“Everything is somebody else’s fault from now on. Do you understand? You wanna be somebody? You wanna matter? Then you make the world wrong.”
The opening sequence reminded me a lot of ‘Murder House’, where we’d often meet new characters at the beginning of an episode who would tie into the larger arc of the story. Not only is the opening downright creepy, but it also moves the plot along significantly as one existing character is essentially confirmed as having a major part of Ally’s ongoing terrorization. And the revelations don’t stop there.
“Latin lovers need not apply.”
The episode title says it all: Ally and Ivy’s new neighbors, Harrison and Meadow, are going to make their lives a living hell. Since Ally accidentally murdered her former employee, Pedro, at the end of the last episode, she has faced accusations of racism and white privilege. Legally, she’s essentially let off the hook thanks to the Stand Your Ground law, but the town isn't so willing to let it go. At one point she’s referred to as ‘a lesbian George Zimmerman.’ Not everyone is upset with Ally, though. Kai pops up (more than once) and lets her know that he approves of what she did.
The series’ ability to satirize both far right and far left ideologies is a major strength this season. I assumed going in that creator Ryan Murphy would focus his gaze solely on the far right; here, he and his writers allow themselves to really take a deep look into both sides of the political spectrum. It’s brought up again that Ally, a character so deeply traumatized by Trump’s election, voted for Jill Stein.
“You’ve been marked by the killer.”
I said it last week and I’ll say it again – the best part of this season so far has been the slow burn of the storytelling. Rather than meandering off with a dozen characters, ‘Cult’ maintains its razor-sharp focus on Ally and the world around her. This week, we get glimpses of the larger conspiracy afoot (things get really eerie), but it always swings back to how Ally and her family are affected.
Colton Haynes’ character, Detective Samuels, gets a much deeper focus in episode 3, and we start to see just how connected he is to what exactly is going on around Ally's neighborhood. We also get more of Cheyenne Jackson as Ally’s therapist, Dr. Rudy Vincent. He plays quite a major part in the fantastic opening moments.
Scary Good: Stuff You’ll Love
- After making a voice appearance last week, Adina Porter finally pops up onscreen as reporter Beverly Hope, “Coming to you from a neighborhood gripped in fear.”
- If you don’t like coffins or enclosed spaces, you’ll hate the opening sequence.
- Harrison and Meadow truly up the ante this week, and it’s great to watch Billy Eichner and Leslie Grossman play some comedy before things get much darker later in the episode.
- Evan Peters continues to give an electrifying performance as we start to get a real look at Kai as a leader.
- Oz gets a pet. You can probably imagine how well that goes.
Bottom Line: There are a few moments this week that are too fun to spoil. Episode 3 continues a promising trend of moving the story along briskly without losing focus on the characters or narrative. This week, we get deeper than ever into the motives of our core cast, and there are some major clues as to what’s going on around Ally. By the last 10 minutes or so, there’s so much going on that I can’t even imagine where we’ll pick up next week.
American Horror Story airs tonight at 10 on FX and Friday at 10 on FOX UK. For more on ‘Cult’ and all my other SpoilerTV work, feel free to follow me on Twitter.
