental illness?) had to go with Mordrake to hell...purgatory....wherever he went?

I don't understand this either.  Elsa did NOT deserve any type of happy ending.  She bumped off Ethel for pete's sake!  And so what, she gets to go to heaven because why?  She gave her monsters a home?  No she didn't, she used and abused them, she just hid it behind a false sense of family.

 

 

 

[Thog]

As all the Freaks met in purgatory, all I could think is that they borrowed this ending from Lost. And that really wasn't a good idea.

 

I thought the massacre scene was the first true horror (not just the gross-out kind) they've shown all season, but then they went and undid it. Not that I wanted any of them to end like that (particularly Paul), but at least it was bold.

 

Totally agree that Matt Fraser and Amazon Eve need their own shows. Is there a petition somewhere we can sign?

[mirandroid]

 

And I'm slow, someone explain that little flashback with Bette/Dot and Dandy outside and Jimmy is lurking around behind the shrubbery. What were they implying about that?

 

You're not alone in your confusion with that scene. I didn't get it at all.

[designing1]

 

And I'm slow, someone explain that little flashback with Bette/Dot and Dandy outside and Jimmy is lurking around behind the shrubbery. What were they implying about that?

 

Didn't Dandy ask how Jimmy got in his house? I thought they were trying to show how the freaks colluded on his demise, and wondered why they felt that most obvious of things was necessary to explain.

[ABitOFluff]

You're not alone in your confusion with that scene. I didn't get it at all.

That confused me at first too, but I think its just a flashback to Jimmy finding the twins and plotting the surprise drugging of Dandy later.

[JenE4]

 Wait, that wasn't real?  At first I thought it looked like a fake out but then what about the part where they're eating dinner afterwards? Wasn't that real?

 

And I'm slow, someone explain that little flashback with Bette/Dot and Dandy outside and Jimmy is lurking around behind the shrubbery. What were they implying about that? 

 

The wedding actually happened, but Bette just pretended to be in love with/want to marry Dandy. Then they had their little wedding reception dinner, in which they drugged Dandy, and Dandy asked something like how did you do this? Then they flashed back to the picnic outside with Jimmy lurking in ther bushes and Bette or Dot asking about the drinks to send Dandy off to get lemonade, presumably so they could talk to Jimmy and come up with the drugging plan to get them out of there.

[Guest]

I thought the most outlandish thing in the finale was Elsa going to Hollywood to be discovered...as a 50+year old woman? And becomes a superstar? HA HA HA HA HA! Yes, nothing Hollywood loves more than discovering an "old" woman with no talent beyond persistence and having magical prosthetic legs.

 

No main or major story arc to follow.

Exactly. Their was no central story here. So many squandered chances with such a great theme. This weekly plots amounted to nothing more than "who gets murdered on this episode." I get that it's a horror show, but Christ, can they just try for a little plot?

[gesundheit]

I enjoyed the ending. Obviously horror isn't supposed to end with all the good guys being rewarded and the bad guys getting punished, that's not horror, that's... I don't know, romantic comedy? But I thought there were some good compromises here: the requisite unsatisfying endings for some and then very satisfying endings for others. Plus we got a glimpse of a happy afterlife even for several of the victims, so that was lovely. And I loved seeing Mordrake and Twisty again.

 

The silence of the fairgrounds massacre was pretty chilling. 

 

But I liked all the stuff leading up to it. Did NOT expect and didn't see coming the bloodbath left by Dandy. I hate guns and it's always disturbing to see a massacre like that. I think I felt worse for Legless Suzy. I kept thinking hurry run run! even though I knew she couldn't.

That, too. That one was the hardest one for me to watch. 

 

Ultimately this season hovers around my 2nd or 3rd favorite of the series so far. Still miles better than last season. 

 

I do think it opens up things a little for improvements next year that Jessica Lange, while possibly present in some capacity, will not be the anchor of the season anymore. She's been fantastic (especially in Asylum) but the showrunners rely too much on what has worked with her in the past rather than reinventing.

[CPP83]

This ending did not impress me at all, not even the littlest bit.

 

Watching Dandy mow down the freaks five minutes in with the super magical gun he never had to reload was atrocious. His death was pitiful too I felt, compared to how he slaughtered and maimed and butchered his victims without a shred of remorse. 

 

In no way did he suffer enough, drowning was too quick and relatively painless. For a second there I thought that they might just keep shooting random parts of his body.

 

Now if they had nearly drowned him and then spared him and left him the tank, returning every day to do that over and over again, forcing him to choke on the stagnant water filled with his own filth as he slowly starved and withered away, that might have seemed a little more deserving.

 

The overload of Elsa really put me off this episode as well. I get they wanted to bid Lange a due farewell but Elsa was such a terrible character, not even Jessica's talents could overcome the horrific writing for her, and as for her singing...it was torture.

 

The only bright spot for me was seeing Jyoti again. She just brings the biggest smile to my face, her beaming face and grin are so beautiful.