My Review of American Horror Story: 13 - Is That All There Is?

 

Written by Ned Martel And Charlie Carver 

Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Elsa: "When it was over, I said to myself 'is that all there is to a fire?'"

Jessica Lange, the woman you are. For this episode, she got to play three different roles and while one of them wasn't for very long, she did with aplomb nonetheless. Aren't we lucky to have her back?

Elsa Mars should be in a Heaven of her own ideal but it seems like she's been dragged into Mr. Nas (Paul Anthony Kelly) storyline and providing a show for the Jezebel sacrifices. Yup, some of the most scandalous women like Eva Braun, Bridgette Bardot and Margaret Thatcher (Jessica Lange) were revived, only to be sacrificed. Of course, Elizabeth Short met her maker once again.

This was also the opportunity to get Sarah Paulson to reprise some of her less popular characters in order to be chucked straight into Hell. I hope you weren't too attached to the likes of Hypodermic Sally, Tuberculosis Karen and Mamie Eisenhower because they really were just brought back to be killed off. Oh and when the numbers didn't add up, Ms. Venable was a little too happy to throw herself into Hell for the cause to boot.

There's no ambiguity with this episode. Mr Nas is Satan and poor little Ben DeSoto is his son. There's a deeper dive into that bit in the next episode. In this one, Ben was yet again drugged and gaslit by Mr. Nas, Constance and Mr. Phibes. It really wasn't his episode whatsoever.

Putting the Ben revelation to one side (I'll take my lumps there, that boy's pretty fucked up), I liked that this episode did a dive into both Phibes and Constance's motives for throwing their lot in with the Devil himself. Phibes thought of the big break he never got and Constance wanted to be a mother again. No wonder they were easily tempted.

I'll give Paul Anthony Kelly his dues for making a solid first impression as the younger Mr. Nas, though Fedor Steer isn't gone just yet. Paul's version of Nas was mostly in flashbacks with Constance but his scene with Ben was present day. Yet, he's not reached the 100 mark as of yet. Not long to go I guess.

- Paul the Illustrated Seal (Mat Fraser) was a part of Elsa's act. No real reason for him to be there to be honest.

- Jessica Lange did a decent English accent as Margaret Thatcher. I almost wished we'd seen a bit more of her.

- How many sons does Satan have? Did Ben grow up naturally or have an accelerated age rate like Michael did?

- Phibes got tricked by a trade and won't turn down certain acts or a drink. Maybe he'll get his biker movie after all.

- Standout music: Elsa got to sing Is That All There Is? Well, talk sing it at least.

- Chronology: It picked up exactly where the previous episode left off. 

Is That All There Is? did have fun sharply shooting through the thirteen leading ladies needed for this particular sacrifice. I'm glad we got the reveals for Constance, Phibes and Ben so quickly and there's some delightfully batshit moments within this particular episode.

Rating: 7 out of 10