Written by Kelsey McCurter
Whether you did, or didn’t watch the season premiere of American Horror Story: Apocalypse, here is a recap of what happened! For starters, this season merges Murder House and Coven and although it’s not clear how the two will connect just yet, it’s sure to be brilliant.
Episode 1 “The End” opens up as the world is on the brink of death. Hong Kong, Russia, and the Baltics have been eradicated by nuclear missiles, and America is next. This causes Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt (Leslie Grossman) to receive a call from her father informing her that Hong Kong has been wiped out. Coco calls her husband Brock (Billy Eichner) as she’s boarding the plane her father had ready, and enacts the contract in their marriage allowing the two to see other people. Understandably so, Brock begins to freak out and screams for Coco to not leave him in Santa Monica. As the plane is flying Coco, her assistant Mallory (Billie Lourd), Mr. Gallant (Evan Peters), and his Nana (Joan Collins) witness the bomb decimate America.
Before The Bomb
We meet Timothy Campbell (Kyle Allen) 40 minutes before the bomb goes off. He’s eager and anxious to discover whether or not he got accepted into UCLA. Unfortunately, notification of the bomb detonation comes right after. As soon as news of the bombing airs, Timothy is being taken away by the SWAT team due to his perfect genetics. Timothy, along with Emily (Ashley Santos), are being taken to an underground facility known as Outpost 3 ran by none other than Ms. Wilhelmina Venable (Sarah Paulson).
Outpost 3
In Outpost 3, originally an all boys’ school, soldiers dressed in gas masks patrol the outside to keep breaches from happening and to protect those selected to survive. The ones selected for survival are shown wearing purple and servants are shown wearing grey. Emily, Timothy, Coco, Mr. Gallant, and Collins’ Evie Gallant can be seen wearing purple. As for Mallory, she has been forced to wear grey. At dinner they are served one piece of vitamin Jello in order to have food for the next 18 months. During dinner, Miriam Mead (Kathy Bates) realises someone has been outside the compound and contaminated with radiation. Two people are taken to the decontamination chamber for cleansing, one of them being Mr. Gallant, however, the other man was unable to be fully decontaminated and was shot and killed.
While talking in Venable’s private room, she and Mead reveal that they haven’t been going by Cooperative rules, but instead their own. Venable makes it clear that she considers Mead and herself to be the most important people in the shelter. Venable takes pride in torturing the survivors by cutting back meals, making them fear for their life, and whether they’ll be served for supper next. Even through the chaos, Timothy and Emily have fallen for each other and since being told no copulation of any kind is tolerated, they kiss in secret once a day to keep from getting caught.
Thoughts?
With only one episode down and many more to go, AHS Season 8 is going to be the most intense season yet. Ryan Murphy has gone above and beyond once again with the great attention to detail and exceptional cast, this season will be one for the books! The returning cast members we’ve seen, Kathy Bates and Sarah Paulson are taking on new characters with quite different personalities,and demeanors. Although Kathy has played a brutal character before, it seems that this one has a bit of softer side. Not much of one, but it’s there.
This season of AHS is definitely a new twist to the series. Though we are used to the gore and dramatic plot lines, Apocalypse brings light and a new outlook on a subject that some despise talking about and that others have been tracking theorising and preparing decades for. Young and new additions to the cast are sure to bring and even more realistic and frightening feel to the show.
