My Review of American Horror Stories: "Ba'al"

 

Written by Ali Adler And Manny Coto

Directed by Sanaa Hamri

Ba'al: "We stay."

Liv: "Only on one condition. You give me another baby."

It might have taken five episodes and maybe it's a bias I have towards a certain season of the parent show, but we finally have an episode that highlights what this spin-off can achieve when there's more effort put into the storytelling over prioritising the shock factor.

Liv (Billie Lourd) and Matt (Ronen Rubenstein) seem like an average enough couple. They've been trying for a baby and are on their last viable attempts with IVF. Liv is desperate to be a mother, Matt's the supportive husband and the answer to both their prayers might be down to a sympathetic receptionist named Bernadette (Virginia Gardner).

Or more specifically, it might be down to a fertility statue of a Sumerian deity named Ba'al. Seemingly the statue works and over a year later, Liv and Matt have a son named Aaron. Liv also seems to have post partum depression, but feels there's something more supernatural at play.

When various methods to connect with her son go awry and the house keeps bringing up strange events along with an badly thought out game of Ouija with friends also brings out Liv's increased paranoia, its up to a certain banishing spell to save the day. Except for Matt getting inadvertently stabbed and a guilt stricken Liv to commit herself for her own sanity.

So far, all of this was some nice human drama with a good dose supernatural horror. However things get really shocking when it's revealed that Matt and his friends (including Bernadette) were actually gaslighting Liv all along. It's a sinister revels when it's pointed out that they were doing it for an actual TV show and were going to target other people as well.

However what Matt and his horrible friends hadn't factored in was Liv being successful in summoning the real Ba'al, who then killed everyone except Matt. Matt then got his own just desserts with Liv leaving him to rot in prison while she struck a deal with Ba'al for another baby.

- The credit sequence definitely went for a similar vibe to both Coven and Apocalypse. One of the guest actors from the latter season played Matt's friend, Rory.

-  Given that witches are public knowledge in this universe, I'm surprised more of a big deal wasn't made of it. Missed opportunity not to feature a character from Coven in this one.

-  This was the longest episode so far at 49 minutes and it certainly made use of its extra time.

- Chronology: The events of the episode took place over a year and a half.

Ba'al demonstrated that this spin off can hold its own along with the main series itself. Billie Lourd was excellent throughout as Liv and Ronen Rubenstein delivered as well as Matt. The supernatural elements were handed the best and I'm hoping the last two episodes can deliver like this one managed to do.

Rating: 8 out of 10