Now that eight full episodes have passed, I'm calling it: no one on American Horror Story: Coven is going to die. We're faced with a tale of horror, torture, blood, and violence and not a single member of the cast has bit the dust and stayed there. While it was a major relief when Madison (Emma Roberts) returned to us, Kyle's (Evan Peters) resurrection story is growing on us, and life without Fiona (Jessica Lange) would have been unbearable, the element of fear is gone. Where many contemporary dramatic series have taken on the attitude that "no one is safe," AHS' stance is to protect everyone.
The problem is that it makes it truly difficult to care whenever any danger rears its head. Cordelia's witch hunter husband is mowing down witches? No worries. Fiona or Misty can just bring them back. Madame LaLaurie has lost her head (literally)? It's cool. She's still alive and speaking. Ah, voodoo. Myrtle burned at the stake? Let's bury her until all her skin grows back then use her against Fiona. No biggie. Even Spalding, who hasn't returned to his human form, remains a ghost with the power of communication and the ability to pick up a spoon and medicine in the real world and feed it to Fiona. Between him and the Ax Man, it's clear that not even ghosts have restrictions in the AHS world.
So if normal people like Kyle and Patti LuPone's Joan are brought back to life, immortal people like LaLaurie can't even die when decapitated, and the witches are all too keen to bring each other back, then what are we so worried about? At this rate, the war between voodoo and witches will never end because everyone will just keep on living and starting it over again. Hell, even a video game with infinite lives appears to have more at stake than this plot.
Sure, Fiona has cancer and it will probably finally kill her when the new Supreme truly rises, but every time she claims it's taking over or notices her hair falling out, she emerges at the end of the episode with strength and the glow of tenacity. That cancer will only be a threat once she's actually ready to be gone, and by then, we will be ready too.
At this point, the only thing we're truly worrying about is understanding what the hell is going on and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing — I'm not one to begrudge a quest for understanding — there is a level of cognitive dissonance involved in a horror series that doesn't deliver fear of mortality. And that leaves us with one very important conclusion: the season-ending resolution had better blow our magic-loving minds.
Image: FX
