The penultimate episode of AHS: Freak Show aired tonight on FX. A shakeup in ownership isn’t the only shocking twist for the finale!
Raise your glass and toast the beginning of the end. AHS: Freak Show episode 12’s cold open gathers the camp under the big tent to bid farewell to old friends and welcome in a new age of leadership. Chester embraces the welcoming spirit, but for old time’s sake Elsa asks for one final meeting of the original family. Chester exits and Elsa raises a second glass to Richard Spencer, the man Elsa heralds as the one to transform all of their lives.
She’s not wrong, of course. Without Stanley’s con act, Ma Petite, Ethel, and Pepper would still be around, Jimmy would have his hands, and Maggie would still be scamming for pennies on the run. For better or worse, the Freaks are moving forward, united and paying out what is due. This turns out to be bad news for the curator of the freak exhibit, whose head ends up in a jar for Stanley, who soon after meets his end.
Jimmy is off in the farmhouse recovering physically and emotionally. Elsa does not shy away from her involvement in Dell’s death, but she also does not allow Jimmy to let emotion cloud his vision. Dell killed the most vulnerable among them. He broke the code and appropriate steps were taken. But if all the Freaks live by that code, where does that leave Elsa?
Without Hollywood in her immediate future, Elsa scales back her focus to her current situation. The craftsman of her legs, Massimo Dolcefino, finds his way back to his masterpieces. Did you feel the flutters of lingering Fiona/Axeman romance in the air?
And since he is back for his first love, why not put his skills to work on Jimmy? The final piece of Elsa’s history reveals that Massimo stayed behind in Germany to carry out revenge on the men who took Elsa’s legs. He was not only caught, but tortured. He worked as a carpenter for elite members of the SS command and fled to America as soon as he could. He crossed the Atlantic a shell of the man he used to be. No humanity, a body, but no soul.
Elsa’s time away at the farmhouse leaves the Freaks free to commiserate in Ethel’s trailer and give proper attention to Stanley’s claims that Ethel did not die by her own hand.
As long as Dandy has his way, and he always seems to manage that, Bette and Dot are privy to the details of the “sicko’s” past. Dandy recites his best self-depreciating speech that does little to change the Twins’ impression of him. Bette cannot help but blush when she admits they are currently involved with a man. Dot puts on a more aggressive attitude and Dandy leaves, heeding the advice of the late Gloria Mott, “Never argue with a woman when she is angry.”
At rehearsal for Chester’s new show, Bette and Dot silently deliberate the contents of the folder versus the charismatic man before them. Their refusal to work as his assistants is met with Marjorie taking control of Chester’s mind. Maggie appears at the wrong time, offering her assistance. Chester has flashes of Alice and Lucy in her place, until finally it is Marjorie he sees in the box. His screams for the delusions to stop talking drown out Maggie’s screams and he saws straight through her body and separates the two pieces, spilling Maggie’s insides across the stage.
Chester runs off, but the troupe does not seem phased by another loss. All in a day for the performers of Elsa’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Desiree’s only instructions? “Steal her jewelry and bury the bitch.”
News reaches Jimmy that Maggie is dead through Eve. She reveals the decision to take Elsa next. The twins, feeling a very strong pull to the “eye for an eye” mentality, go off to warn Elsa of what is coming her way. A storm is brewing among her monsters demanding justice for their true mother figure, Ethel. Elsa packs up and flees Jupiter, but not without one final stop to see an old friend.
A stack of cash in hand, Elsa leaves Dandy behind with full ownership of the freak show. Chester, meanwhile, shows up at the precinct drenched in Maggie’s blood, carrying the limp corpse of his… puppet? Finally too broken to move on, Chester reports the murder of Marjorie and hands himself over to authorities.
Dandy takes the stage, gazing out over his personal Pride Rock. A mysterious squawking noise draws him off stage to find Stanley alive, but reassembled to represent all those damaged in his wake. The vest of Meep, the size of Ma Petite, the handless limbs of Jimmy.
Speaking of hands, Jimmy’s are complete and they are perfect. There are wooden replicas of his former lobster claws that made his mother proud to call him her son.
One week left and Dandy is in charge! What could possibly go wrong?
Watch the season finale of AHS: Freak Show episode 13, “Curtain Call,” Wednesday, January 21 at 10:00 p.m. ET on FX.