TV Review: American Horror Story: Freak Show (Season 4, Episode 4)

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

EPISODE: "EDWARD MORDRAKE: PART 2"

THE SCOOP: The summoned spirit of Edward Mordrake continues to recruit a Freak worthy of his legion. As Elsa recounts the haunts and horrors of coming up in Germany, our creepy-killer-clown Twisty has a fateful run-in with Jimmy and his new belle, Maggie.

The Following May Contain Minor-To-Major Spoilers. If You've Not Seen This Episode, It Might be Wisest To Stop Reading Here!

THE SKINNY: Stitching up our two-part Halloween episode "Edward Mordrake", we pick up the ellipses with the titular prim and proper English chap in his quest to find the most troubled freak of the coup to take under his sadistic supernatural stretch. Unfortunately he himself is about as frightening as Mary f*ckin' Poppins, but when he finally settles on harassing old Elsa, shit gets hectic in a quick flash. See, he wants to hear about the freaks' deepest and darkest secrets, and only if satisfied by the level of abject horrific depravity, will he anoint a worthy companion. It's then we're whisked back to the terrors of 1932 Germany, where Elsa worked in a perverted freakshow flophouse (my kinda place) – where every bizarre fetish from amputees and hunchbacks to midget orgies and Kink.com style S&M bondage is offered. Gnarly! Not sure about you, but goddamn, seeing Lange decked in sexy black leather, lace and boots in those dolled-up flashbacks made my dick harder than a 40-year oak. So clearly an homage to Dyanne Thorne and the sleazy-ass ILSA pictures. Love that shtie! We then flash even further back to 1928, to the day Elsa was accosted, strapped to a bed and had her legs excised with a large chainsaw. Even with a tear in her eye however, Mordrake ain't all that impressed. Tough cocksucker!

Meanwhile, Jimmy and Maggie conveniently run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. As they formulate a plan, they suddenly see running out of the woods the young damsel in distress Twisty the killer-clown has kept caged up in his bus…soon followed by the maniacally murderous clown himself. Jim and Mag duck for cover, stay out of sight, but just when they think they've got a good view of what Twisty is up to, WHAMMMO, Dandy bludgeons the two upside the dome-pieces. When they come to, they're of course bound and gagged, far worse for wear. But these aren't a pair of Enisteins they're dealing with, and isn't long before they find the ropes untied. And wouldn't you know it, just as they make a break for it, old Jiminy Cricket himself Eddie Mordrake shows up and demands to see some carnage. Perhaps it's Twisty who's worthy of Eddie's accomplice? Sure is, as we see how he, as an innocent clown back in 1943, was so deeply teased by a band of jealous freaks…to the point he shot himself in the face with a shotgun…which is why he's missing the lower part of his face and jaw. Pretty disturbing stuff, sympathetically turned by the great John Carroll Lynch. Mordrake is taken with the story, and sacrifices Twisty for a spot on his own purgatorial team of soulless ghouls. But if Mordrake is gone from the show now, so too must be Twisty right? Shame!

A shame indeed to see Twisty meet his maker, but even so, this was my no doubt favorite chapter of Freak Show thus far. Why? The simplicity. The leanness. The economy. No more bullshit third-act Glee renditions and head-spinning multi-narratives, writer Jennifer Salt and director Howard Deutch (GREAT OUTDOORS yo!) wisely paired things down here, focused on two solid storylines and suspensefully crosscut between them both until they organically fused in the third act. That's solid storytelling. And while I wasn't too high on Mordrake himself (Wes Bently all but daintily whispering his lines), the horrific flashbacks he was able to induce from Elsa and twisty were the shit. Elsa in particular…goddamn is Lange still a sexy-ass beast when given the A-list makeup and costume treatment. My dick's still hard! Additionally, I loved that John Carroll Lynch as Twisty got more play this time out, even if his plotline has indeed concluded. Through the preceding three episodes, the creepy-killer-clown slasher subplot was my favorite, so to see half an episode devoted to resolving it, that was badass. I swear, even without words, Lynch does more with his eyes than most do with their mouths. Dude's a G!

There it is. Not only did "Edward Mordrake: Part 2" trim down the fat and focus on the two most tightly woven threads, the episode to me stood out just as much for what it didn't feature than what it did. No lame third-act karaoke, no overstuffed runtimes and thin-stretched character development, no more introductions to ancillary characters and the like. Hell no. This episode got back to basics in the most effective way possible. It had plenty of gore and violence for your requisite Halloween episode, and not only did a credible job of blending two storylines, it also served as a transitional piece between Twisty's sadistic reign and now Dandy's. All promising for things to come in future freakshow exhibits!

KILL OF THE WEEK: Has to be the vicious stabbing of Twisty, the death of my favorite character so far this season. Of course, it was done on purpose as a way to add Twisty to Mordrake's troubled retinue of ghouls. But have we seen the last of him?

BLOOD & GORE:

• Elsa Gets her legs chainsawed off.
• A toilet-seat covered in nails.
• Twisty's own shotgun to the face.
• Mordrake slashes Twisty repeatedly with a butcher knife.
• Pruning shears to Nora's throat.

WTF CHARACTER MOMENT: How about Dandy going ballistic on Nora. Whoa! At first you might have thought that, as such a child as he is, he might feel a bit remorseful after slicing the blade like that. But no. Dude just grew an evil smirk and twinkle in his eye as if he's no doubt intent on picking up the homicidal handy-work that Twisty can longer incur. A killer is born!

MOST BIZARRE SCENE: No doubt, the most bizarre stint harkened back to when Elsa was working the seedy German brothels before WWII. I mean, when she leads that perv-ball on a leash to a nail-covered toilet-seat, taking delight in his obedient ecstasy as he plops ass-down onto the spiked seat. Yikes!