"Could It Be… Satan?" America Horror Story S08E04 Review

And so with "Could It Be... Satan?" we get the beginning of the backstory on Michael the Antichrist. And baby, if you've ever wondered, wondered whatever became of Michael, he's living on the air on F/X in this crossover-lollapalooza.

We get most of what we saw in last week's previews in the first few minutes. Coco complains that being dead was no fun. We do find out Mallory, Coco, and Dinah were all witches under the effect of an Identity Spell so they wouldn't know who they were. Frances Conroy is her usual snarky self.

After telling Miriam (Kathy Bates) that she's the form of the closest thing he ever had to a mother (and a flashback to Michael and Devil Mama Miriam having dinner and praying to Satan), Michael goes to confront the witches and says he'll make them wish they were dead. And... cue the wayback machine.

It turns out the Hawthorne Academy for Boys is out in LA, the actual house was burned down when Cordelia outed witches and warlock to the world, and is a Harry Potter-esque place where young boys study magic and the worst of them get berated by gay teachers Baldwin and Behold (BD Wong and Billy Porter). The Grand Chancellor Ariel (Jon Jon Briones) arrives with his sidekick John Henry Moore (credited main star Cheyenne Jackson, finally showing his face). Ariel has found out about an untrained boy with vast magical potential, who breaks the arms and legs of the detective who is questioning him and then makes the guy's head explodes.

Moore has his doubts about Michael, and I have no idea who Moore is supposed to be. All we find out about the character this week is he's suspicious and smokes a lot. Ariel gets Michael out of jail, and Michael secretly kills the policeman that tries to stop them. Miriam (or whatever Devil Mama Miriam's name actually is) is standing outside and yells to Michael. Ariel must be a deaf, dumb, and blind wizard (but sure plays a mean pinball?) because he doesn't notice this woman yelling to her adopted son.

There's also a flashback-within-a-flashback of Miriam asking a butcher for a goat's head. When he bad-mouths her, Michael kills him with some telekinetically-flying knives. Which no doubt sounds much more impressive in Latin. And that's how Michael ended up in jail.

After a month, the warlocks test Michael who demonstrates he's a level 4 Warlock, which is enough to make him the Alpha who is more powerful than the female witch Supreme. Michael passes the tests and then some, impressing Ariel, Behold, and Baldwin. He also almost kills them with an indoor snowstorm, which makes the suspicious Moore... more suspicious.

We go to New Orleans where Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) is teaching a class where Mallory or whatever her name was before the Identity Spell does some powerful magic. Cordelia (Sarah Paulson), Myrtle, and Zoe are summoned to the academy, and Ariel wants Cordelia to administer the test of the Seven Wonders to confirm Michael is the Alpha. There's a lot of reverse-gender bias with the three women saying men are physically incapable of doing the deeper magics. When Ariel lays the smackdown on Cordelia, saying she abandoned her student Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe), we get a flashback of Cordelia trying and failing to get Queenie's spirit out of the Hotel Cortez where it was trapped after she was killed there. Evan Peters is back as his season 5 character James March, playing gin with Queenie.

Michael is able to scry that Queenie is in the Cortez, goes there, and gets her out when Cordelia couldn't. They then go to Hell, where Madison (Emma Roberts) is condemned to an eternity of waiting on angry department store customers. Michael brings her out of Hell, and at the end they meet with Cordelia, Myrtle, and Zoe as they leave the school.

There was a lot of snark floating around this episode, which is strangely welcome. It's not that the original batch of characters in "Apocalypse" lacked snark. But they're just pale imitations of the snarky characters that preceded them by five years. Or three years in the case of Peters as March.

There are still unanswered questions, which nobody seems to notice. For instance, who the heck is Moore? What happened with Queenie and Zoe that they're not in the present? Why is Madison with Cordelia and Myrtle, when the flashback this episode makes it pretty clear she'd be on Michael's side. Cordelia never tried to get her out of Hell, and Michael did. Why would she leave Michael after he did that for her and join up with Cordelia?

And what happened to Constance? Michael talks about how Miriam's human doppelganger is the only one who never betrayed him. So... Constance did? That would explain her absence so far, but it seems a little unlikely.

Overall, "Could It Be... Satan?" was entertaining. It seemed more like a chance to revisit a couple of AHS's greatest hits. Given a lot of people seem to consider "Coven" the weakest season, it's a bit surprising they're focusing so heavily on it. I always liked it. even if it went to the X-Men well once or twice too often.

Sarah Paulson didn't have much to do but alternate between looking smug and looking nervous. Neither did Famiga. Conroy and Peters were spot-on, and Cody Fern remains an entertaining presence. Fern does a good job of playing Michael at different ages.

So despite the fact all the episode really did was show us how "Coven" ties into "Apocalypse" not a whole lot really went on. All we really find out is Michael pretty much is the son of Satan, has a lot of powers, and is tied into "Coven". The rest of it, we'll have to wait for the next six episodes.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?