In the ‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ recap, Langdon begins testing everybody at the outpost to find out who will be worthy of joining him at the Sanctuary and Ms. Mead is keeping a big secret…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Two episodes into the massive crossover season of ‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ — which will feature the return of characters from ‘Murder House’ and ‘Coven’ — except for one major problem.
Through the first two episodes, there have barely been any crossovers whatsoever.
Last week’s debut episode ended with the arrival of an adult Michael Langdon, who was the son of Vivien Harmon and ghost Tate Langdon and he’s actually the Antichrist. That was a nice twist after a rather mundane introduction to the season.
This week saw the return of the Rubber Man from ‘Murder House’ — and that’s actually Langdon’s father Tate (or at least that’s who it was during the first season) — but there was no unmasking during this hour.
Instead what resulted was ‘The Hunger Games’ of the Armageddon as the people living in Outpost 3 started to undergo a series of tests from Langdon to find out which of them would be worthy to join him in the Sanctuary, which apparently is much safer than where they are currently staying (and my bet is the Sanctuary is built on the site of the Murder House in Los Angeles).
In the end at least one person was dead, another was whipped, and Ms. Mead was shot and later revealed to be some kind of alien?
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ titled ‘The Morning After’…
The Testing Phase
The episode begins with a bit of haunting when Emily hears a noise coming from her closet before discovering that her room is being bombarded with snakes. When Ms. Mead arrives with her giant bodyguard, she’s not scared but rather pleased that the house finally has some new protein to ingest.
Unfortunately the plans to eat the snakes goes awry when everybody in the house goes to eat their bowl of stew and suddenly the reptiles are very much alive and slithering back to life. The snakes were a symbol of the witches during the ‘Coven’ season so it would stand to reason they were the ones responsible for these reptiles invading the outpost but there were no answers given before the end of the episode.
Meanwhile, Langdon’s arrival at Outpost 3 was met with curiosity from the guests and a healthy dose of anger and worry from Ms. Venable and Ms. Mead, who have been running this place under their own set of rules for months while believing that the Cooperative had already been overrun and was no longer in charge.
After unseating Ms. Venable from the head of the table, Langdon informs the occupants of the outpost that he’ll be chatting with everybody in a series of tests to determine who will move with him to the Sanctuary and help repopulate the Earth. Those who aren’t deemed worthy will still get one final gift from him — a suicide pill that will allow them to fall into a blissful sleep called death rather than being ravaged by radiation poisoned cannibals willing to eat anything and anyone who moves.
As soon as the testing is announced, Mr. Gallant is quick to volunteer to go first.
His meeting with Langdon consists of harsh warning not to hold anything back or he’ll know there are lies being told him and that will put an end to any chance Gallant has to survive.
The questions then consist mostly of an inquisition into Gallant’s sexual preferences while digging into his true feelings about his grandmother Evie. It seems Gallant hates her guts, especially considering the way she’s treated him as a gay grandson. Gallant then asks his own questions by wondering if Langdon might be gay, too. He doesn’t get the answer he wants in the moment but after retiring to his room to enjoy some self-gratification, a knock on the door is heard.
When Gallant opens his door he’s greeted by the Rubber Man, who quickly walks into his room before the two of them engage in some rather loud sex. Of course, Gallant believes it’s Langdon beneath the mask but in reality this is some Evan Peters on Evan Peters action as the Rubber Man is actually Tate Langdon (or we at least assume that’s him).
Gallant doesn’t hear his grandmother peaking around the corner as she busts her grandson engaging in carnal activities — after they were all warned that sex was not allowed inside the outpost.
Every Man and Woman For Themselves
Langdon moves from Gallant to Ms. Venable for his next interview and the two continue to remain at odds over her decision to implement rules that were not dictated by the Cooperative. She attempts to lie her way out of the situation but Langdon can see through her every deception.
Still it seems that Langdon might be warming to her while sharing a rather awful story about meeting a mother and child along the road who wanted nothing more than for him to kill her kid so he wouldn’t have to suffer any longer. Langdon denied her request and that put a brief smile on Venable’s face.
Langdon’s testing then moves to a more physical form of humiliation as he demands Venable remove her dress — but he’s not trying to get physical with her. Instead, Langdon is pointing out the curved spine that causes her to walk with such a severe limp and it’s her greatest shame. As tears well up in her eyes, Venable wonders if this is enough to earn her passage to the Sanctuary but Langdon coldly responds with a no.
That’s when Ms. Mead arrives seeking help from Venable as they’ve been informed about some fornication taking place inside their walls. It seems Evie ratted her grandson out in a form of self-preservation and now they are going to make him pay for having sex while being told that it wasn’t allowed.
Venable and Mead end up whipping Gallant but he takes some kind of perverse pleasure in the act and they eventually leave when Langdon arrives. Gallant thanks him for the romp in the sack earlier but Langdon protests and says he’s never been to his room before much less that they had sex together.
In fact, Langdon tells Gallant that he wouldn’t screw him if he was the last man on Earth — and he’s not far away from that honor as it stands. As if that’s not bad enough, Gallant was sold out by his own grandmother, who tells other members of the house that she’s going to do whatever it takes to survive even if that means knocking off all of the other people who are still alive until she’s the last one standing.
Evie never gets the opportunity to pass Langdon’s tests, however, after Gallant endures a second meeting with the Rubber Man. This time around, the Rubber Man seduces Gallant and takes him upstairs before he’s the one thrown down on the bed in a fit of passion. Once again believing this is Langdon, Gallant lashes out with a pair of scissors and stabs him to death.
Gallant then turns around while painted in blood to find Langdon staring back at him from the doorway. When he looks back down on the bed, Gallant is horrified to see that he’s stabbed his own grandmother to death. Bye-bye, Evie.
Feels Like the First Time
As for Timothy and Emily — the two least interesting characters thus far — they are determined to carry out their love affair and are highly suspicious of Langdon’s arrival. While Emily suggests running away together after stealing some radiation suits, Timothy prefers a different plan of attack.
The end up sneaking into Langdon’s room and finding that he has an operating laptop complete with communications that were sent to him within the past day or so. Timothy and Emily — and everybody else left alive — were under the impression that the entire infrastructure was destroyed by the nuclear bombs.
As they start looking through his emails, the young couple discovers that Venable has been making up her own rules this entire time and copulation is not forbidden by the Cooperative. They make this discovery while the Rubber Man is hanging out on the ceiling watching their every move.
Finding out this crucial information leads the two young lovers to immediately jump into bed together but after a romp in the sack, they are discovered by Ms. Mead, who decides to dole out the appropriate punishment.
Her henchman is just about to shoot Timothy in the head when he gets the drop on him, kills the guard and then fires a bullet into Ms. Mead’s midsection. Her other gigantic guard subdues him before Timothy can fire another shot while Ms. Mead wanders out of the room, staggered from taking a bullet.
When she pulls back her dress, Ms. Mead reveals that her insides are anything but human as it’s a cavernous body filled with some sort of white puss like liquid that’s oozing out as a result of the gunshot wound. Ms. Mead looks stunned when she sees the gooey stuff dripping out of her insides and that’s going to be a question for another week as the bizarre episode comes to an end.
‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ returns with a brand new episode next Wednesday night at 10pm ET on FX.
