This week American Horror Story: Hotel aired its last episode before it heads onto hiatus until the New Year. This week’s episode “She Gets Revenge” continues many of the intertwining plots that were beginning to solidify in last week’s “She Wants Revenge.”
The episode definitely starts off with a “bang,” as Liz narrates the story of an elderly couple that checked into the hotel. The wife has terminal cancer and does not have much time left. However, the husband doesn’t want to be alone, so they sit across from each other with guns pointing to one another’s head. Soon after, they pull the trigger, and their brain guts are splattered all over the wall. While Liz calls the gory scene “beautiful” when she and Iris enter the couple’s hotel room, Iris complains about the mess, saying, “why can’t people have the courtesy to blow their brains out in their own home.”
Evidently, Liz is still traumatized from The Countess killing her love, Tristan Duffy and tells Iris she wants to kill herself. However, Iris advises her not to do it in the hotel, as she would then be trapped there forever. Thus, a depressed Iris (who feels betrayed by her son) and Liz make plans to escape the hotel and commit suicide together. But first, Iris must “cancel a few magazine subscriptions” and Liz must make amends with her estranged son – Douglas.
Meanwhile, Donovan is on a rampage after he spotted The Countess leaving Valentino’s motel room. Simultaneously, Valentino’s wife Natasha pays The Countess a visit at the hotel. Unfortunately, The Countess and Donovan definitely didn’t coordinate their plans, as The Countess winds up shooting Natasha to get Valentino while Donovan shoots Valentino to get The Countess.
While all this is going on, Detective John Lowe is continuing his Ten Commandment killing spree, with now only one murder left. Despite still being in the process of completing this “accomplishment,” John’s mentor Mr. March is already preparing him for “bigger and better” things (i.e. more gruesome murders).
However, before any of this happens, Detective Lowe finally comes face-to-face with his wife Alex, who is living in the hotel with their lost son, Holden. At first, the Detective is upset with his wife for telling him Holden was dead and trying to convince him he was insane, but they somewhat find common ground in the fact that they are both horrible parents to their other child, Scarlett. Alex then proceeds to tell her husband that The Countess is going to kill her and Holden if she doesn’t deal with all of the kids she turned into blood-sucking vampires.
Back at the hotel, The Countess is seen telling two detectives that her husband, Will Drake, has been missing for a few days. Although in the last episode, The Countess witnessed him being killed by Ramona. However, to both The Countess’ and my surprise, Will nonchalantly walks in as The Countess is talking with the detectives.
While it was Ramona who ultimately killed Will, he sees right through the whole situation and accuses his murder of being The Countess’ “plan all along.” Will tries to rain on her parade, by stating that she is not in his will and will not inherit any of his fortune. Unfortunately, this isn’t too effective as The Countess reminds him that she is now the legal guardian of his son, who is the heir to his fortune. Subsequently, she threatens to make him her “blood relative.”
In the meantime, John and Alex lead the group of vampire children to the hotel. During which, they rekindle their romance and contemplate not going through with their divorce. Unfortunately, Sally is not a fan of John’s rekindled relationship and tries to convince him that Alex will not approve of his serial killing ways. She makes a halfhearted attempt at killing John, but he easily wrestles himself away.
Just as Iris and Liz are about to make their way out of the hotel, Ms. Evers informs Liz that her son is at the hotel bar. Liz finally musters up the courage to tell Douglas that she is his dad – however; she is shocked when he interrupts and confesses that he already knows she is his father. Douglas makes a reference to Pedro from The Real World, as he explains that he just wants to mend things with Liz and is completely accepting of her lifestyle.
Towards the end, The Countess sits down for a dinner with Donovan. He ends up telling her that he killed her lover, Valentino. This leads to The Countess running off to her dead lover’s motel and weeping over his dead body. During which, Donovan is jamming out to “Hotline Bling,” as he victoriously dances around her hotel room.
In a rare comedic moment, Liz walks into Iris’ room where she is creating a tribute video to immortalize “her virtues” after she kills herself. The video includes pictures of animals and her holding a cat in front of a disco background. Unfortunately, Liz’s mindset has changed after talking with her son, and she tries to convince Iris to change her suicide plans.
As John and Alex retrieve their son Holden and get ready to go “home,” Sally rages claiming that she is going to kill John for betraying her.
Lastly, The Countess interrupts Donovan’s celebratory dance party and is shocked to see that he was waiting for her to come kill him. He goes on to explain that it is the only way that she will let him love her. Eventually, The Countess realizes how romantic this gesture was (even if it involved him killing Valentino). However, just as they start gazing into each other’s eyes lovingly, Iris and Liz storm in and proceed to shoot down the place (and presumably Donovan) mafia style.
So, ultimately it looks like the “She” that the episode’s title was referring to was both Iris and Liz.
We won’t find out the aftermath of all this until American Horror Story: Hotel returns with “Battle Royale” on January 6, 2016 on FX.