With just one episode left, American Horror Story began to end the fourth season with a lot of blood and a set up a closing night that nobody in Jupiter, FL is likely to forget.

In an entertaining distraction, or a bit of misdirection to use magic parlance, Neil Patrick Harris’ arc was brought to a close after he literally sawed Maggie Esmerelda in half. I think my favorite part was the “freaks'” reaction to her murder which was essentially, “Meh.” I guess they hadn’t really forgiven her for her relationship with Stanley. In any case, NPH proved to be truly crazy and snapped when he “killed” his doll Margery and turned himself into the police for her murder.

Speaking of Stanley, the cast of Elsa Mars’ Cabinet of Curiosities took their revenge on him in a most brutal fashion which we see the aftermath of at the end of the episode. Massimo Dolcefino, the man who was responsible for building Elsa her legs and her long lost love returned to the series to help create a new set of hands for Jimmy. We learn through his story that he and Elsa are connected to Doctor Arthur Arden who was played by James Cromwell the second season of the horror anthology series making this the second connection this season to American Horror Story: Asylum.

Dandy also returned to tell the Tattler Sisters of the Chester’s sordid past, a fact that they want no part of and they turn Dandy away. Dandy becomes important later in the story as well as he becomes the new owner of the Freak Show after Elsa gets wind that her monsters are skeptical of her story regarding what really happened to Ethel. Mars sells the show again after it is brought to her attention that her monsters are going to turn on her and come for her the same way they did Stanley.

Speaking of Dandy, boy, do I have questions about his character. What is the moral of this story? Why did they set up the idea of him seemingly taking up the mantle of Twisty the Clown only to never pay that off? Is another clown massacre going to be Dandy’s act in the final episode next week? Will he truly get away with all of it? Regardless, I can’t help but wonder why Freak Show seems to have a sympathy and an affinity for this character that it didn’t have for, say, Zachary Quinto’s Bloody Face in Asylum? Maybe they’re waiting for the last second to make him pay for the true monster that he is? Or maybe not.

In any case, unless they bring a big plot point out of nowhere, it appears that my initial assumptions were wrong and the season won’t culminate with an all out confrontation between the angry residents of Jupiter, FL and Elsa Mars’ monsters. What is going to happen to them? Will we see Elsa rise to fame like we were promised in the Asylum crossover episode?

We’ll find out next week when American Horror Story: Freak Show airs its season finale on FX.