‘American Horror Story: Coven’ Season Finale Recap: A New Supreme Rises

A new Supreme is crowned but who among the last witches left alive will make it to the final scenes of American Horror Story: Coven…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Music is phenomenal inspiration for writing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stuck in the quagmire of writer’s block only to have a song play that causes my fingers to start stroking the keyboard in rapid succession and just minutes later I have an entire story written.

It seems then that Ryan Murphy — creator and author of all the different American Horror Story incarnations — found his muse during his incantation to find the spirit to write ‘Coven’ the newest version of his macabre tale with an overlaying soundtrack by the wonderfully talented lead singer from Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks.

Her songs appeared throughout the season especially present whenever swamp witch Misty Day was around, and eventually she was revealed as a friend to the witches via Supreme Fiona Goode, going as far as playing a couple of tunes during an episode dedicated to her very name. So it stands to reason that the final season in what I believe has been the best year of American Horror Story yet kicks off with Stevie Nicks wandering around Ms. Robichaux’s academy for girls in a classic music video set to the track ‘Seven Wonders’ as we watch all of our remaining witches prepare for the tests they are about to endure to crown a new Supreme.

It reminded me so much of one of the great music montages from a favorite horror movie of mine — Nightmare on Elm Street 4 — when Alice prepares for battle against dream baddy Freddy Krueger by packing up items from all of her dead friends set to the backdrop of fantastically synthesized 80’s music. There’s probably a dozen examples of this same scenario playing out in horror movies from throughout the decade but that one stuck out the most so it’s getting drawn into the comparison.

Zoe lifting her bed in the air as a show of her telekinesis, Madison boiling up her bath water with bubbles and lighting fires all around, Queenie reaching out to Nan and Cordelia preparing to crown a new queen of her coven. So 80’s, so fantastic, so American Horror Story.

Frogs in Hell

So we’re off to the races with the final four witches (still alive anyways) who will be going through the trials of the seven wonders. The one who can complete the tasks will be crowned the new Supreme, but these tests aren’t only difficult, they are dangerous. There’s no guarantee each will make it through this alive. Cordelia put it best when she half quoted the bible in her final ‘pep’ talk for the girls about to undergo the tests.

“To quote the Bible loosely – I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, but when I became a woman I put aside childish things. Childhood is over my girls put aside fears, reservations, petty things, and kick ass tomorrow” ~ Cordelia

The first test is telekinesis, which seems to be the easiest of the tests for the four witches as they all pass with flying colors. Up next is concilium or mind control — Misty makes Queenie slap herself around and in return she makes Misty pull her own hair a few times. Madison and Zoe aren’t nearly as nice when they get to test one another. Madison uses Franken-Kyle to make her point as she forces the boy built of doll parts to come over, make out with her and then lick her boots. Zoe fights back by pulling Franken-Kyle over to kiss her instead before Madison in turn bends his mind to have him choke Zoe. It’s a wicked game of back and forth until Cordelia finally puts a stop to it.

The third test is descenum where the witches will be forced to travel deep into their own personal hell and escape again. Queenie drops back into fried chicken hell and quickly gets out again as she first did a week ago. Zoe awakens and reveals that her hell was Kyle breaking up with her, over and over and over again. Madison (the show stealer all season long) awakens to the horrific trauma that is starring in a live musical (burn NBC!)

“It was horrible – I was stuck on a network musical. It was a live version of the Sound of Music and I wasn’t even the lead, I was Liesl” ~ Madison

Unfortunately, Misty isn’t waking up. Her hell is a classroom scene from her childhood where she is trapped, forced to dissect a frog. She brings the dead animal back to life only to have her science teacher force her to kill it again, to cut it up and carve out its insides. This goes on forever as Misty screams in terror as she’s tormented to continuously take life only to give it back again. Cordelia cries as Misty fades away into a pile of dust, and we’re down to three.

It was a sad ending for Misty, who really was the only witch to strive for good things throughout her tenure on the show, but really that seemed to make her the perfect target to never make it out alive. Much like ‘Game of Thrones‘, there’s no place for pure compassion when there’s a sword at your throat. It’s kill or be killed and Misty is gone.

Tag, You’re Dead!

With Misty gone, the rest of the remaining witches are onto the next test — transmutation or teleporting. Quickly the witches turn the power into a parlor trick and game as the pop around the house tagging and surprising each other at every turn. The girls insist that they need a moment of levity after watching their sister die, but it’s all fun and games until some gets their midsection torn out. One transmutation too many for poor Zoe, who pops up impaled on the school’s fence, now the second casualty of the trials. Franken-Kyle screams in horror as his girlfriend is now dead.

In the greenhouse, Queenie tries as best she can to bring Zoe back thus saving her fellow witch and proving that she has the power of vitalum vitalis aka resurrection. Last week, Queenie had no problem bringing Misty back to life after she suffocated in the coffin courtesy of Madison, but this time around she can offer no breath of life to bring Zoe from the land of the dead. So Cordelia and Myrtle turn to Madison, who at this point is the last remaining candidate for the trails. They beg her to bring Zoe back to life, but she scoffs at the idea. Instead she kills a fly, brings it back to life and crowns herself the new Supreme. The other witches aren’t impressed by her lack of compassion, and Madison goes full on Madison at their dismissal of her powers.

“So either crown me or kiss my ass” ~ Madison

A New Supreme Rises

It should have been so clear to Myrtle all along when the coven was on the hunt for a new Supreme. Fiona Goode may have been a terrible leader all these years but the one thing she managed to do during her selfish life was create a daughter like Cordelia and in her veins flows royal blood. Myrtle insists that it was Cordelia the coven has been searching for this entire time, but because she was so beaten down and suppressed by her own mother all these years, her powers never manifested.

So Cordelia begins to undergo the seven wonders and one by one she knocks them down. Finally she challenges Madison to a game of divination (reading signs, tea leaves, that sort of thing). Both are asked to read a pile of trinkets and figure out where in the house a piece of property belonging to a past Supreme resides. Cordelia once again has no trouble with this test, but Madison isn’t so lucky. She tries on a couple of occasions to find the item but fails while Queenie laughs in her face. It’s clear now that a new Supreme has risen — Cordelia was the choice all along, but Madison is quite upset at that prospect.

Instead of crowning her new queen, she storms off in a tantrum ready to leave New Orleans and go back to Hollywood where people are ‘normal’. She leaves them with one last threat before she goes.

“I suggest you change the locks because when I tell TMZ everything, it won’t be long before torches, pitchforks and Molotov cocktails become a real big part of your day” ~ Madison

As she exits, Cordelia heads back to the greenhouse to bring Zoe back from the dead, which she does with no problem. Madison starts packing when Franken-Kyle shows up and tackles her to the bed, strangling her for refusing to save Zoe when she had the power to resurrect her. It’s odd that on a couple of occasions we’ve seen the witches show great power, but when physically attacked they can’t exude the same strength. You’d think Madison would set Kyle on fire or transmutate out of his grasp, but instead she falls dead. Just then creepy ass Spalding reappears and tells Kyle that no one is going to miss this one bitchy witch. Especially not after they bury her in the backyard. Thus we say goodbye to Madison — hey, at least she doesn’t have to spend eternity dressed up in a human doll outfit forever playing with Spalding.

Burn, Witch, Burn

Myrtle is so proud of her dear Cordelia, but all of this work that led to the crowning of a new Supreme also means her time on Earth is finished. You see, Myrtle committed the gravest of crimes when she murdered her fellow witches on the council. Now to prevent Cordelia from enduring a marred start to her reign, Myrtle says that she has to be burned at the stake (again) to pay for her crimes.

Reluctantly, Cordelia agrees and with Zoe and Queenie by her side she watches her Auntie Myrtle burst into flames and cinder.

Coming Out of the Closet

Flash forward a few months and Cordelia is instituting a new policy with the Salem bloodlines — no longer will they hide in the shadows. She invites all of the witches from around the globe to come join her at the academy. Cordelia does all of this in a taped television interview, which harkens back to the final episode of last season’s American Horror Story: Asylum when Sarah Paulson (playing the lead character there as well) did an interview before finally facing off with her son, New Bloody Face.

Before she can enjoy the fruits of her labor, however, Cordelia hears a rustling in the school’s great room and the familiar stink of cigarette smoke. Sitting in the corner, under a smattering of grey locks and a black dress sits Fiona — still alive (just barely) and greeting her daughter. As it turns out, Fiona’s grand plan actually worked — she imbedded a memory in the Axeman’s head, making him believe he had killed her, when in reality she just covered him in goat’s blood and flew to Paris for a few days to let the craziness die down. She knew that the coven would kill the Axeman, thus eliminating him from her life, and with her out of the way the girls would finally find the new Supreme. At that point, Cordelia could return, off the new Supreme, and keep on living.

The only problem is she never anticipated the new Supreme being her own daughter. Throughout the course of her life, Fiona looked at Cordelia as a curse and not a blessing. She was the reminder that death was stalking her, looming around the corner and at every turn. As it turns out, Fiona’s premonition was correct because Cordelia’s birth was what eventually led to her death because she was always going to be the new Supreme. An emotional Cordelia sat facing her ailing mother, who was clinging onto life with just one fingernail left on the ledge, as a few tears streamed down her cheek. Fiona sat in dissolution at the fact her daughter was crying for her.

No, Cordelia wasn’t weeping for Fiona at all actually.

“I’m not crying over you. I’m crying for me. You were the monster in every one of my closets. A lifetime spent either trying to prove myself to you, get close to you, or get away from you” ~ Cordelia

The mother and daughter embraced, maybe for the first time ever and as it turns out the last time as well because Fiona died in Cordelia’s arms, shuffling off this mortal coil.

Moments later, Fiona awakens in bed, her head full of hair and her health restored. But she’s in a small wooded cabin with chickens outside squawking and when Fiona looks out the door she sees the Axeman with two catfish in hand, ready to gut them and fry up some dinner. Fiona looks around in horror to realize she’s trapped in the cottage the Axeman spoke about a few episodes ago. After being slapped down by her lover for her attitude, Fiona realizes that this world, this humdrum life is her own personal hell. The Axeman even adds onto her misery by commenting that he’s in heaven. All the while as Fiona screams in torment, Papa Legba sits on the other side of the house laughing at the eternal torture he’s just unfurled.

A New Day

Cordelia is the new Supreme and there’s a line of witches around the block all waiting to be let into their new home at the academy. Zoe and Queenie are the new council serving as Cordelia’s right hand while Franken-Kyle all suited up in a tuxedo serves as the new butler (presumably with Spalding offering up advice whenever need be). As the girls shuffle in, one asks ‘what’s a Supreme?” to which Queenie answers and leans towards Cordelia ‘she is’.

Cordelia smiles and gives her new coven a small piece of advice and direction for the future.

“We survived, up until now that’s all we’ve done. But as I look at your faces, all of them beautiful, all of them perfect, I know together we can do more than survive. It’s our time to thrive” ~ Cordelia

And thus we close the book on the final chapter of American Horror Story: Coven. All in all, I believe this was the best complete season of the show thus far. Season 1 was certainly scarier and for a horror show that’s probably a better base for a complete season, but Coven offered up a few grotesque moments, some great character development and the snappiest dialogue the show has ever seen. Next season will begin production over the summer as we await word on how Murphy and company will twist and torment us for the next year of American Horror Story. As we say goodbye to the coven, give Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Seven Wonders’ one more listen and see if you can guess where the show will go for season four later this year. Thanks for coming along on the ride with me this season!