American Horror Story: Fire and Reign

November 8, 2018 1:48 PM - Season 8, Episode 9

Michael launches an attack on the witches.
posted by kittens for breakfast (8 comments total)

*It is impossible for me to imagine a finer line reading of "Are you saying this bitch can travel through time?" Emma Roberts, heart emoji.

*I was saying to the TV, "Oh my God, that's the plot of The Omen 3" just as the Evan Peters techbro got pissed off and typed in "Isn't that just the plot of The Omen 3?" and I started laughing so hard I had to rewind like a minute and a half.

*Ms. Venable's suit and tie destroyed me. Look, this is a post about AHS, so I feel like everybody here is probably pretty cozy with the discussion of their fetishes. I have a lot. But probably the most adorable -- yet potent -- is women in business suits. Like, those pics you've seen of Anne Hathaway, Evan Rachel Wood, Kate Winslet? Totally my jam. But like, this...the purple silk necktie? Oh...oh gosh. I don't know. Wow.

*Coven felt a lot like the X-Men. But this is starting to feel like the '90s X-Men. I guess Mallory is Cable? It seems likely that she'll reset the timeline so that we can have a season nine and that, more importantly, we can just forget all about the first three episodes of season eight altogether.

*Mrs. Mead's character makes no sense to me, but there's only one episode left and I think we just gotta roll with it now. That's American Horror Story, baby!
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:33 PM on November 8, 2018 [3 favorites]

> kittens for breakfast:
"*Mrs. Mead's character makes no sense to me, but there's only one episode left and I think we just gotta roll with it now. That's American Horror Story, baby!"

I thhnk her whole role is to be Michael's Peter, a rock, as it were...
posted by Samizdata at 7:37 PM on November 8, 2018 [2 favorites]

But Mead is easily "manipulated." She's literally the voice of the two hacker dudes initially and later becomes a henchman to Venible so she's not exactly "a rock."

I found a lot of this episode annoying because we're headed towards the entire premise being nullified in the last episode presumably by killing Michael as a child (a reverse of the Anastasia plot). I can't really explain right now why that pisses me off so much but it does.
posted by miss-lapin at 6:05 AM on November 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

> miss-lapin:
"But Mead is easily "manipulated." She's literally the voice of the two hacker dudes initially and later becomes a henchman to Venible so she's not exactly "a rock."

I found a lot of this episode annoying because we're headed towards the entire premise being nullified in the last episode presumably by killing Michael as a child (a reverse of the Anastasia plot). I can't really explain right now why that pisses me off so much but it does."

But Michael needs someone he can perceive he can rely upon. A voice in his wilderness. We know about her being a voice for the tech types, Michael doesn't necessarily.
posted by Samizdata at 11:36 AM on November 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

My problem with Mead is that the character just literally doesn't make sense, in a very typically AHS way. When we meet her, she doesn't know that she's a robot until she's been wounded. When the techbros show her to Michael, they tell him that it's all-important not to let her realize she's a robot, for the sake of her sanity. But she's very clearly, knowingly a robot when she and Michael attack the school. Even if the techbros are directing her in the attack, wouldn't Michael find this all weird?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:20 PM on November 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

> kittens for breakfast:
"My problem with Mead is that the character just literally doesn't make sense, in a very typically AHS way. When we meet her, she doesn't know that she's a robot until she's been wounded. When the techbros show her to Michael, they tell him that it's all-important not to let her realize she's a robot, for the sake of her sanity. But she's very clearly, knowingly a robot when she and Michael attack the school. Even if the techbros are directing her in the attack, wouldn't Michael find this all weird?"

I imagine he would, yet, he IS the Son of Satan, which shows a certain level of flexibility of view... They also never said anything about her self-awareness issues taking a certain amount of time to iron out.
posted by Samizdata at 3:57 PM on November 9, 2018

The tech bros aren't that great at writing dialogue (throwing in that they are good looking). It seems odd that Michael, who seems fairly perceptive, wouldn't at least momentarily find that odd. But as Kittens for Breakfast points out they are very inconsistent about Mead. And I found Terminator mode a bit...off putting. Why not just give her a gun? Allows her to continue to think she's a human and still causes mass destruction. Sometimes the writers seem to over complicate things for no reason.
posted by miss-lapin at 5:22 AM on November 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

> miss-lapin:
"The tech bros aren't that great at writing dialogue (throwing in that they are good looking). It seems odd that Michael, who seems fairly perceptive, wouldn't at least momentarily find that odd. But as Kittens for Breakfast points out they are very inconsistent about Mead. And I found Terminator mode a bit...off putting. Why not just give her a gun? Allows her to continue to think she's a human and still causes mass destruction. Sometimes the writers seem to over complicate things for no reason."

Okay, I will grant Gun Arm Mead was a failure on behalf of the Rule of Cool...
posted by Samizdata at 8:56 AM on November 10, 2018 [1 favorite]