Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers for the ninth episode of AHS Apocalypse. Read at your own risk!
This week’s episode, we explore the final days before the apocalypse, starting with a gun held to the camera. Click. Thankfully, it’s blank. Turns out, Evan Peters’ new character, Jeff, is experiencing some harsh first world problems including no WiFi and waiting a whole 5 minutes for a coffee!
Nonetheless, despite his annoying, impatient character, we can always rely on Peters to give a successful performance regardless. The only drastically annoying part about his character is his hair cut… Speaking of good acting, Sarah Paulson continues with her dual acting by playing both Cordelia and Ms. Venamol, two contrasting characters: one being a loving and caring magical witch, the other being a dull, not-so-nice being with an unfortunate severe back condition.
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Onto the screenplay! I must say, this episode was so much better than last week, in terms of the screenplay. Last weeks seemed too direct and forceful, resulting in none of the emotions truly feeling realistic. It just sounded like they were reading off the script! However, this week, it was all miles better. With Cody Fern‘s role in particular, although still whiny (which is part of his role), he no longer seemed like Anakin from Star Wars!
This week’s plot, though still focusing on the preparation aspects, led us all to feel a bit tense with all the drastic events that occurred. Specifically, when our voodoo queen Dinah (Adina Porter), helped Michael to enter the witches’ academy, despite the protection spell the witches had placed on the academy. Unfortunately, his entrance resulted in almost all our favourite witches dead, including both Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) and Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe). I think out of the episode, this is one of the most creative scenes, from experiencing an over-lapse of shots to depict the events starting with the voodoo chant and ending in a pile of dead bodies, it succeeded in being effective both in the art and filming aspects. I must say, the AHS crew never fail to make an episode gory or disturbing to some extent.
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I quite like the way Murphy has structured this show, specifically this season, it tells a strong message that imperfection lies within the most power e.g. Cordelia, Michael, and arguably tech guy Jeff, who is controlling robot Miriam’s (Kathy Bates) every word, perhaps due to a lack of tech, or most likely so he can find out the Antichrist’s hidden plans.
Overall, “Reign and Fire” was a vast improvement from the last two episodes! They were far more entertaining to watch, and the cringiness from last week had definitely reduced if not disappeared. This weeks episode reached a just rating of 8.1/10 on IMDb, allowing the season, to fall back on its usual high ratings. Unfortunately, next week is the finale. From this week’s promo, we can undoubtedly expect to witness the apocalypse, a witch fight, a visitation back to the post-apocalyptic world and apparently, a reappearance of Murder House… Currently, there is no mention of who the director of this episode is to be, so I expect we are in for a surprise!
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Image via IMDb
