FX Network’s successful TV series “American Horror Story”, created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, ended its third season, “Coven”, on Jan.29th with a finale that has enough plot twists to turn any audience member insane. “Coven” is about a school of witches run by Cordelia Foxx, the daughter of the supreme witch Fiona Foxx. It is revealed in the second episode that whoever becomes the next supreme will absorb all the life and power from the current supreme, which means Fiona’s fate was sealed from the very beginning. However, the reluctant Fiona refuses to die and begins killing any young witch that shows potential of becoming the next supreme.
During this phase Fiona appears to be a scheming, merciless witch that fears becoming weak, however she finds a transient happiness while dating the ghost the Axe man, a mass murderer. In the finale, the audiences get the first glimpse of a human Fiona, who dies after becoming human and succumbing to a rare cancer. During her last moments she apologizes to Cordelia for being a horrible mother and Cordelia and Fiona reach closure when they begin to share their deepest thoughts about each other and themselves. Co-creator Ryan Murphy ends Fiona’s story by showing a few minutes of Fiona’s after life where she is repaying all of her injustices.
Unfortunately, this part of the finale didn’t sit well with me. I know “American Horror Story” is supposed to be merciless and gruesome, but I felt that the Axe man shouldn’t have hit Fiona in hell because that is just hypocritical, since the axe man was supposed to be madly in love with her. Also, where did his rude, angry, and sexist attitude come from? And did Fiona really deserve this right after she apologized to her daughter? As much as I am a fan for blood filled horrors, this finale really disgusted me with its lack of humanity. If you’re looking for a stomach churner, this is the show for you.
Among the many deaths that did not do the show justice, was Myrtle Snow’s. Myrtle, the rival of Fiona and kind mother figure for Cordelia, asked to be burned at the stake alive so Cordelia can lead the coven into a safe future. I love Myrtle’s altruism more than anything, but this action was so unnecessary that it was on the border of stupidity. Myrtle killed two corrupt witches who deserved it, in order to give Fiona a pair of eyeballs; thus, all of her actions were morally right! Logically, her death would have probably given the coven more trouble than if she stayed alive. One of the loving characteristic of Myrtle was her calm and wise presence, however the finale corrupted that as well.
Cordelia, as next supreme, begins to bring the coven into a new era of publicity and acceptance. At first, all is well and the creators of the show do a good job in explaining how Cordelia went about exposing the coven of witches to the public. However, the last few minutes leaves too many questions unanswered. All past seasons have an ending to wrap up the storyline completely; however this season is an open end. For all we know the coven of witches was growing up until the witch hunters regained their strength and killed them all. Thus, the final fate of the coven is something the audience will never see.