American Horror Story: Freak Show Recap “Test of Strength”: Come As You Are

In the latest American Horror Story: Freak Show recap, Stanley is determined to have his freak and the twins return to the freak show before turning the screws on Elsa….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

It seemed like only a matter of time before Stanley was finally able to hand over one of the freaks to the American Morbidity Museum, but after last week’s episode where his partner in crime Maggie was unable to put down the little sideshow act of them all, he was clearly in dire need of a new weapon in his quest to sell humans for cash.

He found his stooge in strongman Dell Toledo, whose taste for men and bars where he can pick them up backfired when Stanley caught him there looking for his male prostitute Andy (who is dead). Stanley’s deal is pretty straight forward — captured and kill me a freak and he won’t expose the secret, which in those days would have likely seen him ostracized from his friends and community (even in those days there was someway to make a person feel even less wanted than they already were and that’s the real tragedy).

So Dell had to search around the carnival to find the one person he could sacrifice to hand over to Stanley to keep his secret safe. But who didn’t make it out alive? Stay tuned for the full American Horror Story: Freak Show recap for “Test of Strength”.

Secrets and Lies

The episode opens with Jimmy walking into the Mott house where he finds Bette and Dot sitting quaintly in Dandy’s room. Gloria tells the boy that they didn’t kidnap the girls, but instead paid Madame Elsa to keep them. They are, however, free to go whenever they like. Jimmy has to turn up the pressure when he realizes from Dandy’s conversation that he was the one hiding behind the other clown mask when he and Maggie were nearly skewered a couple of weeks ago. He creates a panic and ultimately Dot convinces Bette to go back with him to the freak show. Dandy is not pleased.

Back at the show, the musical number this week involved Jimmy doing a version of “Come As You Are” by Nirvana but when he’s done, Elsa isn’t impressed enough to put him on the show. Jimmy snaps and says this number is going on and it will happen exactly when he wants it to go down. He lashes out at Elsa when all the other carnies gather round as he accuses her of selling the twins to the Mott family.

When Bette and Dot finally appear they have a different story entirely. Elsa just wanted them to experience the finer things in life for once and they were allowed to return any time they felt like it. This was their home after all. Jimmy’s dumbfounded, but not nearly as much as Elsa.

As it turns out the twins decided to keep Elsa’s secret in exchange for some friendly blackmail. They now get a big chunk of the gate money, Bette is given a makeover and her own comedy act and basically anything else they want. Elsa knows there’s more to this than what they’re letting on, especially when Dot isn’t making any demands. So she slips another note to the wayward twin asking what she really wants.

Dot wants to save money and go to Chicago to have the surgery to remove her sister once and for all. Elsa calls on Stanley to help track down this doctor, but he has another idea. Why not just kill them and put them out of their misery? Elsa scoffs at the idea at first, but seems to warm up to it when she believes Stanley is just looking out for her best interests (yeah, right). Unfortunately for both of them, Ethel appears to overhear the entire conversation.

First Attempt

Knowing that his secret will be exposed if he doesn’t carry out Stanley’s orders, Dell targets Amazon Eve as his first victim to hand over. He soaks a rag with chloroform and heads into her trailer. He puts the rag over her mouth but then he finds out another secret. Amazon Eve is freakishly strong and she ends up kicking his ass. Mission not accomplished.

The next morning Eve and the rest of the crew including Ethel are ready to carry out a little carnie justice on Dell. Jimmy intervenes and says he’ll talk with him “man to man” and convince him to leave the show all together. Ethel agrees, but if he can’t get the job done, they will.

So Jimmy and Dell head into town for a little drinking among men. There Jimmy gets plied with alcohol as Dell starts looking at his lobster hands as if this is the way to get Stanley off his back. With each drink Jimmy gets a little bit looser and a bit more honest until he tells the story about the time the carnival got stuck in Wisconsin for a whole winter. It was a brutally cold time for the rest of the troupe, but he enjoyed it because this was one time of year he could wear gloves over his lobster hands and no one would be the wiser. Dell tells Jimmy to give over his gloves and says if anyone so much as snickers at him, he’ll knock them into the middle of next week.

Following a couple of hours of drinking, Jimmy’s finally had enough but he’s got a confession to make first. He knows Dell is his father. He figured it out a long time ago. He confirmed it when some of the other carnies told him about Dell’s family, who all happened to be lobster handed freaks in a freak show.

When they get back to the carnival, Dell and Jimmy are best buddies and now father and son. Jimmy is as happy as can be that he has a father in his life for the first time and Dell finally connected with the son he tried to abandon 24 years earlier. Nobody in the carnival seems very happy about this development — most of all Ethel and Dell’s wife Desiree.

They’ve already had a crappy day after going to visit their favorite doctor and discovering that he killed himself after smashing his own hands with a hammer. They are devastated because this was the one medical professional, who treated them just like everybody else. And now he’s gone.

Something Slithers This Way

Paul is still recovering from his knife wound with Penny by his side every minute of the day. She finally leaves to go home and pack the rest of her things. She’s leaving her father and moving in with the freak show. Penny threatens her father and pushes him to do something about her exit, but he just calmly sits while discussing his legacy in the world. See if Penny’s leaving, she’s going to be gone forever and no one should ever confuse her for his daughter.

So he pays a tattoo artist to strap her down and tattoo her face while also forking her tongue. When Penny awakens in devastating pain, she looks in the mirror and sees her father has turned her into a human snake. She’s horrified and she runs back to the carnival. When Paul awakens he hears something over in the corner of his trailer. When Penny finally comes out of the shadows, he sees her face and immediately breaks down into tears. This is all my fault he says. Penny is now one of them.

Someone Has to Go

So far Dell is 0-2 trying to get someone from the freak show over to Stanley’s ominous barn where he will presumably gather the body and turn them over to the museum for a stack of cash. When attacking the world’s tallest woman didn’t work, he instead decides to go after the smallest target of all.

Dell shows up in Ma Petit’s trailer with a bow wrapped box. Inside is a beautiful purple dress. She tries it on and she smiles ear to ear with happiness for the present. She offers Dell a hug as thank you, but when he lifts the little woman in the air, he smothers her face into his shoulder until she passes out and then he snaps her neck. Poor little thing.

The next we see is back at the American Morbidity Museum and they have a fine new display to show off. When the curtain is lifted, a giant jar filled with formaldehyde is revealed and inside is Ma Petit, perfectly preserved and floating in death. Stanley finally got his specimen, but there’s no way he’ll ever say one is enough.

American Horror Story: Freak Show returns in two weeks with another new episode at 10pm ET on FX.