Recap/Review: American Horror Story: Freak Show - Massacres And Matinees

It's the second episode and things are certainly moving along nicely as a few new characters are thrown into the mix.

Written by Tim Minear
Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Mr & Mrs Strongmen: With Michael Chiklis and Angela Bassett's names already in the opening credits, this was the very episode to actually introduce both characters - volatile strongman, Dell Toledo and his wife, Desiree, a three breasted hermaphrodite. While Desiree seems reasonably okay so far (even making suggestions for Bette and Dot), Toledo is already presented as an aggressive loose cannon who has previously killed in Chicago and wasted no time in bulldozing over Elsa with the matinee idea and beating the snot out of Jimmy as well for good measure. It was also revealed that he's Jimmy's father and Ethel's ex-husband, so she wasn't best pleased to see him again.

Your Own Clown: The best thing about this whole plot was the fact that Dandy managed to freak or annoy the shit out of twisty during their encounter in the former's house. If Dandy's behaviour is so off-putting, it unnerves a homicidal non speaking maniac like Twisty. Actually throughout this episode, both Dandy and his overbearing mother creeped me out far more than Twisty's slaughtering antics but the whole teaming up of Dandy and Twisty just cannot end well, can it?

Criminally Good: Last week it was Elsa giving us an okay version of Life On Mars and this week, despite Bette being unable to sing to save her life, Dot on the other hand (the twin I find I'm liking the most as is Jimmy by the looks of it) ended up singing a bloody brilliant version of Fiona Apple's Criminal, much to Elsa's chagrin. I like that Dot did find her voice in this episode and while I do feel bad for Bette, I don't like that she's being so easily manipulated by a clearly threatened Elsa as well. Still, do I need to say that Sarah Paulson is the best thing about this season? No, but I'm going to anyway.

Saving The Show: Despite taking centre stage in the first episode, this wasn't a big one for Elsa really. Sure, she was threatened by Dot's talents, seemed to undermine Jimmy's manliness and ignored warning signs about Toledo (even she admitted he was going to be a problem), Elsa didn't do a great deal in this one. And she didn't seem that put out that Jimmy's plan to get rid of Toledo resulted in bird head biting Meep getting killed as a result. Speaking of Jimmy, I empathized with him in this episode. He's desperately trying to prove that being a freak shouldn't be a bad thing and at every turn, it wasn't panning out for me. He might have killed a cop but other than that, he does seem like a nice bloke,

Almost Out Of There: Poor Bonnie and the little boy who were held up in the camper van of hell nearly escaped this week, only for dandy to round them up again with Twisty. The opening sequence was pretty freaky as well with Twisty dispatching of two people in less than six minutes but mainly, a set up for next week's two parter was set up with all the Halloween paraphernalia on display. Oh and we got Patti LaBelle as Gloria's maid, who sadly judging by what she revealed about Dandy's private activities will probably not be around for long either.

Next week, both Stanley and Maggie arrive on the scene, Halloween is the setting and a certain legend turns out to be very much real.