REVIEW: American Horror Story Episode 709
American Horror Story returns once again this week, with this episode entitled “Drink the Kool-Aid”, which is the ninth episode of season 7, and in it Ally started doing what she should have done episodes ago, and stood up to herself and to her son.
The episode started with what was probably Kai’s version of a bed time story. He told his cult about the true events of another cult, the “Heaven’s Gate”, and how their leader made all of the members drink poison believing they would all transcend into something much greater. Because he really needed to make a point, he also told them about another cult, the “People’s Temple”, and how they all also killed themselves because their leader, Jim Jones, told them too. Kai told them all this in preparation to what came next: he made them believe he was giving all of them poison, in order to find out how loyal everyone was. When everyone started drinking it, it wasn’t very hard to realize there was no poison in the drinks, but also I don’t think Kai would ever do that at that stage of the game. Maybe he would do it if he was truly desperate and the police were at his tale, but not when he was winning. Unlike the two cult leaders he talked about, Kai doesn’t seem to believe in any spiritual higher power.
In the City Council, Kai continued to talk crazy, and this time proposed a motion that suggested certain websites/apps couldn’t be used by the people of that community. Obviously, he didn’t call it censorship, but that was exactly what it was. This season, for me, is really getting more and more real, because this seemed like something that could totally happen. Of course that when someone wants to kill a democracy, they don’t do instantly, they do it slowly. One day they forbid the citizens of doing one thing, the next week they come up with something else… and people just settle with it, telling themselves there is nothing they can do to stop it, that there is no way they can fight the power, when that is totally not true.
All of this is left uncheck, and the reason for it is because people like Ivy exist. In this episode she told Ally she joined Kai’s cult because she was tired of never knowing what to do, so it was great to have someone tell her what to do, where to go, what to believe in… She may say she sees Kai for what he is now, but it is too late already.
Like I mentioned before, in this episode Ally finally stopped feeling sorry for herself and decided to stand up, for her and for her loved ones (which is only Ozzy now). After being gone for a while, Oz was a significant part of this episode, because Kai took a special interest in him, and even wrongly revealed he was his biological father. When Kai started telling the same bed time story, and after Ozzy denied what he was saying, Kai made sure Oz was punished, right after calling Wikipedia “fake news”. I thought that part was funny, because it really is in Kai’s personality to call everything which contradicts him “fake news”, when it’s his news which are fake.
Moving on, Ally was really pushed to the edge, and started telling the story of how she really fought all her phobias: she traded them for revenge on her wife. Throughout the episode I actually did think that she was being too nice to Ivy, considering she ruined her life. Because she has been a lot tougher recently, I thought she had some kind of plan, and turned out she really did. Close to the end of the episode, Ally poisoned her wife and watched her as she died. For someone who hates Kai because he is a “psychopath”, Ally really didn’t stay much behind. Later, she bribed an employee at the clinic and found out Kai isn’t Ozzy’s father. However, this is definitely what she told him, which to me was a great idea. As long as Kai thinks Oz is his son, he won’t hurt very badly. If Ally had told him the truth, he would probably have gladly killed the boy.
Overall, this was definitely a great episode, the best one so far. It was definitely shocking and with some really amazing scenes of all kinds. I am giving it a 9.5/10.
The tenth episode is entitled “Charles (Manson) in Charge” and it is the last episode before the season finale. As previously promised, and as the tittle reveals, we will see Evan Peters play Charles Manson, so you really can’t miss it.