TV Recap – American Horror Story: Freakshow ‘Edward Mordrake Part 2’
4 min read
Our favourite scary show didn’t waste any time this week, jumping straight into where things left off in Edward Mordrake Part 1. Many viewers sat glued to their seats, wondering who Mordrake and his demonic second head would claim as his victim. His questioning of the freaks’ sins also gave us a great chance to hear the backstory behind a few of the characters we’ve been curious about. The most interesting story, of course, came from show ringmaster Elsa.
Mordrake asks her about the darkness and Lange’s character details a time when she was a prostitute of sorts who excelled in the tortue of men for the pleasure of other viewers. But Eddy doesn’t want to hear about this; he (and the rest of us!) wants to know what happened to her legs. It turns out that Elsa did become a star in her own way. But instead of making an adult movie like she thought she was going to, Elsa was drugged, tied down, and had her legs chopped off. Edward decides that she’s the one to join his spiritual troupe; but then he hears music, symbolising that someone else is performing on Halloween, and he poofs off into his random green smoke.
Jimmy and Maggie were casually on their way home before curfew when they witnessed Twisty yet again capturing his runaway abducted child (I can’t be the only surprised that he hadn’t killed her yet). But FINALLY someone has seen Twisty and realised he’s bonkers, so Jimmy sets off to save the girl with Maggie in tow, only to get caught by Dandy. Dandy decides for his Halloween show that he’s going to try the classic ‘cut a girl in half’ trick…. only that he plans to literally cut Maggie in half. Jimmy manages to distract the clowns so that the kids can escape, only to almost be murdered by Twisty himself.
Edward Mordrake’s appearance at the scene can’t have been a surprise to anyone. What was surprising was that Twisty took off his mask and we were staring at a mouthless clown/being/alien for around 20 minutes. Twisty’s backstory was the kind of depressing that you had to have seen coming. He was a clown who loved his job, before being accused of taking advantage of the children by jealous dwarves and being run out of his show. Twisty was repeatedly rejected by regular people and freaks alike, and his beloved children had become scared of him. It turns out that he even tried to fit in at Elsa’s freakshow, only to be rejected there as well. After a botched suicide attempt (which left his mouth as a hole), he came up with another, really sane idea. Twisty abducted the children because he believed that their parents were mean and demonic; he gave them candy and made them laugh (his words, not mine) with his clown tricks. Twisty truly believed he was saving the kids. Mordrake is intrigued by this being who, even at the end, can’t admit to himself that his plans were wrong and monsterous. And with that, Twisty the clown, the clown everyone loved to hate/have nightmares about, became Edward Mordrake’s latest victim.
Jimmy ends up with the credit for catching Twisty and saving the children. This results in an overwhelming gratitude from the towns people, who bring the freakshow cast delicious baked goods. They also suddenly decide it would be a good time to see the freakshow, and that nights performance is a sell out. Seems like everything might be okay for these characters.
But this is American Horror Story people, and you’ve forgotten about one important (pretty craycray) character. The look on Dandy’s face when he stumbled across Twisty’s fallen body was almost touching. However, as soon as he reached down for Twisty’s old jaw mask, I was all ‘oh helllll no’. Cause we could all see what was about to come. Dandy returns home wearing the mask, and Dora gives the spoilt brat the sass that he deserves. But the mask gives Dandy extra confidence, so he kills her. Finn Wittrock’s laugh as he stared at Dora’s motionless body was chilling, confirming my feelings that Dandy has been creepier than Twisty all along.
This felt like a mini conclusion of sorts, with many new storylines to start next week – Maggie’s con artist partner showed up and that cannot be good for the twins. It’ll be interesting to see where the show heads in next weeks episode ‘Pink Cupcakes’.
Other points of interest:
- Lily Rabe is reprising her role as Sister Mary Eunice from season two, Asylum, late in Freakshow. Alongside Pepper, this is the first time any characters have been in two seasons.
- Producer Ryan Murphy has admitted that all the seasons of AHS are connected in some way, and some fan theories are 100% correct! If you have a theory, we’d love you to post it in the comments!
- Don’t pine for Twisty, he and Lord Volder- ahem – Edward Mordrake are set to make another appearance this season
- The top hat on Maggie’s coffee cup this episode is a clue for the theme of season five… hmmm….
