American Horror Story: Coven - Ep 7 - The Dead - Recap

By V

The Dead was an episode full of game changes, character development, and new alliances.  Its focus was mainly on “the dead”, more specifically Kyle, Madison, The Axeman and Madame Delphine LaLaurie (although she wasn’t dead, but technically should have been, you know the story).  Although the episode felt a bit slow at times, it had quite a few surprises, and I enjoyed it slightly more than last week’s episode.  Let’s get into it. 

Kyle

The episode begins with a flashback, which takes place in a tattoo parlor, with Kyle rocking out to “Rosanna” by Toto.  He likes this song and wants everyone to know it.  You know how that is….when you hear a song you love, and raise the volume, start singing louder and telling everyone around you how much you love that song, like anyone really cares.. Anyways, he thinks the song is “amazeballs”.  (Is that how frat boys talk?).  So that was Kyle, walking around the tattoo parlor, singing, patting people on the back with his huge smile, while his boys got tattoos.  One got a tattoo that meant Beginning and End.  The other got some sort of Irish tattoo on his arm.  They try to convince him to get one, but goes into this shpeal about how he wants to become an engineer and if he meets the Governor, he would like to be able to roll up his sleeves and have the Governor think Kyle’s shit don’t stink (or something like that).

Back in present day, Kyle is still chained to the wall in Cordelia’s garden witch room, and it seems as if he is remembering the tattoo parlor memory.  He goes into his type of hysterics, as sees the Irish tattoo on “his” arm and the Chinese tattoo on “his” leg and realizes that “his” parts are his friends parts.  Zoe walks in hiding Madison’s gun behind her back, and tells him he was a great guy but he died, and she brought him back, and she should have let him go.  She says there is only 1 way to end this.  She pulls the gun and he freaks some more, grabbing it out of her hand and holding it up to his mouth.  Zoe then freaks out, stops him and consoles him, telling him she doesn’t want him to die.  Huh?

Madison

After being brought back from the dead, Madison has realized that she can feel no emotion.  In an awesome monologue voice over, she describes how she was born in a generation that feels entitled.  Generation Y.  The Global Generation (see my superlatives post for the full monologue).  She talks about how when she was alive she would drink and use drugs to numb her pain.  But now there’s no pain, and she would give anything to feel pain or any emotion.  She rummages through Fiona’s Pharmacy, taking everything in site, but nothing.  Except for one pill that made her not look like Marilyn Manson anymore.  She holds a lighter up to her palm, but feels nothing.  She is also super hungry.  She eats everything in sight.

Cordelia

Cordelia is going to bed when the phone rings.  It’s her witch hunting hubby Hank (say that five times fast).  He is crying and tells her he wants to come home.  She tells him to go to bed and hangs up.  Hank tells her he will see her soon (which she didn’t hear because she already hung up).  Hank is staying at some apartment with his arsenal of guns.  He is preparing to return home.  I hope (not) that he is prepared for his justice.

Cordelia goes into the hallway and calls for Delphine.  Madison sees her and hides.  Cordelia gets too close to the top of the stairs and Madison grabs her.  As they touch, Delia gets flashes of Fiona killing Madison.  Uh oh.

Zoe/Kyle/Madison/Cordelia

Zoe brings Kyle to her room, where she uncuffs him as she tells him she wants to trust him.  Finally someone is going to teach him how to communicate.  She holds up a flash card and tells him to say FOOD.  He says FOOD.  She then holds up a flash card that says BED.  He, surprise surprise, freaks, and knocks the flash cards out of her hand.  He says STUPID.  Go Kyle!  A two syllable word!  So Madison comes in and asks who Kyle is.  Zoe reminds her that she killed him and they brought him back.  Madison just stares, not showing any emotion at all.  She tells Zoe that Cordelia wants to see her, and that she will look after Kyle.  Zoe leaves and Madison attempts to connect with Kyle (it works), as she tells him she was dead too.  She asks him if he saw a light, because she saw nada, but then she came back and now feels even more empty.  He seems to relate to that (obvie) and they embrace.

Zoe goes to see Cordelia, who tells her that she is worried Fiona will notice Zoe’s powers and slit her throat like she did Madison.  She explains to Zoe how her mother only cares about herself, she is Team Fiona all the way, and if she thinks someone is the next Supreme, whether it be a correct assumption or not, she will kill them.  Cordelia tells Zoe they have to kill Fiona.

Zoe/Spaulding

In my least favorite scene EVER, only because I love Denis O'Hare so much, Spaulding wakes up strapped to a bed, with Zoe sitting in the room.  She asks how he is feeling and he SAYS “Fine”.  Holy happy day, Spaulding can talk!!  He’s all like omg I can talk.  He asks who tongue it was (lol).  She says it’s his tongue, she found it in the secret cubby that housed the Ouija Board.  Myrtle kept it, and since it was enchanted, it didn’t shrivel up.  Zoe had cast a spell to reattach his tongue.  And it worked!  He asks what she wants (channeling Russell again I swear!).  Knowing his tongue was still enchanted, she asks him if he killed Madison.  He says he did not.  She asks if he knows who did and he says he does.  She asked who killed Madison and in a long drawn out trying so hard not to say it wail, he says Fiona.  Zoe then tells him he is not a part of this Coven and he tells her for ten generations his family devoted themselves to the academy.  And then in one moment my hope of Denis O'Hare finally being able to speak in this damn season was shattered, as Zoe plunges a knife through him.  That bitch.  Spaulding dies, with his tongue sticking out.  Oh the irony.

Zoe/Kyle/Madison

Zoe decides to check on Kyle and Madison.  And check on them she did.  Totally checked on something she didn’t want to see (or did she).  Kyle and Madison are going at it against the bureau in the bedroom. She closes the door, and takes a shower, and when she opens the shower curtain to get out, Madison is standing right there.  She tells Zoe that she knows Zoe likes Kyle, but Zoe says it doesn’t matter, she can’t be with him anyway.  Madison says she can.  I mean come on, he died once, and it’s going to take more than sex to kill him (her words not mine).  Zoe asks her if she is done with him and so the triangle truly begins.  Mad tells her hell no she ain’t done with him, being with him is the only time that she has felt anything since being brought back.  She is not giving him up but that doesn’t mean Zoe has to.   Madison leads her into the bedroom where Kyle is sitting on the bed.  Madison sits next to him, and they both hold their hand out to Zoe to join in.  Which she does.  Not shown but 100% implied.  Uh ok, didn’t see that coming.

Fiona/Axeman

After “meeting” at a bar, the Axeman brings her back to an apartment.  The apartment belonged to a man that the Axeman killed and stuffed in the bath tub.  But he played it off like it was his own.  He turns on some jazz and pours them both some Bourbon.  He begins to seduce her with his words, and it works.  She excuses herself to use the bathroom, which has a roach in its sink (disgusting) and inside she runs her fingers through her hair, and some falls out.  He continues to charm her, and as they embrace, she pulls more hair out.  She pushes him away, telling him this was a mistake.  He tells her this isnt a one night stand, and she tells him that it was.  He wouldn’t want her, she is a horrible person.  He thinks it’s their destiny and she tells him her destiny does not involve this roast infested shit hole of an apartment.  She goes to leave, but he stops her, telling her that there needs to be no love, just good old fashioned sex.  He slowly seduces her again with his words, talking about his fingers playing the saxophone and whatever the heck else he was saying (something about his mouth, I don’t know), and she falls for it and they have sex.  It must have been good because Fiona put on a little light show as this was going on.

The next morning, Fiona is getting dressed and he asks where she is going.  She tells him it stinks in there because of that dead body.  He tries to get her to stay and then he decides it’s time for confession.  He knows everything about her.  He has been around her since she was 8 years old, and staying at Miss Robichaux’s Academy.  We get treated to another flashback (I love flashbacks) of a group of girls (kids) sitting at a table eating breakfast.  In walks an older girl, like a lot older, maybe 16, and she is knocking all of their glasses of milk down with her mind.  The bully witch stops at Fiona and tries to scare her.  Fiona tells her she is not scared of her.  The bully witch tells Fiona to pick up her glass of milk and hold it above her head. Fiona obliges, but then throws the milk at her.  Bully witch calls Fiona a little shit and pushes her to the ground.  She walks away, all triumphant, when a bureau falls right on top of her.  Back in present day, Fiona is shocked at his statement that it was him who did that, and asks him what he is.  He tells her he was stuck in that house, that when she arrived, she gave him relief from his endless, torturous days.  He first saw her as a daughter, but as she grew up, his feelings became more complicated.  He fell in love with her.  This doesn’t seem to bother her or hit her right away, as she kisses him.  Then it must hit her, because she slaps him and is furious and tells him to stay away from her.

At some point later, the Axeman is playing the saxophone in a bar and as he finishes, he sees Fiona sitting there watching him.  She asks if she could buy him a drink.  He accepts.

Queenie/Madam Delphine LaLaurie/Marie Laveau

Queenie and Delphine have been forming quite the strange bond.  A bond that went from quickly growing to quickly diminished.  They are both hungry and because Madison ate the whole house, they go out to nearest FrostStop and sit in the car as they both eat their super sized meals.  Queenie is laughing at the irony of her and LaLaurie (sorry I cant decide if I want to call her Delphine or LaLaurie, so I’m using both) hanging out in the parking lot.  Who would have thought she would ever be chillin with a racist.  LaLaurie tells her that the coven girls will never see Queenie as a sister because she’s black (who says that!).

At some point after this, Queenie decides to pay a visit to Marie Laveau’s salon.  Marie tells her that she is surprised it took her so long to come see her.  Queenie asks her what all the fish heads were for (I was thinking the same thing) and Marie tells her it’s to make Gumbo.  Queenie has never had Gumbo, and Marie is not surprised, with her living over in wonderbread land and all.  Queenie tells her that the coven girls do not care that she is black, and Marie talks about how the coven witches are the worst.  She then starts talking about Madame LaLaurie being alive.  Queenie tells Marie that Fiona made LaLaurie her slave.  Marie tells her that LaLaurie is evil and to ask LaLaurie what the worst thing she ever done was.  She tells Queenie to bring LaLaurie to her, and in turn, Queenie is welcome to live there in the voodoo house.  Queenie says she never said she wanted to live there, and Marie tells her she belongs there.  She could mix her witch with their voodoo and she would be so powerful that no one would be able to touch her, not even the Supreme.  If I were a witch, that would sound really tempting.  Queenie starts to leave and asks Marie what she would do with LaLaurie if she was brought to her.  Marie tells her not to worry about that and to get home before it gets dark.

Back at the academy, Delphine is cutting up a ham as Queenie walks in to talk to her.  Queenie wants to know what was the worst thing she ever  did.  LaLaurie tells her that they ought to keep the past left behind.  Queenie disagrees, telling her that in order to be a true friend, you have to see the ugly before you could see the good.  Delphine says she does have one regret.

Flashback time :)  Long ago, Madame Delphine LaLaurie’s husband was cheating on her with the cook (?), Sally.  Sally got pregnant and had a baby boy just recently.  During an awkward dinner involving husband grabbing cook’s ass, LaLaurie acknowledges he birth of Sally’s son.  She asks what his name is, and her husband blurts out that he always liked the name Pierre.  Stupid ass.  Way to blow your cover, can you make it any more obvious?  Anyways, Delphine decides that since Boquita is locked up (as in locked in cages in mommy’s basement not jail), she needs a new handmaiden.  She asks Sally to help her that evening with her beauty regimen.  Sally eagerly agrees, like hanging out with your lover’s wife doing beauty regimens is on her bucket list.  During that beauty regimen, LaLaurie is showing her collection of lotions and creams, but says they are all worthless.  Except for one.  She asks Sally to guess an ingredient.  Sally tells her that it looks like blood.  Right.  But an extra special batch of blood.  Know why? LaLaurie tells Sally  it’s special because the blood came from a newly born.  Youth begets youth.  She tells Sally not to bother naming her baby.  The girl is distraught, and the next morning she threw herself off the balcony.

Ugh, if you were finally thinking LaLaurie could possibly be redeemed, there goes that reminder of how despicable she was.

Back in present day, Queenie is horrified at the story.  Who wouldn’t be?  LaLaurie tells her that it was a different time, a different world and that she is thankful to have Queenie as a true friend to guide her.  I don’t give a F what it was, that shits f’d up.  And so was that different world.  Shameful.

Sometime thereafter, Queenie convinces LaLaurie she needs a hair cut and brings her to Marie Laveau’s salon.  Holy shit, I did not think she would do it!!!  LaLaurie is unknowingly looking around the salon, calling out for service.  Out comes Marie Laveau.  Surprise!  The look on LaLaurie’s face was priceless (kudos Kathy Bates).  Delphine appears flabbergasted and truly hurt that Queenie did this to her, and once again, I feel for her.  They were starting to bond.  Wait, no, whatev, Karma is a bitch Delphine.  You get what you put out.  Queenie calls her a dumb bitch and accepts Marie’s offer of taking the first cut.

In the long and mesmerizing final scene of the episode, Marie Laveau is slowly applying a beauty regimen to her face.  Blood.  Delphine’s blood.

Grade

B

Although not my favorite AHS Coven episode by far, similar to my opinion last week, this episode definitely had the most game changers and surprises of all of them.  A lot to ponder the next two weeks while waiting for it to return.  It’s going to be a long two weeks. 

Feel free to leave a comment to let me know what you thought of the episode!   I love feedback and reading your opinions and thoughts!  And don’t forget to check out all my superlatives post for AHS: Coven, Ep 8 - The Dead.