American Horror Story: Cult - Episode 10 Review (Spoilers)

In this review I will be discussing the tenth episode of American Horror Story: Cult. At this point we are at the penultimate episode of the series and it's virtually impossible to discuss the episode without spoilers. Anyone who plans to view it has had ample time to catch up now and so in this review I will divulge plot points and character motivations to better explain my points and analyse the episode. This will not be an Episode Synopsis or Breakdown however. If you truly want to go into the episode blind and not having any future enjoyment of it spoiled then I recommend bookmarking this review and reading it after seeing the episode. If you don't mind spoilers however then dive in. 

Episode 10 - "Charles (Manson) in Charge"

This was a weird episode. It's muddied, jumbled and I have no idea what it's trying to say. I'll just get into it as best I can. 

The opening revelation that Kai is a vehicle for "feminine rage" really bothered me. It seems like the show is trying to villify all women as the source of problems and evil. In the current climate that is dangerous to even hint at. The political aspect, that militant feminists love Trump precisely because he can incite the fear and rage that will allow them to "take over the world", is short-sighted, without basis and potentially damaging. It's a very irresponsible thing to write and air right now, although I do realise these things are filmed well in advance. This fact is redeemed slightly by having Kai break beyond this original intent to become a crazed lunatic on his own terms. But the idea that women somehow created this monster, and the implication that perhaps that's true of Trump, really made me uncomfortable. One wonders if there was a female voice in the writer's room. It doesn't help either that it ties this whole season irretrievably to it's worst episode.

As we move onto the scenes of Kai at his political rally it seems like the message is again problematic. Here it paints those opposing Kai (and by extension the political left) as hysterical, aggressive mobs with no regard for human life or safety. In fact, from experience I can tell you that the exact opposite is true. Attempting to portray Kai as part victim here was unnecessary, forced and wrong. Although on the plus side it might be an interesting way of pointing out that rage and fear to avoid this horror is counter-intuitive, a good parallel to the early episodes of the season but problematic when one considers the character of Ally as she's developed in these last couple of episodes. Indeed, her killing of Bebe makes absolutely no sense on any level other than manufactured shock value. Instead of knowing and understanding our lead character's motivations we're left with another unsympathetic villain. I hope the finale can somehow develop or rectify this but her threatening demeanour to Winter and eventual plotting to her demise does little to give me any hope. It comes back to my biggest problem with AHS: Hotel. There are no protagonists. There's nobody to identify with and root for. The whole story is just an exercise in nihilism and how there's no hope for anyone. That might be some people's bag in horror but it's not mine, and it's frankly terrible storytelling. If you could end the whole thing with, "but none of it matters because we're all evil really and humanity is fucked" then what was your point!? 

The historical flashback scenes, though again cool, only seek to reinforce this. It's great to see the return of some cast members in different roles as historical figures. And the scenes work well, as did the other cult flashbacks in the previous episode. But casting Paulson as a vicious, murdering psychopath seems to emphasise that Ally is heading to becoming this for Kai, as her character here was to Manson. Likewise casting Billie Lourd as the uncertain, more humane character before Ally effectively gets Winter killed gives off another odd message. And as I said I really don't want the season to end this way. There's enough nihilism in the news and around the real world, ideally I'd like some heroes.

The idea of the PTSD and brainwashing of Bev is handled brilliantly however, with a fantastic performance by Adina Porter. But these scenes are all too brief and ultimately seem to exist purely to reinforce her loyalty to Kai and her part in getting Winter killed.

  The episode ending with a reveal of an actual mole in the cult (and not just Kai's insane paranoia) is surprising and interesting. But rendered null by Ally sidling in with sinister menace as it becomes clear that she knows this and will, most likely, reveal it.

  To conclude things here, I absolutely hated this episode. It was depressing, confusing and incredibly unclear. There was no actual horror (beyond a ridiculous "American Werewolf in London" style hallucination) and we seem to be at an ending point of great darkness and sadness. Watching it genuinely made me uncomfortable and unwell. That's not scary, it's lazy and it's not what I want from horror. I'm done talking about the ep now and just want to forget it. It deserves nothing more.

 (0/5)

MM