AHS: Freak Show Review – “Orphans” (4×10)

I am, as always, of two minds regarding Freak Show. On the one hand “Orphans” is a simple, touching episode, one that uses a familiar but minor character to highlight the emotional journey the season, and the series, has taken on us on so far. On the other hand it plays as an overlong, lost episode of Asylum more than it does an episode of Freak Show. How you feel about the episode, ultimately, depends on your tolerance for Ryan Murphy’s attention deficit when it comes to blocking out a season of television. In the spirit of the holiday season (which is sadly not an excuse for a return visit by Murder Santa), I want to be as generous as possible to “Orphans,” which really is lovely for a bit. Pepper’s story is told in broad strokes, but the minimalist approach has maximum impact, in no small part owing to Naomi Grossman’s skilled, beautiful performance. There is no question that Pepper is a sketch of a character, here as fan service more than anything else, but that relative simplicity gives the episode’s final sequence an almost charming, storybook quality. That’s true of Mare Winningham as Pepper’s older sister, too; she fills in the barest of characters with an over the top personality that suits rather than overwhelms the story.

The episode looks great, too. As Elsa tells the story of how she first came to rescue Pepper from the orphanage, the scenes take on a blueish-white tinge, still bright, but a completely different palette than the series has used to date. The Briarcliff scenes, by contrast, slowly drain of color until everything is the washed out grey that Asylum so favored. The score, too, is wonderful, a fantastical, whimsical bit of music that is also rather unlike the season to date, and yet works more or less perfectly here. As a short story about this strange little character named Pepper, then, I would call “Orphans” mostly a success. As an episode of a serialized television drama, well, I can’t be so generous on that note. The voiceover early in the episode goes on FOREVER. The final third of the episode veers away from every ongoing plot, only to veer back in a last-second “shocking reveal”. What could happen over a decade that results in Elsa Mars getting onto the cover of Life magazine in 1962? I suppose we’ll spend the next three episodes finding out. It’s another frustrating instance of American Horror Story telling stories from moment to moment, with no regard for how these moments connect to each other. There’s a real sense of “what a twist!” storytelling here, with the magazine cover certainly, but also with the “reveal” that the various seasons are interconnected (which has by the way been so thoroughly reported by the entertainment news sites that enable this kind of lazy, shock-a-minute storytelling as to lose any element of surprise). Yes, the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-and-even-then approach has been with the series, and with Ryan Murphy, since time immemorial. But it very quickly shifts gears from original and vibrant to hackneyed and cynical. Also in this episode Stanley chops off Jimmy’s hands and sells them to the freak museum, and Maggie and Desiree go to said museum. The show treats these developments as just such an afterthought, choosing to spend much, much more time on Pepper’s ordeal and the return of Sister Mary Eunice. In fact we do not even see Jimmy lose his hands, but just the aftermath. (The previews suggest we will double back next time, because of course we will.) These scenes are functional, pushing the season to the point it needs to be when we return in January. But they lack the artistic interest of the rest of the episode, and it makes you wish that the same amount of energy that goes into the strangest, most divergent ideas of this season (Twisty the Clown, anything regarding Dandy, and now Pepper’s trip to Briarcliff) would also go into the main characters and storylines.

Speaking of Dandy, he is absent again this week, and I’m beginning to suspect that the success of any given episode is directly proportional to Finn Wittrock’s screen time. Anyway, it’s the Christmas season and I don’t want to be the Scrooge to Ryan Murphy’s Tiny Tim. (Ryan Murphy would of course most identify with Tiny Tim.) This is a fun little Easter egg to those of us who are ardent fans of Asylum’s particular approach to the American Horror Story tropes, and indeed, the bulk of “Orphans” feels like a lost episode of Asylum. For that reason if none other I’ll count the episode a success—but it would really be nice for the producers to get a more even keel on the story they’re trying to tell.   Stray Observations:

• Elsa purchased Ma Petite for the low, low price of three cases of Dr. Pepper. There’s a great underlying current here of Elsa treating her “children” as commodities, same as Stanley, same as her audience. The bookend of the last scene begs the question: how many more of her freaks will Elsa cast aside in her (apparently successful) scrabble for fame?
• Maggie’s fortune for Desiree and Malcolm Jamal Warner takes a dark turn very quickly, and Emma Roberts does a nice job of playing the woman scorned; she’s wickedly comedic and dry in her line deliveries.
• I almost wonder if we will return to Briarcliff again before the season is up. I can’t necessarily think of any justification for it, but I also know that won’t stop Ryan Murphy.