Could It Be... Satan?

"Could It Be... Satan?"
American Horror Story episode
Episode no.	Season 8 Episode 4
Directed by	Sheree Folkson
Written by	Tim Minear
Production code	8ATS04
Original air date	October 3, 2018 (2018-10-03)
Running time	42 minutes
Guest appearances
Frances Conroy as Myrtle Snow Taissa Farmiga as Zoe Benson Gabourey Sidibe as Queenie Jon Jon Briones as Ariel Augustus Billy Porter as Behold Chablis BD Wong Brendan McCarthy as Detective Monroe

"Could It Be... Satan?" is the fourth episode of the eighth season of the anthology television series American Horror Story. It aired on October 3, 2018, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by Tim Minear, and directed by Sheree Folkson.

Plot

Micheal Langdon (Cody Fern) is narrating a flashback. He has short hair. He is saying that Mrs. Mead (Katy Bates) was the closest he had to a mother and he doesn't know how she found him. He said he was glad to find a real home. Mrs. Mead is making sandwiches. Michael starts to eat it but then Mrs. Mead tells him he is forgetting to pray. Micheal says "Bless us, Dark Lord, for thy gifts. which we are about to receive from thy infernal bounty through the power of lucifer eternal. Nema." Mrs. Mead talks about how she killed her first three husbands. Micheal talks about how he felt happy and protected. Next, a long haired Micheal is talking to robot a Mrs. Mead. He says this is why he needed to program robot Mead with real Mead's memories, because he never stopped trusting her. Then we see Ms. Venable (Sarah Paulson) laying dead on the ground. Micheal hears a laugh and looks in the distance. Mrs. Mead asks what it is. He tells her a powerful presence. Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson), Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts), Myrtle Snow (Francis Conroy), Mallory (Billie Lourd), Coco St. Peire Vanderbilt (Leslie Grossman), and Dinah (Adina Porter). Mallory asks what's going on. Madison tells her she's back from the dead. Coco is freaking out that Brock stabbed her with a knife. Myrtle says Mallory and Coco are still waking up from the identity spell. Mallory wants to know what the identity spell is. Cordelia says that they placed it on them for their own protection, to keep them from knowing their true identity. Mallory asks why. Cordelia says she's special and they need all 3 of them. Finally, Dinah says they're on their own. She's not defeating anyone. Micheal stands at the top of the stairs and asks who they're defeating when he has already won? Cordelia tells him that he hasn't won and they can still save the world. Micheal says when he is done, they will all be dead.

At the warlock school (which looks like outpost 3), 3 years before the bomb, boys are running around practicing spells.A boy, Mr. Banks, runs in late to a class. He forgot his book. The teacher is not happy. The boys make an atom. The teacher is interrupted by someone. He says they have been summoned summoned to a meeting. Ariel, the grand chancellor, along with 3 other men are at the meeting. Areil tells the men that someone sympathetic to them from the Los Angeles Police Department sent him video footage of short haired Micheal being interrogated. Michael sits are the interrogator is slammed into the wall, then the ceiling, then has his arms and legs broken, and finally his head expoldes. John Henry (Cheyanne Jackson) tells Ariel that he is not a warlock no matter how much Ariel wants him to be. Ariel disagrees. John Henry tells him that his powers are evil and that they should leave him alone. Ariel says his powers can be used for good and this is someone they have been waiting for and to remember the prophecy. The warlock who becomes the alpha will have power beyond comprehension. Ariel also thinks his power will exceed the witches.

Ariel goes and visits short haired Micheal in jail. He tells Micheal that his powers were impressive. As soon as Ariel tells Micheal that he is a warlock, Micheal turns around. Ariel tells Micheal that all his life, he has had different feelings, impulses, moments of rage. Ariel asks him what he was thinking when the detective was hurting him in that interrogation. Micheal says nothing. Ariel says that's not true. Micheal says he just wanted that guy away. Ariel asks Micheal how he ended up in jail. Micheal says he was defending the only person in his life that has never betrayed him. Mrs. Mead is at a deli. She is yelling at a guy because she wants a goat head, not goat meat. The deli guy says he can't sell her that for her "insane shit." Mrs. Mead insists he is going against her religious beliefs and walks away demanding to speak to a manager. Micheal stays back and tells the guy he is rude. The guy says "fuck that batshit crazy bitch." Micheal uses his powers to make 5 knives stab into the guy. Micheal and Ariel are talking in the jail cell. Micheal says he never wanted to hurt anyone. Ariel tells him his life is just beginning and uses his powers to open the jail cell door. The guard stops them. Ariel uses his powers to slam the guards body up against the wall. Micheal uses his powers to snap his neck. When they walk outside, Micheal sees Mrs. Mead standing far away in the distance. She yells out "I'm here for you, always! Hail the new world! Hail!" Micheal gets in the car with Ariel and smiles.

Ariel and Micheal pull up to the warlock school. Micheal asks if it has always been underground. Ariel says no, it used to be a big wooden building with windows everywhere which was a problem because others could see inside. Ariel says that in 2014, when Cordelia went on her publicity tour and outed everyone, some locals decided they didn't want the warlocks in their neighborhood so the neighbors burned the place down. All that was left standing was the sculpture from the garden (that swirly looking thing above ground where the entrance is), so then they went underground. Ariel introduces Micheal to the other warlocks in the school.

We see the warlock counsel telling Micheal about how the school works. The boys are assigned a level, one through four, according to their talents and breadth of their powers. Micheal asks if they're all fours. The councilmen tells him they're all threes. Ariel explains that a level four is as powerful as the female supreme which is what they call the Alpha. John Henry tells Micheal that they have never had a level four warlock before. Micheal was tasked to do a series of tests to determine which level he is at. At the last test, Micheal goes overboard and Ariel forces him to stop before they all couldn't breathe. Blood is coming out of Micheal's nose and tells Ariel that he didn't know that was in him. Later, at dinner, Ariel tells the counsel that Micheal crushed every test and surpassed all expectations. The others say he is the most powerful warlock they have ever seen. John Henry says that Micheal almost killed them and he has darkness in him that he can't control. Ariel tells John to not be afraid of Michael. Ariel says "this is the moment everything changes" and the men toast to that.

Zoe Benson (Taissa Farmiga)is teaching witches at the Miss Robichaux's Academy in New Orleans. Cordelia walks in. Zoe changed a white rose to red. Mallory is one of the witches in the class. Zoe tells the girls to try it. Zoe tells Cordelia to watch her. Mallory changes her color to blue, she makes the petals fall off the flower and makes the petals change into butterflies. Cordelia is amazed. The butterflies go over to Cordelia and they change back to blue petals, eventually turning into white petals in her hand. Myrtle interrupts and says that the warlock counsel has called for an emergency meeting. They have to leave immediately on a plane to see them.

Myrtle, Cordelia, and Zoe are being greeted by the warlock counsel. Ariel tells the coven that they discovered a boy and after doing many tests on him, they discovered he has powers that rise to the level of the supreme. Cordelia asks if it is actually true and Myrtle laughs at the thought of it. Cordelia says that a boy has never reached that level and women and men are not equal in magic power. Cordelia says she questions Ariel's judgement. Myrtle says their will never be a male supreme. Cordelia asks what he wants. Ariel says he wants Cordelia to conduct the seven wonders test on this boy. Zoe rolls her eyes. Cordelia says she lost one of her most promising witches, Misty Day, to the seven wonders and she won't be making that mistake again and will be taking care of her own. Ariel says "the ones that you actually like." Cordelia questions him. He mentions that she left Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) behind. Cordelia says that Queenie was missing, she traveled to Los Angeles and never came back. She says that when she found out she was trapped at the Hotel Cortez, she went back to go help her out. Cordelia says the hotel is a hellmouth.

Cordelia is walking the halls of Cortez. In a room, James Patrick March (Evan Peters) is talking to Queenie. He explains that she will be like this for eternity and he's glad he killed her. Cordelia walks in and tells her they're getting out. Cordelia opens the front door and Queenie ends up back in that room with March. They keep trying to leave. Queenie starts crying and Cordelia tells her sorry. Back at the meeting, Cordelia says that was her biggest failure as supreme. She says she cares about everyone, but she will not do the test. Ariel calls her a scared bigot. Cordelia says time is up.

Up in his room, short hair Michael seems to be in a trance of some sort. He is drawing the Hotel Cortez in a notebook. Next, we see Micheal barge into the room that Queenie and March are in, playing cards. March asks who he is. Micheal tells them his name and to come with him. He opens the front doors of the Cortez and Queenie is able to leave.

Madison is working in a retail store. A lady wants to return her crockpot and Madison tells her no. The lady lifts up the lid and magots are in it. The lady demands to speak to the manager. Madison begs her not to. The lady behind this girl with the crockpot in line recognizes Madison. The manager comes over and tells Madison to go fold the towels. Short haired Micheal visits and tells Madison that he can't believe he is in her own personal hell. Madison starts seducing him. Queenie shows up and tells Madison that Michael helped him out of the Cortez. Madison begs him to take her out too.

Cordelia, Myrtle, and Zoe leave the boys school. As they're leaving, Madison, Queenie, and Micheal are entering. They all come face to face. Cordelia takes one look at Michael and faints. Everyone except for Michael runs over to her. Michael stands there with a smirk on his face.

Reception

Ron Hogan of Den of Geek gave the episode a 4/5, saying, "Coven was not my favorite series of American Horror Story, but it was one of the show's better ones and from the first bitchy comment flying out of Madison Montgomery's mouth, I am reminded why Coven is a fan favorite. The appearance of the witches immediately injects life into the series, and even when the show follows a group of warlocks that we've never known, there's immediate tension and chemistry between the group that betters anything we got with the mismatched group of survivors pre-Halloween."

Kat Rosenfield from Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a B+. She was not impressed by the warlocks in general except by the council members, calling them "an all-star cast of Ryan Murphy faves". However, she appreciated the scenes with Queenie and Madison, but also the ending of the episode. Finally, she wondered what was the point of the episode title, as "Langdon is very clearly Satan or at least Satan-adjacent by a maximum of one degree". Vulture's Ziwe Fumudoh gave the episode a 2 out of 5, with a mixed review. Much like Rosenfield, she was not a big fan of the all-boys warlocks group, calling them a "circle-jerk of warlocks making paperweights", but admitted that their council members were "remarkably cast". She also criticized the gender binary between witches and warlocks, established by the episode. However, she still enjoyed Madison's personal hell scene.

External links

• "Could It Be... Satan?" at IMDb