Written by Ryan Murphy & Brad Falchuk
Directed by Loni Peristere
Donna (to Brooke): "Welcome back to the land of the living."
Nine seasons. Nine different themes. Over 50 regular and prominent recurring cast members and far too many characters to account for and we've finally gotten to Episode 100. It's a moment that needed to go all out but here, it feels more like a quieter affair than I would've preferred.
Instead of multiples references to past seasons, there was only a brief reference to one of the most iconic seasons and if you were expecting either Evan Peters or Sarah Paulson to magically show up, then you're going to be severely disappointed. The episode itself might feel disappointing due to it's lack of fan service but twists, there's some good ones to savour.
First of all, there are two time jumps. The first one involving Jingles tiring of Ramirez's overzealous killing spree and deciding to annul their partnership by getting the locals in Mexico to hand him over to the police. Of course this was going to come back and haunt him and when Benjamin decided to settle down and be a family man, it was a happiness he wasn't able to sustain.
I knew his wife was going to die and I'm glad that Benjamin himself wasn't the one to destroy his family and I'm definitely rooting for him to get his revenge on Ramirez. Also I feel comfortable saying that six episodes in, Benjamin has become one of the best characters on the show. I really want him to survive this season or at least get something resembling a heroic-ish sacrifice. Either's good.
Also having a terrible time of it happened to be Brooke. She got framed for all of Margaret's killings and sentenced to death. Still in spite of the promise of a lethal injection hanging over her, she was able to get some pithy barbs into both Margaret and Ramirez and then the episode took a rather predictable turn when Donna ended up rescuing her from death. Guilty conscience aside, I'm glad that Donna stepped in for Brooke.
Then there was Margaret herself. Not only did she managed to get away with her second killing spree but she clearly took some styling tips from Ivana Trump, accumulated a lot of scary property and even blackmailed a surviving Trevor into a marriage to boot. All of this is inevitably going to make her downfall all the sweeter especially as she decided to go back to Camp Redwood for a big celebrity event that will inevitably bring about bloodbath number 3.
As for the ghosts of the piece, Chet had to be talked out of getting revenge on Margaret while Xavier and Montana were having fun bumping off anyone who dared to venture into the camp much to derision of other counselors and a fed up Ray. It's nice that Ray has become the voice of reason among the ghosts and that he made some effort to try and help Brooke. I guess this is the beginning of his redemptive arc.
- Um, Margaret seemed to have an ear in the present day. Leslie Jordan appeared in a terrible brown wig as her assistant, Courtney.
- Anyone else get a Lost flashback when Satan decided to help out Richard with that black smoke?
- Standout music: The Smiths How Soon Is Now? and Billy Idol's Flesh For Fantasy.
- Chronology: We jumped from 1985 to 1989 in this episode. I guess we're not sticking to the subtitle then.
Episode 100 might not feel like the biggest way that this show could've celebrated this prominent milestone but in general, it certainly moved the plot along in some interesting directions. Can we just have Brooke, Donna and Benjamin team up to take out Margaret and Richard and expel the murderous ghosts? These last three episodes are going to be fun.
Rating: 8 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment