'American Horror Story: Apocalypse' Recap: Is There Any Humanity Left in Michael Langdon?
Warning: Contains spoilers for season 8, episode 8 of American Horror Story, “Sojourn."
Aww, the antichrist is having an identity crisis! It's hard finding and keeping friends when you're the spawn of Satan, but even Michael Langdon (Cody Fern) yearns for some companionship. As we prepare for the end of days and the end of AHS: Apocalypse (only two episodes left after this), episode 8 finds Michael searching for his place on Earth after Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) and the witches burned his only allies in last week's episode.
Back in the past timeline, the dark prince finds the charred remains of Grand Chancellor Ariel (Jon Jon Briones), Baldwin Pennypacker (BD Wong), and Miriam Mead (Kathy Bates) right where the witches executed them and is devastated over the loss of Miriam-the only maternal figure left in his life. Cordelia offers to help Michael fight his evil urges and defy his dark destiny of bringing about the end of days. He rejects the offer and vows to bring Miriam back to life somehow, then seek vengeance against the witches. Having anticipated that her offer might not be well received, Cordelia lets Michael know that bringing back Miriam won't be easy, because she cast a spell to hide her soul in the spirit world.
All alone, Michael wanders around having no clue where to go or what to do. The dude can't even feed himself. Feeling desperate for guidance, he prays to his father to either give him a clue about what to do next or to let him die. He hallucinates while waiting several days for any kind of answer, seeing children offering grape soda and apples, Anton "Black Pope" Lavey, and, perhaps most importantly, an angel who tells him that God loves him. Finally, Michael is visited by a goat he believes to be the embodiment of his father, which he slaughters and continues on his unmerry way.
After some more aimless wandering, our lost soul stumbles upon a Satanist meeting run by a woman named Hannah (Sandra Bernhard), who is unhappy with the lack of dedication her congregation is showing to the dark lord. Michael meets a congregant named Madelyn (Harriet Sansom Harris), who offers to give him a hot meal and a place to stay after the meeting. Back at Madelyn's home, she reveals to Michael that she sold her soul to the devil but is growing impatient waiting for the arrival of the antichrist and the end of days. Lucky for her, the person she's been hoping for is sitting right at her dining room table. They return to Hannah's congregation, where Michael reveals himself to the crowd and performs a ritual sacrifice in the name of his father, Satan. It's still not exactly clear to Michael what he needs to do to set armageddon into motion, though, and he expresses this doubt to Madelyn.
She knows people who can help.
The two set off on a little road trip that takes them to a seemingly random office building, which is actually the home of The Collective-the organization that will later send Michael to Outpost 3 after the nuclear holocaust. (Don't forget: The "present day" scenes are the ones happening down in the bunker formerly known as the Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men.) Inside the office, two new characters named Mutt (Billy Eichner) and Jeff (Evan Peters) are working on robots that provide sexual pleasure, and Wilhelmina Venable (Sarah Paulson) is running the show. We learn that Mutt and Jeff sold their souls to the devil in exchange for success in Silicon Valley, and they're prepared make good on their end of the deal by helping Michael fulfil his destiny. His first task is to have them bring back Miriam Mead, which they do by building a robot in her likeness.
That pretty much brings us up to speed on everything that was going on before the apocalypse started in the season premiere. Things are about to come full circle.
What we know
Michael is clearly a mama's boy who's feeling a lot of pressure to live up to his father's plan for him.
The appearance of an angel to Michael supports the popular online theory that divine intervention might come into play.
Selling your soul to the devil gives a person a certain amount of invincibility, as evidenced by Madelyn's heroin use and Mutt and Jeff's excessive cocaine use having zero consequences.
What we need to find out
How did The Collective actually bring about the end of the world?
Will robot Mead be as devoted to Michael as the woman she's based on?
Will the bombs actually drop this time around or will the witches stop it from happening?
Could there be more than one robot running around the post-apocalyptic world?
What the internet thinks
Mutt and Jeff will end up being Brock and Gallant.
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