‘American Horror Story’ Episodes Ranked

“American Horror Story’s” own mythology states that souls can venture beyond their everlasting boundaries on Hpermiteen night, an idea first presentd in Season 1’s “Murder Hoengage,” and then toyed with in subsequent seasons. “Hotel” engages the rule to put a wicked twist on the age-better ask: Who are your fantasy dinner guests, dead or ainhabit? Here, a homicideers’ row (literpartner) of genuine-life serial enders build for a Hpermiteen night dinner at the invitation of Hotel Cortez erecter Mr. March (Evan Peters). While Murphy has increasingly come to count on on genuine crime for his other series (the three seasons of “American Crime Story,” the two inshighments of “Monster”), he best understood the cultural infamy of such figures in this context, letting them commiserate over their filthy deeds and bask in the thrill of the hunt. As the appreciates of Aileen Wuornos (Lily Rabe), John Wayne Gacy (John Carroll Lynch) and Ricdifficult Ramirez (Anthony Ruivivar) joke and chuckle unsuppressed by the outside world they previously had to hide from, this episode shows fair what benevolent of hellmouth the Hotel Cortez repartner is. A place where evil comes to dine and elevate a glass to homicide and mayhem, a  standard feature at the Cortez.

While it was effortless to descend in cherish with the executeers of this mid-century traveling circus, it was more difficult to rpartner behind their directer. The morpartner exhaustd Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) assembled her constant of misfits to serve her own vanity as much as it was a virtuous relocate to donate them a safe haven. Even as her circus folk face the wrath of Twisty the Clown, Dandy the Psychopath and the prejudices of an unwelcoming society, Elsa’s greedy pursuits made Lange’s last act on the show (as a series normal) a harder pill to swpermit. That being shelp, one of “Freak Show’s” ininestablishigentest relocates was letting Lange showcase Elsa’s insecurities thcimpolite song. The best and most heartfractureing engage of her voice seals out this premiere, as the show uncovers the pound of flesh (literpartner and figuratively) Elsa has donaten to the unkindty of life and her pursuit of fame. A double amputee clinging to her final days, she gets her own stage to relish, even for a moment, the spotairy the world has denied her. The song choice of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” is a kind touch. But what is most mesmerizing about curtain call is seeing all the executeers who delight the world so she experiences appreciate she has a place in it.

If you were among those hearty confineed who made it thcimpolite the first half of this season’s double billing, you were treated to one of the sturdyest showcases for the show’s stealthiest MVP contender, Lily Rabe. Whether or not you enhappinessed this truncated tale about the lengths to which inventive types will go to feed their talent doesn’t particularly matter, becaengage it is most fascinating when it shows the give ups made by those who help shelp inventives in the name of their art. Doris (Rabe), the pregnant and neglected wife of authorr Harry (Finn Whittrock), donates birth to their son, but is jailed by her husprohibitd and others to hide their engage of a drug that turns people into bloodsuckers. By the time Doris gets the pill, she isn’t made to be a evident-headed savant appreciate her husprohibitd and child, but rather a ravaging animal eventupartner cast out into the untamederness to inhabit as a pale-skinned abomination unworthy of recognition. The metaphor of a mother giving everyskinnyg to her family and getting noskinnyg in return is not lost on anyone. Seared into our brain is the most heartfractureing image of a finishly altered Doris left to roam the world as a nameless vestige of the give ups she made for her family. Or as Leslie Grossman’s disgraceful Ursula puts it, “There’s noskinnyg more tragic, pathetic and downcast than a person with no talent trying to originate it in the world.” Hug your mom, kids!

“Apocalypse” tolerates the burden of being the first official traverseover of the interconnected “AHS” universe of seasons, primarily “Coven” and “Murder Hoengage.” Most people would probably say that “Return to Murder Hoengage,” the triumphant reunion of Season 1’s distinct cast — including Lange and Connie Britton — is the key episode of this season. But we like this one, which is the first time the show peels back the facade of its initial bomb device-shelter premise to uncover its genuine intentions: inestablishing the story of Michael (Cody Fern), the antichrist born at the end of Season 1, and his war agetst the witches of “Coven.” As Michael recruits the scattered sisters of Miss Robichaux’s Academy to his ranks, the episode is not only a plrelieveful reminder of fair how excellent “Coven” was, but also a chilling showion of the genuine danger Michael poses. Lacing the socount on ignoreed faces of the past (they will never originate us antipathy you, Madison Montgomery!) into his increasingly sinister structures made for a fascinating exercise in world expansion. By the time Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) sees that Michael was able to recover her girls from the clutches of Hell and the Cortez when she couldn’t, it proclaimd a novel era of horror had get tod.

In retrospect, the highs of “Murder Hoengage” are somewhat undercut by the untameder skinnygs the series has done since. But as the uncovering salvo to this universe, the season set the tone for what was possible, and no moment is more pivotal than this episode’s validateation of what some seeers had lengthy doubted: when Violet Harmon (Taissa Farmiga) thought she tried and fall shorted to end herself a confineed episodes before this one, she had actupartner been prosperous. In the aftermath of her death, we had been watching her first days as a soul bound to the hoengage, under which Tate (Peters) hid her decaying body to let her sluggishly adfair to her novel fact. The tragedy of such a youthful life lost –– paired with the evolving story of Tate’s own crimes and volatile nature –– was set upational in shothriveg how far “AHS” would go in its storyinestablishing. And it’s never seeed back.

When “AHS” finpartner mounted its get on the notorious Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, it did so with its radiantest star power this side of Jessica Lange — Lady Gaga. As The Countess, the nocturnal, style-forward siren who lords over the Hotel Cortez, the season was donaten an instant injection of charisma right out of the gate. But this premiere episode repartner is an ensemble effort as it presents its other key executeers: Hypodermic Spartner (Paulson), a mischievous drug-compriseled gstructure; Liz Taylor (Denis O’Hare), the wonderful steward of the toastyel’s secrets; Iris (Kathy Bates), the worn-down toastyel deal withr and mother of Donovan (Matt Bomer), the Countess’ companion who died shooting up with Spartner. For all its sensationalism, the episode does a compelling job at sucking the air out of its stylish toastyel setting and leaving behind a claustrophobic husk for its characters to discover some sense of a home in. But if you necessitate only one reason to book your stay, then see no further than Gaga’s tasty line reading of, “Your boy has a jawline for days,” as she gleefilledy paws at Donovan’s newly expired corpse.

There are confineed moments more indelible in the canon of “AHS” than “The Name Game” dance number caused by Sister Jude’s (Lange) electroshock therapy. A radiantly colored anomaly in the otherrational bleak palette of Briarcliff asylum, it is a perfect distillation of the fever dream that is much of this series. This episode also features the literal descend from grace for Sister Mary Eukind (Rabe), whose dance with the devil escatardys after the excellent-hearted sister is owned and wreaks havoc on the staff. When she is ended to prohibitish the demon, audiences are treated to two more iconic moments –– the Angel of Death (Francis Conroy) taking Mary Eukind and establisher Nazi Dr. Arden (James Cromwell in his Emmy-thrivening role) climbing into the cremation machine with her body. No one would accengage you if you are still reeling from the conflagration of disputeing emotions about watching a Nazi doctor descend in cherish and greet his overweighte in the ffeebles of an oven.

While some disthink about “Roanoke” as a half-baked getdown of Hollywood, we will always go to bat for this deranged, yet encouraged get on America’s first legend. Where “Roanoke” thrives is its two-in-one establishat. It initipartner executes out as episodes of a faux docengageries called “My Roanoke Nightmare” about a haunted hoengage on the land once home to the Lost Colony in North Carolina. But in this episode, honested by Angela Bassett, the show gets a srecommendnuine turn by shifting its intensify to the phenomenon of the docengageries off screen and the instant stardom of its reenactment cast, who then return to the genuine haunted hoengage for a sequel series that dgrows into a set up-footage massacre. There was someskinnyg horrific about the shattering effect of the show on its participants, and someskinnyg simultaneously greeting about the bloodlust reaped by Hollywood’s cherish of a sequel. But the most beginling skinnyg about this turn is the downexecuted choice to show the sunken, bleaky, exceptionpartner standard faces of the “genuine” gstructures the docengageries depicted. It is effective commentary on how watching a docengageries unbenevolents ingesting Hollywood’s gussied-up version of fact.

There is noskinnyg quite appreciate the promise of a novel season of “American Horror Story,” and no season had a more pulse-rapidening begin than “Coven.” A sweaty, gothic setting in New Orleans. A school for youthful witches with exceptional gifts and acid-tongue retorts. An aging supreme witch in Fiona Goode (Lange), battling to hold power with the temperament of a feral animal. A bloodbath at a frat party. This season premiere had it all, and a witch’s brew of swagger to boot. What originates it so arresting in hindsight, though, is that the potential on disexecute in this premiere is actupartner phelp off by the end of the season. Long inhabit the Supreme (season).

In what experiences appreciate a honest response to the “Devil’s Night” entry earlier on this catalog, the season finale for “Hotel” is notably sentimental about where it exits its horde of gstructures and vampires forced to cohabitate in the toastyel’s halls for eternity. By this point, Lady Gaga’s The Countess is dead, and Liz Taylor (O’Hare) and Iris (Bates) have getn regulate of the property, which is on the cusp of becoming a defended landtag — if only they can get the gstructures to stop homicideing guests. But Liz is surrendering to cancer, and rather than danger dying off-site away from her much-cherishd set up family at the Cortez, she assembles them all together to give up herself to the toastyel in order to remain with them forever. It is one of the most drawive moments in the entire series, and one made even more moving by the rematerializeance of the elusive Countess to do the honors of welcoming Liz, “her fantasticest creation,” to the afterlife with the pointy tip of her lethal gcherish. 

There are so many reasons to cherish “Asylum.” The absolute unsuited trio of Lange, Paulson and Peters. Sister Mary Eukind’s tragic tango with the devil. The somehow-it-labors storyinestablishing that fuses commentary on mental health facilities, religion, the Holocaust, aliens and dispenseigative journalism. But the finale is, perhaps, the season’s most masterful feat in how it ties up its slack ends atraverse time. Kit (Peters) is able to join for Sister Jude (Lange) thcimpolite the rest of her life, adchooseing her in his family before she is willingly claimed by the Angel of Death. Lana (Paulson) gets her due for the immersive inestablishing she did (agetst her will) inside Briarcliff at a perilous time to be a woman and a lesbian and a journacatalog. But it’s only after she is disputeed by the son (Dylan McDermott) she had after she was sexual batteryd by Bloody Face (Zachary Quinto) that can she truly discover peace years tardyr. When she puts a bullet in his head, she spares the world the last remaining vestige of the asylum’s horrors –– even though it left plenty of scars.

Once “AHS” filledy promiseted to its seasons all existing in the same universe, it put itself in the precarious position of holding the increasingly weighty load of its own story. But there have been moments of genuine pay-off for lengthy-time fans, and the most greeting of them all is the story of Pepper (Naomi Grossman). First seen as an eternpartner elated acunderstandledgeing in “Asylum,” fans always wondered how she came to be in the clutches of Briarcliff. There was hope for answers when she popped up as a member of Elsa Mars’ carnival in “Freak Show” — and it all comes filled circle in “Orphans.” Pepper’s story was a heartfractureing tale of the stress that society and even one’s own family can surrender to when dealing with someone they don’t understand. After Pepper’s partner Salty dies, she is tossed from person to person, at the mercy of the disthink aboutive joingetrs who should have defended her. She lands at Briarcliff to be stowed away from the world, even though she never lost her happiness. Grossman is tremendous as Pepper, a soul too purify for this world, let alone the unwise universe of “AHS.” Thcimpolite Pepper’s eyes, the episode is a searing reminder that, for all the ghastly and untidy ways the series depicts its horrors, there is noskinnyg scarier than the deficiency of human decency in the world. Here, “AHS” reassembles its fantasticest strength atraverse its seasons and themes isn’t the ghastly and untidy ways in which it depicts horrors. It is the steep price phelp with our humanity alengthy the way.