If there is a trope we can officially let die, it’s the accidentally prophetic person in a period piece. Whether they’re completely nailing some future event actually in the past for the viewers, or making a hilariously wrong prediction about life to come, it’s the equivalent of pointing out in a movie that they’ve just said the title of the movie. Now, that’s nothing to murder the National Enquirer reporter over, but still. That said, Trevor is kind of right—compared to the ’80s, early ’90s fashion is a little boring.
The MVP of tonight’s episode, surprisingly, is newly thumbless Bruce. Bruce is great, the kind of comic relief this whole season could have used. Bruce has incredible facial expressions when he sees ghosts and ghosts getting murdered, and murderer ghosts. Bruce leaves the scene of a potentially dangerous crime when asked to avoid being killed, something almost everyone else on the show is very bad at. And Bruce respects the protection of Satan around Billy Idol.
The central question of the episode might be, can people escape their past, which eventually morphs into, what happens when you don’t want to? Trevor’s decision to kill himself to stay with Montana (and possibly just as importantly, the ’80s) is so predictable that even though the episode ends with Montana vetoing that idea and literally and emotionally pushing him away, the AHS powers that be didn’t think it was a spoiler to reveal he is dead in the finale in the promo. While wanting to stay young and beautiful, even in a purgatory he has been explicitly told is hell on earth is super on-brand for Trevor, Montana’s sudden shame around being any kind of inspiration for Ramirez is a little odd. Beyond the killing spree she’s been on since death, Montana was more than happy to have Ramirez kill for her to get rid of a minor annoyance, and she must have known he was the one who was killing girls in LA who weren’t responsible for the death of her brother before they left for camp. Her attraction to him wasn’t just inspired by his ability to help her get revenge, she was turned on by his bloodlust. It’s possible every serial killer has a line, and killing kids is over hers, but is that enough for the kind of introspection that turns her actions, that she very recently thought were bad-ass, into something monstrous?
Brooke’s almost murderous turn was turned around pretty quickly with a slight assist from Donna. She was so full of resolve, so pumped up with righteous anger and the insistence prison had changed her, that it seemed almost like a letdown when the reporter, and possibly Brooke’s soul, was saved by Donna’s intervention. Maybe the show is saying not that you can move past the horrors in your history, but we can escape the darkness within with a little help from our friends?
Though Kajagoogoo seems to be handing their rebirth well, and the counselors and company are at least trying to make the best of their not-quite-dead life by torturing the man who killed them, Mr. Jingles seems to have crossed over to the other side, with the help of Gollum’s taller, grayer, creepier brother. Apparently, just below the lake is a kind of paradise where Bobby is alive and their mother is nicer than she ever was in real life. Though it’s unlikely poor Mr. Jingles will get to stay and feed the ducks indefinitely, it was a nice change of pace, if only for the soft lighting.
Next week, it’s the season finale, and not everyone will be making it out alive. Possibly no one will be making it out alive? Except for Billy Idol. He still has the protection of Satan, after all.
Stray Observations
- There’s a pretty big hole in Margaret’s plan to make Camp Redwood into a kind of living (but not really) wax museum for ’80s bands—any guests who comes for the musicians would also encounter the counselors, who would tell them this is a magical place where the dead never really die. You probably don’t want word of your property being a literal purgatory to get out.
- What kind of life rights did Ryan Murphy have to wrangle to be able to massacre a still very much alive ’80s band? Or did every member just get a text from their various nieces and nephews explaining they had just been killed on cable?
- There was something so terribly, horribly off about hearing “Fortunate Son” soundtracking a moment in the late ’80s instead of the late ‘60s or ’70s. Clearance Clearwater Revival playing on screen should only mean one of three things for a TV/film character —they’re going to fight in Vietnam, they’re having a flashback to when they were fighting in Vietnam, or they’ve decided to flee the country so they won’t have to fight in Vietnam.
- Donna’s promise to Brooke that killing Margaret will wipe away all their sins might be putting too much faith in a single act to balance her own scale. Brooke killed one person in self-defense. Donna’s release of Mr. Jingles (plus the kidnapping of the nurse) lead to the murder of at least a half a dozen people, and she let Brooke sit in prison for five years even though she knew the truth of her innocence. Those are a lot of sins that need to be scrubbed out.
59 Comments
One thing I noticed about Stranger Things is that they don’t really do wink-wink jokes.
What does stranger things actually do? Tried watching one episode but it just seems like a children’s show that offers empty thrills and aes the work of better filmmakers like Spielberg and carpenter, and it is beloved by idiots.
I mean, that’s a pretty sweeping generalization of a popular show based on one single episode, but sure. You do you.
It has more episodes
Man now THAT is a good troll.9.2/10, I knocked .8 off for only having one misspelled word.
I like the phrase “beloved by idiots.”
Definitely, I’m gonna have to tuck that away for future use.
The New Coke bits from this past season were a wink-wink joke and you could argue that the extended Neverending Story singalong was similar, though more of a fan service nostalgia trip and less of a joke.
American Horror Story is the second show to put in a heavy Limahl-related reference this year, which isn’t really something I expected of 2019.
The only problem with the Neverending Story singalong was that it ended and didn’t continue for eternity. The longer it went on, the harder I laughed.
That New Coke moment in season 3 was definitely a wink-wink joke, but that’s the only one that leaps to mind.
There was something so terribly, horribly off about hearing “Fortunate
Son” soundtracking a moment in the late ‘80s instead of the late ‘60s or
‘70s. Clearance Clearwater Revival playing on screen should only mean
one of three things for a TV/film character —they’re going to fight in
Vietnam, they’re having a flashback to when they were fighting in
Vietnam, or they’ve decided to flee the country so they won’t have to
fight in VietnamOr it could just mean you’re watching a commercial for “Freedom Rock” and meant to respond “Turn it up!”
Was that song featured on Freedom Rock? I do not remember hearing it on commercials.
As one of the fortunate sons who was a teenager in the back half of the 1980s, Creedence pumping out of the speakers doesnt seem anachronistic to me at all; the mid-to-late decade featured a revival of ‘60s/’70s music and even fashion (a bumper crop of Vietnam War movies like Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill and even Good Morning Vietnam surely helped), with tie-dyed shirts and John Lennon-style granny glasses sharing space with teased hair and oversized sweaters, and plenty of teens bulking up tape collections full of Duran Duran and Huey Lewis with Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and even CCR.I can still recall trend pieces in Time magazine and other middlebrow publications lamenting that young people who could be out discovering and creating their own fresh new culture were instead wishing they’d gone to Woodstock. It was a whole thing.
Late 80s was around the time Boomers started to get put in charge of new shows, so TV was flooded with their nostalgia fests too (Wonder Years, China Beach etc). Tour of Duty had four Vietnam-era soundtracks at the tail end of the 80s that were kinda big. Hell, movie-wise it’d probably been going on since The Big Chill soundtrack blew up in 83.
I think they just mean it feels off in the sense that when you hear it in movies and TV shows it’s always related to Vietnam & that era so it’s kinda odd to see it in a very 80s themed show in that regards, not that CCR weren’t still huge in 1989…
The Creedence song was VERY on point for 1989. There was this very late 80s phenomenon called “classic rock” in which older rock songs from past decades (mostly the 60s) got a new life and were becoming just as, if not more popular than new music coming out at the time. It was partly built on baby boomers’ nostalgia for their own 60s youth (which was at an all-time high – forgive the pun – in the late 80s) and partly a backlash reaction to the over-produced, overly synthesized dance music that dominated much of the mid 80s. After a decade that seemed like an endless stream of big-haired one-hit wonders who were apparently more concerned with how they would look in the MTV video than than their actual songs, people started to remember that, oh hey, pop music used to be dominated by actual musicians who wrote interesting material.
Classic Rock was the edgiest music in my town in 1989.
Yeah, but my question was that if the song was featured in the Freedom Rock set. I do not think it is. I get the CCR and Classic Rock bludgeoning in the late 80s. I was just asking about the individual song.
Or…it was rock stations trying as hard as they could to avoid playing actual metal bands who might scare away advertisers. In my town, we were so frustrated with that.
Meh. That certainly was a valid criticism earlier in the decade, but by 1989, Ozzy was already a joke, David Lee Roth had quit Van Halen, and hair metal had taken over. Lightweight forgettable bands like WASP and Great White were the big thing in Metal in ‘89. The less said about them, the better.
By ‘89, they could have been playing the Big Four, Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son album, and a ton of other bands that were in RIP magazine but not Hit Parader. It was possible to have a full playlist without a single neon zebra stripe.
Or that it was music Jonas would recognize.
I respect Margaret’s commitment to combining murder and capitalism. Everyone needs a hobby.
At first, I was surprised she made Courtney cut up the band. I thought that she would discover there was more money in a dead band then just tossing them out. Later, she had the idea to kill all the bands so I guess all I had to do was wait.
The tossing them out was so no one would call the cops.
Ssuspending any assemblance of rationale because it’s AHS…I have a few questions:Is the National Enquirer reporter now a ghost at Redwood? I hope so because I like her. She got spunk.The camp ghost/hitchhiker: What’s his deal? I like Lou Taylor Pucci but his role makes no sense. Shouldn’t he be with the others? Is he in Wandering Purgatory?Did Kajagoogoo make a deal with Satan (last ep)? They seemed ok at the post death rehearsal. Are they doomed to play “Shy Shy” for eternity? And how did Limahl break away to record “Neverending Story”? Was that scene between Trevor and Montana the most/worst soap opera acting? I actually laughed. Did Ryan get Billy Idol for a cameo in next week’s finale? I see Finn Whitrock. Maybe Idol’s manager?Ffinally, does Billy Lourde have an ON button that makes her shed that one tear (two this time) every episode?
Jonas can go further out because he died on the road. He’s been at the camp, but once he gets on the road, someone has to take him back to camp.
Also, he already recorded Neverending Story, they mentioned it last week.
Ffinally, does Billy Lourde have an ON button that makes her shed that one tear (two this time) every episode?
She should patent that. It’s her go to AHS move. I’m halfway expecting it to pop up in The Rise of Skywalker
The hitchhiker should’ve had his thumbs replaced with tiny ice picks.
Or cyberpunk technology.
They mentioned “final girl” before it was a term, not that AHS deals in fact checking, but still. Also, I grew up in the 80s and did not constantly say “this is the 80s” or something in every sentence I said. I swear there was a scene with Brooke and Donna and they kept saying the word “80s” in every line of dialogue. The show is called 1984. Do the creators think their viewers are so stupid, they have to be reminded it’s the 80s every five seconds? 🙂 I am glad next week is the finale because 1984 is a hot mess. Completely over the top ridiculous. I could only hope Billy Idol cameos as Satan, but that will probably not come to pass. Plus, was it not a HUGE point in past AHS seasons that humans should not have sex with ghosts because of antichrists? Yet two times this has happened this season with no repercussions. Disappointing lack of opportunity!
Teenager in the mid-80s and I recall talking about the 80s during the latter half of the decade. I also remember Killing Joke’s “Eighties” which came out in 1985.
AHS Season 11: Too Many Antichrists
Please eliminate three. PS I am not a crackpot!
I said last week’s episode actually showed signs of momentum and energy… This episode was basically all set up and man, was it a slog to get through. A B+??
A B+ O AB A-
I don’t watch this show any more. But hating the 80s is the correct thing to do.
I don’t even recall them saying anything ba about the 80s in this episode. THE NINETIES, yes.
Not having seen any of it: is this any good to start watching, or should i just move along?
How’s that dude stabbing people without thumbs? And Bobby coming out of the water to grab Jingles made me laugh super hard.
If you hold a knife and rest the handle against the meat of your palm, you can get a fairly good grip without a thumb.
“If there is a trope we can officially let die, it’s the accidentally
prophetic person in a period piece. Whether they’re completely nailing
some future event actually in the past for the viewers, or making a
hilariously wrong prediction about life to come, it’s the equivalent of
pointing out in a movie that they’ve just said the title of the movie.”Wasn’t this basically 90% of Mad Men?
It started off like that with “LOL, imagine this implausible thing that I described that is actually photocopier. Amirite 21st century viewers?” type bullshit, but they cut it out after a few episodes if memory serves.
No
What kind of life rights did Ryan Murphy have to wrangle to be able to massacre a still very much alive ’80s band? Or did every member just get a text from their various nieces and nephews explaining they had just been killed on cable?I would imagine the band members would be stoked for getting murdered in an AHS episode! It’s probably the best publicity they’ve had in 30 years.
I would think they would love the publicity.
Bruce didn’t leave the scene, he went twenty feet away and waited. He was literally still in the scene, listening to them converse. Also, he isn’t into Billy Idol, he’s into whatever Richard Ramirez is into, because RR is his idol. How is it a spoiler to reveal Trevor is dead, when Margaret literally said she intends every single person to die except her and Ramirez, and we know that they must simply because Richard Ramirez even in the show canon doesn’t die until 2013.Montana’s sudden change is behavior is because Jingles told her that she wrong about “Richie” not being that sick, and that he DID kill kids. The expression on her face made it pretty clear, that’s her line. Of course the show is saying you can escape the darkness with help. They’ve been saying that all season. Hell, Lavinia DID it last week at the end, which I stated in comments and was proved this week when she was kind to Jingles and Bobby came from his resting place to be with her.Margaret is not aware that *every* counselor is here, so how is it a hole in her plan? Literally no mention of the Mary Kay lady, the reporter or that Margaret et all know about Brooke and Donna’s plan?
Agreed, the National Enquirer Reporter got a weirdly graphic (for this show) kill where we actually saw the kill on screen without a cheesy cut and she had a lot more blood than most of the other kills. Seemed like Mary-Kay lady was styled like Joan Collins and I will pretend they wrote that part for her unless notified otherwise.
I think we’re heading toward Brooke killing Billy Idol, but that may be because I hate her character. She’s way more fun as an evil rich blonde.
The camp they shot a lot of the Jason movies is still active and sells Jason themed tours to support the scouts that stay there or something.
I bet you’re right re: Joan Collins.
I cracked up with the comment about Fortunate Son and Vietnam. Well played, reviewer
Why refer to the obvious Friday the 13rh reference in the lake as a taller, grayer Gollum? It was obviously a direct rip-off of the original ending of the original Friday the 13rh.
Crocodile Dundee came out in 1986, the sequel in 1988. Did Brooke see them while on death row? Do death row prisoners get movie night? I sure hope someone was fired for that blunder, etc.
The way AHS has gone ridiculous, I doubt fact checking is a thing with them.
You missed the biggest wink wink moment when Donna says that she can’t be Final Girl, because people of her complexion always get killed off first. It was an inside joke by the writers who also do “Pose,” and were criticized for killing off the actress’s character Candy, who was the darkest skinned woman in the cast. It was a reference to internal racism, in which the darker the skin, the greater the disrespect. I loved Candy, I love Donna. And I’m loving every moment of this season. I wish it would go on forever.
The Gen X camp ghosts seem more revenge fueled than ghosts of previous seasons.
“the AHS powers that be didn’t think it was a spoiler to reveal he is dead in the finale in the promo. “As did you, apparently. For those of us who didn’t watch the promo so, thanks. Suuuper cool.
this episode (& this season) has been horribly written. it’s never been subtle but the obviousness has been overwhelming in this one.