Meet the Mount Rushmore of Murder.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Through sheer madcap lunacy, American Horror Story: Hotel managed to tick up considerably this week with “Devil’s Night” – an episode that goofily focused on the best part of the series so far. That being Evan Peters’ Mr. March and his absolute adoration and respect for ghastly murder.
Here we’d meet, as March put it so eloquently, the “Mount Rushmore of Murder” in the living ghosts of Richard Ramirez, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Aileen Wuornos, and the Zodiac Killer. Zodiac who…CAME TO MARCH’S HALLOWEEN EVE GET-TOGETHER IN A MASK BECAUSE HE WAS NEVER CAUGHT SO THE SHOW COULDN’T EVEN ATTEMPT TO PRESUME HIS IDENTITY. That’s some serious schtick, right there.
As the vampire storyline thankfully rode in the backseat this week (it wasn’t gone completely though), Hotel’s goth soundtrack was also notably missing. In its place though was Cowboy Junkies’ “Sweet Jane” – a song that gained some traction after famously appearing in Natural Born Killers. Which made its appearance here, naturally, quite apropos.
Banshee’s Anthony Ruivivar filled the Night Stalker’s shoes while Twisty himself, John Carroll Lynch, was able to keep on “clownin'” as Gacy. And yes, that was AHS vet Lily Rabe as Wuornos (holding her own considerably in the role that previously won Charlize Theron an Oscar) and freakin’ Fringe and Arrow’s Seth Gabel as Dahmer. And the fact that most every bit of this sadistic soiree was treated like a weird, disposable one-off story made it even better. Because John (who, as a cop, had somehow never heard of Devil’s Night) woke up at the end and had been ticked into thinking he’d hallucinated it all. That he’d drank himself into a stupor and had vivid dreams of serial killers. And, of course, it was all played so ridiculously that it felt like a dream. I mean, that one shot of Wuornos, Ramirez, and Dahmer all slow-dancing to “Sweet Jane” while Dahmer still held the drill in his hand was one for the AHS record books.
The idea behind this grim, annual Cortez haunt was that all these famous killers were taught a few tricks by March, as he’d crossed paths with each of them during their formative years. They honored him as their teacher while he, in turn, respected their staggering success. Why was John there though? Hard to say. Is he a killer? Was March trying to wake him up to some of the atrocities he may have committed? Is he actually the “Ten Commandments” killer that he’s tracking?
I’ll say this though: It was mighty harsh of the Countess to swipe Holden from John and Alex simply because John turned his back to take a five second phone call. I certainly hope there’s more to it than that, because that didn’t track. Well, none of the Countess stuff did this week. Fortunately, it was only a small portion of the episode. But the Countess lectured Alex about neglecting her husband and children while she’s known for shuffling her own vampires kids off to a room filled with video games and candy.
We want to hear it.
Also, Alex brought Holden home without calling John or the cops? I understand that once she found out what he’d become, it would have been hard to tell anyone that she’d found him. But to not contact anyone immediately after taking him out of the Cortez? That’s typical AHS nonsense. And the fact that Alex is now the third character in three weeks to be transformed into a vampire most certainly devalued that closing moment.
And while he wasn’t invited to March’s party (perhaps since it might offend Hazel?) Gordon Stewart Northcott of the notorious Wineville Chicken Coop Murders got some air time this week as part of Hazel’s tragic backstory from 1925. An incident that, we can probably assume, helped turn her into March’s blood-soaked assistant.
While Hotel has certainly overplayed the “John somehow thinks it’s all in his mind” card, “Devil’s Night” gets a pass due to its bizarre, one-off vibe. None of the ongoing stories hold much water on this show, but there is fun to be had occasionally in the Hotel’s sordid, sinister history. Separate tales of horror and woe. And so tying March into the origins of our nation’s most vile killers was a nice touch.
