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AMERICAN HORROR STORY FREAK SHOW Recap: The Beginning of the End

Well friends, another episode of American Horror Story has come and gone. “Tupperware Party Massacre” had a few wonderful moments and fantastic acting surrounded by a lot of less awesome stuff that happened too, so let’s go ahead and dive right into the recap.

Dandy returns to the Freak Show to get a reading by Esmerelda, who, as we remember from earlier in the season, isn’t a clairvoyant but a con artist. As she spins the tales in Dandy’s stars, we the audience are privy to a scene of him murdering an Avon lady and sewing her head onto his mothers body building a really twisted and macabre puppet version of the Tattler Sisters. It was an awful sight for us but of course Esmerelda has no idea who Dandy really is; all she knows is that she recognizes his voice. Esmerelda gives Dandy a generic reading of his fate which he takes as permission to continue carrying out gruesome murders across Jupiter. Meanwhile, Jimmy continues to function in a constant state of being inebriated since the death of his mother and has turned his affections to from Esmerelda to Ima Wiggles, a large woman who was added to the group in the last episode. Jimmy gets wind of Dandy’s presence on the grounds and runs to confront him, telling him that he knows that he was the second clown that night at the school bus but Dandy is feeling empowered after his affirmation from Esmerelda and isn’t threatened. He instead tells Jimmy that he is going to destroy his life for taking Dot and Bette away from him.

After some detective work from Elsa and Stanley, they find a note that Ethel left before she planned to kill herself leaving instructions on where Jimmy could find the missing Tattler Sisters. Stanley and Elsa tell the girls who are staying in a motel in Palm Beach that they have arranged for their surgery to be performed, which isn’t true. Elsa expresses concern for their plan but Stanley assures her that it’s all for the best and the girls will be taken care of once he and Elsa head to Hollywood. This is also not true.

Then Malcolm Jamal Warner shows up and says hi to Desiree! But he isn’t heard from again in the entire episode. For the record: American Horror Story is really starting to try my patience with how absurd their story telling structure is this season. TOO. MANY. CHARACTERS. Then Esmerelda and Desiree walk in on Jimmy banging Ima and Jimmy and Esmerelda get into a big fight.

American Horror Story Ima Wiggles

After said fight, Jimmy appears at a fancy Tupperware party held at a fancy house with some fancy ladies. I suppose he was there to please them but couldn’t due to him being a drunk mess. Jimmy hallucinates and speaks to his mother Ethel who is not pleased with his behavior. As they talk she tells him he was supposed to do better but instead he’s succumbing to the family tradition of falling victim to booze and trouble. Jimmy snaps out of his hallucination and leaves the Tupperware party only for the doorbell to ring right behind him and low and behold, it’s Dandy, who uses his fancy car, good looks and charming manner to get into the house and proceed to kill all the ladies at the Tupperware party. Side note: this doesn’t make any sense because Jimmy and Dandy would have totally seen each other coming and going outside this lady’s house. I can’t believe how silly this error is. I’m not saying American Horror Story always makes perfect sense, I get the willingness suspension of disbelief and all, but this is ridiculous given the relationship these two characters have and the confrontation they had earlier that same day.

Meanwhile, Dot and Bette are not on the same page when it comes to their separation surgery. Dot wants to have the procedure performed and Bette is afraid; she knows that if they are operated on one of them will likely die. Dot is willing to risk it but Bette isn’t so sure. In one of the best scenes of the night, the sisters discuss the matter and ultimately Bette agrees that if the choice needs to be made for only one of them to live, it should be Dot. It’s a sweet and moving scene and it also caused me to forget that Sarah Paulson was the sole actress. There is real depth to her performance as both of the Tattler Sisters. It’s almost breathtaking when you realize Paulson is all by herself.

The girls don’t stay to have the surgery performed though, Dot realizing she can’t ask her sister to offer her life for her to have what she thinks is freedom, and they return to the grounds to confess Dot’s love for Jimmy. Jimmy is kind but tells them that he can’t be with them because he’s in love with someone else. The girls handle the rejection fairly well for now, at least. In this episode there is also a scene where Dell, plagued by guilt for what he’s done to Ma Petite and shame for his homosexuality, attempts to hang himself. He’s also drunk and has visions of Ethel before stepping onto the chair but Desiree steps in at the last minute and saves his life.

Back at the Mott residence, Gabourey Sidibe’s Regina Ross confronts Dandy about the disappearance of her mother in his bedroom only to find him about to take another blood bath (he’s used the Tupperware containers to transport the ladies blood back to his home). He reveals to her that he killed his mother and Regina’s and proclaims that he is “a god.” She is clearly disturbed by all of this but Dandy ultimately decides to let her go proclaiming, “I’m above the law, beyond the law, I am the law.”

American Horror Story Dandy and Regina

Later in the episode, Regina returns with a detective who Dandy tells the entire truth to but he’s convinced that the detective won’t arrest him and offers him $1 Million to work for him, not the police. The detective proceeds to shoot Regina in the head — at which point I said, “Whaaaat, American Horror Story?” out loud to myself — and then, in the finale of the episode, arrest Jimmy for the murder of the tupperware ladies citing that the police found his glove at the crime scene (he had needed his uncovered hands for his business with the ladies, if you’ll recall).

Whew. That is a lot to cram into 44 minutes, yes?

There were moments of greatness last night: the idea that Dandy’s white, heteronormative looks and high income not only allow him to have access to unsuspecting victims but also proves that he really is above the law. There were some strong performances in addition to Paulson’s, including a sleazy, slimy, despicable Dennis O’Hare and Evan Peters going from off the rails to compassionate and shattered all in one episode. But good heavens, there’s so much going on at the same time. After Murder House set the bar so high for me personally, I hope that one day I forget to have expectations from American Horror Story. It would just be better for everyone that way.

What about you? What did you think of last nights episode of American Horror Story? Where do you think this is all going now that Dandy has the police on payroll and Jimmy is in jail? Will Dot and Bette take revenge on Esmerelda when they discover it’s her that Jimmy is in love with? Remember, they have killed before…

American Horror Story airs Wednesday nights on FX.

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Comments

  1. CandyDandy says:

    I don’t think there are too many characters.  I am having a fine time of following the show.  Now that Dandy is going to go on more of a killing spree it may perk up some.  I think, in my opinion, that the story is getting somewhat convoluted because they are involving the freak deaths with the Dandy deaths and there are two major story lines because of this.  That to me was their mistake this season. 

    As far as the Dandy/Jimmy plot line, no disrespect to Clarke Wolfe, but I think you misunderstood something, it wasn’t a sloppy/messing/confusing/shoddy scene with Dandy appearing and killing the Tupperware party ladies right after Jimmy leaves.  Dandy told Jimmy he was going to ruin his life, and Dandy followed Jimmy…..personally I thought the scene was fine.

    • Clarke Wolfe says:

      I totally get that it was a setup. But as someone mentioned in the comments earlier, Jimmy walked out the door and a few seconds later the bell rang and we see Dandy’s big, expensive, very specific car was also parked right in front of the house. Not hiding around the corner but in plain sight. I’m just saying that if they established earlier in the episode that Jimmy caught wind of Dandy being on the grounds and raced out to confront him, it doesn’t make much sense to me that he wouldn’t see Dandy or the car right there and that there wouldn’t be another confrontation.

  2. Matt says:

    Nothing, and I mean NOTHING will touch season 1. I am concurrently rewatching 1 while 4 is on, and it’s not even close. The acting and story were so good and scary in season 1 because it didn’t rely on shock factor. After season 1, the show took on the “saw effect” and has tried to shock audiences with flashes of scary scenes. To some, that’s scary I suppose – just like the clowns in season 4 probably scare the hell out of people who are afraid of clowns.

    But the edginess is season 1 is what made it great, and it hasn’t been replicated.

  3. Matt says:

    Nothing, and I mean NOTHING will touch season 1. I am concurrently rewatching 1 while 4 is on, and it’s not even close. The acting and story were so good and scary in season 1 because it didn’t rely on shock factor. After season 1, the show took on the “saw effect” and has tried to shock audiences with flashes of scary scenes. To some, that’s scary I suppose – just like the clowns in season 4 probably scare the hell out of people who are afraid of clowns.
    But the edginess is season 1 is what made it great, and it hasn’t been replicated. 

  4. Casey says:

    I’m just super annoyed that no one bother to communicate important information to anyone. When Jimmy found out who the second clown was, he was some cryptic conversation with Esmeralda about it.  And this was when he was not yet a drunk! And she basically blows it off like, “whatever, let’s leave here.” All of this weird interaction between Esmerelda and Dandy could have been avoided had she known he was the murderer. Even if he didn’t trust the cops you’d think he might warn his friends, “remember that obnoxious rich guy from opening night? He’s a serial killer so stay away from him!” The cops knew there was a second killer and insisted they would find him with their eye witnesses who saw him unmasked (the boy and girl). Isn’t Jimmy a hero now to the normies? You’d think if he couldn’t let the please know this tip, he could go to the kids’ families with the info because I’m sure they want to see justice done. I’m so over Jimmy and his motivations that don’t make any sense. Sorry that I wasn’t moved when he bonded with his father right after his father and tried to murder Amazon Eve in the night. I’m worried part of Dandy’s stupid plan will involve seducing and/or murdering Esmerelda because she conveniently has no idea he’s a murderer.

  5. Victor says:

    “Side note: this doesn’t make any sense because Jimmy and Dandy would have totally seen each other coming and going outside this lady’s house. I can’t believe how silly this error is. I’m not saying American Horror Story always makes perfect sense, I get the willingness suspension of disbelief and all, but this is ridiculous given the relationship these two characters have and the confrontation they had earlier that same day.”

    Not an error, and not a coincidence: Dandy was following Jimmy, and killed the ladies to frame him, following through on his threat to ruin his life.

    • Turducken says:

      Accepting that, it still doesn’t account for the fact that Dandy rings the doorbell literally three seconds after Jimmy leaves, the author’s point being that they HAD to have crossed one another outside the door in order to fit that time frame, which is absurd, since they obviously hadn’t. It was somewhat shoddy.

      • Marion says:

        I don’t believe it was shoddy at all.  If Dandy was following  Jimmy…would it really be all that hard for Dandy to avoid being seen by an inebriated and distraught Jimmy?  And how much would Jimmy be paying attn to his surroundings?  We see scenes all the time in movies and tv of one character walking off in one direction while the other sneaks across behind the first.  

      • Clarke Wolfe says:

        Yes, that was, indeed, the point I was making. Thank you!

  6. kerrell says:

    What happen to this season? It started off so strong and now has fallen  somewhat flat. I did enjoy all of Dandy’s scenes, he’s definitely become the show’s demented big bad and kinda reminds me of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Sadly though I have to say I’m not as invested as I was when the season first began.