American Horror Story: Apocalypse features the Illuminati and Anastasia, leaves us with too many questions

American Horror Story mixed in new storylines, such as the Illuminati and Anastasia, but has left us again with too many questions left unanswered.

Well, we’re back at Silicon Valley Satanist HQ, and honestly, I’m tired of them already. Yes, they resurrected Ms. Miriam Mead, but other than that, we’re left wanting their scenes to hurry on up so we can get to the good stuff — witches, warlocks, the Antichrist and the apocalypse.

I feel like American Horror Story doesn’t even know what to do with Evan Peters anymore. They definitely have never known how to fit Billy Eichner into the show in a way that’s effective. The problem with all of these Antichrist followers on this show is they never really seem to have any good reason for following him. Mostly their motivations seem to be a seeking for chaos, but it never feels believable. For example, if all these Silicon Valley bros want to do is be rich and have beautiful women around — they have it now thanks to selling their souls. So what extra motivation do they have for wanting to completely destroy the world?

We’re siding with Ms. Venable here, who is to put it plainly getting tired of these men and their shit. We don’t blame her. She might be evil, too, but she definitely deserves more responsibility and recognition than they’ve given her.

Cordelia loses her girls

Michael Langdon’s revenge is swift upon the coven, after Cordelia took out a trio of his most loyal followers. It comes as a total surprise to Cordelia and her girls, as she thought she placed a powerful protective spell on Miss Robichaux’s.

While I miss Angela Bassett terribly, I am enjoying the new voodoo queen this season. We haven’t seen enough of her, for sure, but her being able to break Cordelia’s spell is a highlight. With that, our angsty Antichrist arrives with Ms. Mead, killing almost all of the witches. While the killing of witches seems repetitive at this point, we later learn that Madison and Queenie’s souls have been totally erased. Michael didn’t just kill them, he expunged their earthly and spiritual existence.

Mallory, Cordelia, and Myrtle (and off-screen Madison and Coco) are the only ones to escape the bloodbath.

Michael Langdon and The Cooperative

One unsurprising reveal this episode is that The Cooperative wasn’t always called… The Cooperative.

Our tech bros, frustrated that Michael Langdon isn’t fulfilling his Antichrist responsibilities as quickly as they hoped, remotely control Ms. Mead and use her to urge Michael to burn the world down. Michael looks into the eyes of his robotic companion, and for a moment, it seems he may have figured out something is wrong with her. But no, he accepts her encouragement to go back to the tech bros for more insight as to how to fulfill his prophecy.

We learn that The Cooperative is a group of 100 people who are the most powerful in the world. Oh, and The Cooperative is actually the Illuminati, and Michael is set up to be the leader of the Illuminati.

We’re given a preview to how Ms. Venable herself became a leader of one of the outposts. As I said, she’s sick of the children she’s worked for and is ready to quit. But as she’s cleaning out her desk, Ms. Venable is asked by Mutt and Jeff to lead Outpost 3. While we have so many other questions, it is interesting to learn how the outposts came to be and how Ms. Venable came to lead one of them. Plus seeing all the rage built up within her, it isn’t surprising why she became such a strict leader of her own underground, post-apocalyptic community.

As for Michael Langdon, he takes the advice of the bowl cut boys (I can’t believe this is actually a thing) and decides to utilize The Cooperative to start a nuclear war. Those who are loyal to him will be kept safe in Outposts. Granted, we all learned earlier this season how many of those worked out.

This is where I definitely need to draw some lines. American Horror Story — you can do better than this. Michael was such a terrifying figure when this all began. Now he’s upset, angry and angsty most of the time, and for him to now be connected to the Illuminati of all things seems like such a lazy twist.

Anastasia Romanov is a witch?

When Cordelia learns she cannot retrieve the souls of Madison and Queenie, she’s completely broken. She’s truly lost them thanks to the evil powers of Michael Langdon.

But wait… there could be hope. Mallory can likely reverse time. Another not so shocking twist, as fans have speculated for a while that time travel would be one way to stop the apocalypse from happening.

To test this theory, Mallory tries to go back in time to stop the murder of the Romanovs — which gives us a flashback scene, which includes Anastasia revealing herself to be a witch. First Illuminati, now a magical Anastasia. Sure, we’re going to just try and roll with this. Now, there maybe could have been a more sensical way to prove her power but per Cordelia and Myrtle, this event is so far back in time that Michael wouldn’t know if something had changed. T

Mallory isn’t able to save Anastasia and her family, however, but, maybe she will be able to in the future. Myrtle and Cordelia make a plan to buy some time to stop Michael, which leads them back to the Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men. Upon arriving, the two come across an incredibly brutal scene — all of the warlocks have been murdered, and put into a sickening display of a pentagram.

We have way too many questions to have just one episode left. How will American Horror Story wrap everything up in episode 10? How will Mallory’s time travel powers be used? Can the world be saved? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.