(SPOILERS AHEAD, so witch your step, Coven fans!)
Season Three, Episode Eight: “The Sacred Taking”
Written by: Ryan Murphy; Directed by: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
After a little Holiday break, it’s time to see where the chips fall after all the new alliances were made in the last episode. Ryan Murphy even took time out of his busy schedule to write this week’s installment. As Queenie dramatically quotes from Game of Thrones (consciously or not): “War is coming.”
Quick Breakdown
Queenie is lurking around a shady homeless hangout, a girl on a mission. Zoe and Madison show up, trying to get Queenie back on their side. She laughs in their faces and says Laveau is a better teacher than Cordelia (or Fiona) ever was. In fact, she’s here to get a dark heart that Laveau will use in a spell to give Queenie more power. She cuts open a rapist’s chest and pulls out his heart. She then declares war: voodoo vs. witchcraft.
Cordelia summons the remaining witches for a war council. Before they even think about Laveau, though, they must get rid of Fiona. She warns that they have only one shot before Fiona catches on and retaliates, so it must go off flawlessly. Her plan involves an old witch ritual called “The Sacred Taking,” which requires the current Supreme to kill herself, allowing the next one to rise. They’re then interrupted by the doorbell. With no servants left in the manor, Zoe opens the door and sees her old pal Misty — and she’s in trouble.
While lying in bed, listening to Stevie Nicks, Myrtle (looking like she needs five more minutes of sleep) alerts Misty to an armed intruder (presumably Hank). They barely escape, making it to Robichaux’s in search of a safe place. Cordelia welcomes them in, seeing new allies in her quest to take down Fiona. Myrtle delights at the plan, and tells the witches that Misty is the next Supreme — a declaration that rankles both Zoe and Nan.
Fiona is feeling pretty under the weather; her cancer is taking its toll. With a limited time left, she starts packing for an escape (She’s always running away) with the Axeman, the only person who loves her. Hopped up on pills, she’s confused when she sees Madison in her bedroom. Madison baits Fiona with talk of replacing her as Supreme, unsettling Fiona. Madison gives her some pills and saunters out. Myrtle replaces her as the ghost of murders past, telling Fiona to give up on her dreams of a happily ever after with the Axeman who will inevitably grow tired of a dying hag. Fiona succumbs, pulls on a fur coat, and takes the plunge into the afterlife.
Then Cordelia’s plan backfires thanks to the overzealous Zoe. Spalding appears next, with a bottle of ipecac in hand. He belittles Fiona for falling for the witches’ trap (reveling that as a ghost he can finally speak again), and forces her to fight for her life and power. Downstairs, Myrtle plays a “mawkish” dirge for Fiona, as they await her death. Fiona, looking healthier than she did an hour ago, slinks into the room, looking for the swamp witch they claim will really be the next Supreme.
Next door, Joan is trying to purify her tainted son Luke. To purify his insides, she forces him to withstand a potent baking soda enema. It seems every mother this season is unhinged. Nan, furious that no one thinks she could be the Supreme and worried for Luke (whose wailing thoughts she keeps listening to), runs over to the Ramsey house to save her love. She finds him tied up in the closet and tries to escape with him. Joan appears to stop them, but it’s Hank and his sniper rifle that takes out Joan and Luke before anyone can escape.
Over in voodoo land, Laveau shoos away Queenie from feeding the animal, LaLaurie. Still in a cage, she tells Laveau to do her worst since she, LaLaurie, can’t die anyway. At the manor, Zoe has left Kyle with a laptop and an educational program to teach him words and feelings. After the murder plot goes awry, she goes up to check on her Franken-boyfriend. He confesses that he loves her and she reciprocates; Madison overhears the exchange and actually sheds a few tears.
Just as Fiona shows up to find the little swamp witch, Misty runs away. She must be naturally drawn to death because she goes right next door to Patti LuPone’s bullet-ridden body. Fiona pops in to say hi to Misty, urging her to work her powerful resurgence skills (arguably the hardest of the trials for the new Supreme) on Joan. While she does this, Cordelia manages to get her all-seeing hands on one of the bullets, having flashes of her spurned husband Hank pulling the trigger.
The next morning, Fiona has a heart-to-heart with her daughter. She tells Cordelia that she’s very proud of her, eliciting amused shock from Cordelia. She’s happy the coven tried to knock her off because they were finally showing some true grit. Once again, conversation is interrupted by the doorbell. “Where are all the servants?” Fiona intones again. She opens to the door to find a box. After doing a witchy TSA-security scan, she brings the box to the kitchen. When she opens it, she finds Gwyneth Paltrow’s head (just kidding!). Fiona finds LaLaurie’s head in the box (which should come as no surprise if you read Entertainment Weekly a couple weeks ago).
Rating
A
This episode wasn’t really laden down by guest stars, and focused mainly on the core cast. What are the odds Jessica Lange uses this episode to garner her next Emmy nomination? It didn’t take long for them to attempt to kill Fiona (I half expected that storyline to last until January), and now they’re moving on to bigger baddies like witch hunters and a voodoo war. There are still five more episodes this season, and it feels like the real fun is only just beginning.
Now for some random thoughts and my favorite moments of the night…
There were a slew of great quotations this week; I’ve included the best ones.
“Do me a favor, die before Thanksgiving so none of us has to suffer through that mess of raisins and styrofoam you call stuffing.” – Cordelia to Fiona after her mother announces her impending death by cancer.
“What the hell happened to the staff in this house?!” – Cordelia when no one answers the door.
Myrtle affectionately calls Cordelia “blind as a butter knife.”
“Can you imagine those poor Salem witches traveling down here in covered wagons without a proper charcuterie platter or a bidet? Absolutely savage!” – Myrtle
“You’ll be hash browns by this time tomorrow.” –Madison as she threatens Fiona with death by fire.
Myrtle tells Fiona that Madison reminds her of a young Fiona, “Thin as a pin with a dreadful case of the Me, Me, Me’s.”
