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Holy Crayola! That was some fucked up shit.
Not gonna lie, I was a little on the fence. There are things that I find as repulsive as enthralling: the oppositions that are set-up by race and religion, the catty female in-fighting.
But I'm in. I'm committed. At least for the moment.
I'm horrified but I can't look away.
The theme, as hinted at in the episode title, is all about Replacements. Fiona is being replaced as the Supreme by Madison whose powers are growing as Fiona's diminish. Queenie searches for a replacement for love by eating, and later in a disastrous encounter with Madame Lalaurie's Minotaur. Alicia (played by the incomparable Mare Winningham), Kyle's mom, has been using Kyle to replace his dead father in too many ways, at least one of them completely inappropriate and bat shit crazy. Kyle's body, even, has been replaced back in "Boy Parts." Even Cordelia, apparently unable to conceive a child, seeks out Marie Laveau for a fertility spell to replace with magic what modern medicine says cannot be accomplished.
I'm not sure how I feel about the lines this show is so un-apologetically crossing. The storylines are threaded together tenuously at best, and Coven suffers for it. Murder House had a tight insularity and a much more focused storyline. Coven has just got its legs under it, but they're all pulling in different directions.
One thing for sure, the show doesn't leave you hanging for long. Revenge is exacted quickly and violently. Kyle ends up beating his mom's face in as she starts to put the moves on him for a second time. Zoe dragged him away from the Regenerating Swamp Witch, Misty, and delivered him back to his mother after she admits to missing him and being about to commit suicide when Zoe called. Unfortunately, he was still mute and couldn't protest, but the audience was to realize pretty quickly the horror that Kyle experiences under his mother's care. The look on his face and in his eyes was excruciating. I cheered while I hid behind my hands as he beat her head in.
In another part of town, Fiona realizes that Madison is the next Supreme as she begins manifesting new powers. While visiting the hunky, but dismissive, Bible thumping new neighbor, she sets the curtains on fire when his mother (the AmAZING Patty LuPone) throws her and Nan out. We re-visit the past and get clued in to Fiona's ascension to Supreme when she murdered the previous Supreme. Apparently, that's not the way the game usually goes, but Fiona, we've come to understand is the wicked witch in this melodrama. She wanted the power immediately, and smelling weakness, slit the other woman's throat without adhering to any of the usual rituals. The previous Supreme warned Fiona that she was too young and that she would bring ruin to the Coven. Seems pretty accurate. In a replay of that event, Fiona slits Madison's throat in front of the same piano where she killed her predecessor. Although, set up like an accident. It doesn't take too long to realize that it was all on purpose. Jessica Lange is a glory to behold.
However, I have a feeling that this isn't going to be the last that we see of Madison.
Then there's Queenie and her run-in with the Madame LaLaurie's Minotaur, apparently returned for revenge and this time he really is a monster. LaLaurie's been made Queenie's slave by Fiona in a deliciously appropriate turn about. After refusing to serve Queenie, Fiona who has previously directed LaLaurie to be the new maid, then makes her work exclusively for Queenie. Queenie mostly puts her to work in the kitchen cooking. Lalaurie admonishes Queenie for her eating habits and Queenie tells her that she eats as a substitute for love. She just wants to be loved. They're standing at either end of the kitchen table when the Minotaur, chasing down Lalaurie, appears at the door. LaLaurie begs for help, and Queenie uses her blood to lure the Minotaur away. In the saddest moment of the episode, Queenie offers herself up to the Minotaur because she wants to be loved. I was really saddened and really revolted by the scene. Let's not even bring in the politics of having an overweight, black female offering herself up to a black man-beast-bull. We don't know yet what happens to Queenie, but the ending of the scene does not bode well.
So, pretty unappetizing, psychologically and morally queasy episode. But the Jessica Lange and Angela Bassett chew UP the scenes they're in. Gabourey Sidibe makes Queenie hard and defensive, but resonant. I like Madison despite myself (and I'm really not liking the throw-away treatment of the gang rape from episode 1). There's a lot of shock with very little value in the season so far. But the acting is so good that I want to see how it all ends. In less capable hands, I would have walked away from this. I still might.
Not gonna lie, I was a little on the fence. There are things that I find as repulsive as enthralling: the oppositions that are set-up by race and religion, the catty female in-fighting.
But I'm in. I'm committed. At least for the moment.
I'm horrified but I can't look away.
The theme, as hinted at in the episode title, is all about Replacements. Fiona is being replaced as the Supreme by Madison whose powers are growing as Fiona's diminish. Queenie searches for a replacement for love by eating, and later in a disastrous encounter with Madame Lalaurie's Minotaur. Alicia (played by the incomparable Mare Winningham), Kyle's mom, has been using Kyle to replace his dead father in too many ways, at least one of them completely inappropriate and bat shit crazy. Kyle's body, even, has been replaced back in "Boy Parts." Even Cordelia, apparently unable to conceive a child, seeks out Marie Laveau for a fertility spell to replace with magic what modern medicine says cannot be accomplished.
I'm not sure how I feel about the lines this show is so un-apologetically crossing. The storylines are threaded together tenuously at best, and Coven suffers for it. Murder House had a tight insularity and a much more focused storyline. Coven has just got its legs under it, but they're all pulling in different directions.
One thing for sure, the show doesn't leave you hanging for long. Revenge is exacted quickly and violently. Kyle ends up beating his mom's face in as she starts to put the moves on him for a second time. Zoe dragged him away from the Regenerating Swamp Witch, Misty, and delivered him back to his mother after she admits to missing him and being about to commit suicide when Zoe called. Unfortunately, he was still mute and couldn't protest, but the audience was to realize pretty quickly the horror that Kyle experiences under his mother's care. The look on his face and in his eyes was excruciating. I cheered while I hid behind my hands as he beat her head in.
In another part of town, Fiona realizes that Madison is the next Supreme as she begins manifesting new powers. While visiting the hunky, but dismissive, Bible thumping new neighbor, she sets the curtains on fire when his mother (the AmAZING Patty LuPone) throws her and Nan out. We re-visit the past and get clued in to Fiona's ascension to Supreme when she murdered the previous Supreme. Apparently, that's not the way the game usually goes, but Fiona, we've come to understand is the wicked witch in this melodrama. She wanted the power immediately, and smelling weakness, slit the other woman's throat without adhering to any of the usual rituals. The previous Supreme warned Fiona that she was too young and that she would bring ruin to the Coven. Seems pretty accurate. In a replay of that event, Fiona slits Madison's throat in front of the same piano where she killed her predecessor. Although, set up like an accident. It doesn't take too long to realize that it was all on purpose. Jessica Lange is a glory to behold.
However, I have a feeling that this isn't going to be the last that we see of Madison.
Then there's Queenie and her run-in with the Madame LaLaurie's Minotaur, apparently returned for revenge and this time he really is a monster. LaLaurie's been made Queenie's slave by Fiona in a deliciously appropriate turn about. After refusing to serve Queenie, Fiona who has previously directed LaLaurie to be the new maid, then makes her work exclusively for Queenie. Queenie mostly puts her to work in the kitchen cooking. Lalaurie admonishes Queenie for her eating habits and Queenie tells her that she eats as a substitute for love. She just wants to be loved. They're standing at either end of the kitchen table when the Minotaur, chasing down Lalaurie, appears at the door. LaLaurie begs for help, and Queenie uses her blood to lure the Minotaur away. In the saddest moment of the episode, Queenie offers herself up to the Minotaur because she wants to be loved. I was really saddened and really revolted by the scene. Let's not even bring in the politics of having an overweight, black female offering herself up to a black man-beast-bull. We don't know yet what happens to Queenie, but the ending of the scene does not bode well.
So, pretty unappetizing, psychologically and morally queasy episode. But the Jessica Lange and Angela Bassett chew UP the scenes they're in. Gabourey Sidibe makes Queenie hard and defensive, but resonant. I like Madison despite myself (and I'm really not liking the throw-away treatment of the gang rape from episode 1). There's a lot of shock with very little value in the season so far. But the acting is so good that I want to see how it all ends. In less capable hands, I would have walked away from this. I still might.
