{"id":1949,"date":"2014-10-10T14:32:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T18:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2014-10-21T18:39:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T22:39:35","slug":"american-horror-story-freak-show-premiere-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/2014\/10\/10\/american-horror-story-freak-show-premiere-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ Premiere"},"content":{"rendered":"

If American Horror Story<\/em> has taught us anything, it’s that the world can be cruel and unusual and there’s nothing we can do about it. The season premiere of American Horror Story: Freak Show<\/em> sets the stage for a harsh, but familiar, reality where life is harder the more you\u00a0differ from the norm.<\/p>\n

The world we enter in Freak Show’s<\/em>\u00a0season premiere is the show’s most promiscuous yet. American Horror Story<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>continues to blur the lines with a complexion of fright and excitement that keeps luring us in.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Diary, It was a Saturday, the third of September, that the world I had known was forever doomed,\u201d one of Sarah Paulson\u2019s heads narrates to the tune of eerie circus music. She\u2019s walking towards the Freak Show tent, standing tall with her eyes pierced straight ahead. This is Dot, the more cynical but realistic, of the conjoined twins.<\/p>\n

Dot and her sister, Bette, had lived a sheltered life up until the milkman found their mother\u2019s dead body lying on the dining room floor. As any neighborly milkman would do, rather than call the police after his discovery, he grabs a rolling pin and starts snooping around the house. He finds himself drawn to the closet at the end of the upstairs hallway. Naturally, he opens the suspicious door and\u00a0screams at the horrid sight of the stabbed – but\u00a0more surprisingly – conjoined twins.<\/p>\n

One bladder, three kidneys, four lungs, two hearts and one reproductive system. Doctors\u00a0had never seen anything like them before. Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) makes her debut, strutting down the hospital wing in her heels and fur coat. The\u00a0freak show is going broke, but an attraction like the Siamese sisters could save the entire show.<\/p>\n

She lights a cigarette before she asks\u00a0one of the nurses for help navigating the hospital halls. The nurse explains that smoking isn\u2019t allowed, but it’s clear Elsa doesn’t\u00a0play by the rules. She\u00a0suspects the little \u201cpeppermint angel\u201d doesn\u2019t either and seduces the nurse\u00a0into taking a drag of the cigarette.<\/p>\n

Next thing we know, Elsa is wearing\u00a0the young nurse’s uniform, pushing a hospital cart in the direction of Bette and Dot\u2019s room. Her curiosity is obvious as she approaches their bed and pulls the curtains aside to reveal\u00a0the two-headed woman.<\/p>\n

Elsa begins the recruiting process, catering to the twins’ every need. Bette is unsure of Elsa\u2019s motives, but is naive and easily swayed. Dot, on the other hand, is convinced Elsa wants something from them and demands she leaves. The twins\u2019 opposing personalities become more evident as they communicate\u00a0with one another in their heads.<\/p>\n

Cut to the outskirts of Jupiter, where a couple is laying on a picnic blanket, making out and minding their own business. The boyfriend runs to his\u00a0car for a moment, leaving his girlfriend alone. Enter, Twisty the murderous clown.<\/p>\n

Twisty’s ability to\u00a0appear out of thin air may be creepier\u00a0than his grotesque face and ear-to-ear\u00a0smile. He\u00a0doesn\u2019t speak. Instead, he does a trick, offering the poor girl\u00a0a bouquet of flowers as she stands there thinking\u00a0her boyfriend planned the whole ordeal. But when he comes back from the car, he’s just as surprised as she is.\u00a0The creepy jester\u00a0knocks the couple\u00a0unconscious\u00a0with one of his bowling pins. When the girlfriend awakes, Twisty\u00a0is stabbing the boy in the chest with scissors. She makes a dash for the woods and Twisty follows. (We’ll see more of her later)<\/p>\n

We return to Elsa sitting in a diner. She\u2019s flipping through a newspaper, cutting out entertainment headlines for her scrapbook. Aside from her\u00a0done-up style, this collection of Elsa\u2019s is our first glimpse of her clear obsession with stardom.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s distracted when\u00a0she spots a member of her show sitting across the diner, flirting with the waitress. This is Jimmy Darling (Even Peters), the\u00a0boy with lobster-like hands. She scolds him for risking exposure and potentially ruining the show\u2019s stay in town, but Jimmy sees through her smoke. The way he sees it, the show is over.<\/p>\n

We cut to a pack of housewives in a jazzy home, gossiping about the last time their husbands had pleasured them.\u00a0A woman returns to the room, adjusting her cardigan as\u00a0she walked with a giddy smile.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s the next woman\u2019s turn. She walks down the hall and into a bedroom, where Jimmy is lying on the bed. He summons her closer. She lies down and lifts up her dress, welcoming his lobster hand. The act appears mutually satisfying. Not to mention, these horny housewives pay Jimmy\u00a0for his nontraditional services.<\/p>\n

Back in the hospital, Elsa asks the twins to recall the terrible tragedy. Dot says it was a robbery gone bad. It was a moonless night, she recalls, and footsteps woke her up. There was a man, Bette says, in a black fedora. He\u00a0strangled their mother with her own necklace, she\u00a0continues, but Elsa knows this is a lie.<\/p>\n

The truth? Bette fantasized about a normal life, while Dot accepted life as they knew it and their mother insisted no one know\u00a0they exist. But on the night of their mother\u2019s murder, Bette insisted\u00a0on going to a show, convinced they could sit in the back and not be seen. The mother tries slapping\u00a0some sense into her, but this only makes Bette feel more imprisoned. In a fit of aggression, she stabs and kills her mother.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Twisty is keeping the people of Jupiter in a constant fright. The radio announces that four recent murders used\u00a0the same weapon, pointing to one maniac killer, whose lair we’re about to enter. Lost in the woods, in an abandoned yellow school bus covered in vines, sits Bonnie (the girlfriend from the field) and Corey (the son of a murdered Bridgewater couple) in side-by-side cages. She tells him not to worry and that his parents will find him.<\/p>\n

Twisty retreats to the bus and winds up a toy. He places it near the cages as if trying to entertain his imprisoned guests. Bonnie tries to soften the clown, telling him he’s delicate, but he\u00a0laughs and begins\u00a0a trick. To no applause, he attempts to make a balloon animal, but it pops and his audience squirms. This upsets him and he bangs on the cages, further\u00a0terrifying his audience. At this point, we have no idea who this clown is or why he’s running around town killing and kidnapping. But the\u00a0permanent creepy smile across his face makes him look remorseless.<\/p>\n

The twins ditch the hospital, but stop home to pack some\u00a0belongings. Elsa appears in the doorway, asking them where they\u2019re off to. She whips out the latest newspaper headline, which has\u00a0Bette and Dot at the helm of this\u00a0murderous tear. Despite Dot\u2019s strong-willed nature, the twins decide to join Elsa’s family of freaks. The show needs a headliner and the twins need a safe haven.<\/p>\n

Bette\u2019s version of walking towards the freak show tent is much more optimistic than her sister\u2019s. \u201cIt was the glorious third of September when I was final freed from the shadows. The future had never seemed brighter,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Dot, on the other hand, describes her surroundings as a cesspool, singling out Meep who bites off the heads of things for fun. The only glimmer of hope in Dot\u2019s eyes is Jimmy, whose kindness ignites an instant spark in her. Little does she know, Jimmy wants out of the freak show too. He even tries convincing his mother, Ethel the bearded woman (Kathy Bates), to leave. Ethel is more interested in having Jimmy ensure\u00a0the twins love their new home, so they’ll stay and attract paying customers.<\/p>\n

As predicted, the huge new banners of the Siamese sisters attract a snooping police officer, who places Bette and Dot under arrest for the murder of their mother. But Jimmy isn\u2019t having it and won\u2019t let him leave with the twins in tow. The officer threatens the freaks, telling them\u00a0there’s no place for them\u00a0in Jupiter. Jimmy’s temper flares and using\u00a0a small knife from\u00a0his back pocket, he slits the officer’s throat.<\/p>\n

The Freak Show is about to start.\u00a0There\u2019s only two people in the audience, a wealthy\u00a0man-child\u00a0and his mother (Frances Conroy). He\u2019s spoiled and complaining. He wants to see freaks and he wants to see them now. Ethel presents the freaks, saving the spectacular Siamese sisters for second to last. Then, Elsa rolls in.<\/p>\n

She glides across the stage on\u00a0a\u00a0cutout rocket ship, offering\u00a0a karaoke-caliber performance while\u00a0her freaks twirl around in the background. At\u00a0the show’s end, the boy and his mother are so impressed with Bette and Dot that they want to buy them. Elsa options this to the twins, but they choose\u00a0to stay with their newfound family.<\/p>\n

After the show, Jimmy speaks to the crew.\u00a0He\u2019s fed up with being mistreated and pushes\u00a0the freaks to take action.\u00a0He tells the group that if they want to find a safe place they’ll have\u00a0to have to take it for themselves. Those who cross them, he says, will end up like the dead officer lying\u00a0in front of them. They come together and take stabs at the lifeless\u00a0body. Twisty is watching from a distance.<\/p>\n

As the premiere comes to an end, Elsa sits alone in her tent, finally able to unwind. She lifts her silky blue dress to reveal fastens near her knees. She unbuckles the snaps and places her\u00a0prosthetic legs at\u00a0her side. Wait…what?<\/p>\n

ON THE NEXT\u00a0AMERICAN HORROR STORY<\/em>: Dell the Strong Man Toledo and his wife, Desiree Dupree,\u00a0cause a stir\u00a0at the freak show. Dot\u2019s ability to sing shocks the freaks, including Elsa, who doesn’t seem too thrilled with the new star potential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If American Horror Story has taught us anything, it’s that the world can be cruel and unusual and there’s nothing we can do about it. The season premiere of American Horror Story: Freak Show sets the stage for a harsh, but familiar, reality where life is harder the more you\u00a0differ from the norm. The world<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":1951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[227,1039,1022,1038,1023],"class_list":{"0":"post-1949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-television","8":"tag-american-horror-story","9":"tag-circus","10":"tag-freak-show","11":"tag-freaks","12":"tag-television-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}