AMERICAN HORROR STORY: Why is Oz the Last Thought On Their Minds?
Episode 72 “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”
Written by: Tim Minear
Directed by: Liza Johnson
I was ripping my hair out with this episode, as a mother of two children, it was excruciating how very last thought Ally (Sarah Paulson) and Ivy (Alison Pill) are when it comes to their son. Throughout I was wondering if Ryan Murphy would kill off Ozzy (Cooper Dodson) so quickly, I mean the mom’s lack of parental thinking gave Ozzy plenty of time to be murdered by a vicious clown posse. Yet, somehow, by sheer luck, or carnival empathy, the boy remains amongst the living.
Ally starts where we left her, screaming for Ivy. God, Sarah has some pipes on her. They have their miniature debate “…let’s call the cops…Ozzy is upstairs…” I’m sorry. WHAT?! You just saw a clown in your bed and you race downstairs first to get your wife but you don’t grab the kid on the way there? Or even check if he’s alive!? What the hell is wrong with you?!
Of course Ivy does a sweep of the house and finds nothing, so instead of being supportive to her mentally deteriorating wife, she gives a “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” then attempts some love making which gets interrupted by Ozzy’s night terror. Which of course is about clowns. Shudder
A week has gone by since Kai (Evan Peters) was “attacked” and has now taken that opportunity to run for the oh so conveniently open city council seat. Sorry, there, circus Jack Skellington, but no one is going to take you seriously with your cotton candy man bun, no matter how nice the suit. Things are beginning to come together already, and at a faster pace than most American Horror Story plots, which leaves me to wonder what sort of plot twists are we about to experience? What extra stories are about to be added to confuddle and confound us?
As if Kai running for City Council wasn’t alarming enough, two new neighbors are moving in to the recently murdered Changs’ house. A vampiric desperate housewife, Meadow Wilton (Leslie Grossman) and a flaming hive minded beekeeper, Harrison Wilton (Billy Eichner). Ally peeps at them as they are in the process of moving in, but all she can see from her window are several blue barrels being carted into the garage and a man in a hazmat suit. Since she can’t get a good read on them, naturally the neighborly thing to do is go over and spy in their window! Seriously, why is this woman being left alone?
In the restaurant, Sous Chef Roger (Zach Ward) and line cook Pedro (Jorge-Luis Pallo) get into a heated argument over what language to speak in the kitchen when Ivy is away. Ally breaks it up just as Pedro picks up a knife. Meanwhile Winter (Billie Lourd) attempts to convince Ozzy that she is still super cool. How is she still hired? You’d think that Ally and Ivy would have caught onto how unprofessional she is and given her the boot. Speaking of unprofessional, she gives Ozzy a freaking Twisty the clown statue! Like the kid doesn’t already have enough terror in his life, but then she does the unexpected, she makes a pinky bond with him. “Flesh to flesh, no lying” She takes his fear from him, stating that because they are connected she will know that he is lying. It seems to work for him though.
Meadow, being the cool edgy babysitter that she is, takes it upon herself to take Ozzy to meet the new neighbors, and leaves him there alone to get a jacket for him. Ally and Ivy race over there to rescue him. Seriously? This is when you think of your son first? Anyways, Harrison and Meadow both appear somewhat normal at first and then they start spilling the honest beans on who they are and how they came to get the house. Not weird at all that the Changs died nearly a week ago and already someone is occupying the house. Meadow can’t handle the sun due to recurring skin cancer, so she takes up her time with watching Desperate Housewives, drinking Lemonade (thanks Beyoncé), and selling stuff on Etsy, you know the normal white suburban middle class stay at home wife horse puck. Harrison, on the other hand, is very gay and enjoys spending time with his bees, because there isn’t a ‘me’ mentality. The fact that they aren’t at all upset by the recent events that took place or even the blood stains still on the floor and door, makes you wonder what is their real motive? They have to be working with Kai, it all just adds up somehow.
Later that night, Ivy and Ally are once more in the beginnings of some lesbian love, until they are interrupted by Ozzy, who is too scared to sleep in his bed. Ivy gets an alert on her phone that the restaurant alarm has been tripped and gets ready to leave but Ozzy makes it very clear that he only wants her and not Ally, so Ally volunteers for the job. At the restaurant she turns off the alarm, and instead of just going home, she decides to casually wander around into the butcher room where large carcasses of animals hang from the ceiling. Why Ally? Why? Just go home! No good ever came from staying to see what all was going on. Of course, Roger the Sous Chef is hanging from the meat hooks, and is still alive, but only for a moment.
Obviously it was the clown posse, or Kai, or Harrison, or all of the above that orchestrated this. And of course it was done to cause Ally even more of a mental breakdown, so my question is this: how did they know Ally would volunteer to go turn off the alarm? Furthermore how did they know that Pedro and Roger were in a fight earlier that day therefore setting up the perfect motive for Roger to be murdered? There has to be an inside man or woman, and I’m beginning to think the internet is onto something about Ivy being involved.
A week after the dead Roger incident, Ally has secluded herself and boarded up the house. Putting bars on all the windows and doors, making sure every entryway is locked tight, ensuring the security system works and oh, getting a GUN from the neighbors! Yea that’s real smart, give the highly sensitive agoraphobic, a gun. Great idea! So the next time she mistakes a stranger for a clown she shoots and kills them, thus leading her to be locked up in a psych hospital. OOOOOOOOOO maybe this will be a tie in to American Horror Story Asylum! Of course Ally is so paranoid she doesn’t even trust Ivy with the information about the gun, thus foreshadowing to an even rockier relationship in the near future.
Like clockwork, Kai shows up at Ally’s door while Ivy is at work. He attempts to campaign to her, but she shuts him down by disagreeing with everything he has to say. Especially since he gets all his information from Facebook. Kai doesn’t take too well to being ignored and sent away. He attempts to give all the usual bait lines to allow a stranger into your home; Ally just asks him to leave. He gets volatile and shakes the barred door, until Ally shuts the main door in his face.
Winter puts Ozzy to bed, and he confides in her that he doesn’t know if he’s awake or asleep when he sees the clowns. Winter, very astutely, tells him just to ask. Then heads off to give Ally some much needed reprieve by which I mean, she attempts to climb into a bubble bath with her. What the hell? Is this part of a plan? To further alienate Ally from her family? Or is Winter really into the whole babysitter affair genre? Thankfully it is stopped before it can go anywhere when all power is lost. A clown appears in Ozzy’s room and tells the boy he is still asleep, even though it’s obvious he was awake. Why spare the kid again?
Instead of checking on Ozzy when the power goes out, Ally rushes to find candles, until Harrison appears out of the darkness warning them that is a massive power outage all over and to board up and prepare themselves for mass terror, and looters. Great! Give the psycho even more to freak out about. Winter abandons ship, with a perfect clap back, “It’s not always about you.” Ally attempts to call Ivy to have her come home, but the call dies, and Pedro is sent with a box of supplies. Why, though? Ally has enough supplies already, so what’s the point of sending anyone with anything?
This is when the clowns show up and begin terrorizing Ally. She screams and runs, all the while the clowns aren’t hurting her, just scaring her. She grabs Ozzy. About freaking time! She grabs her gun and heads to the door to make a run for it. I don’t know why she thinks people are already going to be freaking out over the power outage, it usually takes a few hours before people realize what’s happening. Just as she opens the door, a figure appears in her sight, and without a second’s hesitation she shoots and kills Pedro.
American Horror Story airs Tuesday nights 10/9c on FX
