When we last left the Freak Show folks, a string of unsolved murders was threatening the town of Jupiter, Jimmy was trying to convince the community that he and his friends were normal, and Desiree had arrived from Chicago accompanied by her husband and her boobs. Dell the strongman was also revealed to be Jimmy's father, but unbeknownst to Jimmy, his attempt to frame his dickish daddy for murder was doomed to fail. Meep the Geek met a gruesome end, we discovered that Dot and Bette are not equally talented, and Dandy and Twisty became BFFs. No big deal.
Tonight's episode introduced the remainder of the main characters (there sure are a lot) and brought the show to an even darker place than it was before. Coincidence that Halloween is just around the corner? Nah. Here's where we are after Episode 3...
Deformities 'R' Us
Mrs. Hennings leads a tour group around the American Morbidity Museum, where deformities are celebrated and Denis O'Hare and Emma Roberts hope to sell a specimen. The father and daughter pose as a doctor and assistant and try valiantly to make some money off of a fetal goat passed off as a baby Sasquatch (really?). Though the museum folks know the pair are frauds, Mrs. Hennings challenges them to bring her something authentic and says she will pay a hefty price to boost her ailing business. She points out some of the oddities of the facility, including the liver of famed conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker which is worth $5,000. Maggie and Stanley then head off to find a freak show with similar potential treasures.
Maggie arrives at the Cabinet of Curiosities and Jimmy is smitten right away as "Esmeralda" tells him she's a fortune teller who needs a job. Elsa is suspicious but Esmeralda cleverly surveys Elsa's tent to gather her fortune telling information. She looks into her crystal ball and "sees" Elsa's past. Elsa had wanted to be a star but another woman stole her career. Esmeralda "hears" Elsa's song and says Elsa will sing it in the future to rounds of thunderous applause. She also says a dapper man will assist in making Elsa a star she is supposed to be. Well, this is exactly what Elsa wants to hear. She's hired. All is going according to plan, and when Esmeralda runs into Bette and Dot and reports back to her father, he thinks they've hit the jackpot. Bette and Dot (Dot especially) are not pleased to meet this young, pretty, normal looking girl. I sense a love triangle...or square...in the works.
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Give It To Me Straight
Poor Canadian Dr. Evil Ethel is having some health problems. She visits a doctor who diagnoses her with cirrhosis of the liver and gives her 6 months to a year to live. He encourages her to "keep meat to a minimum" and stay away from alcohol. The bearded woman cries, not because she is going to die, but because this man is the first doctor to ever treat her with respect. She then heads back to the freak show and downs a drink. Jimmy calls her on it and asks why she's been so on edge since Dell arrived. Ethel shoots back at him, saying the show "needed a man" and Jimmy was now free to go. Awwww. She's pushing him away before she becomes deathly ill, but I think we all know he's not going anywhere.
Ethel sits outside drinking and contemplating and she hears Dell storming out of his trailer after an argument with Hootie McBoobs, Ethel tells him she's dying and needs him to look after Jimmy...but not tell Jimmy he's Jimmy's dad. Dell wonders what it would have been like to see Jimmy grow up and asks Ethel what their son liked to be for Halloween as a kid. Ethel tells him Jimmy only wanted to be a soldier...and it seems Dell has a soft side after all.
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Evil Has A Face
Dot and Bette are appalled when they see the rest of their colleagues partying for Halloween. They scold the other "freaks," stating the celebration is disrespectful to Meep. The twins suggest they should dedicate the day's show to him instead. Ethel walks in and shuts this down immediately. We learn that freak shows do not perform on Halloween due to a superstition of Edward Mordrake. He was a 19th century nobleman born with an evil face on the back of his head that whispered to him constantly. Edward eventually went mad and was committed to an institution. He escaped one night and ended up at a freak show (billed as "The Two-Faced Prince") but he was not satisfied in his new home. One Halloween night he murdered everyone in his troupe and then hung himself...legend has it, if a freak show performs a Halloween show, the spirit of Edward Mordrake would be summoned. "Once he's appears, he never leaves alone. That whispering face will choose one more freak to take with him back to hell."
Dot, in particular, could care less about Edward Mordrake and at least wants to get in a rehearsal. Elsa is on board because she's eager for dapper dude to arrive and jump start her career. Dot gets very mouthy and refers to the twins as the headliners and stars of the show. Elsa is pisssssssed and tells Dot and Bette to go to their room or she will leave them in the swamp, and the girls reluctantly retreat. Wasting no time, Elsa rehearses Lana Del Rey's Gods and Monsters" and thereby summons Mr. Mordrake.
Edward approaches Ethel, who pleads with him to let her stay. He is a very proper, very polite, and very well spoken man. Edward sits down with Ethel and asks her to tell him her story. He cautions her: "You must speak candidly. If you lie...it will know." We then see a flashback of Ethel's initial act as the bearded lady. She put on one hell of a show and caught the eye of Dell the strongman. Dell became her manager and pulled her out of the three ring circus she had been so successful in and essentially ruined her career. The two of them were penniless at that point, so Dell sold tickets to witness Jimmy's birth and even offered to let people hold the "freak baby" for a price. Ethel says she's ready to go with Edward, believing she deserves to go to Hell because of how Jimmy came into the world. Edward thanks Ethel for her honesty...we hear the evil face whisper "not the one"....and he disappears.
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Fine And Dandy
For starters, Patti LaBelle does one hell of a Woody Woodpecker impression. She and Gloria have put together some Halloween fun (goodness knows we don't want a boring Halloween) complete with decorations, food, and costumes. Unfortunately for Gloria, she gives Dandy a Howdy Doody costume and he goes ape shit because that's not what he wanted. The twerp goes back to his room and makes a clown outfit which greatly pales in comparison to Twisty's ensemble.
Speaking of Twisty, the creepy ass clown spends Halloween following around the tick-or-treaters (because, you know, he blends right in), and he takes an interest in one girl in particular. Little Jessie is afraid of clowns so her asshole brother dresses up as one and terrorizes her all day. Well, Twisty shows up at the house and kidnaps asshole brother...and I'm definitely amused by this.
Dandy visits Twisty's captives in the woods and proceeds to scare the shit out of them. He hears Twisty arrive with the asshole brother and dashes outside, hoping for more Halloween fun. However...all we get is "To Be Continued."
I have to wonder how long Twisty is going to put up with Dandy. I was entertained by him at first but now he just annoys me and I'm hoping Twisty will take him out or at least cage him up. I'm also wondering what Twisty's kill vs. kidnap criteria is. He's killed a bunch of people, but his captives confuse me. The girl was being horny with her boyfriend (dead), the asshole brother is an asshole (family not dead), and I have no idea what the boy had going before he was taken (parents both dead). I'm hoping we get some sort of clarification on that soon...
The next episode is part 2 of the Halloween extravaganza. One of the freak show inhabitants will depart with Edward Mordrake but which one will it be? Clearly he is not interested in Ethel, but her story regarding Dell's treatment of her and her baby might have sealed Dell's fate. Elsa also remains a contender since she is the selfish one who summoned Edward to begin with. We know he won't take Dot and Bette because Ryan Murphy loooooves Sarah Paulson, but it has to be one of the main characters, right? We will find out for sure before Halloween passes us by in the coming week, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that part 2 deliverers the same way the Halloween episodes deliver every year.
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