Thursday, October 27, 2022

My Review of Americsn Horror Story: NYC - Smoke Signals

 


Written by Brad Falchuk And Manny Coto
Directed by John J. Gray

Whitely (to Gino): "I would never spill the blood of another vet but this is different. You'll just freeze to death. It's a peaceful way to go."

In the space of three episodes, Gino has become something of a regular dude in distress, hasn't he? In the previous episode, it was the peculiar Mr Whitely (Jeff Hiller) who kidnapped, tortured and ultimately spared him due to Gino being a vet. This time, Whitley wasn't feeling as merciful and Gino found himself on ice.

This episode also confirmed the fan theory that there are two killers out there and likely with different motives. Whiteley's are more self righteous but with it's own code. Even when he felt he had to kill Gino, he offered him a merciful way to die. Do I think Gino will die? Not bloody likely, especially given that Patrick wasn't far behind but it's also not looking good for the intrepid editor though.

Speaking of Patrick, yes, his dark side was touched on a lot this episode. Gino baited him over his secretive nature while Sam clearly had an idea that Patrick was into some dark stuff. Not to mention Patrick's undercover work led to him having an S&M encounter of his own while Whitely slipped out of his grasp.

Speaking of Whitely, it seemed like he was lining up both Adam and Theo as his next victims before Big Daddy interrupted the evenings events and set the place they were in on fire. Adam and Theo were getting arguably closer in spite of some tension between the two as well as some barbed comments over a choice of beer. I do like Theo but there was an element of class snobbery I liked a lot less as did Adam.

Couple wise though, it does seem like like Gino/Patrick and Adam/Theo are the ones to watch out for while every other character got pulled into their respective orbits. Like a lot of fans, I had considered the idea of Big Daddy being a ghost but after that fire, perhaps he's very much real. Was it Sam who told him to set that place on fire or was Big Daddy working on his own accord?

As for Hannah, she certainly had more to do this week. She started the episode listening to Fran's government conspiracy theories, first appearing skeptical but then wanting her own research into a potential danger, even going above her own boss to do it. Then there's her connection to Adam and the fact that they did something. If you've seen filming pics, you'll know exactly what that thing is and I'll discuss it in a later episode.

- Although I did suspect he was involved in Gino's kidnapping, it turned out that Henry didn't drug the former. Henry does however tend to look away from danger.
- The Son of Sam killer got a shout out during Gino's conversation with Alana at the Ditch. This killer plot is also loosely based on the Last Call Killer.
- For a guy who likes to kill, it's not too surprising that Whitely happened to not like needles himself.
- We met Dunaway (Sis), the host of the Brownstones where Adam and Theo went on a date. Dunaway also cryptically told Theo that something was coming. The character inspired by Klaus Nomi also got that warning from a woman at the subway.
- Stewart managed to escape from Sam's cage, although it appeared that Sam simply was done with him as Big Daddy didn't try to stop Stuart from leaving.
- Chronology: It's still 1981 but we did get a flashback to 1952 when Fran was explaining to Hannah about the government experimenting with human and animal diseases on vulnerable people.

Smoke Signals was so,thing of a shorter event but again the quality of this season has held up well so far. Having two killers makes some sense because it does feel like the walls are closing in on Whitely and I assume once he's out of the way, the focus will be on the second one. Yup, this season has hit the ground running.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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