This week on the season finale of American Horror Story: Coven a Stevie Nicks video starts playing, with her singing some song called Seven Wonders. This serves as the backdrop as we see Queenie, Madison, Misty, and Zoe preparing for the test of the seven wonders.
Myrtle and Cordelia oversee the tests. Cordelia explains that this may be the first time the seven wonders are used to name the new Supreme, not to confirm the incoming one. Fiona was supposed to find her replacement, but instead tried to kill anyone she thought might be the new Supreme.
The tests begin, and all four pass the first two. Misty is unable to return from Hell during the third test, and dies. This leaves Madison, Zoe, and Queenie. During the transmutation test, the three play a game of tag, finally having fun for the first time in forever. Cordelia warns them to be careful, and lo and behold, Zoe somehow ends up spiked on top of the fence.
Zoe is near death, and Queenie tries to bring her back to life, but is unable. I guess this means Queenie is out of the running for Supreme. Cordelia tries to guilt Madison into doing it, but Madison gives them an ultimatum – make her the Supreme or she’ll leave. Zoe is dead, and Madison doesn’t care. They all knew the risks going in.
Cordelia tells Myrtle that if Madison was to be the next Supreme, then maybe it’s better off that the coven just dies off. Myrtle (for some reason not mentioned until right now) thinks that Cordelia is actually the most likely next Supreme. Seems kind of obvious, but yet it wasn’t mentioned until this episode.
Cordelia easily completes five of the seven wonders, and Madison suddenly wants back into the “competition.” The next test is divination. Cordelia is able to figure out where a specific item is hidden in the house, but Madison can’t do it. Madison, upset that she isn’t the Supreme, says that she is going back to Hollywood, and will tell everyone about the coven.
Madison is upstairs packing when Kyle confronts her about letting Zoe die. He starts strangling her, and doesn’t stop until she is dead. At the same time, Cordelia is bringing Zoe back to life. Spalding shows up to help Kyle get rid of Madison’s body. Cordelia comes to after saving Zoe, and her face is normal again.
Cordelia is the new Supreme, and this is where the show kind of went off the rails and totally lost me. Reminiscent of “AHS: Asylum”, Cordelia is having a sit down interview with a national news channel, basically coming out as a witch. She wants to come out into the light instead of being buried in the darkness.
Tons of girls are applying to the school, and Myrtle is so very proud of Cordelia. A very sappy conversation happens, ending with Myrtle begging to be burned at the stake for killing the council members. She doesn’t want any skeletons in Cordelia’s closet as far as keeping Myrtle around. I guess burning a woman alive is better than being thought of as a hypocrite. Cordelia obliges, and they burn Myrtle as the stake.
Cordelia senses something, and tells Zoe and Queenie (the new council) that she has to take care of some business before they open their doors to the new applicants. She goes downstairs and Fiona is there! Now that Cordelia can finally see all, the truth is revealed.
Fiona told the Axeman that she was only going away for two days until Cordelia could find the next Supreme. She put a false memory in his head of killing Fiona, and then she disappeared. The witches killed the Axeman for Fiona, and Fiona would be able to take out the new Supreme.
But things have changed a bit. Fiona’s cancer has become much more aggressive, and she has instead come back to have Cordelia kill her and put her out of her misery. Fiona knows she wasn’t a good mother. Every time she looked at Cordelia she saw her own death. It was nothing personal, and she loved Cordelia plenty, just in her own way. Cordelia tells her that no one can help her; she had to do it alone.
Cordelia and Fiona embrace, their first hug according to Cordelia. And the first time Fiona has had to feel real human emotions. Fiona dies in Cordelia’s arms, and awakens in a bed in a cabin. It appears that her personal hell is to wake up every day married to the Axeman. I guess she never really was a people person.
Cordelia lets in the new class at the school, and tells them that up until now all the coven did was survive. Now it is time for them to thrive. Someone asks what a Supreme is, and Queenie tells them they’re looking at one. And that’s the end of the season. The last three words I wrote down in big letters were “Kinda really lame.”
The resolution of this season just didn’t really do it for me. It was a bit too sappy and “regular TV” in the last few moments. I guess it was trying to show that all the evil was gone, and now only good remained. But, it was just too “all wrapped up in neat little package” for me. The series has already been green lit for a fourth season, and I will definitely watch whatever they put out.
While I feel that each season has been a little worse than the one before it, they still come up with some great ideas and very interesting subject matter. Let’s just hope the fourth doesn’t fall too far.
