Alice Rush reviews the sixth episode of American Horror Story: Coven…
After my comment last week about the excess of characters slowing down the narrative of the show, guess what? This week in Coven we are introduced to a brand new character as well as some old ones making a reappearance. Hurrah! Joking aside, it is hard sometimes to keep optimistic about a show that constantly seems to prise quantity over quality, throwing up new characters and situations without following on or resolving the ones we already have. Whilst there were some brilliant scenes in ‘The Axeman Cometh’ and I found it to be an enjoyable episode, I still felt that sense of frustration when the credits rolled.
Opening on a flashback, we are thrust back to New Orleans in 1919 where an axe wielding, saxophone playing jazz lover is terrorising the town. The witches of the time take it upon themselves to deal with him, luring him to the academy and stabbing him to death. Whilst it was satisfying to see the young witches banding together it was frustrating to see a lack of powers being used. We were promised powerful witches this season and yet we are still waiting for some truly awesome powers, instead we’re shown timid tarot cards and a preference for kitchenware. Indeed, the only powers we seem to be barraged with at the moment is the power to bring numerous characters back to life, something that yet again dominates the episode this week.
In present day Zoe finds a secret room filled with pictures of the Academy and its inhabitants throughout the years, and she takes it upon herself to band the remaining young witches together and find out what happened to Madison. They try using a Ouija board to contact her spirit, but instead come into contact with The Axeman, who promises to show Zoe where to find Madison but only if she promises to release him. The scenes where they contact the spirits and then consequently when Zoe climbs into the attic to find Madison’s body are reminiscent of the tension within season one, however these moments are short lived, instead replaced with ultimately silly scenes between the witches and Spaulding where they torture him for information using a heated up, er, burger flipper.
Whilst it’s great to see the young Coven working together instead of relying on the older witches for help, these scenes lack any real threat or danger, instead feeling messy and boring. We’ve seen Nan read minds, we’ve seen Queenie use her power to torture people, is this really the extent to their potential? Zoe herself just stands there trying to look threatening. What happened to the Zoe last week who killed a zombie with a single stare? There just doesn’t seem to be any real development happening with these witches. Anyway, they bring Madison back to life with the help of Misty, who herself is also nursing a burnt and broken Myrtle back to health, and keep her a secret from Fiona and Delia, who are preoccupied this week with their own troubles.
Returning from the hospital Delia surprises this week as she stops being the quiet and patient one, and instead confronts Hank about his misdemeanours with her new gift of “the sight”. Speaking of Hank, we finally find out this week why he murdered the young girl a few episodes ago. It seems he’s in cahoots with Marie Laveau and has been enlisted to kill the Salem witches, and she’s not happy with his progress so far, demanding the heads of all the witches currently residing in the academy. This may happen sooner than she hopes, as The Axeman makes a reappearance towards the end of the episode, haunting poor Delia and demanding to be released as Zoe did not keep her promise. Whether or not he is a fully physical being when he attacks her or if he’s a spirit taunting her is ambiguous, however the ruckus is enough for Zoe, Nan and Queenie to quickly perform a spell that releases him into the world and straight onto a bar stool next to Fiona.
Overall though the season seems to be moving vaguely in the right direction, there still lacks the true sense of suspense and horror that characterised the first two seasons. Hopefully with the introduction of a truly awful character like The Axeman and the prospect of secrets being brought out into the open the rest of the season will have the witching power and bite that many have been expecting.
Alice Rush
Originally published November 14, 2013. Updated April 13, 2018.
