At this point, I’m just going to enjoy the season for what it is. Wednesday’s episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse, titled Traitor, continued the theme of being solely flashbacks detailing the events that lead up to the apocalypse shown at the beginning of the season. This week’s episode in particular saw the witches realizing the murderous conspiracy the warlocks had against them, while Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) further struggled to formulate a counterattack in order to stop the apocalypse from happening.
Bubbles McGee (Joan Collins, left) and Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy, right) at a dinner with the warlocks.
As much as I am enjoying the concept of having the Coven witches back on my screen—and the storylines are interesting enough—I just can’t ignore how convoluted this season’s plot is. The timelines are off, the magical laws (or lack thereof) make no sense, and the fact that these past episodes have been seemingly useless given the fact that we already know the apocalypse does happen make it hard to concentrate on what would otherwise be a good season.
While this episode brought answers—albeit, not logical ones—to questions risen during past episodes, primarily how Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy) is back after being burned to ashes at the end of Coven, the light it shed on this season casted a shadow on the original Coven season. Essentially, anything and everything goes in magic, something that rather contradicts the laws established in Coven. The manifestations of magic this season continue to come off as fantastical and cartoonish, driving away from the horror that AHS is supposed to be presenting, and entering The Magicians and Once Upon A Time territory (no shade intended for the aforementioned shows).
Dinah Stevens (Adina Porter) performing a voodoo ritual
Don’t get me wrong, this season is entertaining for sure, but I feel like it’s not offering anything beyond the theatrics of the Coven characters. With each new episode, I further stand by my belief that Apocalypse would’ve been a much better season had it been in chronological order. There are only three episodes left and we have yet to be informed of any relevance of the stories and characters introduced in the first episodes. The Coven extravaganza has been fun, but I think it’s time we go back to what we were first introduced to.