American Horror Story: Coven - Bitchcraft - Review (S3 Ep1)

Full Plot Summary

The episode starts off with a flashback of Madame Delphine Lalaurie's (played by Kathy Bates) house of torture. Next we see the return of Taissa Farmiga as Zoe, a young witch who accidentally kills her boyfriend... while they're having sex. Wait, let me rephrase that, BY having sex.

Zoe's Parents send her to Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies where she meets a group of other witches including Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts), Queenie (Gadibe Sidibe) and Nan (Jamie Brewer.) She is also introduced to Cordelia Fox (Sarah Paulson) who is the headmaster of the school. Cordelia tells Zoe of the witch-world and the Supreme, a very powerful witch that has numerous powers where normal witches only have one.

Next we're introduced to The Supreme, Fiona Goode (played by the fantastic Jessica Lange!) who is searching for a way to regain her youth, after failing she decides to go to Miss Robichaux's Academy to help Cordelia, who is actually her daughter, run the school.

Mishka is not amused...

Zoe and Madison decide go a a frat party where Madison is drugged and raped by numerous members of a fraternity. One of the members, played by Evan Peters, finds then and chases them from the party. When he tries to confront hid buddies, they knock him unconscious and start to drive away. Before they can get away Madison comes outside and flips their bus, killing almost all of them, including Evan Peter's character.

The next day Fiona decides to take the girls out to a field trip but end up in Madame Delphine's house, which is now a museum. While they're there we are told that the Madame was poisoned and presumed to be dead even though her body was never found... Nan tells Fiona that she can hear Madame Delphine voice outside. 

Zoe visits a hospital and finds the boy who survived, also realizing that he was the one who drugged Madison. She proceeds to have him enter her, which leads to him dying...

Finally the episode ends with Fiona who goes back to Madame Delphines House and digs up her coffin exactly where Nan said she heard the Madame. Fiona opens it and finds Delphine alive and well...

Bitchcraft Review

WHOOO, American Horror Story is back! After the masterpiece that was American Horror Story Asylum and what can only be described as fantastic marketing, I think we were all pretty exited for Coven! This season is about "Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies" AKA a house fo' witches. Right now I think it's too early to tell if this season is gonna be even more awesome than Asylum but at the moment its looking very promising!

One of my favorite things about the AHS series is the fact that they keep using the same actors but change the story, Coven is no different. This first episode featured so many of the fantastic actors from the previous seasons, the most notably being Taissa Farmiga as Zoe and Jamie Brewer as Nan. The only missing face that I can think of was Zachary Quinto's, but considering that in both the previous seasons he never made his fist appearance in the first episode we will hopefully still see him return! I'm also not sure if Evan Peters' character will make a comeback or if he is actually dead. Coven has also brought in some stellar new actors like Kathy Bates, Emma Robert and Gabourney Sidebe.



Another thing that makes AHS so special is how stylized it all looks. Once again Coven captures this perfectly, from the artistic camera shots and editing to the amazing symbolism, to the costumes and practical effects, everything is awesome and creepy. It also seems as though they aren't afraid to show anything "too disturbing" anymore.

The witch aspect of this season also seems very interesting. Seeing Jessica Lange being a reckless and ruthless bitch and Kathy Bates playing a deranged torturer is awesome, it really seems like they're going full on with this season. I'm also happy to see Taissa back again (but seriously though, I have to say that her power sucks, really badly.)  It was also great seeing Sarah Paulson's character making potions, which suggests that there's a lot more to the witch world than just moving stuff with your mind.

All in all this episode was great, it showcases everything that made Asylum amazing. Taking in to account the previous seasons, it's almost impossible to predict what will happen next but I'm extremely exited to find out! 

So tell me, what did you guys think of this first episode? Are you exited for the rest of the season?

Rating: 8/10