What genre would you consider the film Se7en to be? At its most basic level, it’s a crime/psychological thriller, bolstered by heavy neo-noir elements. But it certainly has some horror to it, too, with its grotesque bodies and menacing, evasive killer. While this season of American Horror Story has most frequently been compared to the 1980 film Cruising, often copying portions of the movie scene for scene, its closest equivalent may in fact be Fincher’s 1995 movie. With NYC, we have the deterioration of the city, moral decay, and a murderer whose work represents a broader, metaphorical project. Or at least that’s what much of the season had been about so far. Now, with the Mai Tai Killer dead, maybe the remainder of the show has a brief opportunity to become something different.
Not that being evocative of Se7en is a bad thing — as I mentioned in previous weeks, the storyline surrounding the Mai Tai Killer was among the most compelling bits of the show. However, there may have been no other place for his story to go. As the seventh episode begins with Patrick, Gino, and Henry all now trapped in the killer’s lair, it was either the three of them who had to go or Mai Tai. In the few minutes before his death, however, Mai Tai explains the purpose of his project even further. The Sentinel, as it’s called, isn’t just an aesthetic Frankenstein’s monster, but a functional one that he believes will actually come to life. It’s a vision that really ought to have been seen through, to the point where Mai Tai’s death is almost a bit disappointing. Later in the episode, when Gino writes an op-ed for the paper explaining the Sentinel, we’re offered what appears to be a fantasy in Gino’s mind about what the monster could have done. We see him defending a homeless man from random attackers, saving a sex worker from a crooked cop, and beating a hypocritical politician who calls for the criminalization of homosexuality despite pursuing it himself. The addition of the Sentinel as an actual character would have been a fruitful, satisfying, and very AHS-y contribution to the season. I am holding out a bit of hope that we haven’t seen the last of him.
Nevertheless, the death of Mai Tai now frees the season up to explore the two lingering mysteries of the illness and Big Daddy. Episodes seven and eight appear to make the case that the two are deeply connected, yet exactly how is unclear. Hannah reveals to Adam that half of the people who have presented her with symptoms have disappeared, one of whom was Adam’s roommate who went missing early in the show when we first saw Big Daddy. Whether it’s Big Daddy killing them or the illness, it does not bode well for most everyone in the show — who doesn’t have at least one symptom at this point?
Still, few seem all that concerned about their own mortality as the result of the illness except maybe for Hannah. Gino is concerned about his own life and safety, but for other reasons. Episode eight takes place on Fire Island, with Gino and Patrick having previously booked a vacation home there and committed themselves to having a good time. Once there, Gino is unable to keep that commitment and is instead paralyzed by the sense that things still aren’t right despite Mai Tai being dead. “Fear is an indicator that something is wrong,†he pleads to Patrick. This itself is one of the season’s compelling through lines: the lingering and unplaceable sense of dread and doom. From the very start, we’ve been told “something is coming.†In many ways, however, the anticipation is almost worse than whatever that “thing†is. The fear is unraveling them just as much as their actual reality. The illness and Big Daddy could themselves just be manifestations of it.
We get further evidence that Big Daddy is, at minimum, not entirely human. Having followed everyone to Fire Island, Big Daddy attacks Gino and Adam in their vacation home, but Patrick shoots him in the head before he can do much damage. They go to call 911 but decide to return to the body to unmask him when, uh-oh, his body is gone. Maybe he’s some kind of spirit. Maybe he’s like Michael Myers.
Though Big Daddy’s whole deal is still TBD, we do get to see more of other characters’ true colors. With Patrick’s big secret already out, we no longer have as strong of a sense that he’s hiding something malicious. Of course, there’s still a chance he’s got more secrets, but he’s far less suspicious. In episode six, it seemed almost as though Sam would get similar treatment. In episode eight, though, we learn that Sam is indeed the bad person we anticipated him to be after he drugs Theo and ties him to a tree. Henry, on the other hand, becomes increasingly likable. First, he cuts off his own hand to save everyone from Mai Tai, and later he exposes his own vulnerability in professing his love for Gino.
Henry proves himself not to be a total sociopath (no matter the context or character, Denis O’Hare is almost guaranteed to add sympathy and profound sadness to his roles), but he does still abandon Theo in the woods when he sees Big Daddy. This leads to the truly strange and exciting scene of Theo’s likely death, as he’s carried off into blue mist by all the men he’s photographed, who have now become part deer. It is a perfect combination of sad, beautiful, and deeply corny. Alas, it was time for one of the main characters to be killed. The answers to the illness and Big Daddy feel closer, and yet still more confusing, than ever.
Body Count
• We have got to talk more about real estate. I get that New York City rentals were once much, much more affordable than today, but still. Mai Tai can afford to rent out an entire meatpacking warehouse? A cop and an alt-weekly editor can afford a waterfront Fire Island bungalow complete with a pool? A nice little cottage, maybe, but c’mon.
• Back to the Sentinel: The montage of him beating up bad guys seemed partially imagined, partially real. Is it possible that Gino, Patrick and Henry managed to put Mai Tai’s heart in the Sentinel and fire him up? I don’t know how they would have figured that out, but it seemed lightly implied.
• With Hannah going back home to her mother, will we ever see her again? She seems essential in uncovering the illness, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if this marks her end.