American Horror Story: Delicate Offically Got Us Hooked In Episode 8
It’s official – American Horror Story: Delicate has redeemed itself. This season may have been the slowest burn in AHS history, with viewers initially wanting to throw in the towel completely but now we’re mesmerized by the unnerving plot and zany characters. What solidified the comeback for me was the feature of real life horrors in episode eight, which are arguably scarier than anything else. Let’s break this shocking episode down, because there’s a lot to unpack here.
The episode starts out showing the iconic Mia Farrow (Gaby Slape) of Rosemary’s Baby. AHS has fancied utilizing historic figures and reimagining history to further layer their episodes in past seasons, but this was something else. Mia has an unsettling meal with her then husband, the Frank Sinatra played by Tom O’Keefe, where he essentially tells her women can’t have a career while also being a mother, to which she replies “I’ll figure it out, women always do.” Period. We’re also graced with an otherworldly reenactment of the late Sharon Tate on the set of Mia’s film in this episode, in which Sharon is seen telling Mia that “the devil is beautiful.” Weird, but Mia seemingly shakes it off and does a scene for her movie. Afterwards, we see Mia bleeding profusely in the dressing room, while wearing a fake pregnant belly. We then hear a familiar voice telling her to take the belly off — none other than Siobhan. As soon as Mia emerges from the dressing room we see a creepy, smiling Siobhan holding the book Rosemary’s Baby (cue me gleefully smiling while watching this). I love that this was the opening of this episode. For starters, it was AHS giving homage to Rosemary’s Baby and the parallels to this seasons story. We also got to see that Siobhan has been in this game for a while, given that this took place in the 1960’s, and that these devil worshipping women have always been on the hunt for successful women who also want to experience motherhood, aka women who “want it all.” Coincidence? I think not!
Fast forward to present day and we’re now at Dex’s mother’s funeral, where they insinuate that she committed suicide. Good ol’ Preecher makes a long awaited — and uninvited — reappearance at the funeral, stating that his mother was actually killed. Preecher is escorted out by security guards and Anna curiously follows her to the emergency room. Preecher then tells her “they’re after her” and a solemn Anna looks at her with empathy and apologizes that she didn’t listen sooner. I hate to say I told you so, Anna, but I always knew Preecher to be a character with good intentions from the start of this season. Now that Anna knows Preecher is on her side and is sure she’s experienced the same things, she stays by her side in the hospital only to wake up to an empty bed. A nurse tells Anna that Preecher’s “friends” have taken her home and Anna immediately fears the worst (the plot thickens!) Anna’s fear is shortwinded as she then finds out that she has been officially nominated for an Oscar through a TV program at the hospital, even though I’m pretty sure her agent was supposed to tell her that.
Anna immediately flies out to LA — despite being seven weeks pregnant, which is usually a big no-no — with Siobhan to attend the Oscar festivities. While at an event Anna sees Cora, (Tavi Gevinson) the woman who worked at Doctor Hill’s fertility clinic. It’s all coming together! She tells Anna that she’s been having an affair with Dex (shocker!) and she’s been the one messing with her life. You know, in the earlier episodes when we all thought Anna was going a tad crazy thinking her fertility appointments magically changed on their own and someone wrote on the mirror? Yeah, that was just Cora being a vengeful mistress. So, it is now confirmed that Dex is a living piece of human garbage. I digress, Cora warns Anna that “the women” Dr. Hill works with mess with all of the babies his patients have. Cora also tells Anna that Dr. Hill has “made sacrifices” in order to be the top OBGYN in New York City. This solidified so much. We now know that Dr. Hill is indeed in on it, Cora was the mysterious entity in Anna’s bedroom, Anna wasn’t going bonkers, and, oh yeah, Dex is literally the worst person alive.
The episode ends with a splash. We’ve finally arrived at Oscar’s Sunday where Anna is having way too early of contractions and Siobhan is telling her to suck it up. Classic. Once Anna’s category comes up, Siobhan turns to her and whispers “congratulations” before they announce Anna is the winner. Siobhan and Anna share a rather passionate kiss, which, I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting, and Anna slowly approaches the stage. We see a reoccurring theme we’ve become accustom to — as soon as Anna gets on the stage, the audience fades away and Anna has what we think is a hallucination of her late mother clapping for her. It’s a melancholy moment as Anna smiles and questions “mom?” It’s also a brief encapsulation of Anna feeling happy, which we haven’t seen much of this season. This bittersweet moment is interrupted to Anna being abruptly thrown back to reality, which is her on the Oscar’s stage in front of thousands of people… and her water breaking.
Confusion has been somewhat of an undertone within the plot throughout this most recent season, but this episode gave closure to a lot, whether that closure is real or not. This episode perfectly tees up to the season’s long awaited finale, which I now cannot wait for.
American Horror Story: Delicate is streaming on Hulu.
