User Reviews

After a really good season in Modern-Day AHS terms and the beautifully crafted episode 5 "Gaslight", I was expecting an amazing finale to a stellar first half of this season. Instead, I was met with let down and unresolved plotlines. It feels like Ryan Murphy has no clue what Chekhov's Gun is and drops the ball on nearly all unresolved plotlines. Lark, who is buddy-buddy with Austin and Belle should've been there with them when they confronted the Gardener family + Ursula, but Lark is nowhere to be seen so her fate is left unresolved. Lyme Disease which is mentioned by Doris at least half a dozen times in this season has no overall meaning. Doris was literally eating an animal at the end of the 5th episode and could've easily contracted Lyme from that animal and it could've cured her? Speaking of Doris, where was she? She wasn't in the pale people raid that occurred at Belle's house even though Ursula was in the graveyard where they reside. What was the point of the Red lights? It's mentioned multiple times this episode and never fully explained. Other than unresolved plot lines, let's talk fate. Belle and Austin die in the weakest way imaginable. They are built up to be our antagonists of the season and die in seconds of each other. Harry gets killed by a 9 year old and doesn't try to even fight back, he just sits there and lets his daughter drink him dry. Ursula and The Chemist are now living it up in L. A. together with Alma and Eli. Literally where did this come from? Why do we always end up in L. A.? We just spent all of American Horror Stories in L. A. So I'm not super eager to come back to L. A. 7 out of the 10 Seasons of AHS have been in or have episodes in L. A. Please give us a break from L. A. Ursula and The Chemist should've stayed in Provincetown where they're safe. They had no reason to leave. Holden told The Chemist to get the act together and she did. Austin, Belle and Harry are no longer a problem. It's just Alma that survives and is under the care of those two. Also, how did Alma kill Rory? He was the other musician towards the end of the episode. She would've had to convince him to go out back, kill him with out getting a drop of blood on her clothes, dodge the cameras coming back and do that all within the judges deliberating? And the cops could've easily DNA tested where Rory got bit on the throat! How did she get away with it? It just seems Ryan Murphy, for whatever reason, struggles to write finales. Supremely let down by the ending of this season.

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. This was one of the strongest seasons of AHS, the first 5 episodes were all really good! And now they hit us with the most anticlimactic THIRTY minute finale (WTF shortest episode of AHS ever). I cannot believe they had the audacity of just leaving Doris out of the last episode after what that devil child Alma did to her. Doris should've got her revenge but nope they just left her out completely.

I was literally rooting for Belle Noir and Austin to kill Alma and Harry because I was 100% on their side and they are the only characters whose actions were justifiable. They were kind enough to introduce Harry to these miracle pills that allowed him to become an extremely prolific writer who apparently was creating masterpieces galore while he was there, and he is idiotic enough to allow his daughter to take these pills, and then go around killing people in the town which is the one place they were not supposed to kill anyone. Belle and Austin were completely righteous to want revenge after this.

So somehow Ursula manages to talk the pales into attacking Belle and Austin, they break through the windows and kill them both, then of course Ursula comes in with her John Wick shooting accuracy to save both Harry and Alma. Harry somehow doesn't see Alma attempting to kill him coming when he tries to stop her using the pills, after she already effectively killed her own mother. Of course Alma kills Harry, and Ursula for some reason goes along with it despite Harry being more profitable and the one who's talent she'd make the most money off of. Harry deserved his death because of his idiocy but it sure is not a satisfying ending, all the likeable characters die and the only ones left are 2 of the most horrible unlikeable characters in AHS history, and the chemist who has no real character development. The most anticlimactic ending in all of AHS and that's really saying something.

The only upsides of this episode were Alma calling Ursula a chicken s*** little b**** and Belle Noir's rant about how Hollywood ruins everything in the end (how fitting and postmodern)

I have to say, Alma is genuinely up there with Ivy for the most detestable character in all of AHS, props to the actress because she has done an amazing job, especially considering her age.

You literally could've ended "Red Tide" with Episode 5, "Gaslight," and it would've at least ended on a high note, with just as many loose ends..to say I'm disappointed after the carefully crafted first five episodes of AHS: RT (yes, I'm one of the few that appreciated Episode 4, the "flashback" episode, "Blood Buffet"), would be an understatement...

What happened to Billie Lourd's character, Lark? She just kind of disappeared for no reason...where was Doris? I guess eating a raccoon in a cemetery is our final image. What happened to the State Trooper who refused to listen to the City Council about the missing Police Chief after her body is discovered in the ocean by fishermen? In fact, great opening scene as it was (and, it was), in retrospect, with the "ending" they chose, what was the point of that? We'll get to the ending in a minute...

This installment of AHS, much like previous seasons, didn't have a lot of innocents, save Doris and Chief Burleson, who both didn't fare well, but, the best of the bad went very quickly in this finale...truthfully, once Belle Noir and Austin met their fate pretty quickly--in, to my mind, in the laziest and most unimaginative way possible--after getting their urgency to do something about the Hollywood people by being threatened by Code Enforcement (ummm...really? Seriously? Code Enforcement?), I was completely hopeful that, if you're going to get rid of your most sinister characters like that, something equally shocking and sinister must be coming up...unfortunately, I was wrong...if you didn't see Alma killing her father, Harry, soon after Belle, Austin, and the Pale People were out of the way, then, maybe you're new to this series...it was as predictable as predictable could be...I was only surprised that it happened nanoseconds later, and not after a couple of commercial breaks...

When "Three Months Later," appeared on the screen, after one of the aforementioned commercial breaks, and we suddenly saw a sunshine filled screen, after five episodes of a dark, cold, Massachusetts backdrop, I knew it was time to cue Fonzie, rev up that motorcycle, and tell the shark he's on in five--there was some serious "Jumping the Shark" in our future...The Chemist, Ursula, and Alma, with baby in tow, have relocated to Sunny LA, and if P-Town gave them a character studded Bon Voyage Party to send them on their ways, we surely didn't see it...somehow (don't ask, I didn't), the Chemist has been able to infiltrate the LAPD to weed out bad cops, and give them the Muse Pill, turning them into Pale People, and marvels at the swift justice they receive for killing innocent tourists on the street...Alma has turned into a slightly less endearing version of Claudia, from Interview With the Vampire, and Ursula is, well, Ursula...I thought feeding Alma a Street Hustler was a nice, macabre touch--but, that novelty wore off when she killed her first chair competition at an audition a few scenes later...

There were many ways they could have wrapped this installment up--many mentioned on here already (someone mentioned Doris killing Alma, which I like the idea of)...the move to LA, while stupid and pointless, especially with the three most unlikely of villains to survive, might have been forgiven by a final scene of an adult Alma, back in P-Town, purchasing TB Karen's last painting, the one left on the beach after she killed Mickey, and after her suicide, and taking it home to a now elderly chemist, being cared for by Lark (remember her? The writers didn't), and still making her pills, with Ursula still manning the franchise in LaLa Land, if you had Ursula live that long at all, which, now that the series has ended with her unscathed, I wonder why they kept her one note, typical selfish agent, heartless character around like they did...but, they chose to have Ursula hijacking a Writer's Seminar, pushing the Muse Pill on potential screenwriters, and causing a blood bath of carnage in the streets of LA, with a stupid voiceover, while the Chemist skips town with the baby, seemingly nonplussed, musing about giving the baby everlasting life...sloppy and, honestly, who cares? If the writers didn't, why should we?

It's all over now, and "Death Valley" starts next week...if "Red Tide" is foreshadowing for what's to come, I guess, like most family reunions, which the AHS Anthology, with it's regular pool of amazing actors, seems to be, we can expect it to start out great, until Cousin Wayne gets drunk, knocks over the buffet table, and ruins the whole thing right before desert....

Lazy LAZY writing. This was the biggest shame in AHS history. All great characters being killed off by a Hollywood drama queen who got magic powers to control the pale people and a selfish wack of a child. I absolutely loved the first part, but I am ashamed of what they did with this episode. The whole plot, all characters, all the development for literally nothing. This episode wasn't bad, it was horrible. I don't get how they could even think this would be a good episode. Lazy. Cheesy. And overall just painful. Ugh.

The episode was well acted, so automatically not a 1/10. I liked that the pills were distributed to Hollywood at the end. The deaths of Austin and Belle felt incredibly rushed, and the episode wasted too much of the already ridiculously low runtime on pointless scenes. Was it terrible? No. Was it the worst episode of the season? Yes. It's not the worst of the series. No way.

With the exception of that horrible backstory episode 10x04, the 6-episode arc Red Tide was turning out to be a strong offering to the AHS universe. I guess you can say it's still a success because, much like 1984, Red Tide has more good episodes than bad ones. 4 for 6 isn't bad. But the finale being one of the weaker episodes is never good. Finishing strong is a premium and Ryan Murphy and Company have proved once again that they can't fashion a strong second act to save their lives! The first 3 episodes of Red Tide were excellent, not a weak one in the bunch. Then here comes the last 3 episodes and the writers can only muster one great one, 10x05, one of the best of the entire series. But the backstory and this finale are letdowns.

This finale WINTER KILLS actually starts out promising with a great cold opening Council meeting scene with some terrific writing and acting, particularly from Denis O'Hare (as the mercurial Holden who has been low-key stealing the season), Robin Weigert (as the refreshing Martha, who was introduced in the Pilot, brilliant in that scene and this one in the finale), and Dot-Marie Jones (as the suspicious State Trooper, her lone episode). I just wish the rest of the episode were as stellar as this opening scene. From there, while a lot of the dialogue was good, the rest of the episode felt so rushed.

In summary, Alma, Ursula and the Chemist formed a plan to rid themselves of Harry, Belle, and Austin. Getting the good out of the way, the acting by MOST of these characters continued to be great. In particular, Leslie Grossman, Ryan Keira Armstrong, and Frances Conroy carried as usual. Now to the bad. The exception, as always, is Angelica Ross as the Chemist. This lady has to be the worst casting decision by Ryan Murphy in recent years. Her line delivery is so flat and unnatural. I can't fathom why fans think that her acting is good. It's unreal at this point. I'm seriously hoping that Season 10 is the last one that Ross gets cast in a major role because she simply can't act.

So many plot holes in this episode. Belle and Austin planned to kill the Gardners episodes ago. Why did they decide to do this themselves, then ask the Chemist's permission AFTER, then when she ordered them to kill the family, why did they wait so long? Why are they forming a plan in the finale when they decided to kill the family 3 episodes ago? Their indecisiveness is the reason that Chief Burleson was killed, which led to her body being found in this finale and the State Trooper becoming involved. Why didn't the Pales devour Ursula right away? These guys have been mindless creatures for years and never hesitated to kill non-black pill users before. Why now? Plot armor of course.

Then there was all of the bad writing for the last act in LA. What was with that cheaply thrown in woke scene of the Chemist saying she's giving the pills to racist LA cops, all of who are coincidentally untalented? Why would the writers throw in that sickening scene of Alma and that LA street hustler. Does that fancy looking musical arts facility not have cameras that could plainly see that Alma killed her competition for first chair? How did Ursula turn so dumb in this episode? First, she takes a chance of getting killed by the Pales in P-Town, then in LA she carelessly gives out pills to every random and low-key starts the apocalypse! Then there was that weird ending with the Chemist adopting the Gardner baby and riding off into the sunset. The season ends with it's weakest character who had almost no impact on the main plot played by one of the worst main actors the show has ever had. Pretty fitting for a Ryan Murphy finale. Might as well end on a low note as has become par for the course.

I think it was always going to be hard to conclude the previous episodes that were so incredibly good. Maybe I lack the same empathy that others seem to have for made up characters, but I felt it ended how it needed to end.

Doris was set up as weak/ untalented from the get go, there was no time to execute a revenge story, and why would she do that anyway? She loved her children so unconditionally she would have done anything for them. It's why she took the pill. C'est la vie.

Alma could have been portrayed more childlike before the pill. I think her post pill transition and ending would have played off more authentically. I hoped she'd not get the first chair job, and then kill the other applicant to get it. But whatever.

Lark was a smaller role played by a supremely talented actor, I think people feel robbed that she didn't have more screen time. I think her role was pretty perfect but I'd like to have seen Doris get her 80's coat.

It doesn't matter what Karen painted on the beach, it's a reflection of what she stood for. She didn't want supreme talent at a price, and she saved Mickey from his own forthcoming demise. It was interesting to see her portrayed in such a loving - albeit violent - way.

I loved the way Ursula went into the woods and rallied up her crew at risk of being eaten.

Belle and Austin got exactly what was coming to them. We knew Harry had to die, didn't we?

The body of the cop was found, and a new cop came to replace her. The knowing looks from the panel tell us she's not going to get far. We really could have done without that scene, but it was a good way to tell us that things will never change in P-town.

I suspected the red lights were simply security lights, after all, all living residents are at risk of being attacked in their homes. And if the resident has taken a pill they might want to be alerted to passing 'food' - would have been nice to get more clarity on this though.

The only thing I wasn't so keen on was the very end. Why cause a huge outbreak of college kid killers? Why do it so openly? Maybe I missed something. I would have felt satisfied with the Hollywood/ killer cop scene as an ending, knowing Ursula and the Scientist had branched out in business together. They didn't need to complicate the ending by adding a new story. Unless this is to feed into another season. We shall see.

Not exactly sure how I feel about this episode. Everything was going great until the time jump to Hollywood where things got a little messy.

I'm not sure why they decided to make this episode one of the shortest of the series at 37 minutes, as it suffers from a rather rushed storyline.

I feel like we needed to stay more in P-town to wrap up some loose ends and get some minor explanations. Would have much preferred it if the Hollywood storyline was cut to just a 'mention' at the end for the episode instead of eating up ~15 minutes of screen time. Maybe they ominously drive away to Hollywood as P-town gets thrown into utter chaos or something.

Billie Lourds character who's been MIA for the majority of this season doesn't even get a mention. Mickey and TB Karen also don't get mentioned (though I don't think they really needed to be, as they were always viewed as disposable to the other characters). And really we don't exactly know what happens to Alma.

Just a little jarring compared to last weeks episode to say the least. I guess I was expecting more, and that seems to be the general consensus.

Great acting however, and visuals. Just such a weird last 15 minutes that I just don't understand why they chose to go in that direction. I get the message they tried to convey, but it felt out of place based on what this season has given us.

Unfortunately the weakest episode of the season for me. Part 1 was almost near perfect, so it's a bit of a shame. However, this episode was still enjoyable and had some redeeming qualities.

7/10 for me. Rounding up one to counter act all the '1's' as this definitely wasn't that bad, I honestly don't think any show or movie deserves a 1/10.

Part 2 looks very interesting so I'm excited for next week! Perhaps it will even tie into this episode, so maybe it will make more sense in the grand scheme of thing, but we'll see.

A little disappointed, but I'm sure I'll get over it.