Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Coven Season Finale: Seriously?


Mia Bard visits Mystery Playground with this guest post to vent her frustration about tonight's finale of American Horror Story: Coven. 


Last week's episode of American Horror Story: Coven was aptly titled "Go To Hell". And after this mess of a season, many viewers (myself included) wanted to tell the writers just that. 

I hadn't seen AHA's first two seasons, but after hearing rave reviews - and because of this season's locale in New Orleans - I jumped in for season 3. I stayed with the show all season because I kept thinking it's got to get better. These weird plot elements have got to make sense at some point. Unfortunately, I found this season to be confusing, contradictory, and confounding - especially after last night's finale. 

A brief recap for those unfamiliar with the plot: AHS: Coven is about a coven of witches in New Orleans all vying to be the next "supreme" (or head witch). Leading into the finale, this is where things stood:

* The current supreme (Fiona) had hatched a plan to kill all the other witches in the coven in the hope to regain about 30 years of power in the wake of her terminal cancer. BUT she gets murdered by her lover, who thinks she's betrayed her.

* Each witch has a "special" power, like resurgence, transference, telekensis, etc. BUT as the season progressed, they started to accumulate "other powers" for no explicable reason.

* Almost all the witches (Fiona, Myrtle, Queenie, Misty, and Madison) have died and been brought back to life. BUT Misty died and was brought back twice, and Zoe and Delia never died. And poor Nan seems to remain permanently dead.

* Of these deaths, Queenie's demise was by a silver bullet... which is supposedly the permanent way to kill witches. BUT Queenie survives anyhow, citing "newly found powers".

* Two historical New Orleans figures from the 1800s - Marie Laveau and Delphine LaLaurie - are made immortal and brought to the present day. That's where Delphine is dismembered and decapitated BUT is "recapitated" and put back together (which is never explained). Delphine then dismembers and decapitates Marie (who again, is supposedly immortal) BUT this act renders her mortal. They both end up in Hell.

* Delia (who, by the way, is Fiona's adult daughter) becomes blinded by acid thrown in her face early in the series. BUT she gains "second-sight" when Myrtle (via magic) gives her "new eyes". BUT that causes her to lose her mind-reading abilities. BUT she cuts her own eyes out (with gardening shears) in the hope of regaining her second-sight. At first she does not BUT then this power suddenly reappears. 

The main issue I had with AHS: Coven was all the BUTs. They kept changing the rules on us along the way. Why even set down rules if they were constantly going to be broken? That to me was the true mystery of Coven - and made it hard to watch - because it followed no logical rhyme or reason. And yes, I realize I'm saying this about a show about witchcraft.

So what happened in the end? Last night's finale found all the witches performing "the seven wonders" in order to compete for top spot in the coven. Misty was quickly eliminated as she was unable to perform "transformation" - or is it transurgence? - and couldn't come back from a trip to Hell. Zoe died via "tranference" - aka, a giant game of "tag, you're it!" - which landed Zoe impaled on a sharp iron fence. Next up was Madison, who got fed up with the whole "seven wonders performance" and wanted to leave the house to go back to Hollywood. But she never made it because she was killed by Zoe's boyfriend (for allowing Zoe to die). That left Queenie and Delia... and the late-in-the-game revelation by Myrtle that Delia was the real supreme. Delia was thus crowned head witch, but not without her "dead" mother Fiona (who wasn't really murdered after all!) returning for one final visit, her body now ravaged by cancer and just hours away from death. And with her passing, her own "personal hell" was revealed: eternity with her boyfriend at a country home down South where they constantly fought, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" style.


The show ended with Delia reigning supreme (pun intended) with Queenie and Zoe (who yeah, came back to life) by her side as the new generation of the coven council. Confused? So am I, and I watched every episode.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for a great post, Mia. How disappointing. With that cast they should have knocked it out of the park.

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  2. I'm sorry you missed the first 2 seasons. This 3rd one was a mess. Along with being random and confusing, it lacked the nail-biting suspense that a good horror story has. Seasons 1 and 2 had this in abundance, but season 3 was a real snooze.

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