In the ‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ recap, Cordelia decides to allow Michael Langdon to test himself against the Seven Wonders to find out if he is the next Supreme…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ was off to a slow start through the first few episodes but the two most recent offerings have really upped the ante in the massive crossover between the first season ‘Murder House’ and the third season titled ‘Coven’.
Last week saw the return of the witches of Miss Robichaux’s Academy in a flashback episode that showed the origin of Michael Langdon’s attachment to the coven after he was embedded with a group of warlocks that wanted nothing more than to take power away from the witches.
Because no male has reached the level of Supreme, the warlocks always play second fiddle to the ladies but in their desperation to gain power over the witches, they failed to realize that the wizard they let through their front doors was actually the son of Satan.
Thanks to Langdon’s special connection to hell, he’s been able to complete feats no witch or warlock has ever been able to accomplish — including returning Queenie and Madison Montgomery from the dead — and he’s on the cusp of proving that he is the most powerful magician in the world usurping even the current Supreme, Cordelia Goode.
And that’s where we pick up in the latest episode with even more characters from the past making their return including Misty Day and the White Witch herself Stevie Nicks, who performs a piano solo version of ‘Gypsy’, which was completely out of place yet somehow fit perfectly in this menagerie of madness and the end of the world.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ titled ‘Boy Wonder’…
Back from the Dead
The very sight of Queenie (returned from the Hotel Cortez in ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’) and Madison Montgomery (locked in a revolving door of suffering after she failed to complete the Seven Wonders) back from the dead is enough to separate Cordelia Goode from consciousness as she passed out in the final moments of last week’s episode.
While she was out, Cordelia has a waking nightmare where she envisions the future where nuclear fallout has destroyed her school, robbed away all of her powers and she stands confronted by a white faced demon that looks a lot like Michael Langdon. With no way to use her magic, Cordelia’s dream ends with a group of cannibals feasting on her flesh.
Cordelia wakes up in a panic but soon realizes that she’s at the warlock school and both Queenie and Madison are actually alive and well. She greets them both with a hug, much to Madison’s chagrin, and she’s over the moon that Langdon found a way to bring her girls back from the dead.
She does manage to tell everybody about this apocalyptic vision that she experienced while she was unconscious that may serve as a warning for something wicked that’s coming their way.
That’s when Cordelia makes a shocking decision — she will allow Langdon to test himself against the Seven Wonders to prove whether or not he’s actually the next Supreme (or in the case of a warlock, a mythical figure known as the Alpha). The rest of the witches are shocked but Cordelia has made up her mind and two weeks from now she will return to administer the test to Langdon to see if he’s truly as powerful as he seems.
Back home in New Orleans, Myrtle laments the decision to even allow Langdon to attempt the test considering no man has ever come close to completing the Seven Wonders much less ascending to the role of Supreme.
Sadly, Cordelia has to then reveal that her powers are already fading as her body is also withering away — the first signs that a new Supreme has already been born but not yet discovered (much like her mother Fiona experienced when we first met her in ‘Coven’). Myrtle believes there are far more worthy candidates to take her place at the witches’ school including Mallory, who has not only been able to bring dead animals back to life but she’s actually transformed fully grown adult animals back into babies.
There’s also another witch who just arrived — Coco St-Pierre Vanderbilt — who is not all that convinced that she’s all that powerful considering the only thing she’s been able to muster so far is detecting gluten in food. Cordelia calms her down by saying she’s not detecting gluten but she’s feeling when something is bad, which is a whole different kind of power.
Still despite this influx of talent to the school, Cordelia knows that her time is running short and she needs to find her successor and Langdon might be the person to lead them as the next Supreme.
Burn Them All
Back at the warlock school, head chancellor Ariel and the other lead warlocks are offering a blessing to Langdon before he endures the Seven Wonders from the witches. During the ceremony, John Henry (Cheyenne Jackson) notices a brief glimpse of that white-faced demon that Cordelia mentioned from her nightmare and suddenly he’s not so convinced that Langdon is the savior everyone believes him to be.
John Henry decides to go on an excursion to New Orleans to have a conversation with Cordelia about his concerns and even Chablis is powerless to stop him.
Sadly, John Henry’s trip is cut short (quite literally) when he happens upon a gas station and meets Ms. Mead — the flesh and blood Satan worshipper who raised Michael Langdon since he was a child. She slices the back of his ankles and then slits his throat to ensure he won’t be telling Cordelia anything. Just for good measure she covers him in gasoline and sets him ablaze.
After returning to the school, Ms. Mead meets up with Langdon again and tells him that he’s closer than ever to his ultimate goal. Langdon infiltrated the warlocks so he could eventually become the new Supreme solely so he could destroy the coven from the inside out and clear a path for his ultimate goal to burn the entire world down to ashes and remake it in his own image.
It turns out, Ms. Mead even had help from warlock leader Ariel, but he has no clue that Langdon is actually the Antichrist. Instead, Ariel is just thirsty for power so the warlocks can finally take the throne away from the witches and he’ll do anything to get there — even overlooking the fact that he’s assisting the son of the devil to become the Alpha.
The Next Supreme
On the even of the blood moon (a brief reference to ‘American Horror Story: Roanoke’), Cordelia and the witches return to administer the Seven Wonders where Langdon will test himself to see if he’s actually the next Supreme.
Michael takes almost no effort completing Telekineses. Mind Control. Transmutation. Divination. Pyrokinesis. Vitalum Vitalis — with only one test left — Descensum.
That one is going to require an extra test of skill as Cordelia requests that Langdon brings back Misty Day, who has been occupying a seat in hell ever since failing at this very task when she attempted to complete the Seven Wonders.
Despite protests from the warlocks, Langdon accepts the challenge and he finds Misty reliving her worst nightmare where she resurrects a dead frog in science class only for the teacher to force her to cut it up while it’s still wiggling — over and over and over again.
When Langdon arrives, he guts the teacher and finally frees Misty from her torture in hell.
Langdon returns to the warlock school after descending into hell and a few moments later Misty is resurrected alongside him. Cordelia is thrilled to see Misty alive and well and with that she declares that Langdon will become the next Supreme. Even the mention of that transition has Cordelia falling apart with a nose bleed as her body begins to fail her now that the new Supreme have been discovered.
Before Langdon can be anointed, Misty tells Cordelia that there’s something evil about him because she witnessed him communicating with the other demons in hell. There’s something not natural about Langdon and Misty would know considering how connected she is to the Earth.
Misty also tells Cordelia that despite her wishes to rejoin the coven, she’s not up for this battle any longer. After spending so long suffering in hell, Misty just wants to return to her old life and leave the coven behind. As a parting gift, Cordelia invites the white witch herself, Stevie Nicks, to perform for everybody at the warlock school.
A performance of ‘Gypsy’ follows with Misty absolutely enamored by Stevie’s singing (remember Misty was obsessed with Stevie Nicks during the ‘Coven’ season).
While that private concert is taking place, Cordelia sneaks away to a separate room with Madison, who she is tasking with a very important job. It seems Cordelia has no plans to hand over the keys to the kingdom to Langdon but she had to test him with the Seven Wonders to find out the kind of power he possesses.
During the course of her manipulation, Cordelia even managed to get Langdon to bring back all of her girls from the dead so they could help forge this war against him when it’s finally time to fight.
With that, Cordelia hands Madison a plane ticket with a mission to go to the source of Michael Langdon’s power to find out everything she can about him. Chablis overhears this conversation and confesses that he’s started to have questions about Langdon as well and decides to escort Madison on this ever so secret mission to find out more about Michael Langdon.
That’s when we discover that Madison and Chablis have traveled to Los Angeles where they will purchase and then inhabit the infamous ‘Murder House’ where everyone who dies there, stays there for eternity.
Langdon was conceived under this very roof when the ghost of Tate Langdon had sex with Vivien Harmon and he was the result. This was also where Michael’s grandmother once resided, which means next week will bring the return of Constance Langdon — aka Jessica Lange coming back to ‘American Horror Story’ for at least one episode.
What secrets will the witch and warlock find in the Murder House?
Tune into the next episode of ‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ next Wednesday night at 10pm ET on FX to find out.
