American Horror Story: Requiem 1981/1987 Part One
November 17, 2022 3:28 PM - Season 11, Episode 9 - Subscribe
Sam and Patrick face a reckoning.
I watched the first two episodes with my partner, who almost right away sussed out that Big Daddy was some kind of spectre of AIDS, a figure that appeared when an AIDS victim was soon to die. Which I think is really powerful and poignant, until Big Daddy starts locking people into night clubs that he then sets on fire. Because unfortunately, that metaphor no longer makes any sense! I don't know if there was like a Literal Big Daddy who existed IRL for some reason, generally being weird and starting fires and killing people in the shower, and a Spectral Big Daddy who was more of a symbol, or...like...I mean, you kinda have to pick one, I think. It's either gotta be ambiguous or it's gotta be a mystery we can figure out, it can't be both.
I don't mind Sam being redeemed, but I do cringe a little at the conflation of his sadomasochistic tendencies and his character flaws. This is frankly the last show I EVER would have imagined would approach judging its characters for their kinks. Clive Barker would not approve of this.
I feel like the show was fairer to Patrick than you did, but I get where you're coming from. Maybe Patrick just had more room for growth as a soul than Sam did, and benefitted more from some tough love. I think Sam was about as good as he was gonna get.
On a dramatic level, I am not sure this gothic shaggy dog story exactly earned the pathos it wrung out of showing us these recently vital humans reduced to sobbing husks. But I was about as upset to see blinded Patrick sliding around in his spilled piss and crying for help that wouldn't come as I have been by anything I've seen recently. Maybe a realistic drama about this time is what this season should have been instead, but I'm not sure anyone could watch it. It was hard enough for me to be in this space for the lion's share of this episode.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:49 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don't mind Sam being redeemed, but I do cringe a little at the conflation of his sadomasochistic tendencies and his character flaws. This is frankly the last show I EVER would have imagined would approach judging its characters for their kinks. Clive Barker would not approve of this.
I feel like the show was fairer to Patrick than you did, but I get where you're coming from. Maybe Patrick just had more room for growth as a soul than Sam did, and benefitted more from some tough love. I think Sam was about as good as he was gonna get.
On a dramatic level, I am not sure this gothic shaggy dog story exactly earned the pathos it wrung out of showing us these recently vital humans reduced to sobbing husks. But I was about as upset to see blinded Patrick sliding around in his spilled piss and crying for help that wouldn't come as I have been by anything I've seen recently. Maybe a realistic drama about this time is what this season should have been instead, but I'm not sure anyone could watch it. It was hard enough for me to be in this space for the lion's share of this episode.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:49 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don't mind Sam being redeemed, but I do cringe a little at the conflation of his sadomasochistic tendencies and his character flaws. This is frankly the last show I EVER would have imagined would approach judging its characters for their kinks.
Yeah, the kinkshaming shocked me, too.
On a positive note, the casting for Patrick's father in the flashback was A+.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:53 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yeah, the kinkshaming shocked me, too.
On a positive note, the casting for Patrick's father in the flashback was A+.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:53 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Actually I just thought of something. Didn't Big Daddy murder Patrick's ex-wife? Are we to take that as she just suddenly died in the shower of AIDs related complications?
posted by miss-lapin at 8:21 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by miss-lapin at 8:21 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
On review, I...think so? Barbara could have had sudden cardiac arrest and died much like it seems Hannah did; Barbara's (depicted) death by strangulation, and what sounds like Hannah being strangled on the tape, imply they died in the same fashion.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:51 AM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:51 AM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
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All the dream imagery this episode seemed so hackneyed.
But here's the biggest thing the reveal that AIDs is Big Daddy. I watch horror for escapism, to escape the real horror in this world, not to be shown the horror I've already lived through with trite symbolism/dream imagery.
The characters deserved better than this.
posted by miss-lapin at 3:47 PM on November 17, 2022 [1 favorite]