American Horror Story: NYC (Season 11), Episodes 5 & 6: At this point, Murphy is having way too much fun teasing us. And the hints that season 11 might get bejeweled with connections brought in from other seasons are sort of starting to get on our nerves. But, to be fair, that may be because we’re dying (not literally, unlike the Mai Tai victims) to see if season 11 does in fact have ties to other seasons. If not, just disappoint us already! After Theo’s possible psychic abilities engaging us in Coven conspiracies, now even faux tarot reader Fran apparently can tell the future. And what about the dark figure of the winged woman? Hello, Angel of Death from Asylum! Yeah, we’re looking at you. Or at least we hope we are.
Absolute connections or not, Episodes 5 and 6 do darken their own horrific glory with disturbing homages meant for characters that had haunted the previous seasons. Sam’s accidental necrophilia is clearly an approving nod to Dr. Oliver Thredson, the murderous necrophiliac from Asylum played by Quinto himself. With a relatively slowed pace, this week’s episodes make space for the signature supernatural we’ve been desperately sulking for in this season. The thrill of threatening omens delivered by ghostly figures in the dim lights of Kathy’s tarot parlor finally anoints this season with the unholy oil of horror–making it a worthy descendent of the previous seasons.
American Horror Story: NYC (Season 11), Episodes 5 & 6: Recap
Hiring the honey-voiced drag queen to perform in her bathhouse, opens up Kathy’s days and allows her to focus on her other businesses. A spaced-out Fran walks into the psychic room and takes the job of the new tarot reader. Hannah, who we now know for certain is pregnant, gets drawn to the tarot parlor and with her goes in Adam, the sperm father of her child. Brushing off Fran as a fraud doesn’t stop Hannah from getting a reading. And what do we know? The deck of tarot which is only supposed to have one death card exhibits every card as just that.
Shaken after the worrisome reading, Hannah goes to her OBGYN and is shocked to find out that she has something in common with the arson survivors; a low red blood cell count. Despite his previous unpleasant experience, Adam has led into the tarot room again; this time with Theo. With the cards reading Judgment, The Devil, and Death, Adam is reasonably terrified–only to be jumping out of his seat a moment later when Fran yells out his death omen in a possessed growling voice.
At the lawyer’s office, Barbara collapses on the floor right after signing the divorce papers. While she’s at the hospital, Patrick has a horrifying encounter with none other than Big Daddy who was hiding at her apartment. Back from the hospital, Barbara insists on staying at her own place despite Patrick’s warnings. Taking a shower while drowning in fantasies about Patrick, turns out to be her final moment of pleasure. Big Daddy ends her life with shocking strangulation.
Unaware of the horror that awaits him, Gino visits the tarot parlor to confront Kathy. Instead of Fran, this time Kathy offers him a reading. The cards turn out the same as Adam and Theo’s reading. Judgment, The Devil, and Death. The room transforms into a hellish nightmare haunted by a dark angel drawing Gino in for a death kiss. Frightened Gino runs out and gets home, only to discover even more infected lesions on his body.
Hannah gets a visit from Patrick and Gino who are there to find out Whitley’s whereabouts. As she refuses to disclose her patient’s confidential information, we’re brought into the Mai tai killer’s butcher room. Whitley has drugged and tied up the two men from the elevator. They see their petrifying final moment approaching as Whitley brings out his Frankensteinian sentinel made up of his victims’ parts. He is tired of the tolerant face the city puts up and plans to exhibit his gory creation at the next Pride parade.
Patrick gets a call from two men and learns about a gimp-masked body being discovered at the Fire Island beach. The theories about something dark going on between him and Sam, see the light of revelation as Sam accompanies Patrick in the hush-hush inquiry. Tumbling down the card-house of secrets brings Henry in to threaten Gino because guess what? Barfly Henry is a hitman in charge of eliminating “problems” that concern the mob. Gino and Henry follow Patrick and Sam and catch them red-handed trying to re-bury something from their past.
American Horror Story: NYC (Season 11), Episodes 5 & 6: Ending, Explained
What is Patrick hiding this time?
Being ambushed by Gino and Henry, Patrick has no other choice but to spill the truth about the corpse. When he first came to Fire Island, he was scooped up by Sam for his “no fatties-no femmes” party. Out of his mind with cocaine, all Patrick wanted was a pleasure and he found the human form of that in Billy, who was also at the party. A deadly threesome idea had masked Billy consensually locked up in a pillory.
As coked up Sam and Patrick took turns, neither of them even realized that Billy had died somewhere in between and they were engaging in necrophilia. To wash hands of the crime, mob-fixer Henry was called and with him came his best butcher, Whitley. Visibly upset by the manslaughter, Whitley did what he was asked to do and chopped up Billy into precise pieces. And now the pieces of the fatally unfortunate Billy have emerged from the shallow sands.
Looking at the perfect cuts on the bones, Patrick realizes that he has only seen this level of precision once before–on the victims of the Mai tai killer. Gino convinces Henry to lead him to Whitley so that he can identify him once and for all. Henry, on the other hand, comes up with an even more impeccable plan.
Henry decides to lure Whitley to a bar and makes up his mind about killing him if Gino identifies him as the Mai tai killer. On the phone, Whitley senses that he may be in danger. When Henry rejects his drugged drink at the bar, Whitley goes to the lavatory and waits for Henry. Gino follows the dangerous killer, as he drags and sedated Henry inside his house.
Gino is now caught up in Patrick’s criminal activities. But the doubt still remains about whether Patrick has revealed all of his messed up secrets or more secrets await. In their previous meeting, Henry had admitted to Gino that he knew who the Mai tai killer is. That may be a lie to protect his mob identity. But it is also possible that he did know about Whitley’s horrifying crimes but had hoped that on their adventure, Gino would take the ultimate fall instead of him. After all, Whitley isn’t as obedient as he had thought.
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AMERICAN HORROR STORY: NYC (SEASON 11) EPISODES 5 & 6 SHOW LINKS: IMDB
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: NYC (SEASON 11) EPISODES 5 & 6 CAST: RUSSELL TOVEY, JOE MANTELLO, BILLIE LOURD, DENIS O’HARE, CHARLIE CARVER, LESLIE GROSSMAN, SANDRA BERNHARD, ISAAC POWELL, ZACHARY QUINTO, PATTI LUPONE
Where to watch American Horror Story (Season 11)
