1.10.2014

Television: AHS: Coven, "The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks"

So Laveau had come to the witch house to broker a pact in the aftermath of all her people being slaughtered by Cordelia's witch hunter husband.

While there, Laveau is visited ostensibly by Papa Legba. And here is where the show lost me. Because I'm pretty familiar with Papa Legba, and he isn't anything like whatever this show was trying to pull. So I spent the remainder of the episode being bothered by that.

On the flip side, there was Stevie Nicks. It seems like Fiona invited her over because Misty is such a fan (and we've been led to think Misty will be the next Supreme, though honestly it seems like the title is up for grabs). Nicks sang some "Rhiannon" and . . . something else . . . But whatever. Seemed like an awkward time to have a celebrity house guest when you've got people [almost] killing babies, and making the neighbor drink bleach, and drowning each other in the bathtub.

Also: twirling with scarves? Is this part of a witch curriculum?

So. Yes, Nan kills Luke's mom after discovering Luke is dead and has been cremated. And Madison can't stand the idea of Misty as the new Supreme so she coaxes her into a New Orleans cemetery, tosses her into a coffin, and has the coffin installed in one of the monuments. I wonder whether the writers know about how we use coffins in New Orleans? They can't stay in the monuments, so we don't seal the monuments until after the body has been removed from the coffin. Then we shove the body back into the monument and brick it up, install the faceplate, and toss the coffin. That's right, we pay thousands of dollars for coffins we can't use. A year and a day after the interment, the monument can be opened and the remains shoved to the back to make room for the next family member. (Usually you wouldn't bother to open it until the next time you need it; you just hope deaths are more than a year apart. But then again, you generally have several slots to choose from, too.) The back of the monument is open at the bottom—there's a hole. The bones and remains get pushed back and then fall down to an under space. So, you know, eventually your bones just get jumbled up with everyone else's in your family. We're a close group, in death as in life.

And what I mean by all this is: if the writers know what they're doing, they'll plan that Misty won't stay in that coffin. But it looked to me like she was going to get bricked in anyway. I guess they can chalk it up to Madison having, what, influenced the workers to do it? Paid them off? Whatever.

Oh, so anyway, Papa Legba evidently wanted Laveau to bring him the soul of an innocent. Namely, a baby. But then Fiona and Laveau scheme to give him Nan instead. (Here's the drowning in the bathtub bit.) With LaLaurie MIA, the partnership of Fiona and Laveau has become the best thing about the show.

But I do wonder at Fiona's rage against Cordelia over having unwittingly married a witch hunter. I mean, I get being angry, but her anger seemed way out of proportion to the "crime."

Fiona tried to make her own pact with Papa Legba, looking for immortality, but he told her she has no soul to trade. Really? Then where is it? I know I hate when I misplace mine. Maybe she should check it isn't tangled in a shawl.

No comments: