In a school full of witches, a Ouija board may not be the best activity to choose in order to pass the time. Check out our full American Horror Story: Coven recap below to see the results!
Looking to communicate with one spirit in particular, the ladies of the Coven are in for more than they bargained for in episode 6, “The Axeman Cometh.”A witch or two may be down, but never count them out. The future of the Coven rests in the hands of those who believe in its ability to thrive and create unity. However, for these witches, and their enemies, self-preservation attitude do not pave an easy path to tread.
All That Jazz: In a flashback to the golden age of music, the city of New Orleans is treated to a visit from a man with a connection to the Angel of Death. Not unlike the ancient Egyptians the people of the city must takes precautions to prevent an unwanted visit. Instead of lamb’s blood over the door, a jazz band’s music must echo from the homes. The class of 1919 (including Meryl Streep’s daughter!!) conjures up a different plan.
The women will not sit idly by and allow this man to terrorize an entire city. The Axeman’s signature style is to force women dance to the sound of his axe (another name for the saxophone) or he’ll bring out another axe. As night falls over New Orleans, the sound of jazz fills the streets, guiding the man on his way. That is until he reaches the Academy. Once inside, his shadow covers the walls until he reaches a room where a record player spins opera throughout the halls. He turns off the music and chats with the small innocent looking girl sitting in the room playing with tarot cards. Death is flipped next, but it is not her’s that the card reveals.
The witches surround the man and stab him to death.
Open Your Eyes:Cordelia returns home from the hospital with some unusually heightened senses. After clarifying that the room is not meant to be filled with roses, she suffers from another terrifying vision at the touch of her husband. Though the images are blurry and out of context, they reveal the secrets that a person is holding from her and the world. Cordelia curses her husband a cheater and a liar, casting him out of the room and her life.
While this confrontation pleases Fiona into a triumphant state, Fiona is still trying out her new role as supportive parent. Prior to returning home, Fiona sits through a sedated round of chemo. Choosing the most aggressive path possible, she hopes to recover and be there for her daughter. During the course of the treatment, Fiona is tormented by the depressing (and one vengeful) thoughts on life, love, and family. Fiona ponders if she still has enough of “it” to get a man. The doctor does little to assuage her drowsy sorrows by telling her his mother met a nice man on EHarmony. (They’re going on a cruise!)
Back in the room, Fiona informs Cordelia that she has been given the gift of The Sight. The Sight is the greatest gift to have, yet the hardest gift to live with. Cordelia catches Fiona’s arm only to be traumatized with the image of her Auntie Myrtle being burnt at the stake. Fiona tries to comfort Cordelia and tell her that it was Myrtle who blinded her that night in the bathroom, but she is not getting through to her.
In fear of losing her further, Fiona excuses herself and promises to send Delphine up to check on her. Boy, do we wish she did. Kathy Bates was missed this week!
RIP Stevie: Down in bayou, Myrtle Snow receives a mud bath, of sorts. This spa treatment requires a complete burial and strict watering regime. Just as Myrtle gets her last drop, a familiar blonde figure enters the garden. Kyle! After wandering the streets for who knows how long, Kyle finds Misty. As if being rebuilt from scratch and abandoned by Zoe wasn’t enough, Kyle now suffers from a strain of post-traumatic stress disorder. Memories of his mother surface as Misty tries to bathe him.
Kyle leaps out of the bath tub and starts smashing everything in sight. Chairs, glasses, anything. Just then, as he stands, nude, it becomes clear that Kyle is about to commit a crime that should result in the planting of another stake in the ground. Kyle smashes the source of the Stevie Nicks music. As the last note of “Leather and Lace” hangs in the air, Misty Day cries and screams what we are all thinking, “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!”
Just then, Zoe arrives. Oh, finally! Kyle lunges towards her as a source of protection, but Zoe has other plans for the three of them.
Murder Mystery Game Night: Zoe begins to clear out some of Madison’s possessions and discovers that the closet in their room has a false back. Inside the wall lies a treasure trove of past relics from previous boarders. Pictures of full classes, diaries, and a Ouija style board. The board, meant to call on spirits, can only mean bad consequences in the hands of a witch.
Zoe brings the information to the attention of the two remaining witches in the house. With a sip of absinth, Nan, Zoe, and Queenie make a pact to stick together. After a few more sips, the spirit board is on the table and they attempt to summon Madison. When the board begins to reveal a presence, the girls find out that not only is the spirit that of The Axeman, but that he believes they are the ones who killed him in that house.
With a little more digging, Nan discovers that it was the ladies from the class of 1919 who brought the Axeman into the house, but his spirit never left. Zoe takes matters into her own hands after Queenie’s lecture on the danger of summoning a spirit. They only want to be released and will do anything to make that happen. In the Axeman’s case, that “anything” means giving up where Madison is.
A.T.T.I.C. Zoe makes her way to the part of the house where the Axeman reveals Madison is. Once inside Spalding’s room, which reeks of death, Zoe finds Madison in a trunk, rotting away. Spalding is not strong enough to fight off one witch, let alone three, and submits to questioning. Nan reads Spalding’s mind as they ask him who killed Madison. He admits that he did it for a, let’s say graphic pleasure.
Zoe leaves the questioning with some doubt. Even though Nan could read Spalding’s mind, he does reside with witches and is close with a certain witch who could teach him a few things about controlling one’s thoughts. Instead of giving Madison a proper burial, Zoe decides to bring her back to life with the help of a certain woodland witch.
Once Misty Day and Kyle make it back to the Academy, Zoe chains Kyle to a wall. You know, for safe keeping. “You can help me dig a hole,” is Misty’s initial solution to Zoe’s dilemma. Not ready to give up that easy, Zoe insists that Misty at least try. Once they work together, Misty is able to push through the death and Madison rises with one request; a cigarette.
Misty wants to get back to the swamp, her kind are not the kind that dwell in the white walls of the Academy. Madison attempts to recover upstairs out of Fiona’s all knowing eye, but how long can they keep this from her? Madison does not remember much before the darkness consumed her. However, she is aware that she won two Teen Choice Awards and makes 7 million per movie.
“I want their heads” Marie Leveau is at her wits end with the Coven up the street. No longer taking “try” as an excuse, she lashes out on her top covert agent, none other than Cordelia’s husband. The murder of the red head? Turns out she was a decedent of Salem and rejected attending the school after a series of arsine brought her to Cordelia’s attention. Hank is a trained witch killer, but under Leveau’s employment he has not made much progress in six years.
Hank reminds her that all she initially wanted was access to the Coven, so why did she blind his “wife?” Cross the voodoo goddess off the list of suspects! At her wits end, Marie lays down how the rest of her story is going to happen. Hank will return to her from the flames of that house with the head of every single witch. Some people just like to watch things burn. After all, once you put a “cracker bitch” in the ground, you do not take kindly to seeing them walk around the streets 200 years later.
Hide and Seek: Not entirely satisfied with being left in limbo, the Axeman’s lingering spirit decides to pay Cordelia a visit. The gift of the sight allows her to make out his shape and face as he begins to torture her with “the dance.” Cordelia, struggling to maneuver around her room, cries out for the girls to come help her. Just as the Axeman wants.
When the girls cannot get in the locked room, Zoe admits that she may have promised the man’s spirit release and then blew him off. Closing her eyes and scanning the books, the right one calls to her and opens up to the page she needs to release his grasp on the house. Zoe grabs the girls’ hands and mutters the Latin, igniting the lights of the house. The Axeman picks up his suitcase and walks out on the street.
Only as he goes, he is greeted not by the sounds of soothing New Orleans’ jazz, but the thumping bass of hip hop from a passing car. With his top hat on, he whistles ominously down the block. Another prominent figure from that house also sits down the block nursing a drink at a jazz club. Feeling up for one last love affair, Fiona turns to take the Axeman up on his offer for a drink.
How was THAT for an ending?! Next week we get a taste for what Cordelia’s new vision does for her and Fiona’s trust issues, plus the Axeman returns!
Highlights:
•Marie Laveau: “When I plant a white ass cracker bitch, I expect her to stay there!” I do not know how they are going to top that line!
•Madison’s first line post-resurrection: “I need a cigarette.”
•Is Kyle still chained up outside?
Watch American Horror Story: Coven episode 7, “The Dead” Wednesday, November 20 at 10 p.m. ET on FX