American Horror Story: Apocalypse Review: The End (Season 8 Episode 1)

Are you ready for the end of the world?

American Horror Story returns for its eighth incarnation, subtitled Apocalypse, with Season 8 Episode 1, “The End.” It’s an aptly-named episode and a fine introduction to what promises to be a campy season, with plenty of fun callbacks to characters and plots of seasons past.

That said, some may have been disappointed that this installment isn’t more explicitly about Season 1’s Murder House and Season 3’s Coven. After all, this long-hyped outing was advertised as the series’ first crossover between those two earlier seasons.

But not delving into (or more accurately, resurrecting) those old fan-favorites — yet, anyway — is likely the best move for the new season. It manages to set itself apart right away as its own thing, without relying on Murder House or Coven to set the stage.

“The End” is a strong, fast-paced opener. It truly starts things off with a bang (if you’ll forgive the bad pun), as the world literally ends within mere minutes. We’re quickly introduced to the core group of new characters, starting with billionaire socialite and wannabe Instagram influencer Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt (Leslie Grossman), her much-harangued personal assistant Mallory (Billie Lourd), Coco’s hairstylist Mr. Gallant (Evan Peters), and Gallant’s nana Evie (Joan Collins).

The tone is a pretty pitch-perfect mix of humor and genuine emotion. The show gives us really funny moments, like Coco dumping her husband, Brock (Billy Eichner), over the phone once she realizes she can’t wait for him to get on the plane to The Cooperative’s bunker.

But it also gives us truly devastating scenes as well, like the anchorman saying a tearful goodbye to his kids on air and teenager Timothy (Kyle Allen) being ripped away from his family when The Cooperative’s agents arrive to collect him, along with other young adults who have “special” DNA.

The major set-piece, once the story gets going and the nuclear missiles wipe out all of civilization, is Outpost 3, where the group finds refuge.

Outpost 3 is perfectly spooky, decked out like a setting from an Edgar Allan Poe story more than the traditional nuclear bomb shelter you might expect. It’s basically perfect for American Horror Story, and it’s easy to imagine our characters, decked out in bizarre Victorian finery, going a bit cuckoo cooped up in there with limited food, the same song on repeat, and no one but one another as company for 18 months.

So far, the majority of the characters are intriguing.

Of course, the gloriously named Miss Venable leads the pack, largely thanks to Sarah Paulson’s chilly and malevolent performance. You can really tell that Paulson is enjoying playing a more villainous character, which is new for her on this series. The character is over-the-top and hammy as heck, which fits in perfectly with the rest of the season’s early vibe.

Her right hand lady, Kathy Bates’ Miriam Mead, also seems interesting — or at least brutal. She executes Stu without a blink after viciously torturing him and Gallant, for no real reason.

What’s most interesting about these characters, though, is that the show seems to be setting up Timothy and Emily as our two leads, with the others being sort of ancillary around them. Timothy even gets the voiceover near the episode’s end!

If that’s not just a misdirect, it’s an unexpected move, given that the two actors are some of the few new additions to the standard American Horror Story cast. It will be interesting to see if these two do end up being the heroes we will inevitably follow to the season’s conclusion, and the only two who will make it out alive. If the Murder House and Coven elements end up being secondary to Timothy and Emily’s story — well, I’m not sure how I feel about that. Let’s see how it goes.

And speaking of new additions to the cast…

Arguably the most exciting moment of the season premiere is the introduction of Cody Fern as a grown-up Michael Langdon. Michael’s arrival at Outpost 3 is the episode’s sole explicit link to an earlier season — Murder House, specifically, in which Michael was born to Vivien Harmon (Connie Britton), from her rape at the hands of ghost Tate Langdon (Peters).

The last we saw Michael, in Murder House‘s end of season flash-forward, he was a toddler being raised by Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) and had just murdered his nanny. From the brief re-introduction we get in “The End,” things are pretty much the same for him.

Michael arrives, led in a very spooky black, irradiated horse-drawn carriage, looking very much like a Victorian-era vampire. He claims that he’s there on behalf of The Cooperative to choose who among Outpost 3’s inhabitants is worthy of being taken to a more secure and livable long-term shelter. He might take all of them, but he also might take none of them. That’s one way to amp up the already unbearably high tension in Outpost 3 — how very Antichrist of Michael!

It’s great characterization, and Fern is totally nailing the spooky yet seductive vibe so far. Visually alone, the casting is genius — he really does look like a perfect mix between Peters and Britton.

All in all, I have high hopes for Apocalypse based on this premiere. I’m praying the writers can pull off the delicate balance between making this season its own while reintroducing elements and characters from Murder House and Coven.

Stray Thoughts, Observations, and Questions:

• “The stew is Stu!” Macabre, but silly — which pretty succinctly describes American Horror Story itself. And on that note… RIP, Stu.
• So we know that Timothy and Emily are “special” because of something in their DNA. Will we ever find out what exactly that “specialness” entails, or is it going to wind up being one of those dropped storylines that the series is (unfortunately) so well known for?
• It’s interesting that we see how six members of the group wind up at Outpost 3, but we have no idea how Andre, Stu (RIP), and Dinah wound up there. Perhaps we’ll see their origin stories in a later episode.
• Venable tells Timothy and Emily that Outpost 3 was once a boys’ boarding school, which sounds a lot like it might’ve been the male equivalent of Coven‘s Miss Robichaux’s Academy For Exceptional Young Ladies, pre-nuclear apocalypse.
• Venable explains the hierarchy of the elite “Purples” wearing purple and the servants wearing and being designated “Grays.” But she later reveals in conversation with Mead that they’ve made up most of the rules and punishments and have taken control of the place. So is the Purples and Grays thing something they made up to screw with everybody, or is this one of the few places where they’re abiding by the guidelines The Cooperative set?
• There’s no specific reference to what year this season takes place in, but I’m going to guess it’s circa 2040. This is based on the fact that Michael was born in 2011 (when Murder House was set). Assuming Michael is supposed to be the same age that Fern is in real life (30), that puts Apocalypse sometime in the 2040s.
• I’m so curious to see how the show will pull off having several actors playing multiple characters. Tate and Mr. Gallant could not be more different! Ditto Cordelia and Venable.

What did you think of the season premiere of American Horror Story: Apocalypse? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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American Horror Story: Apocalypse airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.

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