Our second visit to Outpost 3 in the latest instalment of ‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ proved just as intriguing as last week’s offering.
While the series launch helped set the scene, and introduced us to the few survivors of the end of the world, episode 2 saw things beginning to come apart at the seams, with accidental murder, unsettling sex and some sort of leaky-robot-ribcage thing all thrown in for good measure.
As we get deeper and deeper into the drama, here are all the questions we want answers to in next week’s episode…
1. Let’s start with the obvious - what was going on with Mead at the end of the episode?
When Timothy fired that gun at Mead at the end of the episode, the closing shot saw her reaching into her side, where she was leaking some sort of off-grey oil, in place of blood. A close-up of her innards also looked like she was more animatronic than human, leaving us pondering Kathy Bates’ character’s origins.
2. Who was in the rubber suit?
The other big mystery of the episode. We’d initially been led to believe that it was Michael Langdon who had sex with Gallant in the rubber suit, though this later emerged to be highly improbable (we’d say “impossible”, but this is ‘American Horror Story’, after all, where absolutely nothing can be ruled out).
Of course, the suit itself is the first explicit throwback to ‘Murder House’ we’ve seen in the current crossover series, and in the show’s initial run, the suit was worn by another of Evan Peters’ characters, Tate.
However, as a ghost, Tate was unable to leave the titular ‘Murder House’, so if it was him in the rubber suit this time around that means two things:
1. Tate has somehow found a way to leave the house
2. Two of Evan Peters’ characters have now had sex with each other which… is probably the most ‘American Horror Story’ thing we can think of.
3. Is Joan Collins Evie actually dead?
Let’s be honest, repeated stabs to the chest with a pair of rusty old scissors don’t exactly scream “long life ahead”, but given that moments earlier Gallant had thought he was stabbing the Rubber Man, it could be that all isn’t as it appears.
Either way, we hope this isn’t the end of Joan Collins’ ‘American Horror Story’ journey already, as she’s stolen every scene she’s been in thus far. And while we’re on the subject...
4. How did Gallant end up stabbing his grandmother?
First of all, stabbing Michael Langdon just because he didn’t fancy him would have been an overreaction in itself, but the fact what he thought was Rubber Man actually turned out to be his poor old gran was a pretty grim turn of events.
Whether his murderous moment was inspired by rage, cabin fever or a more sinister presence in the air at Outpost 3 (let’s not forget the snakes, or the “666” written on the mirror last week) remains to be seen.
5. Oh yeah, the snakes! What was all that about?
Where did they come from? And how did they come back to life? We’re still to find out for sure, but considering that snakes are often a symbol of the devil in Christianity, it’s probably got something to do with Michael Langdon’s arrival.
6. And what about those other Biblical nods?
Perhaps we’re looking a little too much into it, but we couldn’t help noticing some parallels between Timothy and Emily’s story and the first story in the Bible. Their time in Outpost 3 could be new take on Adam and Eve, between all the snake action and their discovery of the Apple (computer…) that led to them having sex for the first time.
7. Why did Venable instate all those rules?
After her rules about “no unauthorised copulation” stuck out to us last week, we discovered in this episode that Venable made up the rules herself, with no instruction from The Cooperative. The question is, was she just going mad with power, or is there more at play here?
8. What’s going to happen to Timothy now?
In just one short hour’s worth of ‘American Horror Story’ action, Timothy broke a number of the rules instated by Venable, not to mention the fact he literally shot Mead at the end of episode. Given that we’ve already seen sex is punishable with death at Outpost 3, we wouldn’t hold out much hope for Timothy’s future in next week’s episode.
9. And Emily?
Considering “copulation” is a strict no-no at Outpost 3, we’re guessing there wasn’t a whole lot of contraception kicking about. A lot of the ‘Apocalypse’ promo material featured an eerie image of a baby, and while many fans assumed this was a reference to Michael Langdon, could it be that Emily and Timothy conceived a child at Outpost 3? And what would that mean for them?
10. What was the significance of Michael Langdon’s story about that young mother?
When he was interrogating Venable, Michael took particular care in sharing the details of an encounter he had on his way to Outpost 3, when he refused a woman’s request for him to have mercy on her infected children and kill them. Could we potentially meet this woman later in the series? And with a number of former characters tipped to return in future episodes, is it someone we already know?
11. Who will be deemed worthy of salvation?
According to Venable, the only one of them worth not abandoning at Outpost 3 is Dinah, and that’s only because she hasn’t had the chance to get on her nerves yet. It’s ultimately up to Michael Langdon, though, and we’re intrigued to see whether he’s as ruthless when it comes to the decision-making.
12. Will we learn anymore about Gallant’s backstory?
In her outburst about her grandson’s pat, Evie disclosed a lot about Mr Gallant’s history, specifically all the times she’s been forced to pull him out of difficult situations. What we noticed weren’t mentioned, though, were his parents, who we’d be keen to know more about, especially as he was so close to his grandmother (until he offed her with a pair of scissors, that is).
13. When is the Coven turning up?
That Stevie Nicks tune on the radio can’t have been a coincidence. We are fully ready.
‘American Horror Story’ airs on Thursday nights at 10pm on Fox, after which episodes are made available to stream on NOW TV in the UK.