WARNING: I cannot warn you enough. This is the spoileriest of spoilery reviews ever. DO NOT READ if you have not watched the season finale.
Whole. E. Shit.
Well “Dandy’s Cabinet of Curiosities” didn’t last long.
I can say with absolute certainty that “Curtain Call” is the best season finale of any “AHS” season finale. I cannot recall any television show that kills off nearly every remaining major character in the first 15 minutes. It was very reminiscent of Tate’s school shooting in season one. Very brutal, very straightforward, completely unapologetic, and totally shocking. I truly don’t think anyone could have seen this coming. Luckily, and maybe a bit too conveniently, Jimmy and Desiree make it out of Dandy’s shooting spree alive and when they hug and weep over the dead bodies of their family members, I almost lost it.
Dandy’s plans to live happily ever after with the Twins are derailed when the remaining freaks drug him and throw him in Houdini’s water chamber to die. Jimmy, Desiree, and the twins sit in the auditorium chairs and watch while eating popcorn and laughing with joy as Dandy drowns in the glass box as he yells at them, “I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU!” Such typical Dandy (I love it). The whole scene is sick and twisted and utterly delightful. And when it’s over and Dandy is a lifeless body floating in a vat of water, Jimmy and Desiree could not have had better responses. Jimmy, “Heck of a show.” Desiree, “That boy…is a star.”
It was beautiful. The perfect ending for Dandy.
On the other side of the Nation and 8 years later, Elsa has finally made it.
It’s Hollywood in 1960, Elsa has her variety show, she’s won several Emmys, has multiple albums, and is now receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She’s married to Michael Beck, a junior casting agent she met when no one else would give her the time of day. Which I think was a very smart play on Murphy’s part. Because I would have a hard time believing that Elsa could actually make it in Hollywood without “knowing someone.” ::wink wink:: (I clearly mean sleeping with someone.)
But of course, when the cameras stop rolling, nothing is perfect, as expected. There are a lot of details to the Elsa Mars story but the most important one to note is that shit hits the fan when the network plans a grand Halloween Elsa Mars Special! Fans of “Freak Show” have been predicting this for some time now. I guess it wasn’t hard to predict since Murphy can’t keep his big mouth shut. But we all knew Mordrake was coming back and since he only takes freaks who perform on Halloween, the story wrote itself.
Although Elsa initially refuses to perform on Halloween for obvious reasons, she quickly changes her mind when a journalist gets her hands on Elsa’s German 8mm snuff films and her career is over. But that’s the least concerning news to her as she is told by the head of the WBN network that they found out about her freak show and that all of her freaks are dead. Upon hearing this, she decides to commit suicide by performing on Halloween. Like I said, we all knew this was coming, but the way in which the decision was made was clever and more importantly, justified. The fact that Elsa has nothing to live for is peanuts compared to the fact that ultimately, she deserves this end. I don’t mean that in a bitchy way, I truly believe that this is the best end for her, as it was for Twisty.
With one last musical number from Elsa, David Bowie of course, and my favorite Bowie song, Heroes, we are ushered into the Mordrake scene. The one thing I loved about this performance over the others is that Lange really mirrored Bowie’s performance in his music video for this song. It was a nice tribute as opposed to a masturbatory performance.
And then the end. Ryan Murphy is notorious for his happy endings. “Murder House” had the family together, happy, decorating a Christmas Tree. “Asylum” just had good feels all around. “Coven” opened up a legitimate witch academy. And now “Freak Show” with its love and babies and marriages. I’m not saying happy endings are a bad thing. They just always shock me when paired with “AHS.”
This episode is definitely in my top three of the season. It was horrifying, melancholy, hyper-realistic (at times), unabashed, and good lord if it didn’t have some of the best dialogue of any “AHS” episode ever. Desiree was so on her game. She was so on point with her commentary about Dandy, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
Having said that, this season has been a complete mixed bag. Wonderful acting. Phenomenal characters. About 3 really great episodes, a couple of mediocre episodes, and a lot of shit thrown in the mix. But it was bold. It did a lot of things most shows would never do. And for that, I have to give it a round of applause.
Random thoughts on Dandy:
Finn Wittrock absolutely nailed this role. Period.
Ummm…all the stuffed animals at the wedding? So perfect.
His best line of the season: “I’ve always found babies to be so boring! But freak babies? Do you think we can make a 3-headed girl?” I fear there will never be another television character quite as impressive as Dandy.
So what did YOU think of the season finale?
Final thought: “Your place is not with us…”I can’t talk about the ending because frankly I have very jumbled thoughts on the matter. Does Elsa deserve all that love and attention in her afterlife after all the horrible things she did? Dying to hear your thoughts!