Thursday, October 05, 2017

My Review of American Horror Story: Cult - Holes


Written by Crystal Liu
Directed by Maggie Kiley

Meadow: "It’s a cult, Ally. It’s a sick cult. And everyone’s in it. The police. My husband. Your babysitter. Your wife.”

And if you're the weak link of the cult, you are basically gone from it. Am I surprised that Meadow emerged as one of two weak links in this cult? Nope but I am a little sad to lose her even if she did try to do the right thing and actually warn Ally about who exactly is involved in the cult itself before she was inevitably killed off screen.

The cult members themselves - last week revealed Kai's group to be Harrison, Meadow, Beverly and Gary. This week we can add Winter, Ivy, Jack (the detective guy) and RJ as we did a brief flashback to the couple that got buried alive while in the present day they banded together to murder anchorman Bob after the latter fired Beverly and the gang realised they needed to up the ante in order to create more terror in the community.

Bob's death was grisly but not really. Yeah, he got bound and gagged and had Beverly finish him off with an axe to the head but what made it grisly was the gimp that he had on hooks prior to his death and the poor latter getting killed as well. Tellingly, it was both RJ and Ivy's reactions that ended up putting the both of them in the firing line with Kai this week.

In Ivy's case, she was forced to demonstrate her loyalty in a rather brutal fashion as RJ was designated the weakest link and was subsequently killed by the gang with  nail gun to the head. I'd mourn RJ's death but the show did very little to develop him as a character but still, what a horrible way to go though.

I do find it interesting that dissent has happened so early in Kai's cult and I can see both Ivy and Beverly posing problems for Kai as the season progresses. Ivy herself seems unsure about the cult in spite of her growing hatred of Ally and bonding with Winter while Beverly was able to cut through Kai's bullshit and get him to admit to something real. That in itself means that Beverly may be the one to usurp him if she's got the mind to.

The real thing being the deaths of Kai and Winter's parents back in 2014. The murder/suicide was done well enough but the nice shocker was having Rudy revealed into being Kai and Winter's brother and covering up the parents death. I'm not sure Rudy himself is a part of the cult but he's definitely passing information that Kai has been using for his own murderous intentions, that seems to be clear.

As for Ally - a little really has gone a long way with the character. Last week, she was better written because we were seeing her in pre-Election flashbacks and this week, despite her weepy moments is showing some improvement as a character. I felt bad for her this week but I'm hoping that Meadow's warning will finally charge into action as well.

- The gimp and the blood play slave that Bob had in his attic even surprised me. Easily the worst death of the episode to be honest. Bob got off lightly compared to his slave and RJ.
- Rudy seems to love Kai but hates Winter. We definitely need a scene with the three of them together very soon.
- The clowns are three penises (Kai), Pentagram (Beverly), Elephant head (Ivy), Ballgag (Meadow), Holes (Harrison), Brains (Jack), Jigsaw (Winter) and Blond one (RJ).
- Chronology: It seems a couple of weeks have passed since Neighbours From Hell but we've also had flashbacks to 2014 and September 2016 in this one.

Well, this one was a doozy. Holes definitely could go down as one of the show's most violent of episodes (and there's a fair amount of competition there) but gruesome moments to one side, the season is finally progressing and it's so much better now with less focus on Ally and more on the cult itself. Am I surprised that Ivy is a member though? Not really but at least there's some conflict with her.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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