American Horror Story seems to end the first half of Double Feature with a whimper

The first half of American Horror Story: Double Feature has come to a conclusion and instead of ending on a high note, we got little more than a whimper.

Throughout the first half of the season, which was called “Red Tide“, we were treated to what many of us considered a masterclass of American Horror Story at its best. For the first time in years, it felt like the magic was back.

And knowing that the series would be broken into two parts meant that we had high hopes that perhaps the finale of the story would deliver in the same way that the rest of the episodes had because things weren’t getting dragged out unnecessarily. Too bad it seems like the writers’ room stopped taking their own little black pills.

Instead of capitalizing on the brilliance of Frances Conroy, Evan Peters, and Finn Wittrock in the first five episodes, we watched all three of these characters be killed in what was pretty much a throwaway scene that didn’t come close to satisfying us in any way. And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that these deaths aren’t even the conclusion of our episode.

American Horror Story ends Red Tide with a whimper

If it was not for Leslie Grossman and her Ursula, we would probably have to throw the entire episode away as trash. Here’s the thing about Grossman, she is completely underrated when it comes to her brilliance. She carried this episode with a sharpness and wit that is hard to resist. And listening to her give an inspiring speech about Laurence Fishburne to the Pale People in the cemetery was the level of artistry this episode needed.

The problem is, that even with her brilliance, the episode fell flat. It didn’t feel like a finished story and even with an open-ended finale of sorts, it just felt like American Horror Story didn’t have a conclusion that worked so they just did whatever.

We got a town hall meeting that didn’t add anything new, except to hint at a police investigation. And yet that was that and nothing really new or bold came from it.

Instead of finishing the story where it started, we ended up in Hollywood for like 20 to 30 minutes where no one seemed at all freaked out by even the idea of zombie-like people ripping out throats on the street. It was like it was just another day. (And just because we all know now that this is exactly how the zombie apocalypse would go down, that doesn’t mean we don’t expect more from our fictional dramas.)

Honestly, we can only hope that somehow the second half of the season finds a way to come back from the “Red Tide” finale because at this point all we have is a horror that is whimpering its way back to the Cape and not taking Hollywood by storm.

What did you think? Were you disappointed in the finale of Red Tide? Did you enjoy Ursula as much as we did? We want to know your thoughts on American Horror Story Season 10 so far.