American Horror Story: Coven concluded its season this week with the witches of said coven undertaking trails, or 'The Seven Wonders', in order to determine their new Supreme, and the tension between each of the candidates, as well as the allure of the successor's reveal made for an entertaining first half of the episode.
The girls first had to use their telepathy to move candlesticks, and then coercion to manipulate one another, and there was plenty of bitchiness and snark to go around, particularly between Madison and Zoe. Then the girls had to undertaken descensum, having their soul travel to hell and then return. Queenie returned from her personal hell first, having already visited herself behind the counter at PLACE with a line of customers as far as the eye can see in last week's episode 'Go To Hell'. She was soon followed by Madison, who had to endure playing a supporting role in a live network production of a musical, and Zoe, who had to endure Kyle breaking up with her over and over again. Their hell experiences were played for laughs, but I would have preferred a much more in-depth and abstract exploration in which we got to see each witch have to fight their way through their personal hells to return to their bodies. Misty's personal hell was a perfect encapsulation of her character, having revived a toad, and then being forced to kill the live reptile over and over again by a biology teacher. It was a poignant end for such an uplifting character, but her innocence and squirminess was also a significant reason why she would never make a good Supreme, and thus, Misty day died, unable to return from hell.
Cordelia was surprisingly anguished at her demise, considering she was the newest addition to the coven, and therefore the witch she knew the least. The others, however, were eager to continue with the wonders and were soon participating is a lively game of transmutation tag throughout the grounds of the academy, despite the calls of Cordelia and Myrtle for caution. For good reason too, for seconds later Zoe accidentally transmutated back into reality and impaled herself on the gates of the academy, which at least provided the opportunity for the remaining two witches, Madison and Queenie, to perform vitalis vitalum and bring Zoe back to life. Unfortunately Queenie was unable to revive her, and Madison, unwilling to revive Zoe back into the running to be the Supreme, revived a fly to prove her worth, and crowned herself the new Supreme of the coven. Cordelia and Myrtle was smart enough to know that Madison would serve about a good a Supreme as Fiona never did, but the notion it took them to get into such a dire situation until the considered Cordelia to be a possible candidate for the title was overdue.
Nonetheless, Cordelia quickly got to work undertaking the trails, and soon enough not only had she caught up with Madison, but had successfully demonstrated her skills in divination, a task that Madison was unable to perform. And Madison was very annoyed about this, promptly decided she was done with the coven and threatened to reveal them to the world. Cordelia and the others seemed non-plussed at yet another one of Madison's bitchy outbursts, and proceeded with the trails by reviving Zoe. Kyle, however, was not too happy about Madison leaving Zoe to die before this point, and strangled her before she had a chance to pack her bags and leave the academy. Considering the amount of power she seemed to have earlier in this episode, death by zombie strangulation seems unrealistic, but then again, what doesn't in American Horror Story? Madison definitely got what she deserved, but I found her death underwhelming, and Spalding's sudden reappearance to help Kyle hide the body was just unnecessary and confusing. Madison's death did provide a nice juxtaposition with Zoe's revival and Cordelia subsequent completion of the Seven Wonders, looking as radiant and refreshed as ever (including a new set of eyes), having become the new Supreme. Good on her, she was definitely the character most deserving of the title, having lost the most for the coven throughout this season.
Unfortunately the episode lost much of its allure once the Seven Wonders were completed and the rest of the episode served as an overly-long and tedious epilogue to the series. Apparently Madison's idea to reveal witches to the world wasn't such a bad one in Cordelia's eyes since she held a television interview in the academy announcing the existence of witches to the world and asking any girls possessing powers to come and see them. This didn't make a whole lot of sense, but I guess the series was trying to demonstrate that after the destruction of the witch hunters, the voodoo witches, and the witches among the coven that posed a threat, that they had nothing left to die from. Myrtle's sudden desire to be burned at the stake (again) for the murders of her fellow witches also made zero sense, since her actions, although against the rules of the coven, indirectly led to it being saved. But Myrtle's theory was out with the old and in with the new, so back to the stake she went.
Speaking of people coming back from the dead only to die again (was this really not the major theme of this season?), back at the academy Fiona, who was thought dead at the hands of the Axeman, revealed herself to Cordelia. Fiona told Cordelia about her ploy to let the coven think she was dead by implanting a false memory in the Axeman, letting the coven kill him, and then returning once the new Supreme had risen so that Fiona could finally kill them and stay alive. Cordelia proposed that it would be difficult to kill her daughter, but I think the only reason Fiona couldn't do it is because she had just grown too weak. I wasn't really emotionally invested in Fiona's passing or her heart to heart with Cordelia, their relationship has felt very one-note and underdeveloped all season, so there was no reason I would suddenly buy into it now. But that being said, Fiona's hell was on par with the excellence of Misty's; forced to endure an eternity of being the housewife of the Axeman, a perfect vision of the life she promised to him that they'd build together.
For a series and a season that thrives on the allure of the unexpected and crazy, American Horror Story produced a rather conventional, and rather happy, ending, and could have benefited from a little more of the bizarre nature of the shown viewers have grown accustom to.
Rating: 3/5
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