[ENTERTAINMENT] ‘AHS: APOCALYPSE’ EPISODE 2 ‘THE MORNING AFTER’ RECAP AND REVIEW

by sloppyvinyl | Sep 22, 2018 | Entertainment

This week’s episode of “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” featured Evan Peters on Evan Peters sex, interviews with the Devil and the return of Rubberman.

“The Morning After” starts with creepy snakes infiltrating Emily’s room, but it’s fine because Ms. Mead (Kathy Bates) has no problem decapitating them and turning them into soup. At least that’s what she initially thought, because before everyone eats it, the snakes come back to life, slithering out of the bowls.

Langdon (Cody Fern) makes his menacing grand entrance at dinner, once again giving off Young Lucious Malfoy vibes. He looks intimidating, but his voice isn’t really all that frightening, and makes him seem less scary. He tells them he’s going to be interviewing everyone to see who deserves to come to this safe haven.

There’s a fair amount of backstory for Evan Peters, whose character still hasn’t been given a first name. He has a messed up relationship with his grandmother, Joan Collins, and has been in rehab, jail and taken trips to the Folsom Street fair. He volunteers to be Langdon’s first interview and literally flirts with the Devil.

We’re only 2 episodes into “American Horror Story: Apocalypse” and Rubberman is already back, at least the suit is. The leather gimp shows up at Evan Peters’ door and has sex with him, much to Joan Collin’s disapproval. I at first assumed it was Langdon, but could it actually be the real Rubberman from “Murder House” Tate, a.k.a. Evan Peters? Few things seem more “American Horror Story” than season 1 Evan Peters having sex with season 8 Evan Peters.

“Murder House” favorite Rubberman returns in “AHS: Aoocalypse.”
Photo courtesy of TVLine.com

If anyone had any questions as to whether or not Langdon was the Antichrist, his interview with Ms. Venable (Sarah Paulson) definitely made it abundantly clear. He flipped the situation into a Weinstein moment, making Venable remove her dress and show off her scoliosis, which explains why she walks with a cane. Even when she’s playing the villain, Sarah Paulson is able to make everyone feel bad for her. She’s more talented than anyone else on the show, which isn’t knocking the other actors. They’re great too; it’s just Paulson is on a whole different level.

Ms. Venable and Ms. Mead try to torture Evan Peters for information on Langdon, but stop when they realize he’s enjoying the whipping. Then Langdon shows up, telling Peters he wasn’t in the Rubberman suit and that he’d never have sex with him. He could be messing with him psychologically, but I like the idea of it being Tate in the suit. This is reminiscent of “Murder House” when Vivien thought it was her husband in the Rubberman suit when she had sex with him.

Evan Peters runs into Rubberman again and stabs him repeatedly, at least he thought it was Rubberman. It actually turns out to be his grandma, Joan Collins. Langdon watches him from the hallway as he murders his grandmother. Rumor has it, Collins will be back to play a witch, so we probably haven’t seen the last of her.

A song “from a special ‘Hardy Boys’ episode” according to Adina Porter, led to a campy and catty conversation of young vs. old with her and Joan Collins against Coco (Leslie Grossman) and Mallory (Billie Lourd), which I thought made Coco seem even more ridiculous, since she and Porter are the same age.

Towards the end of the episode, there was a huge Coven tease, as “Fleetwood Mac” started playing. I was yelling at the TV, assuming it was going to be the witches’ introduction, but much to my dismay it was a fake-out.

Emily and Timothy find out that Langdon not only has internet access, but an undamaged Macbook. The pair realize that Ms. Venable’s rules against sex are totally made up, so they decide to finally hook up. What they don’t realize is that Rubberman is watching them from the distance, so I guess we can add voyeur to his list of kinks. Ms. Mead and Amazon Eve (who’s making her “AHS” return after “Freak Show”) catch the pair cuddling and take them captive.

Erika Evrin, Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates in “American Horror Story: APocalypse.”
Photo courtesy of Thoughtcatalog.com

Timothy manages to get a gun and shoots Ms. Mead, whose wounds spark and seem electrical. This is the “Murder House” “Coven” crossover season, but are we also getting a “Westworld” tie in with robots or cyborgs? Personally, I hope not, because I think there’s already enough subplots in this season and I don’t want throw another curve ball into “Apocalypse” that will end up underdeveloped and taking away screen time from the Coven.

I feel like the Adam and Eve parallels between Timothy and Emily are getting more and more blatant. First, with their superior genetics and now they’re looking at the forbidden fruit of Langdon’s laptop. Next week, will they get cast out into the post-apocalyptic wasteland? Is that when the witches will come to save the day?

On a final note, I have a feeling Langdon might be going from Outpost to Outpost, pitting everyone against each other and making them kill each other. At the beginning of the episode, he told them he could potentially take everyone. Why are they all turning on each other as if there’s a finite amount of spots in the sanctuary? I think Langdon’s (a.k.a. the Antichrist) main goal is to mess with everyone, as the Devil would.

Make sure to check back next week for Episode 3’s recap of “American Horror Story: Apocalypse.”