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'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Episode 3 Recap: Carny Tales

'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Episode 3 Recap: Carny Tales
*** WARNING: Contains spoilers! Please do not read on unless you’ve seen Episode 3 of “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” titled “Edward Mordrake (Part 1).” Or if you don’t mind spoilers, go right ahead! ***

Tonight’s episode was a talky one, wasn’t it? The past two instalments of “American Horror Story: Freak Show” have been fast-paced and jam-packed, and we’ve been treated/subjected to gruesome murders at the hands of Twisty. Tonight was more about storytelling, building the foundation for what’s to come. We’re also introduced to three new characters and given Ethel’s messed-up backstory in full detail.

You can tell the powers-that-be behind “AHS” have learned a thing or two from “Coven.” Where “Coven” was more of a throw-s**t-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach, it’s apparent that “Freak Show” is working to establish more of a thorough story, with character depth and interlacing stories, no matter how ludicrous some may be. In this particular instance, they’re sacrificing some of the artifice and going for substance. So tonight we get not one but two genuinely touching moments — Dell and Ethel bonding over a flask of hooch and Ethel thanking the doctor for showing her respect. Unusually heartfelt for “AHS.”

“Freak Show”s answer to Papa Legba (sigh, remember Lance Reddick in that costume? And those red contact lenses?) is Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley). We’re told the “carny tale” of his sorry life, of his imprisonment in an asylum after his second face drove him mad, and how he hung himself after murdering a bunch of other freaks. The tale passes the absurdity line when Ethel tells the rest of the crew that if they perform on Halloween, Mordrake is summoned and takes another life. At first I thought this makes absolutely no sense, but then I remembered this is “AHS,” and the only way to approach the ridiculousness is to shrug your shoulders and just accept it. One thing I will not and cannot accept, however, is Bentley’s British accent. Sorry, dude. Come to think of it, I’m not even 100 percent sure he was supposed to be British.

Two-face Mordrake is a cool concept, but it’s too bad they decided to make him a ghost character. It would’ve been more exciting to see him truly interact with the others as a live human rather than some top hat-wearing agent of death. Also: not enough of that second face. More, please!

Esmerelda and Dr. Mansfield (“doctor”) as freak curators are a more interesting pair. Emma Roberts has shed the bitch persona in order to inhabit this more innocent, good-hearted character, and I already like her nerd chic infinitely more than her witchy Madison. Denis O’Hare, as always, plays the creep/opportunist with aplomb, and he’s got something up his sleeve pants. (Does anyone have any creative guesses as to what it is? I’d love to hear them in the comments!)

Things between Bette and Dot are getting worse. They share a dream/nightmare about Dot getting Bette’s head removed from the body, and when they wake, the gloves come off and we see that Dot has absolutely no qualms about murdering her conjoined twin in order to live a better life. The stage is set here for one of them killing the other, though as I said last week, I predict that by the end of “Freak Show,” both Bette and Dot won’t be alive. Either one living while the other one dies is too easy. A jealous, power-hungry Elsa is also on the periphery, and I’d say that she’s a bigger threat to the twins than anybody else. (She’s also a threat on stage. Zing! Lange singing Lana Del Rey was the stuff of dreams.)

And we can’t ignore the larger, looming threat: Twisty and his new minion, Dandy. Dandy’s become even more unhinged — especially after Gloria gives him a Howdy Doody costume to wear — and he crafts his own creepy clown ensemble. Slow clap to “Freak Show” costume design for making two very different freaky clown costumes. In this case, the clothes do not make the murderer, as Dandy is too weak to kill Dora. He doesn’t get a chance to kill Twisty’s captives, either (would he have? I doubt it), as the clown arrives home with a new victim before he gets the chance. Methinks it’s only a matter of time before Dandy graduates to full murderer; something needs to push him over that edge, and it just might be killing Twisty and taking his throne.

We’ll see next week, when Part 2 hopefully draws to a more exciting finish.

Freak Of The Week: Edward Mordrake wins solely for how awesome the concept of his freakdom is. Weirdly, his second face reminded me of Kuato from “Total Recall” — the second time that movie has had relevance in the context of this show (the first for the three-breasted woman).

Random Thoughts:

  • So Ethel is “not the one.” Who is? Who will Mordrake take with him to add to his dead body collection?
  • I received some emails and read all of your comments about Kathy Bates’ accent. I will readily admit I’ve never been to Baltimore, so I’ve never heard anyone speak with this accent before. Mea culpa. All of you seem to think she’s nailed it, so I have no choice but to agree with you.
  • Your accent may suck, Wes, but you’re rocking those mutton chops like no one’s business.
  • Can we talk about Angela Bassett (a.k.a. “Triple Tits”) in that hot maid outfit? Dayum, girl.
  • Suddenly Viking helmets are in high demand for kinky sex play.
  • Pour one out for Meep, Jimmy.
  • A thing in life I never thought I’d see: legend Patti Labelle dressed up as Woody Woodpecker. Stevie Nicks as a witch is nothing now.
  • I think we can safely say that clowns are pretty much ruined for everyone now. Even that little girl’s older brother (and eventual abductee) dressed as a clown was freakin’ scary. People in the near future will probably wonder how anyone thought they weren’t absolutely terrifying in the first place.
  • “Freak birth.” Just no. Never even want to think about that scene again.

“American Horror Story: Freak Show” airs on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. EST on FX and FX Canada.

Episode 2 Recap
Premiere Recap

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/american-horror-story-freak-show-episode-3-recap_n_6028778.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

MISC

We Count, So Count Us: Three Reasons It's Important to Collect Census Data on LGBTQ People

We Count, So Count Us: Three Reasons It's Important to Collect Census Data on LGBTQ People
“One in 10 is not enough! Recruit! Recruit! Recruit!”

It was my favorite chant as a young queer activist, and its echo stays with me today. It was funny, sure, and poked fun at the fear of a million cowering conservatives. The chant was based on sexologist Alfred Kinsey’s famous claim that 10 percent of men in the U.S. are gay, and that number was widely adopted as an estimate for how many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals live in the U.S. — even though the LGBTQ community didn’t have thorough research to back it up. But it was my favorite because it made me look around every day and wonder: Who were the other three LGBTQ students in my class? Who were the other four LGBTQ riders on my subway train? Who were the other five LGBTQ people in my extended family? The number gave me hope and told me that I wasn’t alone.

At the same time, that chant gave me power. If we, the LGBTQ community, were a countable percentage of the population, we could all stand with one voice and demand respect, an end to anti-LGBTQ violence, and equality.

It never really occurred to me to question the number itself. Where did it come from? To be quite honest, I didn’t care. I didn’t think it mattered. Someone had counted, so we knew that we counted.

Twenty years later I realize that the counting really does matter. Data collection (as we math and law nerds call it) gets us money, power, health, housing, jobs, schools, food, and rights.

Is it really that important? Yes. Here’s why:

It gives us political traction.

If you’re not a voting bloc, you can’t sway politicians. Like it or not, politicians make the decisions that rule our lives. They decide who has protection from discrimination, who can become a citizen, how much we pay in taxes, what we’re taught in school, who can get married. The existence of the LGBTQ vote is dependent on our ability to prove that we are a large-enough group of people that we can sway elections. In other words, we only count if we are counted.

Perhaps more importantly, being counted gives us consumer power. As powerful as politicians are, corporations dwarf them in both number and reach. Exactly 737 corporations control 80 percent of the world’s economy. In 2010 the Supreme Court decided that corporations are permitted to spend as much as they want to get candidates elected. A recent report by the Center for Public Integrity showed that corporations contributed at least $173 million to political nonprofits in 2012. Although there is an ethical minority of politicians who are indifferent to the whims of their funders, there are many who feel beholden to their corporate sponsors.

Our population numbers make us attractive to the corporate decision makers who hold the purse strings to our cultural and political lives. As they become aware of the purchasing power of millions of LGBTQ people, we become a demographic they market to and design products for and, most importantly, a population they can’t afford to ignore or disrespect as they throw their weight around in the political arena. Money makes power, and as we are counted, we amass power through our ability to affect the decisions of major corporations.

All of that is real, but there’s a more important reason for us to be counted:

It tells us how to fix things.

LGBTQ people experience disparities in almost every quantifiable way: We’re more likely to live in poverty, more likely to be homeless, more likely to struggle with addiction, more likely to experience health conditions like diabetes and lung cancer, more likely to be unemployed, more likely to go to jail, more likely to experience sexual assault, more likely to experience violence, more likely to contract HIV. I could go on. At the risk of sounding depressing, statistically we’re screwed.

That’s where data collection comes in. Without an accurate picture of the disparities we face, we can’t figure out how to address them. Think about jobs: We know that lesbian, gay and bisexual adults are unemployed at a rate 40-percent higher than the overall unemployment rate, and transgender adults are twice as likely to unemployed as the overall average. But if we don’t have data on how many of us graduate from high school, college, or trade schools, or how many of us have been fired because of our actual or perceived gender identity, we can’t know how to reduce that disparity.

The same applies to every other medical, scientific, and sociological disparity faced by our community. If we don’t know how many of us are facing a particular issue, we can’t know how to address it.

Both political power and ability to effectively address our needs are critically important. Still, for me, the need for data collection comes back to the same thing as it did when I was a 15-year-old activist:

It gives us hope.

We count. That’s why I joined the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. I want our government to accurately count us because it gives us power, tells us how to make life better for our community, and gives us hope. We need to know that we’re one of many. In the committee, I will press the Census Bureau to help us prove that, by adding questions to the census and other surveys about sexual orientation and gender identity. I hope you help me and support the LGBTQ community by standing up when it’s your turn to be counted. That way we can show that not only are we not alone but we are a large, diverse and politically significant community that has a key part to play in the future of our country.

www.huffingtonpost.com/meghan-maury/we-count-so-count-us-thre_b_6029546.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

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