Sunrise falls on Camp Redwood and a season’s worth of trauma comes to a head as the show hints at the next chapter of this slasher story.
“Just because something seems inconceivable doesn’t mean that it can’t be true.”
Duality has been a fundamental theme in this season of American Horror Story. The last episode even revealed that Benjamin Richter wasn’t as one-note as we thought, right before Margaret attempted to off him. We’ve seen a lot of this so far, but “Red Dawn” presents the most extreme case yet in the form of Donna’s father. He’s a man that’s capable of being a loving, picturesque father who can successfully raise a daughter, while also maintaining a prolific career as a serial killer throughout his entire life. Many characters throughout this season of American Horror Story feature a rich duality, but it’s only when they’re forced to confront this that disaster strikes.
When Donna’s father is given the opportunity for psychiatric help to cure him of his wicked ways, he takes his own life because he’d rather be dead than not be able to be a murderer. At the same time, it’s this event that sparks Donna’s fascination with serial killers in the first place as well as what nearly turns her into one herself. “Red Dawn” pushes Donna, as well as many of its characters to a psychological breaking point where they must confront the duality and darkness within them and then see which version of themselves remains in the end. However, “Red Dawn” also marks a crucial duality in this season of American Horror Story itself.
So many characters struggle with their warring personalities, but Brooke curiously is someone that feels like she doesn’t even have one identity to fall back on. She doesn’t know who she is and while these traumatic events at Camp Redwood have helped some individuals figure out who they really are, Brooke is still largely lost on the matter. Of all the people who could give Brooke support through this existential crisis, it happens to be ghost Ray, whose spirit is now stuck roaming the campgrounds.
It’s interesting that ghost Ray is so much more sympathetic than he was when he was alive. Brooke feels much the same way and she ends up losing her virginity to this supernatural apparition. This plays like a very sweet coming of age moment for Brooke, but American Horror Story wonderfully subverts expectations as their post-coital kindness morphs into uniquely terrifying territory. It’s a well-constructed scene.
It’s a lot of fun to have these ghosts in the mix and everybody losing a grip on what’s actually real (particularly during the final minutes of the episode). Brooke is especially vulnerable to this and Montana uses it as the perfect opportunity to finally confront her and get vengeance on her for her connection to the death of Montana’s brother. Here Montana also complains about the roles that she’s had to play throughout her life and that she’s become stuck playing a part that reduces her.
The fight between Montana and Brooke hits some pretty visceral levels and moves all over Camp Redwood. Montana hits a psychotic energy through this and she flings herself at Brooke like some kind of feral monkey. She’s genuinely frightening by the end of the episode and it’s absolutely the biggest, craziest performance that Billie Lourd has given to date. A lot of pent up aggression comes out during this showdown and with it, all of the secrets at Camp Redwood are now out and the truest version of every character is fighting for their lives. With all of this baggage exposed, these feel like the conflicts that would culminate at the end of the season, not the half-way point.
Along these lines, Margaret’s murderous tendencies are also at an all-time high. There’s a sequence where she and Chet rowboat across the lake that’s beautifully shot. It begins as a creepy, moody set piece that then turns into a highly disturbing one. Chet doesn’t give up easily, but he goes through a lot as Margaret takes him out. It’s also the first time that Margaret really lets loose and shows her true colors in murder mode. Leslie Grossman taps into an unnerving performance as she preaches through her kills. Each one has such a brutal quality to them, too. These aren’t quick, impersonal deaths. She really gets in there with them. The Night Stalker would be proud.
On the topic of Richard Ramirez, after his “not-death” in the previous episode, he explains that he’s now essentially Evil incarnate. Satan has imbued him with knowledge of everyone’s darkest secrets and he becomes a massive instigator towards turning people over to the dark side. There wasn’t much to Ramirez’s character before all of this. He’s someone who seemingly was just looking for the best reason to slaughter somebody. The decision to push him more into a complete caricature and make him practically an actual devil on characters’ shoulders at least makes Ramirez a little more interesting. It’s also important to delineate that the Satanic resurrection that both Ramirez and Richter experience is different than the other undead experience that happens to individuals who perish at Camp Redwood.
In an episode that’s full of big performances, Xavier ends up being “Red Dawn’s” stealth MVP. His Robin Hood-esque execution of Mr. Jingles is wonderful (as is his celebratory dance), and “I have breathed the fire of a thousand white hot suns,” may be the greatest line that Cody Fern has ever delivered. In spite of his unfortunate death, I’m excited to see what this change manages to inspire in his character.
As fascinating as all of the character work and plot development that occurs in “Red Dawn” is, it’s really the final ten minutes that everybody is going to be talking about because holy shit, those final ten minutes. “Red Dawn” channels that finale energy and pushes it to new heights. This film in the “Camp Redwood” series concludes and the rest of the season moves into what would be its sequel. A similar bifurcated seasonal structure was used to strong effect in American Horror Story: Roanoke, but 1984 puts the idea to even more inspired use.
In a season that’s all about slasher films and the horror genre, it cleverly presents a “Camp Redwood Trilogy” told through three generations of massacres. There’s the initial massacre that Margaret perpetrated, there’s the one that concludes in this episode, and then there will be the next generation of kids that are sent to Camp Redwood. This allows for a particularly layered story that’s allowed to comment on itself in ambitious ways. However, it also solves American Horror Story’s biggest problem, which is that they always only have about half a season worth of story before everything peters out. Instead of unnecessary detours or pointless filler, AHS: 1984 delivers what are ostensibly three separate stories that are all united under the same umbrella of trauma. That’s brilliant and it has me excited for the second half of this season in a way that I haven’t felt regarding American Horror Story in years. If the show truly knows what it’s doing, then the next chapter at Camp Redwood will be set in the ‘90s and pull from the slasher films of that decade.
The prospect of two factions of ghosts trying to both protect and harm the next generation of Camp Redwood’s campers has a lot of potential, but I’m most curious to see what happens with Brooke. She takes the fall for this massacre and Margaret sets her up in the same way she did Benjamin Richter. It’d be fascinating if Brooke experiences brutal treatment that hardens her into the next generation’s “Mrs. Jingles.” Furthermore, since the Satan-serving spirits of Ramirez and Richter are able to leave Camp Redwood, maybe they plan to set Brooke loose and team up as a Satanic murder trio?
Whatever the future holds for everyone, these possibilities are all extremely appealing. This is as good as American Horror Story gets, as far as I’m concerned. Thanks to some aggressive plotting and a smart structure for the season, “Camp Redwood” isn’t just a standout installment, but 1984 could be the first season of American Horror Story in forever that actually sticks its landing.
