By Jim Bearor

This post is broken down into two segments, a summary of the episode and then my review. If you already watched it and are confident you didn’t miss anything, feel free to skip to the second part of the article. Oh, and this is absolutely FULL OF SPOILERS, SO HERE IS YOUR WARNING.



Ok, enjoy.

Summary

This episode opens with a flashback to 1830.

Delphine calls over one of her daughters and asks her to behead a chicken for her. Her daughter replies that Delphine should do it, as she has never had to do such a thing herself; somebody else is always doing her dirty work.

Of course, this prompts Delphine to chop off the chicken’s head after a minute of self-reflection and she finds that she enjoys the spray of blood coming from the dead fowl’s neck. In the next scene, Delphine walks into a barn of hers and finds a slave with a nasty gash across his leg.

Naturally, she is fascinated by his blood, and feels compelled to knock him unconscious so she can feed her sick sense of curiosity. The scene ends with her muttering “I think I’m going to like this place” as she looks upon the screaming, bloody slave who has been tied up and tortured.

After the opening sequence, the members of the coven and Marie LaVeau are shown at Nan’s funeral, when Queenie shows up with a newly-assembled Delphine. Queenie shows some sass, but says she will return to the coven with Delphine.

Back at the house, Delphine is shown doing her slave-work about the house. She goes about her duties with different kind of look on her face, one that shows she has had enough of this. Then something clicks in her head, as a black man walks in the door with a cut on his hand. The blood provokes her – the same way it did in the show’s opening – and so she brings him into a room where they’re alone, and ties him up when she has him all alone. She is talking to him (but more to herself), yet pays no attention to his muffled screams. The scene ends with her cutting off his toes in a horrible fashion.

Zoe and Kyle are alone in the bathroom, as Zoe prepares a bubble bath for the two of them. Madison walks in and sparks a confrontation over their Frankenstein-sex-slave, claiming that he should be shared. They leave the bathroom and head to Kyle’s room. Madison tries to prove a point by getting on her knees to pleasure Kyle, but Kyle pushes her away violently and announces his love for Zoe. As one might guess, Madison is not happy about this, and she uses her powers to create a bit of a mess with the mirrors and pictures in the room. After making a few remarks about being the next supreme (typical), she storms out.

We come back from commercial and the Axeman is wooing Fiona with his saxophone. Fiona is sprawled out on the bed in front of him and the two are happy. Finally after some small talk, Axeman says that Fiono will not be truly happy until the next supreme is killed. They kiss and the scene ends.

Back to Delphine, who has finished her gruesome torture of the slave and is covered in his blood. She is observing her work like the psychopath she is when Spalding appears. He plants the idea that she should kill Marie, for her sick pleasure, and because he believes it is for the good of the coven. Spalding explains that Marie can be killed through the use of magic, even though she is immortal. He can provide the means, for a price. He sends Delphine off to retrieve some vague “item.”

Queenie is unpacking her things, and Cordelia tries to welcome her, but Queenie wants none of it. Queenie tells her that she shot herself to kill Cordelia’s husband and now she believes herself to be the next supreme.

In the following scene, Cordelia is in front of a mirror and her plants with a strange expression on her face. She starts to rub what appears to be blood on her eyes, and she seems very stressed. After one last short, intense look at herself in the mirror, Cordelia suddenly stabs herself in both eyes and screams.

Fiona rushes up the stairs to find Cordelia, but finds Myrtle instead. Myrtle explains that Cordelia has done this to herself so she can regain her “second sight” and benefit the Coven in a greater way. Obviously frustrated, Fiona storms downstairs instead going to see her daughter, supposedly to “grab a drink.” The scene ends.

Delphine summons Spalding after she has retrieved his item, which turned out to be a very rare doll (what a creep). He rewards her with Benadryl, and convinces her that it is a magic solution that will make Marie vulnerable for a short amount of time.

Myrtle tells Zoe that Kyle and her are in grave danger, and should flee the coven immediately. She hands Zoe a small box of jewels, and sends her off to pack her bags. Zoe hugs her, apparently heeding her advice.

In the next scene, the witch hunters are hosting a meeting with Marie and Fiona. The head witch hunter proposes a deal that will repair damages to Marie’s home in return for an undoing of whatever curse the witches have placed on the company. Fiona, who is not the slightest bit enticed by this offer, replies shortly: “you can all just die.”

Out of nowhere, Axeman appears behind the witchhunters and violently kills them all, with the exception of their leader. The leader pours a cup of tea and walks calmly around the room, and approaches Fiona with a smile. He knows his end is near. Axeman tosses Fiona his axe and she hacks at his throat with a satisfied grin on her face. The scene ends with Fiona, Marie, and Axeman smiling.

Marie and Fiona are celebrating their victory in the kitchen with drinks, and Delphine is lurking in the background, watching Marie sip at her “poisoned” champagne. Afterwards, she follows Marie to her bedroom and stabs her, but to no avail. Marie apparently didn’t like being stabbed, and chases her down the stairs. Spalding comes out of nowhere again – as only Spalding can do – and knocks her on the head as she runs by, knocking her out. He explains to Delphine that Marie cannot be killed, but she should be dealt with anyway. He proposes the idea of burying her in such a way that she cannot escape. We are then shown a disturbing shot of Spalding in his baby get-up, this time with a “living doll” of his own – the child that Marie recently stole to satisfy Papa Legba (I could be wrong here).

Zoe is packing up to leave and trying to persuade Kyle to come with her, but surprisingly, Kyle says that this decision isn’t hers to make. This surprises Zoe, and everyone else watching the show, because prior to this show, Kyle has shown little to no free will. However, after a brief moment of inner confrontation, Kyle decides to go with Zoe, and they board a bus before the screen cuts to black.

Review

All things considered, this was a hell of an episode. There was a little bit of something for everyone; we had the stylish funeral sequence at the beginning of the episode, the unexpected twist of Cordelia going blind for a second time, entertaining dialogue, and my favorite – over-the-top blood and gore in the meeting scene.

But as it always is at the end of a Coven episode, I am left confused. It’s not that I can’t understand what happened in the episode, or what the characters plan to do next, I just have difficulty understanding what the show’s endgame is.

I think at this point, it’s safe to assume that Fiona is the antagonist. But who is the next supreme, and when a character dies in one episode, are they really dead, or should the audience expect them to be resurrected by the following Wednesday?

There are always a lot of moving parts with this show, and they are all moving so fast and in so many different directions that it’s not always easy to read through everything and find the core of it all. Maybe that’s a good thing, and the show will keep us all guessing until the grand finale that ties all of this together in a way that is exciting and satisfying. But part of me is a little afraid it won’t come together so perfectly. I feel this way because I found the way this season is wrapping up very similar to the first season, where there were also many characters and storylines to keep track of, and the ending wasn’t what I was mentally preparing myself for. I enjoyed the ride as a whole, but I was expecting a better ending. Maybe I’m just a critic and expect too much.

This show brings up a lot of questions that I don’t think I can answer before things start to come together more. I could speculate what I think to be the lesson or underlying message of this show, but without an ending, I’m not ballsy enough to take a stab at it.

As far as where I think the story is going? Well I have a couple of hunches – partially thanks to the sneak peek at next week’s episode – but again, nothing I’m too confident in.

Here’s a hunch for you: there is no one upcoming supreme, but together, all of the witches are the next supreme. Everyone feels their powers growing stronger, but as of now, nobody is setting themselves apart from the pack. So maybe they all must work together to take down Fiona and then live happily ever after, as one big happy family?

If this is the case, then what happened when Nan died, was her piece of the “supreme puzzle” destroyed, or did another witch gain those telekinetic powers?

Who knows? Not me. As speculative as I am, I’m sucked in and I’m excited to see how this all plays out. Comment with any theories you may have, and thanks for reading.