'American Horror Story: Apocalypse' Recap: Will Changing the Past Fix the Future?
Warning: Contains spoilers for season 8, episode 9 of American Horror Story, “Fire and Reign."
We've reached the penultimate episode of Apocalypse, and things aren't looking great for the good guys going into the final showdown between Michael Langdon and the coven.
Still, being henchmen for a confused antichrist isn't easy work. Mutt (Billy Eichner) and Jeff (Evan Peters) sit in their lab coked up out of their minds, discussing their frustrations with humanity as a whole and Michael Langdon (Cody Fern), who has no idea how he's supposed to bring about the apocalypse. Venable (Sarah Paulson) pays them a visit and admits to overhearing their chats about The Cooperative. She wants in, but they laugh her out of the room and tell her she isn't good enough to join the elite group.
Over at the coven mansion, Mallory (Billie Lourd) is struggling to use her powers on a dead bird. After failing to bring it back to life, she reveals to Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) and Myrtle (Frances Conroy) that she doesn't think she's strong enough to protect the coven and stop Michael. Attempting to ease Mallory's fears, Cordelia explains that there's a protection spell on the house and that no human nor demon will be able to penetrate it.
But think again! Dinah Stevens (Adina Porter) shows up on the doorstep and easily breaks the spell so that Michael and robo-Mead (Kathy Bates) can enter the house. It turns out she made a deal with the devil-she's going to become the next Oprah and get her own talk show. Michael and Mead interrupt a witchcraft lesson by Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) and Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) and slaughter everyone without much of a fight. Only a handful of the coven remain: Cordelia, Myrtle, Mallory, Madison (Emma Roberts), and Coco (Leslie Grossman). Misty Day (Lily Rabe) is also running around somewhere with Stevie Nicks.
Following the witch bloodbath, Michael offers his half-baked ideas to Mead on how he can bring about the apocalypse. One of those ideas is actually just the plot for Omen III: The Final Conflict, which involved Damien (the antichrist) running for president and then starting a war. We learn that Mutt and Jeff are offering advice to Michael by hacking into Mead's programming and speaking through her. According to them, The Cooperative (a.k.a. the Illuminati) is made up of the most powerful people from all parts of society who have all sold their souls to Satan and are at Michael's disposal.
Having suffered a great loss, the coven tries to regroup and come up with a new plan. Cordelia wonders why she's unable to rescue the souls of her fallen sisters, which prompts Madison to break the news that Michael has the ability to erase souls. It's now apparent that there's no way for the witches to win in their present state. The only solution is to use their most powerful asset, Mallory, to go back in time and prevent this outcome. In what might be one of the most random moments in AHS history, Cordelia has Mallory go on a trial run back to Siberia in 1918 to stop a fellow witch, Anastasia Romanov, from being assassinated with the rest of her family during the Bolshevik Revolution. The mission fails because Mallory isn't strong enough. As they consider other options, Cordelia toys with the idea of killing herself so that Mallory can ascend as Supreme and gain strength. She and Myrtle head to the warlock school to discuss the situation, but find everyone dead with the bodies arranged in the shape of a pentagram.
Just as the witches' numbers are being decimated, Team Satan is ballooning. Mutt and Jeff let Venable know that they've figured out a place for her in the post-apocalyptic world as the head of one of the outposts built by The Cooperative. Meanwhile, Michael and Mead head to a fancy retreat for the one-percenters, where they outline the plan to bring about the end of days.
As we head into the finale, there's a lot that needs to happen in just a short amount of time. Is it possible that Mallory's solution for turning back time and stopping Michael is to go back to the beginning of time and push the reset button on humanity? Perhaps she'll take Timothy (Kyle Allen) and Emily (Ash Santos) along to be the Adam and Eve of the new timeline. Doing so would erase everyone else we've met from existence and make Mallory God. This seems to be the best way to tie together all of theories that have been floating around online all season.
What we know
There isn't anyone currently powerful enough to defeat Michael.
Mutt and Jeff hacking Mead's coding exposed a weakness for Michael. Controlling Mead means controlling Michael.
What we need to find out
If Dinah is actually a powerful voodoo practitioner, does her son Andre also have powers?
Is Misty really just going to avoid the final battle?
Is Coco finally going to realize her true power? Why else would she still be alive?
What the internet thinks
Mallory might actually be the antichrist.
Timothy and Emily are Kit Walker's kids from the Asylum season.
Michael is just a puppet, and someone else is pulling all of the evil strings.
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