Well the body count just keeps climbing on American Horror Story: Freak Show, doesn’t it? “Show Stoppers” gave us a sneak peek into the Freaks’ own brand of justice as they went on a witch hunt to find those responsible for killing some of their own. There was drama, intrigue, and a good amount of blood. Plus there was another tie to Asylum, which is always a lot of fun.
Stanley has arrived back at the Freak Show after selling Jimmy’s hands, and everyone is having a dinner party in honor of Elsa’s departure. She makes a toast to the new proprietor of the show, Chester, and while he thanks Elsa for making his dreams come true, Marjorie wishes her good riddance. Man this dude is weird. Anyway, Elsa isn’t done speaking, and her next toast goes to Stanley for making her dreams come true. In fact, they even got him a present. And when he opens it, he finds the head of the museum curator perfectly preserved in a jar. After Maggie fainted when she saw Jimmy’s hands, she and Desiree were taken to the curator’s office where Desiree stabbed her in the back with a letter opener.
Stanley says he’s innocent, but Maggie already spilled the beans on their entire plan. The con man is captured by the freaks and attached to the knife wheel of death. Elsa only throws two knives at him before she cuts him down and explains that he brought death into her camp, and now he must pay. She throws a knife into his leg, and tells him to run. Still pleading for his life, Stanley tells the freaks that Elsa killed Ethel before taking off into the rain. Even after dropping that truth bomb, Stanley still has no chance and the Freaks catch him to deploy a little justice.
Jimmy is recovering from his injuries in a shack in the middle of nowhere, and Elsa and Maggie pay him a visit. They tell him that Dell is dead, and when he asks who did it, Elsa explains they all did. His father broke the code of the freaks when he killed Ma Petite, so he paid his price. Now it’s time for Jimmy to step up and take his father’s place as a strong, male leader for the camp, but Jimmy can’t believe that everything is happening because of Maggie’s story. Elsa, however, is grateful for Maggie’s honesty, and Maggie insists she’s going to make things right. She says that while most of her life has been a lie, she has always loved Jimmy. That has always been true.
The twins and Chester are having some steamy sex while Marjorie watches from a nearby dresser. The twins ask their beau to put her away (because she’s terrifying), so Chester knocks her to the floor. Of course this leads to a fight between the man and his puppet. He’s finally happy with the show and the twins, but they just don’t like Marjorie watching them during sexy times. Marjorie thinks that she should just leave Chester; the twins are obviously using him because he’s the boss. The man insists that the twins love him, and they will help cure him, but Marjorie says he’s a murderer. Chester says that she was the one that killed Alice and Lucy, but as Marjorie points out, she’s just a doll. Chester needs Marjorie, with means the twins need to go and Chester knows it.
The Freaks have gathered in Ethel’s things to discuss their uncertain future. Now that Stanley has been revealed as a fraud, Elsa won’t be going to Hollywood so what’s going to happen to the show? They don’t think Elsa will buy the show back, but they also don’t think Chester will be long for this world as he’ll be compromising her spotlight. They all know that the most important thing to Elsa is Elsa, and maybe what Stanley said had some truth behind it. Ethel was strong, caring, and she wouldn’t kill herself. Paul believes that the only way to secure their future is to make sure Elsa doesn’t have one, and everyone seems to agree.
The twins are brushing their hair in their tent when Dandy interrupts. Dot tries to kick him out, but Dandy apologizes for his previous behavior. He knows they have a new man, and while he wishes it was him, they deserve much better. So while he can’t be their man, he figured the least he could do for them was look into the lucky guy who is. He hands them Chester’s police file, but Dot throws the file out of his hand. They want nothing to do with him. In an uncharacteristic move, Dandy leaves peacefully, remarking he’s done all he can.
Elsa has returned to Jimmy’s shack and this time she’s brought a friend, Massimo, the man who made her legs. Jimmy doesn’t want fancy prosthetics, but Elsa insists that Massimo will offer something more convincing, and shows off her legs. She explains that Massimo saved her life, and she would have married him if he hadn’t been such a fool. After Massimo saved her, the war started to break out in Germany. And while Elsa fled to America, Massimo couldn’t leave until the men who hurt her were brought to justice. He managed to hunt down the men responsible, and was able to kill all of them but the leader, one Hans Gruber (!!!). He approached Gruber with a gun, but Hans shot first (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist). Massimo was held captive and tortured by Gruber for months, and when he was free he came to America to find Elsa. He wrote to her, but never heard back. The torture left him with no humanity, so he couldn’t just show up and get Elsa, as he no longer has the capacity to love.
Chester has brought his troupe together to meet about their new show. He explains that his act will be the closer, but there will be one small change. Rather than just being his assistants, Bette and Dot will be the ones in the box. Well, the twins have read Chester’s police report, and while they didn’t want to make any snap judgments based on information from Dandy, they sure as hell aren’t getting in a box for him.
Maggie, hoping to make up for her misdeeds, offers to help Chester with his trick. She knows how the “saw a woman in half” trick works, and would be happy to assist. Chester insists all of the freaks go backstage to do a run-through, and then he starts to crack. He starts to see Alice and Lucy in place of Maggie’s face, and his hallucinations along with Marjorie all start taunting him. Chester has decided to change up his acts, and cuffs Maggie’s feet in place so she can’t move out of the way as the saw. The young woman screams in agony as she is literally sawed in half. As the freaks come out onto the stage, Chester exclaims, “Ta Da!” splitting the trick box open and letting Maggie’s guts spill all over the floor.
Marjorie is packing up the trailer as it’s time for them to leave again. Chester screwed up and killed someone else so they need to go back on the run. Chester says she’s not leaving without him; he was finally happy and he ruined it. He grabs the girl (puppet) and starts stabbing her repeatedly.
Covered in blood, Chester runs into a police station, yelling hysterically about a murder. He hands over a blanket covered “victim”, and when the cops open it up, Marjorie is inside. Chester insists that he’s guilty and they should give him the chair; the cops just look at him like he’s crazy (which I’m pretty sure he is).
Amazon Eve has gone to visit Jimmy’s shack, and she tells him that Maggie is dead, and Elsa’s next because of what she did to Ethel. Before she leaves, Eve sees Massimo’s sketches for Jimmy’s new hands, and she tells the boy she’s happy for him. He might have a chance at a normal life now.
Elsa is getting ready for bed when the twins show up and tell her to leave. The freaks know that she killed Ethel, and they’re coming to make her pay for it. Elsa doesn’t believe them; she’s a mother to most of the people in the camp. But the twins explain that Ethel was more of a mother than she ever was, and she killed her. The twins have saved her life, and now they’re even. Elsa just needs to run. And run she does, because when the freaks show up to kill her, she’s nowhere to be found.
Before she leaves town, Elsa has one more piece of business to attend to. She sits in her car waiting, and Dandy gets in. He hands her a wad of cash; she hands him an envelope, and drives away. She just sold the Freak Show to yet another crazy man.
Dandy shows up on the campground to take in his new digs. He tells Paul to gather everyone in the big top; he owns everyone now and he wants to take inventory over what’s his. His dream of being in show business has finally come true, and he gets up on stage to take a bow to an imaginary audience. His accolades are cut short when he hears a weird noise coming from backstage. There, in a cage, is Stanley. His limbs have been hacked off and sewn up, something is wrong with his voice, and he is dressed just like Meep. Revenge is sweet, isn’t it?
As the episode comes to a close, Jimmy finally gets his new hands from Massimo, but they’re not “normal hands” like originally planned. Instead, Massimo has crafted Jimmy a perfect reproduction of his original lobster hands.
Man, what an intense hour of television. All of the secrets unraveling, justice being served, and Dandy officially being out-crazied. Sure he’s a homicidal sociopath with a God complex, but at least he doesn’t think a dummy is a real girl. Although I must say, I really dig the use of Jamie Brewer as “real” Marjorie. She makes an excellent hallucination.
I am so excited for the finale next week, but also a little sad. First, I don’t want to see anyone else die, but mostly I’m not ready for this story to be over. The previous three seasons of American Horror Story all felt perfectly wrapped up by Episode 13 – some even felt a little drawn out by then – but Freak Show feels like it has so many more stories to tell, and so much fresh blood in it. And not just fresh blood to be spilled. I just can’t wait to see how this story comes to a close. Will Chester end up in Briarcliff? Will the freaks finally get some peace? How does Elsa get to Hollywood? There are so many questions I need answers to, and only one episode to do it in. I have a feeling it’s going to be a doozy.
(Sidebar: how great was the reveal that Hans Gruber was the one responsible for cutting off Elsa’s legs? That excited me … probably way too much.)
Photo Courtesy of FX
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