When it was announced that the eighth season of the popular anthology series American Horror Story would be about the apocalypse, it probably caused a few people to scratch their heads. After all, each of the other seasons, strange as they were, seemed to take place in the real world (if a heavily fictionalized version of it). This one, however, went into the near future, and while it might have very easily gone off the rails entirely, the season for the most part made more narrative sense than a lot of its predecessors.
However, there were still a few things that, even after several rewatches, don’t quite add up.
What is the point of Brock?
One of the most irritating habits of this series is its penchant for adding in characters that don’t add a whole lot to the narrative. That is, unfortunately, the case with Brock.
While Billy Eichner is truly a hilarious actor, and his over-the-top antics always add a little levity, in this season he just seems rather extraneous. In addition, it’s not entirely clear how he manages to survive the apocalypse long enough to seek out the girlfriend that betrayed him.
The Carriage With the Apples
At one point in the series, Brock sees a carriage heading toward the outpost where some survivors have managed to find shelter. It’s a creepy moment, to be sure, and the apples end up being very key to the plot.
However, it’s left unclear where, exactly, these apples came from and, more importantly, where the carriage itself came from. While some things are better left unknown, some mysteries end up distracting from the suspense of the show.
Were Misty and Queenie Always Intended to be Saved?
One of the most frustrating things about some of the previous seasons is that it left two popular characters in a rather tight fix. The witch Misty was trapped in her own personal hell, and Queenie got trapped in the Hotel Cortez by the malevolent spirit of James Frederick March.
In this season, both of them are freed. While it’s great to see these characters get a better ending, one can’t help but wonder whether they were always intended to be saved, or whether this was a big of a quick retcon.
Michael’s Rapid Aging
It’s probably to be expected that the Antichrist would exhibit some very strange behavior. Indeed, it’s pretty clear from his beginning that he was going to be a monster. To take one example, somehow he managed to age ten years overnight.
However, while this is, admittedly, a pretty chilling moment, it’s unexplained either how he grew so fast (other than being the Antichrist) and, more importantly, how it seemingly wasn’t that big of a deal.
Isn’t It Odd that the Warlocks Weren’t in Coven?
While the witches had their own season way back in the third year of the series’ run, in this season we get to meet the men (who are, unsurprisingly, called warlocks). In fact, they seem to have had a long-running and antagonistic relationship with the witches.
If this is the case, it seems rather odd that there was not really any mention of them in that earlier season and that, despite the fact that it had a lot of characters, not one of them was a warlock.
While The Overall Narrative Mostly Works, Each Episode Seems Disconnected From The Others
Admittedly, narrative consistency isn’t always the best thing about this series. Too often, it allows itself to get distracted with side stories and with characters that, because they appear halfway through an already-established season, struggle to have a compelling narrative arc. This season mostly avoids that, and there are many individual episodes that are quite well-constructed.
At the same time, they sometimes don’t mesh very well with one another, so there are some stories that don’t land as effectively as they might have.
The Romanovs
The Romanovs are, of course, one of the most tragic families in the history of Europe, and many still lament their slaughter at the hands of the Bolsheviks. As tragic as they are, however, it’s hard to see why they have any coherent place in a season of this series.
Nevertheless, at one point the witches go back in time to see if they can change the course of history. The Romanovs feel like a rather random choice, and one gets the sense that Murphy was just looking for an excuse to have them in an episode of his series.
Behold’s Anticlimactic Death
Given that he’s played by the one and only Billy Porter, it’s no surprise that the character of Behold is one of the highlights of the season. Given that there is so much energy spent on building him up as a character, it doesn’t make sense that he ends up dying in a rather off-handed and sloppy way (it’s a failing of this show that it doesn’t always know how to give a character a proper sendoff).
Fortunately, his death is reversed, but that just raises the question of why the show bothered to kill him in the first place.
Yet Another Myrtle Bait And Switch
Poor Myrtle. She’s one of the most fascinating and bizarre characters that this show has ever created (thanks in large part to Frances Conroy’s tremendous acting abilities), and yet each time Myrtle appears she ends up getting killed, resurrected, then killed again.
While it’s fine to kill off a character when necessary, it does rather strain one’s patience to see this fascinating woman killed off again and again for no real narrative purpose.
Why it’s so easy to kill the Antichrist
Given that the entire series entry is all about the Antichrist and the efforts of the witches to stop him, his eventual death actually proves to be rather anticlimactic. In fact, the figure that has been the center of all of the season ends up getting run over in a car.
Given how much effort it takes elsewhere to even inflict any harm on him, this ending seems a bit strange, and its nonsensical nature isn’t resolved by the fact that another Antichrist is born soon after.