My Review of Grotesquerie: "Unplugged"

Written by Ryan Murphy And Jon Robin Baitz And Joe Baken 

Directed by Max Winkler

Lois: "Holy shit, Sister. I think I just cracked the case."

Sister Megan: "Blasphemy!"

Well, this just fucking changed the game, didn't it? A nice little late season twist to throw us into the inevitable madness that should be the final three episodes. I should've seen this coming but only clocked it too late.

All this time certain characters weren't who we thought they were. The episode started with a drunken Lois not being thrilled with Merritt and Eddie becoming a couple, moving into a gated community and the Merritt participating in Half Ton Trauma. In fact, Lois was quite vicious in the way she dealt with that.

Then there was her dealing with Marshall. She went straight to Nurse Redd's boss (John Billingsley) and insisted that the plug was pulled on her cheating husband. There was a moment of civility between Lois and Redd and then Marshall died. Not having Merritt there yo say goodbye to her dad was rather cold of Lois. 

As for the Grotesquerie Murders themselves, it was Father Charlie and he was dead. Sister Megan got full control over the Catholic Guardian and Lois was being strong armed into retirement. It felt complete as an arc. Of course, it wasn't as a dinner scene between Lois and Sister Megan got especially vicious and the latter turned out to be the accomplice. Nope, that didn't feel right either.

Now for the twist itself - I fucking loved it. All this time, it's been Lois in a coma with an increasingly disaffected Marshall wanting to turn off her life support. Merritt and Eddie were actually married and he cheated on Merritt with Lois. The fact that Marshall seemed unsurprised by that spoke volumes. Of course there was more to come.

Nurse Redd was actually a cam girl named Cherry Redd and yes, still Marshall's mistress in this reality, albeit with an American accent. Then there was Doctor Charlie Mayhew (assuming,  he's not Grotesquerie here) and Chief Megan herself. Again, I loved this twist and of course, just when Marshall came close to being rid of Lois, she only went and woke up at the very last second of this episode. Fucking hell.

- In this reality, Merritt was trying to find a cure for cancer while Eddie worked at Cinnabon and wasn't sober.

- Andrea from earlier in the season was a domestic abuse victim that Lois had been hands off with and wanted to sue the police.

- Standout music: Nina Simone's Stars, Al Green's How To Mend A Broken Heart and Harry Nillson's One. 

- Chronology: It's been two days since the events of the last episode.

Now, Unplugged more than delivered. Thinking about it, it's a twist that did make sense and it delivered an almighty smack too. I can't wait to see how the remaining three episodes play out and I can see why they just released one episode this week. Easily the best one yet.

Rating: 9 out of 10