Hosts with the most (ghosts).
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
And so that was Hotel. Oddly ushered off into AHS oblivion by an overly-sentimental epilogue-y finale. As this series is wont to do. Every season so far has wrapped things up with a mostly feel-good, time-jump filled, faint finish that works to close off every avenue previously explored. Whether the arc was worth revisiting or not.
I will say though, Denis O’Hare’s Liz was always great this year. And so her being the cornerstone for most of this episode was a good idea. Because if anyone could get me to care about the Cortez, as a “fresh start/rebirth” opportunity, it’s her. It’s too bad that she still had to pine for Tristan when that relationship was never an investable thing, story-wise, but overall it was a good run for her. Right to the suicide by “room full of phantom friends” end (complete with Marianne Faithfull’s “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”).
First though, years earlier, pre-cancer, Liz and Iris had to convince Sally and Will (of all people) to stop murdering patrons to assuage their ghostly restlessness. Liz got Will back in the fashion game by Howard Hughes’ing him and then acting as his proxy in the outside world. Iris, on the other hand, introduced Sally to…FREAKIN’ INSTAGRAM! Seriously. Sally’s pain, and addiction, were cured by the instant connectivity she felt as an online presence. While Peter Murphy’s “Cuts You Up” played over the montage. You can’t make this stuff up. This was exceedingly American Horror Story.
Whether or not you actually cared about any of the self-absorbed a***holes this season was an extreme afterthought here as “Be Our Guest” was going to take us years down the road with this gaggle of ghost and ghouls, focusing in on emotional minutia that probably would have been better addressed beforehand. As in, why should I care about Will being despondent about his crumbling company? Or even the joy he feels at being back in the fashion game? He was a cut-out to begin with.
The addition of Murder House’s Bille Dean Howard (Sarah Paulson getting to do double duty here) was a nice touch. Now a famous TV medium, Billie was brought in to provide closure for Liz and Iris, but stayed, long after, to become a part of the tedious John Lowe epilogue. A regrettable add-on here featuring “what became of the Lowes.” A story I realized, about halfway through the episode when John was nowhere to be found, I didn’t need at all.
Nor did I need to see the return of the Devil’s Night VIP killer dinner. Especially as a long, dragged-out sequence where Billie slowly named each murderer she saw one by one. Hell, even the Mazzy Star song returned. That whole bit, back in “Devil’s Night,” was sort of lighting-in-a-bottle style craziness. We shouldn’t have gone back. This time it just felt too hokey. The weirdly over-mannered performances stood out more. It was a case of this show not being able to leave well enough alone and producing another over-long episode when it wasn’t necessary.
As mentioned, American Horror Story finales are usually steeped in sentiment, focusing more on closure than craziness. Weepy over creepy. It’s up to the season that came before it though to make us care about these characters. So that we’re invested in such a slushy shut down. Hotel, I’m afraid, was the worst at this so far as there was very little to truly care about here. Outside of Liz and her opportunity to shine in success and acceptance.
