American Horror Story: Orphans

December 17, 2014 6:57 PM - Season 4, Episode 10

The death of a Freak sparks troubling behavior in Pepper. Elsa reveals the history of the Freak Show. Desiree grows suspicious of Maggie.
posted by kittens for breakfast (8 comments total)

GODDAMMIT AHS YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FREAK ME OUT NOT BREAK MY HEART
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:25 PM on December 17, 2014 [3 favorites]

It seems pretty obvious from five seconds of him that Neil Patrick Harris should have been on this show from the beginning, but whatever: I'm pretty psyched for the homestretch now, just as it seemed to all be winding down.

I have to admit I got a little impatient during the last act; it was cool to see Briarcliff again, but I started getting twitchy as it became clearer we weren't going back to Jupiter. Pepper's story we already knew, and I'm not sure what we're to make of it in the context of Freak Show. Elsa probably saved Pepper's life by returning Pepper to her sister, so that's something, I guess. And Pepper herself -- wow. But I dunno. I think it was mostly there to link back to Asylum (and -- unintentionally -- to remind some viewers, like me, how much more they liked Asylum), which was neat and all, but basically padding...except for the foreshadowing at the end, which was quite a surprise, and really makes me eager for the next episode.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:30 PM on December 17, 2014

Great standalone ep. Pepper and Sister Mary were both fantastic (I loved that we got to see more pre-possession Sister Mary), but I thought that Pepper's sister was the most watchable. The actress made such interesting choices. I didn't know what she was thinking or doing when sitting across from Elsa: she kept making strange expressions, fixing her bra... I guess she was playing drunk, but she wasn't employing any of the standard codes that actors use to signal drunkenness. She was riveting.
posted by painquale at 3:46 AM on December 18, 2014 [6 favorites]

Oh, also: While it would be extremely Titus for Jimmy to cut off his own hands (!), my guess is that Dell acquired those from one of the other "lobstermen" he's related to.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:13 PM on December 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

> It seems pretty obvious from five seconds of him that Neil Patrick Harris should have been on this show from the beginning

Hang on, did I miss something? Or is that info about a future episode?
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 8:55 AM on December 23, 2014

Oh ok, google tells me NPH is in the next episode, so I guess he was in a teaser at the end of this episode.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 9:07 AM on December 23, 2014

painquale, I had the same reaction to the actress who played Pepper's sister. Glad I'm not the only one who found her performance so strangely compelling. Time and time again I feel this series just hits me over the head (in a good way) with how rich and varied of an art form acting can be.
posted by treepour at 7:12 PM on December 28, 2014

> Pepper's sister

Hang on, you know that was Mare Winningham, right? Mare Winningham, who gets her scuba suit undies snapped by Rob Lowe in St Elmo's Fire? Who has an apocalyptic date with Anthony Edwards in Miracle Mile? Who's currently serving as matriarch of Joshua Jackson's family in The Affair? Mare Winningham!
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 11:31 PM on December 30, 2014 [2 favorites]