“Freak Show” returned this week after a holiday sabbatical with “Magical Thinking,” the highly anticipated Neil Patrick Harris arc. He plays Chester. Chester is a traveling salesman with a dark secret whom the twins have set their sights on as the man who will devirginize them. And if 100 other things weren’t going on, we might have been able to explore that plotline. But for once, I just didn’t care about the poorly developed plot because it was cliché and somehow totally off-putting at the same time.
According to the shows own words, it has reinvigorated horror tropes. I think the creators have given themselves permission to use clichés because they believe themselves to be “reinvigorating” them. In some cases I feel they’ve succeeded (home invasions, killer clowns, school shootings), and in other ways (more often than not) they have greatly failed. The character of Chester was a big fail in my opinion though I’m eager to see if he’ll be responsible for the death of a freak or two. Chester is a traveling salesman-turned magician with a ventriloquist act. Chester also has an imaginary relationship with his dummy, Marjorie (who’s portrayed by Jamie Brewer), and must stop her from killing people. And I’ve also just described the plot of a Goosebumps book, a James Wan film, and I think an episode of Care Bears. Harris is an actor who shines brightly in whatever role you give him. So this is not a critique of his performance, rather how horribly plotted his character is. I don’t know if it’s that this role just feels too obvious, or if it’s the rumors that Harris practically begged to be in this season, or just that it wasn’t good… the whole thing threw me off. It reeked of “the last few episodes of AHS.” Which we’ve seen in the past—it’s pretty much scientifically proven at this point—that the last few episodes of every season are beyond pitiful.
Although Chester brought us the now-unseeable foursome between conjoined twins, dummy, and psychotic war vet, we absolutely could have done without him this season. The problem is that we have mildly interesting side stories with major characters that are being swept around like nothing to make room for this unimportant Chester storyline. “AHS” is notorious for bringing in too many plots for one season—even in one episode—but usually they are swept aside for each other, not for an entirely new plot nearing the end of act three. Unless his character brings about something huge, then what the hell is he doing here?
Meanwhile, in a much more interesting region of the freak show, Jimmy officially did cut off his hands and Maggie finally did something right (albeit off screen). I don’t care to stretch my imagination far enough to figure out how but somehow, Maggie and Desiree were able to get Ma Petite’s body back to show Elsa what Dell did. Although, at least for this episode, it doesn’t appear that Maggie gave herself or Stanley up along with Dell. Maybe she did and we will get to that next week. It wasn’t clear since they only spent 30 seconds on it.
Dandy only comes in this week with a few short scenes, but some of the best material of the entire episode. Now that Jimmy is out of the picture, Dandy needs a new nemesis. Apparently (I’d forgotten this until this week’s episode) Dandy is still obsessing over the twins. It’s really not the most believable plot line as he doesn’t tend to hold onto things very long due to his attention span of a spoiled eight-year-old. But nevertheless, Dandy manages to steal the episode in his brief scenes. From showing up at the freak show in a big ass fur coat to ironically judging Chester’s murderous past. “What a sicko! Tell me, how did they die?” In a show where everyone is so predictable, Dandy is always a welcome distraction.
We have two episodes remaining…just two episodes to get to any unanswered questions or close up any outstanding plotlines. And that’s without adding Chester and his bag of crazy. If Elsa finds out about Stanley, how does she get to Hollywood? If she doesn’t find out about him, what happens to Jimmy “No Hands” Darling? What about Maggie? Will Elsa leave her show in the hands of the clearly unhinged Chester? What happens to the twins in the process? Will Dandy just go on…being Dandy? It looks like the next two episodes will be carrying the brunt of the season. And if they close this one out the way they did “Asylum” with the massive flash-forward-and-reminisce episode, I will be so angry. Though I’m honestly prepared for it. A 90-year-old Elsa speaks with 60 Minutes’ Diane Sawyer all about her Freak Show!
Are we having fun yet?