Episode eight of American Horror Story: Freak Show was appropriately titled “Blood Bath”, and a blood bath it was…especially considering Dandy Boy took a literal one. A whole lot of murder took place this episode, so let’s dive right in and talk about it:

Gloria Mott: The lovely Gloria Mott died at the hands of her son, Dandy. Tonight’s episode began with Gloria talking about Dandy’s childhood with Dr. Finebloom, a therapist. “Words had a different meaning for him. Particularly the word no”, she said. She tells the therapist about early murderous tendencies in her son, such as how he killed the family cat after she complained that it was digging up her flowers. Or how his playmate, the ground keepers son disappeared and was never to be seen again. Despite all of these crimes, the last thing Gloria wants is for her precious son to be institutionalized, so she sets him up with the therapist by saying he’s going to test his genius IQ. During Dandy’s session a Rorschach test is done on him and all Dandy can see in the ink blots are scenarios of death. At the end of the appointment Dandy tells Dr. Finebloom about a magazine article he read about Papa New Guinea and how once a person was murdered, the tribesman would eat the flesh to gain their power. Dandy then asked the doctor if covering oneself in the blood of a victim would be good enough. After his session, Dandy calls Gloria out on the therapist not testing his IQ. “Do you think I’m sick mother?” He asks. “Of course not! You’re spirited,” Gloria replies. Dandy then cuts a bargain with her, saying that he’ll see the therapist again if she kills Regina, who has shown up looking for her mother, Dora. (who Dandy killed in a previous episode.) Regina is on to both Gloria and Dandy, so he wants her taken care of ASAP. “She wants me in the electric chair…and if I go I’m bringing you to sit on my lap,” he threatens. It’s obviously been a very emotional time for Dandy Boy, and by the end of the episode we find him crumpled on his couch in his toy room. He blames Gloria for the way he is, especially because he was a child of incest. Dandy tells his mom that Dora told him about his past when he was just five years old. He was told that Gloria’s father lost his fortune from the stock market crash in 1929 and would have given anything to get her lavish lifestyle back. She claimed that she loved her husband…even though he was her second cousin. There was also an allude to child molestation from Dandy’s father, which I’m sure will be discussed in further detail in a later episode. Dandy stands himself up and holds a gun to his head. Gloria pleads “I can’t go on if you kill yourself”. “Okay,” Dandy shrugs. He then turns the gun and pulls the trigger on his mother, shooting her right in the head. The episode ends with Dandy stripping from his bathrobe and easing himself into a tub filled with his mother’s blood.

Ethel Darling: Shocking, I know. We reunite with our freak show troupe running through the woods in search of Ma Petite, who was killed by Dell in episode seven. Her body is found torn and bloody, so everyone assumes that she was eaten by coyotes. Her body is shown to Elsa who takes it extremely hard, she says that Ma Petite was her “most precious one.” We then find her mourning in her tent when Ethel comes in with her dinner. “God put his own light into that little angel. It was as if he knew the world could only handle a little bit of himself at once,” she cries. Ethel doesn’t buy this for a minute though, because she’s on to Elsa and her theatrics. She’s well aware that Elsa would love for Bette and Dotte to be long gone, thanks to over hearing her conversation with Stanley about a “mercy killing” of the twins. Now she’s convinced that Elsa wanted Ma Petite gone because she was stealing her spotlight. “You accuse me of what, Elsa spits, “killing innocence itself?” She then slaps Ethel right in the face. Elsa tells Ethel that she’s going to find the twins so that they can once again prove her innocence, but Ethel pretty much tells her that she’s not going anywhere, and shoots her in the leg. To Ethel’s surprise, Elsa doesn’t bleed, stumble, or fall because all she did was blow a hole in her prosthetic leg. “You think you know me?” Elsa asks. “You know nothing at all.” She then proceeds to tell Ethel the story of how her legs were sawed off and the prop master who built her wooden legs. Elsa thinks she’s in the clear with Ethel after she shares her back story, but she’s not quite there yet. “To me the only pure things in the world were Ma Petite and my love and devotion for you,” Ethel says. She shows Elsa the gun again and says that the final bullet is for her. Before Ethel can pull the trigger on herself, Elsa asks her if she would like one last drink of Schnapps for the road. She walks to the bar cart and pours the drinks, well aware that Ethel is holding the gun to her back. Before she can pull the trigger, Elsa spins around and throws a knife right into her best friends eye, killing her instantly. If we know one thing about Miss Elsa, it’s that she’s a crafty devil…because her and Stanley were able to convince everyone that Ethel’s death was a suicide, and here’s how: While Maggie was picking flowers for Ma Petite’s funeral, she witnesses a car driving into a tree, with Ethel behind the wheel. While inspecting the scene, the troupe finds a chain wrapped around the tree and a noose made of the chain wrapped around Ethel’s neck. This ends up decapitating her dead body. The car was able to drive itself into the tree thanks to an expertly placed rock on the gas pedal and her destroyed eye was covered up with stage makeup. Elsa does an excellent job of mourning her best friend in front of her troupe and no one would ever think that Ethel died at her hand.

The almost murder of Penny’s dad and probable murder of Regina: After Ethel’s funeral service, the troupe ladies decide that no man will ever push them around again to honor Ethel who didn’t take shit from anyone. With this new strong, independent, don’t need no man attitude the ladies plan the murder of Penny’s father, who turned her into The Amazing Lizard Girl. They sneak into his house and knock him unconscious, Amazon Eve then carries him back to Desiree’s tent. “What you did to your daughter was chicken shit,” Desiree hisses, “now you’re gonna look the part.” Eve begins to pour home made tar all over him and then Penny screams “wait, wait wait! Let me!” She then pours the rest of the tar and covers her father in feathers with the rest of the girls. Desiree was about to stab him, when Maggie comes rushing into the room after hearing him screaming. She basically tells the ladies that they’re in for a lifetime of regret if they proceed with the murder. Desiree then hands the knife to Penny, who approaches her father slowly. “You may have turned me into The Amazing Lizard Girl. And you live because of me. If you ever mess with me and mine again, I will kill you,” she says to daddy dearest. The ladies then let him go free. I’m sure it isn’t too hard to figure out that Regina will more than likely be killed at the hands of Dandy in next weeks episode, especially considering her getting shot was in the sneak peak of tonight’s show at the end of episode seven.

Amidst all of the death taken place in tonight’s episode, a new member is welcomed to the troupe thanks to Elsa’s recruiting: Barbara…AKA Imma Wiggles, the new fat lady of the freak show. We don’t know much about her yet, except for the fact that she has a very healthy appetite. I’m sure we’ll be learning more about her very soon!

A lot happened in tonight’s episode and in my opinion too much happened. Blood Bath was all over the place in the story line, so it just seemed like a hodge podge of murder instead of one cohesive piece. Two important characters got killed off tonight, so I’m very curious to see what will happen next week! What did you like about tonight’s episode? What did you hate? Any questions or concerns? Leave me a comment and let’s chat! Goodnight! -Sarah

Alright, tonight’s American Horror Story: Freak Show episode “Test of Strength” had some shocking turns of events, so let’s get to it. Here’s some of the highlights of tonight’s episode:

Bette and Dotte’s blackmail: The episode started off where last weeks episode left off, with Jimmy Darling at the Motte residence to collect the twins. After some convincing he gets the girls to come back to the freak show. (In this interaction with Dandy, Jimmy begins to suspect him of being the accomplice to Twisty.) All of this has led Jimmy to believe that Elsa sold the twins off for stealing her freak show spotlight which causes him to mouth off to her during his rehearsal of singing Nirvana’s “Come As You Are”. Jimmy then summons the girls forward to give their side of the story of living in the Motte household. Bette begins to speak, but Dotte stops her telepathically and tells the troupe that her and her sister wanted to experience the finer things in life and that Elsa helped make that happen by sending them to live with Dandy. She said that Elsa told her and Bette that they always had a home at the freak show and that they wanted to come home. Of course all of these theatrics came with a price. Bette’s desires in the bribe included getting her hair dyed blonde, having caviar for breakfast, and becoming a comedian. Both girls also agreed on receiving a twenty percent profit from the tickets sold at the box office. Although Dotte told Elsa that she thought it should be fifty. While Miss Bette is getting dolled up for her blonde haired make over, Elsa slips her sister a note. In this letter Elsa explains to Dotte that she could have whatever she wanted for her part in the bribe. Dotte writes back to tell Elsa that she wants to have the separation surgery done by a doctor in Chicago. Despite Elsa granting seemingly everything to the twins, she still has quite a few tricks up her sleeve. We learned while Miss Elsa was dining with Stanley that she would not be opposed to a mercy killing of the girls. Both sleaze bags would reap the benefits of a huge payday for Stanley and to never have to worry about the twins again for Elsa. #SMH Their plan isn’t entirely a secret though, considering Ethel over heard the whole conversation while she approached Elsa’s dining area to serve dessert. We’ll have to wait and see what she does with this information!

Stanley blackmailing Del: Our freak show cast was getting super sketchy tonight because a whole lot of blackmailing was happening! Stanley just so happens to see Del at the gay bar searching for his freshly murdered lover, Andy. As soon as Sleazy Stanley sees Del at the camp grounds, the bribing begins. He threatens to reveal Del’s sexuality to the troupe if he doesn’t murder one of the freak show members. Stanley gives him one day to complete this daunting task. Del’s first murder attempt is committed on Amazon Eve. He sneaks into her trailer in the middle of the night and tries to hold a handkerchief soaked in poison over her face. The Amazon queen is a fighter though and she ends up beating the living fuck out of Del. #YOUGOGIRL!!!! This attempt ended up being an epic failure – not only is Del’s secret possibly going to be revealed, but now the entire troupe hates him even more. Sweet Jimmy tells the ladies of the camp that he’s going to have a man to man talk with Del and they end up at a bar to have a drink. One shot turns into another shot which turns into telling the bar tender to leave the bottle. This leads to a lot of drunken sentimental blabbering and Jimmy getting sick. He runs out of the bar into the alley way to hurl which is when Del takes another stab at murdering a freak. And in case you’ve forgotten, this freak is Del’s SON. Mr. Toledo has a brick in his hand when Jimmy turns around and says something unexpected which majorly throws Del off. Jimmy tells him that he’s always known that he was his father. “I always knew from the way mom hated you.” Jimmy then pleads to his father to admit his paternity. It was insanely heartbreaking but finally Del admits that Jimmy is his son. After this touching moment is shared, Del grows a heart for a bit and has some quality father/son drunky pants time. They approach the camp grounds singing old circus songs and Del tucks his inebriated son into bed. “I’m gonna say something I’ve never said in my whole life,” Jimmy says. “Goodnight, Dad…..can you say goodnight when it’s still morning?” So. Precious.

Penny (orgy girl) and her new makeover: This shit honestly broke my heart. Saying that Miss Penny’s dad is over bearing and over protective is an understatement. He’s basically a Nazi. The sweet girl has been tending to an injured Paul at the freak show and we find her sneaking into her own home to pack up her belongings to live with Paul for good. After a harsh exchanging of words her father introduces an extremely decorated tattoo artist to do a little work on his daughter. While Penny was drugged and unconscious the tattoo artist decorated her face and neck with tattoos that looked like snake scales. Once she woke up her dad forced a mirror into her face to see her new look. “Stick out your tongue,” her dad laughs, “I’ve had it forked!” This man essentially turned his own daughter into a snake. Bastard. The traumatized young lady then goes back to the freak show to be comforted by Paul who only ends up blaming himself for this gruesome assault.

The murder of Ma Petite: Yep. Del needed a victim to prevent Stanley’s blackmail, and it ended up being our sweet tiny princess. Towards the end of the episode we find Del in Ma Petite’s tent with a present. A brand new dress. “Pretty! I can’t wait to try it on!” The sweetheart exclaims. She gets her little self out of bed to put on her lovely new gown. “Zip me!” She says to Del. He tells Ma Petite that she looks “gorgeous. Like a little princess.” She did. She lifts up her arms the way a child does so that she can hug Del. He lifts her up to embrace her and ends up breaking her neck. He whispers “it’s going to be alright” into her ears as he kills her, and when she finally died he said “I’m sorry.” The episode ends with the unveiling of the Ma Petite exhibit at the freak show museum in town. The little princess is wearing her brand new dress in her glass jar.

So there you have it, tonight’s episode in a nut shell! A lot of really sad stuff happened tonight. Ma Petite’s death bummed me out immensely, because I adored her. She was just so precious and it made me very sad to see her body floating around in a jar at the end of the episode. Another thing that really upset me was the facial tattooing of Penny. The fact that her dad seemed to experience pleasure at the sight of his daughter in pain really disturbed me. That’s all I wish to say on that matter. We also learned one final important thing tonight: The Toledo Code: The first minute you let a women tell you what to do is the minute you hand your balls over to her. Words of wisdom right there, folks. -______-

What did you guys like about this episode? What did you hate? Make sure you check back in with me after the two week break on December 3rd for my next episode review! Have any questions on the show or this episode in general? Leave me a comment and let’s chat! Goodnight. -Sarah