Mediocrity just won’t do on this week’s episode of American Horror Story: Double Feature “part one: Red Tide.”
Last week on American Horror Story: Double Feature, everyone found out about each others’ pill-taking, including Alma (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), Harry (Finn Wittrock), Belle (Frances Conroy), Austin (Evan Peters) and the rest of the group.
This week, we get the backstory on how The Chemist (Angelica Ross) moved to Providence and how the rest of the people in the town began taking the pills.
The Chemist meets Mickey (Macaulay Caulkin) at The Muse bar and takes him back to her place, offering him a spot in her special study of people taking the pill. Though Mickey is tempted, he refuses and instead brings her people to take the pill and be a part of the study.
First is a singer from Providence who takes the pill and has the undesired negative effect of realizing he wasn’t talented enough to take it. He begins his descent into being one of the town demons — the first, in fact.
All the while in the episode, the singer is killing people and drinking their blood, and he even confronts the Chemist about what she did to him — to which she responds by telling him to get out of her house and deal with the consequences of his mediocrity.
Next is Belle, whose husband is heavily emotionally abusing her and disrespecting her for chasing her dreams of being a writer. It’s so emotionally disturbing to watch his treatment of her, but ultimately, she gets her revenge.
She meets Mickey, who hangs out with her for the night and takes her to get pills from the Chemist. Afterward, she goes home and writes a book and, upon her husband’s return, kills him and drinks his blood.
Then Belle meets Lark (Billie Lourde), who helps her find a new wardrobe to match her newfound fame and confidence as well as new teeth to match her new appetite.
After going to the store, Belle goes to The Muse and meets Austin, who is there doing a drag show. This might be one of the best moments in the season yet, with Austin’s drag performance and his drag makeup, hair and outfit. The whole scene is so fantastic, and it changes the course of his life forever, as Belle introduces him to the Muse pill.
“I just feel like an engine that won’t turn over. I turn the key, and I click click click, and I can’t catch,” Austin said, stopped by Belle presenting him the pill. “What’s that?”
“It’s your new starter switch,” Belle said. “It’s the highway to your true self.”
Austin takes the pill and immediately knows he’s different. Of course, his first feed is exacting revenge on his fellow drag performers who made jokes about him. The episode ends with one of the performers escaping but quickly being eaten by the town’s singer-turned-demon.
This episode is really helpful to the audience for learning more about some of the best characters and how they got to be where they are. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the mediocre people end up where they are, and I look forward to seeing more of the iconic duo that is Belle and Austin.
American Horror Story: Double Feature airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.
