REVIEW: American Horror Story, Episode 708
American Horror Story is back once again, this week with episode 8 of this “Cult” season, entitled “Winter of Our Discontent”, and there really were many breakthroughs in this short hour episode.
Continuing last week’s storyline, the women of the cult started the episode still very mad at Kai, but that anger grew when he put then on cooking and cleaning duty. Beverly realized they would never be treated fairly, so they had to cut the head of the snake. This was when Winter started getting cold feet. Sure it is a normal thing saying you will make a stand against one of your siblings, but actually doing it are two very different things, because in the end, Kai is her flesh and blood. It was in this moment that we were flashbacked to what seemed to be Kai’s first kill: a lunatic man who called himself a priest. I guess we can all agree the man really was crazy, and he did deserve what Kai did to him, because death was totally what he was asking for, but even though Kai did “take care of this problem”, this was what made him start turning into the psychopath we see in present day.
Speaking of psychopaths, Vincent didn’t seem to be doing much better, and I can totally relate to Ally when she asked what kind of therapist he was, if he didn’t realize his own brother was a psycho. Oh, that’s right, Ally is back, after her three-week vacation in a mental institution, order by Vincent of course. I am glad she is finally starting to do what she should have done long ago: look after herself and her family (which at this point is just Ozzy). Apparently, even though that was totally not his goal, Kai cured Ally of her phobias, by making her face them all, time and time again. In this episode, she even invited him to a private dinner, where they appeared to start being friends (or almost anyway).
If you thought Kai had lost his mind somewhere in the past 7 episodes, then you really need to think again, because during this latest episode, Kai came up with the mother of all terrible and disgusting ideas: make a messiah for his cause, by using Samuels, Winter and himself. Even though Winter didn’t like the idea of killing Kai before, she really didn’t like this one either, and the same can be said for Samuels. Bottom line: everyone realized the idea was beyond crazy, expect for Kai of course. However, this didn’t stop Samuels from trying to rape Winter later, which ended with him being murdered. If you ask me, he got what he deserved.
But, even though this death was already shocking by itself, it wasn’t the only one of the episode. After Ally told Kai that Vincent was trying to find a way to stop him, Kai started doing some crazy talk (which is what he always does), and killed his own brother. If we think about it, two wasn’t even a big number of deaths, because for a few moments it seemed like a third death was going to happen: Beverly’s. I am glad it didn’t because I really did end up liking her, especially after she turned against Kai. She seems like the kind of person who will do anything to get what she wants, and right now that is killing Kai, so I hope she does it (or someone else actually. As long as he dies, I don’t care who is the murderer).
In kind of a side note, despite him being crazy, Kai is really a genius mastermind, and we were able to see that when he was in his council position, and made his crazy idea of more patrols (who work for him of course), to pass, by convincing everyone of his stupid point, by making it not seem so stupid anymore. Now he has his guards everywhere in the neighborhood, which means he can start his own mutiny at any moment, making everyone bow before him. And all this because no one was brave enough, powerful enough, or simply didn’t have the balls to stand up to him when they still had a chance. But hopefully, that is about to change because Ally joined the coven, which I bet it means she has an idea to take it down and to put Kai out of his misery.
This was, as it is usual by now, a great episode. I think it is really noticeable that things are getting to a point where everything will blow up, and I curious to see which side will be more affected. I am giving this episode a 9.0/10.
Brace yourselves, because believe or not, there are only 3 more episodes left in this season. The ninth one is entitled “Drink the Kool-Aid”, and in it we will see Ozzy being dragged into the middle of all this mess, so don’t miss it.