And just like that, we are halfway through the ninth season of American Horror Story. As “Red Dawn” opens, we pick up right where we left off, only a handful of people at the camp remaining. There is an anticipation to see who will survive the night, who will make it to daybreak. While some may seem more likely than others, “Red Dawn” was not without its surprises, in the final seconds leaving viewers wondering, “Where do we go from here?”.
We all have darkness in us…
If this concept has not been driven into viewers so far this season, “Red Dawn” made sure to not let it go quietly into the night. Slowly, with each episode’s release, we have witnessed each character display their dark side – whether it be in the past or present. Each had the capacity for evil within them, each with their own reaction to its existence. Ray (DeRon Powell) was a murderer, Montana (Billie Lourd) was filled with revenge, the Donna Chambers (Angelica Ross) released the devil for her own means, Margaret was a mass murder (Leslie Grossman). Even Benjamin “Mr. Jingles” Richter (John Carroll Lynch) discovered his dark side, realizing he was capable of the horrific murders he was originally accused of but had never actually committed.
As the episode opened, we were given the last piece to the puzzle behind Donna’s unconventional means of rehabilitating and understanding of serial killers. In 1980, under the suspicion her father was cheating on her mother, Donna staked him out, entering his home to catch him in the act. Though the act she catches him in is beyond one she could have ever imagined. Lying on the bed, a woman bleeds out, her guts spilling out of her abdomen, photos of all the woman before her hung with care on the wall.
While Dee Dee tries to save her, his attention turns to saving her father (Star Trek‘s Tim Russ), who has returned to clean up the mess. He believes the darkness is within him, that he was born evil. While she refuses to believe, he kills himself in front of her, igniting a fire and a guilt to find redemption and understanding in those killers that have been caught. There is a need to believe that her father was not born evil, that the darkness was something that came to him – not something he was born with. Yet, as the Red Dawn approaches, she finds herself beginning to believe that evil is a part of us – all of us – and accepting the darkness she has already released inside herself.
And like Donna, the woods is where all the evil within all our characters is revealed. The killer claiming to do God’s work, the Natural Born killers, the accidental murderer and the self fulfilling property. AS this is only the mid-season, I feel this is not the end of this discussion. With Satanic members new and old free by episodes end and evil having survived the night, there is still more to be discussed and understood.
Nods to horrors of the past
Though, true to the final girl troupe, Brooke (Emma Roberts) seems to be the only pure spirit in the group, an innocent who makes it to the dawn. Though her story is far from over as she has her own consequences to contend with in episodes to come. Yet, she is the one who found the strength to fight back, to survive. Like the Final Girls before her, she has seen the end. She has not compromised herself beyond self-defense. But where does she go from here? While we have to wait to find out the rest of her story, this adherence to the Final Girl troupe was only one of the small nods of AHS 1984 towards the horror genre.
Last episode, I had called out Margaret for not obeying the rules, shooting Mr. Jingles in the abdomen and not the head. You always shoot them in the head. Color me shocked when she called out her own behavior, using her seemingly last breaths to tell Jingles she “should have shot him in the head”. There is a recognition, even when broken, that there are rules in a horror film, ones that are expected and that bare consequences when not adhered too.
Splitting up never works out well for the majority of the group, yet it always happens. Here, it was amusing to hear Brooke tell the group splitting up was bad, “strength in numbers”. As the group does begin to split, each running into their own directions, they each find themselves facing their final moments of the night. – many of them meeting an end that would have surely been avoided had they all just stuck together.
Purgatory
AHS 1984 added to the mysterious purgatory that plagues many of our seasons. Murder House held tight to the soul of any individual that died there. Roanoke and Hotel followed, each confining the spirits of those who passed on their premises. Even Coven had its moments, each witch trapped in their own personal hell. AHS 1984 is no different, those who have died trapped on the campgrounds, unable to leave.
While some clearly enjoy it more than others, it opens its own wealth of questions. Why was the hiker the only ghost from the 1970s murders that we have seen thus far – where are the rest of the campers? Are only those who were evil in the present forced to remain confined to the woods? Is this their repentance for their actions while in the living? I feel this is not the last we will see of our ghosts in their new forever home, many answers to our questions hiding just within the tree line.
Where do we go from here?
There is such a finality to the final moments of “Red Dawn”. While it leaves viewers with questions regarding the survivors, there is a satisfactory ending – one that could be the conclusion to any horror film. Though it is a conclusion that screams for a sequel, yearns for a “Return to Camp Redwood”. With the second half of the season left to still air, and the follow up episode giving attention to the survivors, it feels as though that is exactly what we are going to get – a sequel.
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