American Horror Story: Cult Episode 4 Review

I wasn't a huge fan of the latest episode of American Horror Story: Cult, but I've really enjoyed the season as a whole so far. Let's see if they can keep it up with this episode, which sees the return of Emma Roberts (!) and a flash back in time.

The episode takes up back to election night, with reporters Beverly and Serena getting into an altercation when Serena says that she's been asked to sit at the coverage desk. We get to see all of our beloved (and not-so-beloved) characters in line to vote. One by one, they head in to vote. Ivy happily votes for Hillary, but (as we already know), her wife Ally casts a protest vote for Jill Stein, which she agreed not to do just minutes before voting. Kai and Gary come in to , and Gary is clearly not in great shape. He's bleeding, but Kai makes sure he gets in a Trump vote. When Gary gets out of the booth, we see that he no longer has a hand, and that's why he was bleeding. This is a decent opening segment, and we're definitely starting to see who's a member of the titular Cult in this season, with Kai potentially being the leader (or just a REALLY enthusiastic member). I still have concerns about Ally's psychiatrist being the real Cult leader, though.

At Funtime Fitness on the day after the election, Harrison is assigned as Kai's trainer. Kai requested him personally, which confuses Harrison a bit. Kai begins feeding his beliefs to Harrison, and seems to connect with Kai. His boss asks Harrison to clean something up in the steam room, and neither Harrison nor Kai is pleased with the request. While cleaning the steam room, Harrison hears a noise. He them walks over to find one of the traditional AHS: Cult smiley faces. While he's changing, Harrison sees Kai in the shower, um, enjoying himself. At the Wilton house, Meadow informs Harrison that the home is being foreclosed on, and that she's been keeping it from him. She pretty much blames him for it, since he isn't bringing enough money in. The next day at the gym, Vinny (the boss from earlier) tells Harrison to keep Kai on as a client or he's fired. So he tries to sell him on it. Kai catches on to this, and he's not pleased. Harrison tells Kai what's going on with his house, and Kai gives Harrison some encouragement. Then, Vinny returns and tells Harrison to clean the steam room again. Kai comes back with him, and he draws the smiley face. Kai tells Harrison to tell Vinny how he really feels, and Harrison goes and sprays Vinny in the face with cleaner. Harrison pushes a weight onto Vinny, and he  crushes him with it, nearly killing him. Harrison's horrified, but Kai wants Harrison to finish Vinny. So he does. Afterwards, Harrison freaks out in an office room. Kai tells Harrison that he's got everything figured out. He's already sent texts to all of Vinny's friend telling them he'll be out of town. He erased the security footage. He knows that Vinny doesn't have any family. Kai then tells Harrison to take care of the body, which he does. We then see Meadow walking home, and she asks someone for some drugs. When she gets to their hotel room, she hears Kai coaching Harrison on how to dismember Vinny's body. She walks in to find blood everywhere in the bathroom, with Harrison in the bathtub cutting up Vinny's lifeless body. This segment started out slow, but it became 10x more interesting about midway through, and I'm hooked now.

It's now December, and Beverly pulls up to a landfill, where Vinny's body has been dumped. His head and hands have been removed, in an attempt to conceal his identity. Kai is rewatching the news coverage, and he's trying to figure out where Beverly (who was on a break from the station) was. He heads to the internet, where he sees footage of many people harassing Beverly. She attacks one of the men. Then, he sees footage of Serena reporting on Beverly's admittance into a mental health facility. At the news station, Bob and Serena are being super creepy when Beverly walks in. Bob demands that Beverly cut a minute off of her (actually important) piece to make room for Serena's. Beverly's mad. So mad, in fact, that she heads outside with a knife to slash some tires (yay! fun!). It's then that Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs Kai walks up, and he takes her for some coffee. Kai tells her she should be getting violent with her enemies, not tires. He wants to recruit her for his cult, and she doesn't get why. He thinks she has "it" (as in the clown movie?), and she doesn't really want anything to do with him and his cult. I enjoyed this portion of the episode, and I'm interested to see where Beverly's storyline can go. She hasn't done much yet, so I think something significant will happen with her (to her?) very soon.

Serena is recording a piece for an Adoption fair. Some clowns are starting to appear, and they stab Serena and her cameraman. And they don't just stab her, they obliterate her. (Aww, no Today show for you, Serena!) Meadow is showing Kai some of her drawings, and he really likes them. Then, Beverly shows up. He asks if he has Serena killed, and he admits to it. He says he did it for her, and she decides to jain the clown cult. Later on, a severed head has been found, and it's Vinny's.

Now it's the day before the election, and Ivy is trying to get Ally to go to a rally to protest Trump. Ally won't go, but Ivy goes anyway. At the rally, Ivy gets in a confrontation with Gary, and Winter goes after him when he assaults Ivy. Ivy and Winter decide to go for some food, and Ivy takes her to the restaurant. Ivy and Winter bond over politics and their beliefs. At the grocery store, Gary closes up, when he finds Winter. Then, Ivy uses a taser on him, and Winter grabs some tape so they can tie him up. (Or rather, Tie! Him! Up!)

Ivy and Winter have tied Gary up, and are keeping him hostage until after the election is over. The ladies both leave as if they aren't committing a major crime, and Winter goes home. In her room, Winter is looking at herself in the mirror when Kai appears in the doorway. Gary's still screaming for help, when Kai comes down the stairs. It's election night, and he wants to go to vote. Kai shows Gary a saw that he brought, and Kai wants to cut off Gary's hand. He tells Gary how he's so oppressed and mocked, (he even insults Samantha Bee, which isn't cool!) and so Gary agrees to the amputation. Gary gets to do it himself, but Kai wants to watch (because he's psycho!).

This was a pretty good episode, and I definitely enjoyed it more than last week's episode. Emma Roberts's guest starring role was very underwhelming though, and I was hoping for more than THAT. I did love Billy Eichner and Leslie Grossman this week, and they're proving to be true MVPs of this season by bringing some odd humor to the season despite the dark tone of the show. Chaz Bono was also great, and Adina Porter is always a welcome face, so I'm glad that we got more of Beverly this week. I missed Ally though, she wasn't in enough scenes this week, though it made sense why she wasn't.

My Score: 8.5/10
My Grade: B+

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