‘American Horror Story: Coven’ Recap Episode 12 — Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead

The Axeman comes calling but who tastes his blade and the test of the Seven Wonders will begin soon to finally decide who is the new Supreme…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

With only one episode to go until the season/series finale of American Horror Story: Coven all bets were off on what would be the final body count for a series that’s been riddled with death and resurrection but the penultimate episode set a new threshold for spilt blood.

Madame LaLaurie vs. Queenie

Following last week’s Benadryl poisoned dousing of Marie Laveau, Delphine LaLaurie followed through on her promise to cut her old foe up into 50 pieces and bury her all around New Orleans. With the voodoo queen out of the way, Delphine got a makeover and decided to take ownership of her old house and the tours that were going through their daily. As she spouted off to the tourists about how Madame LaLaurie was so painfully misunderstood and falsely accused of her past crimes, Queenie stops by to pay her a visit.

At first, Queenie tries to reason with Delphine, feeling as if at one time not long ago she was able to crack her old racist heart with some new age wisdom and a little bit of kindness. Unfortunately, Delphine’s introduction to this new world only solidified her resolve because after watching the ‘magic box’ for hours, she realized the entire world was losing its gumption, crying for forgiveness and just afraid to admit who they were. She felt no regret for the things she’s done or the things she would continue to do after re-opening her house of horrors.

It was the wrong answer.

Prior to her visit to Madame LaLaurie’s house, Queenie was subjugated to the power of the real Supreme Fiona before being told that she would soon attempt the Seven Wonders to see if she would be the successor. To get a jump start on the competition, Queenie summed Papa Legba for his assistance in finding out what happened to Marie Laveau and asking how to finish off Delphine LaLaurie. The end result was Papa Legba revealing that as long as Marie Laveau is alive (even in many pieces), Madame LaLaurie would also live. Luckily, Queenie is smart enough to turn Marie’s deal with Papa Legba against her — seeing as she’s in 50 pieces now there’s no way she can fulfill her deal with him by providing one innocent soul each year and since she’s in breech, he can all off her immortality and she can die.

So following Queenie’s last attempt to get through to Madame LaLaurie and realizing there was no hope saving her, she jammed a knife deep into her chest and as the dark blood flowed over her face, one of New Orleans’ greatest monsters was finally conquered.

Cordelia vs. Second Sight

Cordelia jammed a rose pruner in her eyes last week to attempt to retrieve the gift of a second sight, but alas she felt nothing when trying to see her visions. Her goal was to find out what happened to Misty Day but even when running her hands over Madison (who actually did away with Misty) she felt nothing.

Only after a chat with her mother Fiona did she realize that the gift of sight didn’t come from her eyes being destroyed by acid or a sharp object — she’s always had the power, but didn’t know how to harness it. So as Fiona put on a necklace that once belonged to her grandmother, a flood of images flowed through her brain. The vision revealed a bloody academy with every witch murdered and an Axeman responsible for all of it.

Cordelia doesn’t let Fiona in on her vision, but she soon pays a visit to the Axeman to let him in on a little secret of her own. Fiona has no plans of running away with him to a little farm out in the country to spend the rest of her days. On the contrary, as soon as the Axeman dispatches of the witches, Fiona will bolt and leave him in the lurch with nothing to cuddle at night except his cold, golden saxophone.

Misty Day vs. Madison

Back at the house, Cordelia finally gets the right set of visions together to figure out what happened to Misty Day — she’s been buried for days in a crypt thanks to Madison Montgomery. Cordelia quickly goes to the graveyard with Queenie in tow to rescue the wayward witch. Queenie has no plans of jackhammering through the brick wall encasing the coffin where Misty resides, but that’s when Cordelia offers a subtle reminder — they are witches after all.

“When the rest of the world sees a wall, we see a window,” Cordelia says.

Queenie busts through and when she finds a lifeless Misty, she breathes life back into the swamp witch making us wonder if these new found powers are manifesting just as the new Supreme is about to rise. At the same time this is going on, Zoe and Franken-Kyle show back up at the academy much to Myrtle’s dismay. It seems Kyle went on a murderous rampage against a homeless person in Florida, which forced Zoe to bring the victim back to life proving yet again another new power in her control (they’ve apparently abandoned her original power of death by vagina).

And the reunions continue when Misty walks through the front door and makes a beeline towards Madison. There are no powers allowed in this throw down because Misty is just going to use her boots to stomp a mud hole in Madison and walk it dry. It’s clear Misty is the superior ass kicker, but before this conflict can be resolved an angry and blood covered Axeman shows up ready to kill all the witches, but attacking every, single one of them while they are all together is probably not the smartest idea in the world.

The witches toss the Axeman about like a shoe in a clothes dryer before Cordelia touches the blood he trailed throughout the house. The blood belongs to none other than Fiona, who the Axeman murdered after confronting the witch about her intention to ditch him once the other Supreme candidates were dead.

Fiona is gone — ding, dong the wicked witch is dead.

As much as resurrection has played a role this season, it seems the ‘get out of death’ free cards are done because Fiona was tossed in the swamp and fed to the gators. That’s where Misty gets the line of the week this episode…

“Well that’s it then — even I can’t bring somebody back once they’re gator shit”

As much as the coven detested Fiona, she was still their Supreme and their leader and the Axeman needs to die for what he’s done to her. So the witches get all stabby, taking the Axeman apart piece by piece with knives flying from all over the kitchen.

Delphine and Marie vs. Hell

Delphine awakens in her dungeon of tortures where her daughter is caged beside her, and just then Marie appears ready to torment both of them (red, hot poker included). At that moment, Marie remembers that she wants nothing to do with torturing anybody, but it’s all part of a grand plan. Papa Legba appears and informs Marie and Delphine they are both dead now, immortality has slipped through their fingers, and the never ending hell they will endure is this fate — Marie must torture and kill Delphine and her daughter over and over and over again for the rest of time. It’s their penance for the pain they caused while on Earth.

And with that we (apparently) bid ado to Delphine LaLaurie and Marie Laveau

The Coven vs. the Seven Wonders

With Fiona gone and no new Supreme chosen yet, Cordelia decides that all of the witches will endure the same trials of the Seven Wonders — this Sunday morning everyone will go through the test until a new Supreme is born.

For those curious here are the Seven Wonders in picture form from last night’s episode:

Make sure to swing back through next week as we close the book on American Horror Story: Coven for the season finale.