Who will be the new supreme? The girls will test the seven wonders to find out.
Credit: FX
We open this episode of “American Horror Story: Coven” with a list of the seven wonders: telekinesis, concilium, transmutation, divination, vitalum vitalis, descensum and pyrokinesis. If you can perform all of these without dying, then you, yes you, can be the next supreme — that’s what Fiona tells Queenie. Marie Laveau is gone and Queenie wants to know where she is. Queenie mouths off to Fiona who, without lifting a finger, strangles her for a bit to put her in her place.
Cordelia comes into Madison’s room with her newly gouged-out eyes and she tries to test her clairvoyance by touching Madison, but Madison transmutes herself across the room. Madison, of course, doesn’t want Cordelia to touch her because she shoved Misty Day into a grave plot, but Cordelia guilts her into coming back. When she touches Madison, she sees nothing.
Queenie walks to the greenhouse and sees blood and hears Marie’s voice, vowing vengeance. Queenie flips through a voodoo book and levitates over herself. Suddenly, she’s back in her old workplace — a fried chicken joint — and the first man in line is Papa Legba. He explains to her that this is her hell and the worst part of her life. She tries to talk to him about Marie Laveau, but he tells her she has to prove her power. She brings herself back to Miss Robichaux’s and demands answers from Papa. We see a flashback of Delphine cutting up Marie Laveau; Papa explains that as long as Marie Laveau lives, Delphine cannot die. Marie’s pieces are spread all over the city.
Delphine has a new job back at her old house, and she looks magnificent without her Ed Hardy sweatshirt. She gives historical tours with glowing tales of Delphine LaLaurie; she tells tourists that Delphine never tormented those slaves and was simply misunderstood. We see how Delphine got her new job: She went on a tour incognito and cornered the guide in the prison afterward. She tells the guide the information was inaccurate and that she didn’t kill 150 slaves — just 62. She ties up the woman in her torture chamber and Queenie pleads for her to let the guide go. She offers Delphine redemption and tells her she can volunteer somewhere, but Delphine tells Queenie she knows how redemption works: She saw Paula Deen get in trouble for using the n-word on the magic box and people made her apologize! She doesn’t want to have anything to do with that nonsense. Queenie gets sick of hearing about it and stabs Delphine in the heart and tells her she’s not immortal after all.
Fiona is having her portrait painted when she gets a nosebleed. She realizes she has just a little time left so she goes to find Delia. She informs Delia that her power of clairvoyance is somewhere deep within and she just has to find it. Then, Fiona hands over her mother’s necklace to Cordelia and her daughter realizes: “You’re saying goodbye.” Fiona responds affirmatively and when she puts the necklace on Cordelia’s neck, Cordelia has a vision of Madison’s dead head hanging through the bannister and a dead Zoey on the wall. Misty is laying dead on the piano and Queenie is dead on the floor and finally, there is a dead Cordelia. She sees Fiona walk over to Cordelia and take the necklace off her neck. Cordelia catches her breath and asks Fiona for the ring that matches the necklace.
Cordelia walks into the Ax Man’s home and tells him, “It’s not safe to love my mother, you know. … She can’t love anyone but herself.” She explains her vision to him and tells him Fiona’s going to kill all of the women and leave him behind, too. Cordelia tells him Fiona has a flight booked for two days later, when she’ll have all her powers back.
Cordelia is feeling around for clues on Misty: She sees her somewhere underground and then sees she’s somewhere in Deville Cemetery. Delia and Queenie go to the cemetery and Queenie uses her powers to get Misty’s coffin out and open, and then revive her.
Madison learns from Myrtle that Queenie and Cordelia are at the cemetery trying to find Misty. The door swings open and Zoey and Kyle walk in. Myrtle is horrified and then Zoey explains that she can’t escape her destiny. There’s a flashback to a homeless guy yelling at Zoey and Kyle; Kyle kills the man and Zoey revives him and decides she is the supreme. Misty walks back in and starts a cat fight with Madison. The two slap and punch each other and Zoey crawls around in her gold booty shorts to get away from Misty.
The Ax Man walks in, ax-a-swingin’, but you can’t do that to witches. They collectively throw him back onto the ground with their powers and Cordelia realizes the blood on his clothes is from Fiona.
The show takes us back in time: Fiona is just walking into the Ax Man’s apartment and he tells her that Cordelia came to visit. The Ax Man reaches into Fiona’s bag and finds the flight confirmation. Fiona sighs that the cat is out of the bag and doesn’t show any remorse about her plans to leave him. “Let’s be realistic — when the next supreme is dead, I’ll have 30 years of vitality until another one comes along and the doors of any palace will be open to me,” she says. She goes on until he grabs her and they struggle. She walks away and pours herself a drink until the Ax Man comes over and hacks her to death. Cordelia sees all of this and also sees that the Ax Man fed Fiona’s remains to an alligator.
They talk about who should kill the Ax Man and Myrtle says it’s unnecessary. Madison argues that he’s a mass murderer and when Myrtle asks if there’s anyone in the house who isn’t a mass murderer, everyone goes silent. Kyle tries to kill him but Misty ensures him none of the witches need a man to protect them and together they stab the Ax Man to death, just like their sisters from another time.
Somehow, we’re back in Delphine’s torture chamber and this time, Delphine is locked up and so are her daughters. Marie emerges from the darkness and grabs her sickle. She slashes Delphine in the neck and puts a snake around her. Then she walks over and gives Delphine’s daughter her mother’s blood to drink. Marie takes an iron brand toward Delphine’s daughter when suddenly she freaks out and wonders why she would do such a thing to an innocent girl. Papa Legba appears and tells Delphine that she has been released from immortality and is now in hell. Papa tells Marie the contract is off because she can’t fulfill it anymore and in hell, everybody pays and suffers. Delphine takes the iron brand and presumably sticks it down Delphine’s daughter’s throat.
The witches hang Fiona’s portrait on the wall and remember her fondly. They decide they must find the next supreme among themselves and schedule the seven wonders for Sunday at dawn: Everyone will participate.
Follow Andrea Park on Twitter: @andreapark
