Written by Ryan Murphy And Brad Falchuk
Directed by Ryan Murphy
Ben (to the therapist): "I have a fear of the number thirteen."
Oh, he certainly does. Let's meet Ben DeSoto (Joey Pollari). A seemingly nice but maybe a little wet behind the ears kind of guy. He's got a girlfriend named Kira (Madaleine Petsch) and in an attempt to salvage their relationship, he decided to get on a plane. The plane crashed. Ben survived and so did one other person. Kira, not so much.
Am I terrible person for being glad that Kira and most of her friends died? Maybe but I'm not going to feel bad about it. The lack of chemistry between Ben and Kira. There's no way any of us could've tolerated that for a whole season. They barely had any screentime as a couple and weren't the slightest bit believable.
Anyways, dead girlfriends to one side, Ben ended up in the Apollyon, which was a rather creepy looking building. He was there to look after the infirm Mr. Nas (Fedor Steer) as the night time care. He also had the pleasure of meeting both Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) and phlebotomist Mr. Phibes (John Waters). Throw in a rather overextended sponge bath scene for poor old Nas and you've got too much filler here.
Getting back to Constance, I've always found her to be an enigmatic but untrustworthy person. This hasng changed as it was made clear that she wasn't being totally honest with Ben about herself or Mr. Nas. Ben on the other hand didn't seem to be asking too many questions.
Then there was his alone time with Nas. The man looked like a dessicated corpse in front of the palliative nurse. Before interacting with Ben, he was able to stand up and expel black fluid. Funny how that happened during Ben not dying in a plane crash. How the hell is Ben DeSoto alive? He shouldn't be, right?
For those of you anticipating the Coven side of things, well you get about two minutes worth of it. Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) was training up new girl Ophelia (Avantika) while Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts) got to redo that line for a 2026 audience. Madison got to dismiss Cordelia's concerns as well, which didn't seem wise on her part.
- The opening credits alluded to previous seasons but over half the cast didn't even appear in this first episode.
- Ben counts thirteen a lot and likes the Evermore album. I don't think he's really a Swiftie. Ben has Italian heritage.
- Madison and Constance's return from the dead and arrival in the Apollyon aren't really explained here.
- The other survivor was played by Elle Chapman. We will see her later in the season.
- Standout music: Johnny Cash's Thirteen was used pretty well.
- Chronology: Ben was dating Kira for two months before she died. He started working at the Apollyon a month after her death.
13 opened the season on an odd note. Joey Pollari might be well suited to Ben DeSoto but the character definitely has a passive nature that endangers him of being drowned out by the bigger characters in the season. I think this episode needed a big action piece and that should've been the plane crash but it didn't quite hit.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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