*Explicit language is used and gifs are from Tumblr*
This week’s episode of American Horror Story opens with a solid blast from the past, as Kai narrates the story of three cults whose members made the ultimate sacrifice for their beloved leaders. Marshall Applewhite, David Koresh, and Jim Jones all get some screen time, all played by Evan Peters.
“These were great men. All of them,” says Kai, and we cut to reality. Then, Kai poses a question. “What if I asked you to make the ultimate sacrifice?” “With a f*****g smile”. It is the answer Kai was hoping to hear. Now, he says, it is time to take things to the next level.
The next level of Kai’s political plan is to regulating the information people can see. Kai proposes and persuades the other members, in his typical Kai Anderson persuasion tactic, to pass the Kai Anderson Internet Freedom and Integrity Act, which will keep the city’s residents safe by blocking their access to certain websites. He also announces a 2018 Senate run, because why not? Kai can do anything!
We next see Ivy, Ally, and their quest to leave the cult and make sure their son Oz is safe.
When we first see them, they are both mad at each other for joining the same cult. The only help they have is Winter, whose sole contribution is to print out a post from WikiHow on “how to a escape a cult.” No wonder both Beverly and Ally want to beat up Winter! She is pretty useless. Just as Ally, Ivy, and Winter have resolved to flee, Kai’s goons invade the house and drag them off to an emergency Kool-Aid-drinking party.
“Our bodies are holding us back.” Kai commands his disciples to drink. Everyone picks up cups (the guys willingly, the women at gunpoint). When one man declines his cup and is killed, there is no choice left. They drink the Kool-Aid and nothing happens, of course. “Why would I kill us? I’m running for Senate!”
In the last moments of this scene, the confident, fierce Beverly appears to have completely lost her mind.
The next scene finds Ivy and Ally going to pick Oz up from school, only to find that he has been kidnapped by the loyal-again Winter and taken to Kai’s house.
By the time they catch up to him, the damage is done, Kai has convinced Ozzy that he is Ozzy’s dad, and Ozzy cheerfully meets his moms. “I wanna stay with Daddy!”
Considering Kai’s track record for killing people who disagree with him, the women make a logical decision to let Ozzy stay the night with “Daddy,” although Ozzy’s insistence on contradicting Kai’s ridiculous rhetoric proves irksome sooner rather than later.
A fantasy flashback to the Heaven’s Gate story line shows Jesus (also Evan Peters) descending from heaven to give Jim Jones a smooch on the forehead and a holy high-five; when Ozzy interrupts to point out that Wikipedia’s version of events is somewhat different.
However, a little alone time is just what the Mayfair-Richards women need to put the spice back into their marriage, and Ally takes full advantage.
After dishing up a beautiful dinner of pasta and wine, she describes to Ivy the despair she felt in the psych ward, as she considered taking her own life.
Ally takes the opportunity to poison Ivy, which we all saw coming because anyone who has ever seen a scene of a dinner where only one person is eating or drinking knew how this was going to end. At least we get to listen to this really good speech.
Well, she finally got it.
She goes to the fertility clinic and bribes the secretary. The picture proves that Oz’s father really is not Kai.
She then invites the cult leader over for Manwiches. She shows Kai the file, but now it proves that he is in fact the father of Ally and Ivy’s baby. “You are the father!” She convinces him that they have a messiah baby who is full of untapped potential. Kai buys everything that she is selling, including the idea that he spoke this fact into existence. He is so drunk with power he is starting to think that his lies are actually truths. Are those real tears in Kai’s eyes? Has Ally found the one weak spot his armor? Kai is delighted by this turn of events.
Ally then admits that she killed Ivy. He wraps his arms around Ally and Ozzy. “Now we can be a real family.”
What is Ally going to do with all of this power now? Hopefully, she’s going to destroy these men one by one. Since this season’s focused so far on the political fractures that divide us, it makes sense that these two people would come together like this. Come back next week for the next episode!
XOXO,
Lisa
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