Welp, another one bites the dust on American Horror Story: Freak Show. Although the last few moments of "Magical Thinking" looked like Neil Patrick Harris's Chester may be offed by one Dandy Mott, NPH will live to see another freak show day — but Dell will not, as Dell was just killed by Elsa. Of all of the people who could have died on the show, Dell isn't really a tough one to swallow (aww, I bet he would have liked that pun). Dell already attempted suicide (but was stopped by his wife Desiree) and he killed Ma Petite. So, the strong man has had this coming.
The most surprising thing about his death was that Elsa was the one to kill him. Desiree finally confronted Dell with the knowledge that he had killed Ma Petite and was holding a gun to his head. When he finally admitted he smothered her, Elsa shot him in the head from behind. The things that I find most fascinating about the whole scene though are:
1. How the hell did Maggie get Ma Petite's body out of that museum? I'm assuming that would have cost a lot of freakin' money.
2. The police literally had just arrived to raid the entire freak show looking for Jimmy. Are you going to tell me that Elsa is somehow going to get away with shooting a man while police are milling about? I'm sure she will, but there are limits to the shit I will believe, American Horror Story. There are limits!
The only reason why it's even sad that Dell died is because he was finally turning around to become a decent person, which is exactly why he had to die. By the rules of TV (and AHS in particular), anytime any character shows that much self-improvement, they gots to go. He wanted to buy the freak show with his son Jimmy, he opened up about his childhood (where he was alienated and abused by his father for not having the "lobster claws"), and he joined with Amazon Eve to help Jimmy escape imprisonment. The last point is why the police are now searching the freak show since Dell killed a police officer while freeing Jimmy.
But, in the infamous words of Pat Benatar, Dell — "It's a little too little, it's a little too late." You can try to be good, but there's no way Ryan Murphy is going to let you live in the world of American Horror Story with an attitude like that.
Image: Michele K. Short/FX
