The Best And Worst Of “American Horror Story: Hotel” Episode 11

"You may be a witch but I'm a ghost!"

From: NewNowNext

 The eleventh episode of American Horror Story: Hotel is titled “Battle Royale,” and I’m pretty sure Ryan Murphy has never even seen the controversial Japanese film.

At best, he heard Tarantino talking about it in an interview.

Anyway, Battle Royale is far better than “Battle Royale,” but that shouldn’t be a surprise.

Here’s the Best and Worst of American Horror Story: Hotel Episode 11. No Asian schoolchildren were hurt in the making of this TV show. 

 BEST

New Wave Shootout

The director of Episode 10 was right to re-cut the “Hotline Bling” murder (which didn’t make sense thematically or aesthetically) with chill ’80s Synthpop. So at least we’re off to a good start.

 Gaga’s Infanticide

Look, I’m not sure if the plot point about The Countess having to cannibalize her own children to recover from her wounds makes any sense, but there seems to be a sort of surrealist poetic justice here.

The magical logic of AHS has always been tenuous at best, but this karmic comeuppance really works here.

 Showdown

Ramona Vs. The Countess is the showdown we’ve been waiting for the entire season. Is it climactic? Not exactly. Is it satisfying? Sure, actually, somehow.

 This Gaga Look

Just a good look.

 What a Twist!

Copface’s final victim turned out not to be himself, which was a genuine surprise. Despite being a force of evil, Copface ended up delivering some divine retribution to the Countess by condemning her to live the rest of her un-life haunting the hotel with her hateful hubby. Didn’t see that one coming!

 WORST

Poor Sarah

Hey did you guys see Carol? The acting (and writing) in these flashback scenes is like the opposite of Sarah Paulson’s acting in Carol. Which is to say, incredibly bad.

 Heroin Centipede

Sure, this is something that happens to addicts. They fall in love and sew each other together in bland and unimaginative half-homages to Tom Six. Right. OK then. Moving on.

Poor Queenie

Talk about a ham fisted cameo. I get it! All the seasons are connected! But poor Queenie didn’t deserve to get dragged to LA to get murdered by the bozos from this season. And couldn’t they have given her a better damn outfit?! (“You may be a witch but I’m a ghost!” is also a line written by a 9 year old.)