Recap/Review: American Horror Story: Freak Show - Magical Thinking

Three episodes to go and after an interesting (if somewhat up and down) slew of episodes in 2014, this one certainly kept my attention due to a certain guest star.

Written by Jennifer Salt
Directed by Michael Goi

The Man & His Creepy Doll: I love Neil Patrick Harris and while I wasn't particularly an avid fan of How I Met Your Mother, it's hard to deny the charisma that oozes off that man. It's bloody irresistible, isn't it? In this episode he played a chameleon salesman (no seriously, he sold chameleons, people) named Chester who managed to get himself an act and eventually ownership of Elsa's whole show. While he might have rubbed Paul up the wrong and been easily manipulated by Dandy (more on that in a bit), he did manage to charm both Bette and Dot into sleeping with him, Unfortunately, Chester has blood on his hands and a scarred war past and less said about his creepy as anything doll Margary (Jamie Brewer), the better, yeah?

Not Handy Anymore: If Margary wasn't enough to creep you out, the sight of Jimmy losing his hands after being duped by Stanley certainly did the trick. We already saw them at that morbidity museum in the previous episode but here, we see Jimmy waking up and realising that he's lost his hands while Dell gave us some insight into his own childhood (bit too late, Dell). On the plus side, at least two people actually managed to get Jimmy out of prison though.

The Strongman & The Strongwoman: Well, this episode might not have forged a friendship between Dell and the lovely Amazon Eve but both of them were willing to put their differences aside to rescue Jimmy and that's what matters, right? This episode did make me think if Dell had been a decent guy from the off that his comeuppance in this episode might have made me feel bad for him. That being said, he killed Ma Petite, left it too late to be a caring father for Jimmy, so Elsa shooting him after Desiree extracted a confession from him was his just desserts, Stanley next, ladies.

Jealous Boyfriend: While Dandy managed not to kill anyone in this episode, he did get his detective pal to spy on the camp and was pretty upset when Bette and Dot slept with Chester. I mean, instead of going into one of his OTT rages, Dandy actually cried, which made him rather pitiful. On the other hand, he did dust himself off and used Chester's fixation on Margary to his advantage, which was a lot more effective than his usual methods but with two episodes left, surely Dandy is due for a gruesome ending, right?

She Shoots Well: Crikey, two episodes in a row where Elsa has not wrecked my head. That's gotta be a record for any Jessica Lange character on this show. I liked that she seems to be showing more respect and affection for her monsters but I do think she palmed off her own camp to Chester a little too quickly. On the plus side, she shot Dell and if she kills Stanley next week, there might be some hope for her yet. Assuming the rest of her troupe don't find out she killed Ethel that is.

Next week, Dandy tries to drive a wedge between the twins and Chester and Stanley gets a much overdue comeuppance I think.