‘American Horror Story’ Finale Recap: ‘1984’s’ ‘Final Girl’ Revealed

Andrea Reiher

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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Final Girl,” the finale episode of “American Horror Story: 1984.”

The final episode of “American Horror Story: 1984” is appropriately called “The Final Girl,” a reference to the term given to that one (usually virginal) young woman who manages to survive the massacre in most horror movies. Who was could that be this time? Brooke (Emma Roberts) was the obvious choice, although Donna (Angelica Ross) would have been great — even if she did say last week, “A black final girl? Sweetheart, they kill folks with my complexion off first.”

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Before finding out who the final girl was, however, the show jumped forward to 2019, when Ben’s (John Carroll Lynch) son Bobby (Finn Wittrock) came to Camp Redwood. He ran into Montana (Billie Lourd), who made some pretty funny comments about his smartphone — because obviously she doesn’t know anything about cell phones, having died in 1984. But she informed him that people basically stopped coming to the camp after the “s— show” in 1989. Not even the “hardcore death tourists” would come to camp, so Margaret’s (Leslie Grossman) plan didn’t work out after all.

As Montana continued to grill Bobby about the future, Trevor (Matthew Morrison) appeared, and Bobby started to realize all of these people he thought were dead are actually ghosts. He also told them he has been receiving anonymous checks his whole life and he was sure they were from his dad, even though the aunt who raised him told him that his dad left Bobby with her so he could get revenge on his wife’s killer.

Montana and Trevor told Bobby that his dad was dead, but they weren’t sure where he ended up because Montana saw him get dragged into the lake and no one saw him after that. They then rather hilariously killed themselves in front of Bobby so he would believe them — Bobby was none too pleased about that — but then when they came back to life, they filled Bobby in on what went down in 1989.

Flashback to the year Margaret was supposed to make a musical mecca. She, Bruce (Dylan McDermott) and Richard Ramirez (Zach Villa) were ready to start killing, but Courtney (Leslie Jordan) informed them that Trevor was turning away the musical acts and fans at the road because he saw what happened to Kajagoogoo. Margaret confronted him, and when he said he was filing for divorce, she shot him repeatedly. Since he was out on the street, Margaret was sure he would die and that would be it, but Montana found him and yelled at him until he dragged himself onto the camp property to die so that he could come back and be with her.

Trevor collapsed a few feet from the gate, but Brooke wandered up and helped him limp onto the grounds, telling Montana that she helped her because she’s not like her. Brooke helping Montana made Montana realize that she had to stop the killing, so the ghosts banded together to try to put a stop to Margaret’s plan.

Trevor and a ghost of a counselor from the 1970s managed to lure Bruce to the edge of the property and kill him, kicking him down a ravine so he would die off-site and not come back. But Ramirez proved trickier. Montana did manage to get him into a shack where the ghosts all took turns hacking into him, but that wasn’t enough to do him in — remember his whole Satan deal?

So instead, they just kept torturing him again and again and again. Montana told Bobby that they kept killing Ramirez to protect him, so Ramirez wouldn’t come to Alaska and kill Bobby. They told Bobby he needed to leave, but he vowed to stay at the camp until he found his father.

Another flashback, this time to 20 minutes earlier, showed that the ghosts are, indeed, just repeatedly killing Ramirez, over and over and over again. They would take turns so that someone didn’t have to be with Ramirez at all times. One particular time, Bertie (Tara Karsian) and Chet (Gus Kenworthy) were on Ramirez watch but began making out, which allowed Ramirez to escape and overhear Bobby talking to Trevor and Montana. When he came bursting into the cabin, Montana and Trevor held him off, then Ray (DeRon Horton), Bertie and Chet joined in to help.

Ramirez did stab Bobby once in the back, but the ghosts held Ramirez off long enough that Bobby was able to escape. Montana told him to head to Red Meadows Asylum to get his answers about his father.

The medical director there turned out to be none other than Donna, who told Bobby the truth about his father — that he was innocent; the massacre was all Margaret’s doing.

Checking in on the music festival showed that the ghosts organized an angry mob to help Donna and Brooke get their revenge — although Brooke got shot before she could join in on the “fun.” (The “fun” being the ghosts dismembering Margaret and feeding her parts into a wood chipper, which then shot the viscera over the property line. See ya, Margaret!)

That made Donna the titular final girl (or so it seemed). She told Bobby she went back a few times to pay her respects and check in with the ghosts, but it was hard for the ghosts to see her age, so she stopped going. Bobby then thanked Donna for the money she sent, but she said it wasn’t her. Who else made it out?

Brooke did. Bobby and Donna found her married to a doctor with two children. Donna was pretty upset that Brooke didn’t tell her because she’s been carrying around so much guilt. Brooke said she tried to call Donna all the time, but it was too hard to speak to her. But Donna’s biggest question was how Brooke managed to escape the camp.

Another flashback showed that Ray found her body, realized she was still alive and carried her to the edge of the property. She collapsed outside the gate, but then woke up in a white room. Someone called the paramedics and she was saved.

But Bobby was still confused about why she was sending him money all these years. She told him she needed to believe a normal life was possible after Redwood — like what Ben did after the 1984 incident. She did what she could to help Bobby from getting pulled in by Redwood. But Bobby headed back to the camp anyway.

In the season’s final moments, Bobby went back to Redwood where he ran into none other than Margaret. She apparently died one second before the wood chipper spit her out past the property line, so she had been waiting all these years for Bobby to show up. Luckily, Ben was there in time to stop Margaret from killing Bobby. They had a nice moment and then Ben told Bobby to leave and never come back. But Margaret chased after him, yelling that she was supposed to be the final girl.

Ben’s mom (Lily Rabe) stepped in to save him one last time, telling Margaret he deserved a happy ending. Bobby managed to escape, with Montana asking him not to forget them. As he left, he got to see Ben, his uncle Bobby and his grandmother one last time.

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