American Horror Story: Apocalypse | First Impression

Welcome back to The nerd shelf!

(I started writing this post last week but I wasn't feeling well so I didn't finish it until now. Also, I haven't watched the next episode yet.)

This weekend I watched the first episode of American horror story season 8: Apocalypse.

Now if you have never watched American horror story 1. why?? What the fuck have you been doing all these years??
And 2. American horror story is an anthology horror tv series created by the genius Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. Each season is a different storyline with its own "beginning, middle and end", following a different set of characters and settings. Every season has a different theme and some plot elements of each season are loosely inspired by true events.

If you like horror you should definitely watch this show, and the best thing is if you're not really enjoying one of the season (which I don't think will happen anyway) you can just skip it because it doesn't matter. Well almost, since we now know that there are some seasons that are linked but you do you.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

So my first impression of this season.

I didn't really know much going into this season. I knew that it was called Apocalypse and that it was going to be a "crossover" between Murder house and Coven which are my two favorite seasons. So this first episode was, as always, pretty confusing. The first eight minutes of the episode is so rushed. It wasn't until maybe four minutes in that I was going "oohhh... Apocalypse.. I get it now". Which I know is probably fucking dumb but whatever. I don't watch trailers for shows that I already watch, it just seems pointless to me and I don't want to be spoiled for anything.

The episode opens up with a scene where we meet Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt (Leslie Grossman) who is an aspiring Instagram influencer. She is the daughter of a billionaire but she wants to make her own money and of course, she will do that through Instagram. I think this is hilarious because there are so many people out there with the same aspirations of becoming a social media influencer and especially in Los Angeles.
We also meet Mr. Gallant (Evan Peters), Coco's hairdresser, and Mallory (Billie Lourd), Coco's assistant. When they get the alarm that there is a missile heading towards Los Angeles Coco doesn't believe it. She says it's bullshit and that they will retract it in a minute. She is in total denial when she gets a phone call from her dad. He and the rest of Coco's family are in Hong Kong and he tells her that it's real and that a car is coming to pick her up and take her to the airport where a private plane is waiting for her. He has reserved 4 spots for their family but they can't make it. And then she basically sees her family blow up. I can't even imagine going through that. Mallory gets her into the car and Coco calls her boyfriend, Brock (Billy Eichner). She tells him to get to the airport. Mallory tries to get through to her family but can't. She says that she needs to go home, but Coco convinces her to take her brothers ticket instead. A body crashes into their windshield because people are jumping off buildings to commit suicides to avoid the blast. That is just terrifying. I also don't know what I would do. Would I take my own life? I mean the blast will probably take care of that anyways...
Meanwhile Mr. Gallant goes to his grandmothers, Evie Gallant (Joan Collins), house. She doesn't believe that the missile warning is real and wants to call DONALD FUCKING TRUMP to see if it's fake news. I love that they threw that little tidbit in there. It gives us a picture of what kind of rich person she is.
Coco and Mallory get to the plane and Mr. Gallant and Evie are right behind them. Coco tells them that they can't come because Brock is on his way. Mr. Gallant says that it's chaos out there and that he won't make it. Coco decides that they can come with and tells them to get on the plane. She calls Brock who starts to run to the airport because traffic is so intense. People that work at the airport are coming for the plane and the driver tries to hold them off. Coco tells Brock in this really hilarious way that he's free to see other people as she gets on the plane and flies away.
They get into the air they realize that they don't know where they are going so Mallory goes to ask the pilots but there is no one there. Now how the fuck did that plane take off by itself? And how did it know when to take off? That's a question I'll probably never get answers to.
The last thing we see is the explosion and then they cut to the opening credits.

So after the opening credits, they cut back to before the explosion and we meet Timothy (Kyle Allen). We see him with his mom and brother as he finds out that he has been accepted to UCLA and they are all excited when his dad comes home. He's flustered and tells them what's going on as two cooperative agents come to take Timothy away. They tell them that they've gotten his genetic makeup through an ancestry website. Now I don't know if I'm alone in this but to me, it's kind of frightening to send your DNA to an ancestry website because they could do literally anything with my DNA if they wanted to.
Timothy's mom asks them to take his brother as well but they won't since they don't have the same genetic makeup. They bring him to what I'm guessing is a bunker and he's in this weird cell. There are cells on top of each other, and you can see through the floor and ceiling. Emily (Ash Santos) is the only other person in there. She seems much calmer than Timothy and she says that she doesn't know how long she's been there. She was taken from jail which she ended up in when she was arrested for protesting on campus. And then they hear the explosion and Timothy breaks down. He tries to convince himself that his family is okay. Emily lies down on to her floor and looks down at Timothy and it seems like she tries to comfort him. Right at this moment, I figured that there was going to be a romantic storyline between them.

Two weeks later they take Timothy and Emily to outpost three. It's one of ten around the world and they are each constructed in minimal fallout zones. At these outposts, there are other people like Timothy and Emily and people who can afford a ticket, aka rich people. The agents give them hazmat suits and tells them to put them on. They drop them off at a gate. There's fog everywhere and you can't really see anything except that everything looks kind of dead. They are greeted by someone in this black leather suit and a gas mask. She leads them through the fog and they see three other people in the same gas masks and suits like the one who's leading them. They are executing two people in gray clothes.
They are lead into this weird black circle building that seems to be built kind of like a spiral. I picture it looking like a spiral from above by how they get into the building.

Now, let's take a minute to talk about The Cooperative. From what I gathered they are an organization that was prepared for this kind of situation, and maybe even the cause of it? They select young adults to save from the apocalypse based on their genetic makeup. For what? I guess the obvious thing would be to repopulate the world, but you never know with AHS, especially not after the first episode. Anything could fucking happen.
Outpost three is one of The Cooperatives underground bases that's lead by Wilhemina Venable (Sarah Paulson). The design of outpost three is really cool. The inside reminds me of the house in Coven. It's a lot of white and there are some wood panel designs on the walls. It's lit up by candles and fireplaces. Mrs. Venable says that it used to be an exclusive boys school. She also talks about the apocalypse as the beginning instead of the end of the world. She tells us that The Cooperative "has plans far beyond the cleansing fire of the bomb" and that it's not made up of nations and armies and that it's "a collection of the dozen greatest minds mankind has to offer". She calls them the visionaries. Her belief is that technology is what destroyed the world and that social media gave people the illusion that they were equal. And then she says "But that's all been swept away. The natural order will restore itself." Now that line really makes me believe that The Cooperative is behind the apocalypse. Why else would she talk like that?!

So in outpost three, there are grays and purples. Grays are the workforce, they clean, cook and everything else for the purples. They are basically slaves. They are there to serve. The purples are the elite. They are the people that The Cooperative took based on their genetic makeup and the rich people that could purchase a ticket.
There are house rules, you can never leave the building, romantic relationships aren't allowed unless they're authorized (what the fuck?), and you have to be on time for meals.

Timothy and Emily are purples and they are left in their rooms to get cleaned up and dressed. When Timothy gets out of the shower there's a 666 on the mirror and a voice whispers "beware Timothy". Now there's a lot of people, me included, who believe that the 666 is connected to Michael Langdon (Cody Fern) that we meet at the end of the episode. Michael Langdon is Vivien Harmon and Tate Langdon's baby who according to Billie Dean is the living Antichrist. When he shows his ID badge at the end of the episode his ID number ends with 666.

One of the things that I loved about this episode is the makeup, hair, and costumes. These departments really deserve a round of applause because, holy shit. The whole look of Ms. Venable is AMAZING. All the purples clothes are stunning. They are all dressed in Victorian dresses and suits. The grays clothes and hair are great. Everything came together perfectly and it really shows the status of the purples against the grays. I loved it so much.

So Timothy and Emily go to the music room where we see Coco, Mr. Gallant and Evie who are all purples and Mallory who is a gray. Mallory is complaining about being a gray to Coco and we find out that Mr. Gallant refused to touch Coco's hair if he was a gray which I think is hilarious. The "cocktails" that they drink is mineral water. And there is only one song that plays on the radio over and over. Mr. Gallant thinks that there is some kind of message in the song. In this scene, we also meet Dinah Stevens (Adina Porter) who was an actress and a talk show host, Andre Stevens (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) Dinah's son and Stu (Chad James Buchanan). They all go to the dining room and the dinner is served. The food they get is a small gelationus cube that apparently contains every vitamin their bodies needs. Coco flips out because she's still hungry and Ms. Venable and Miriam Meed (Kathy Bates) comes in. Now again, the makeup that they have put on Kathy is amazing. They have her in a dark lip and no mascara and it makes her look so fucking creepy.
 This is where we find out that they only have nutrition for 18 months and if their situation doesn't improve they will have to count on less. They received a carrier pigeon from their benefactor with a message that said that there are no more governments, three outposts have been overrun and that they are the last vestiges of civilized life on the planet. It only took two weeks. They are trying to scare the purples, which works. And then they get the Geiger counter out. They say that they've detected a spike in radiation in the room and that they need to check everyone. Everyone is freaking out and it's a really intense scene. The Geiger counter goes off around Mr. Gallant and Stu. They take them away to a huge shower room. This scene makes me so uncomfortable because they are scrubbing them down with what looks like brooms and their skin is all irritated and red. I can just imagine how much this must hurt and it makes my skin crawl. Miriam comes in to check if they're clean and the Geiger counter still goes off on Stu so she shoots him in the head.

Next, we see Ms. Venable in her room in one of the purple dresses. Miriam comes to her room and she is also in a purple dress. It's obvious that they are doing something that they are not supposed to. The sit down to play some cards and drink some "cocktails" and this is where we find out that they had faked it with the Geiger counter. Miriam had set it to ten to make it go off. Ms. Venable is talking about how she likes to give out punishment, she seems somewhat sociopathic. Or maybe sadistic is the better word. She loves to see the other people afraid and in pain. Miriam, on the other hand, is a bit uncomfortable with them making up their own rules and terrorizing the guests. She respects the chain of command and she has a respect for The Cooperative and she has a hard time pretending they're not her boss anymore. Ms. Venable tells her to forget The Cooperative and that "it's only us". Now this conversation made me think that maybe the message that they got about there not being any more governments was fake. They faked the thing with the Geiger counter to terrorize the guest so why not fake the message as well to freak them out?

Then we're back in the dining room. Andre is having a hard time believing that Stu was contaminated and to make up for this hard time Ms. Venable has a treat for them. Stew. But oh no wait, it's not just a stew it's a Stu stew. Timothy is smart and he doesn't eat it and he gives Emily a signal not to either. Andre finds a finger bone in his stew and then everyone goes crazy. Of course, who fucking wouldn't. Well except Evie. She just keeps eating, telling herself that it's chicken.
   Afterward, they are all in the music room. Andre is crying and calling everyone cannibals and that's when the song stops. And then the song changes. Mr. Gallant thinks that there is a message in the song that's telling them to hold on and that The Cooperative is coming for them. Everyone gets full of hope. And then BAM. Smash cut to 18 months later. The same song is playing. Everyone is down in the dumps except Timothy and Emily who has fallen in love, as I suspected. They have to ration it to one kiss a week though so that no one finds out. I thought that this was really cute.
Ms. Venable tells them that they are cutting back on meals and that they will only have half a cube a day. People are freaking out when they get a perimeter alert. Miriam and one of the guards go to check it out. Through the gates comes a carriage pulled by two horses. And this is where we meet Michael Langdon. He shows Miriam his ID badge and tells her that he needs to talk to Ms. Venable. Before he goes in he tells her to tend to his horses. Miriam takes the horses to a cliff and shoots them. At first, I thought she went against orders but then his last line corrected me. And then the woods take the horses. Is there a monster in the woods? Or have the woods come alive from all the radiation? I WANT ANSWERS!
Meanwhile, Michael meets Ms. Venable. He tells her that three more outposts have been overrun and that the remaining three won't make it through the year. She asks him why he's there and he tells her that the same thing will happen to her. But he has good news though, there is another facility, one who is completely impregnable and stocked with enough supplies to last a decade. He then goes on to tell her that he's there to evaluate all of them and select the ones most worthy of survival. And he says it in such a creepy way too.

Okay, so that's the whole episode. Over all this made me really excited for this season. As usual, the first episode of the season makes me so confused but as the episodes go on it usually becomes somewhat clearer. I'm so excited to see characters from Murder house and Coven who I love and have missed. And yeah, I'm just looking forward to this season.

/Johanna