Head (American Horror Story)

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"Head"
American Horror Story episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 9
Directed by Howard Deutch
Written by Tim Minear
Featured music
Production code3ATS09
Original air dateDecember 11, 2013 (2013-12-11)
Running time43 minutes
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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"The Sacred Taking"		Next →
"The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks"
American Horror Story: Coven
List of episodes

"Head" is the ninth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story , which premiered on December 11, 2013, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by Tim Minear and directed by Howard Deutch.

Contents

In this episode, Fiona (Jessica Lange) looks to form an alliance with Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) while Cordelia (Sarah Paulson)'s attacker is revealed. Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, and Patti LuPone guest star as Marie Laveau, Queenie, and Joan Ramsey, respectively. This episode is rated TV-MA (LSV).

Plot

Fiona offers truce and alliance to Marie Laveau, suggesting both the Coven and voodoo witches are a target of witch hunters, but Marie refuses, secretly working with the hunters herself. She orders to Queenie to burn Delphine's head, but Queenie instead attempt to redeem Delphine by exposing her to human rights art.

Throwing a lunch for the Witches' Council, Myrtle poisons and murders Cecily and Quentin to avenge herself and extract their eyes, using them to restore Cordelia's eyesight, seemingly at cost of Cordelia's visions.

Nan bonds with Luke's mother Joan by reading the comatose boy's mind, but upon revealing Joan murdered her unfaithful husband, Joan shuns Nan away, and suffocates Luke with a pillow.

Hank, who was trained to be a witch hunter since childhood and married Cordelia to infiltrate the Coven, is urged by Marie and his father Harrison Renard, head of a witch hunter organization, to carry out the eradication of witches as soon as possible. Failing to reconnect with Cordelia, Hank decides to assassinate the voodoo witches, killing many of them. Before he murders Marie, Queenie uses her wound transference ability and shoots herself, killing Hank and seemingly herself. Marie seeks refuge at Miss Robichaux's.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes reports a 77% approval rating, based on 13 reviews. The critical consensus reads, ""Head" churns out terrific dialogue and a series of surprising plot twists, even as the sheer number of narrative arcs and political themes induce a certain amount of viewer fatigue." [1] Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C− rating, saying, "There's a lot of "Head" that sort of feels like it works, particularly in the closing passages, where the episode almost manages that American Horror Story thing where a bunch of disparate elements the series has been building all season come together in a giant gumbo of wackadoo... But then I look at the episode and the season as a whole, and I'm just exhausted by it, and not in a good way." [2] Matt Fowler from IGN gave the episode a 7.7/10 rating, stating, "The Hank storyline and his unexpected, violent turn on Laveau was very well done. The rest of "Head" felt undercooked though... I appreciate that the show takes risks with its mesh of tones, but there also comes a point where you just can't take away anything meaningful from a scene featuring a sassy head. Even if it's Kathy Bates." [3]

"Head" received a 2.1 18–49 ratings share and was watched by 3.94 million viewers in its original American broadcast, a slight decrease from the previous episode. [4]

Related Research Articles

Marie Catherine Laveau was a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo, herbalist and midwife who was renowned in New Orleans. Her daughter, Marie Laveau II, also practiced rootwork, conjure, Native American and African spiritualism as well as Louisiana Voodoo and traditional Roman Catholicism. An alternate spelling of her name, Laveaux, is considered by historians to be from the original French spelling.

<i>American Horror Story</i> American horror anthology television series

American Horror Story (AHS) is an American horror anthology television series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the cable network FX. The first installment in the American Story media franchise, seasons of AHS are mostly conceived as self-contained miniseries, following a different set of characters in a new setting within the same fictional universe, and a storyline with its own "beginning, middle, and end." Some plot elements of each season are loosely inspired by true events. Many actors appear in more than one season, usually playing a new character though sometimes as a returning character, and often playing multiple characters in a season. Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, and Lily Rabe have returned most frequently, with each having appeared in nine seasons, followed by Frances Conroy and Denis O'Hare who both appear in eight; Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, and Leslie Grossman appear in six, while other notable actors including Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, Adina Porter, Finn Wittrock, and Jamie Brewer appear in five of the seasons.

<i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> Third season of the television series

The third season of the American horror anthology television series American Horror Story, subtitled Coven, is set in 2013 New Orleans and follows a coven of witches descended from Salem as they fight for survival and features flashbacks to the Salem witch trials in 1692, as well as the 1830s, 1910s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s. The ensemble cast includes Sarah Paulson, Taissa Farmiga, Frances Conroy, Emma Roberts, Lily Rabe, Evan Peters, Denis O'Hare, Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange, with all returning from previous seasons, except Roberts and Bates. The season marks the first to not feature cast mainstays Dylan McDermott and Zachary Quinto.

Bitchcraft (<i>American Horror Story</i>) 1st episode of the 3rd season of American Horror Story

"Bitchcraft" is the premiere episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on October 9, 2013 on the cable network FX. The episode title is a portmanteau of the words bitch and witchcraft.

"The Axeman Cometh" is the sixth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on November 13, 2013, on the cable network FX. This episode is rated TV-MA (LSV).

"The Replacements" is the third episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on October 23, 2013, on the cable network FX. This episode is rated TV-MA (LSV).

"Fearful Pranks Ensue" is the fourth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on October 30, 2013, on the cable network FX. This episode is rated TV-MA (LSV).

"Burn, Witch. Burn!" is the fifth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on November 6, 2013, on the cable network FX.

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"The Dead" is the seventh episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on November 20, 2013, on the cable network FX. This episode is rated TV-MA (LSV).

"The Sacred Taking" is the eighth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on December 4, 2013, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by Ryan Murphy and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

"The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks" is the tenth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on January 8, 2014, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by James Wong and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. In this episode, Fiona tries to out the next Supreme with a visit by Stevie Nicks and Madison tries to eliminate her competition for the Supremacy. This episode marks Nicks' acting debut. She agreed to do the show based on her love of Glee, another show from the same creative team. Angela Bassett, Danny Huston and Patti LuPone guest star as Marie Laveau, the Axeman, and Joan Ramsey, respectively. This episode is rated TV-MA (LV).

"Protect the Coven" is the eleventh episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on January 15, 2014, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by Jennifer Salt and directed by Bradley Buecker.

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"The Seven Wonders" is the thirteenth and final episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on January 29, 2014, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by Douglas Petrie and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

<i>American Horror Story: Apocalypse</i> Eighth season of the horror anthology television series

The eighth season of the American horror anthology television series American Horror Story, subtitled Apocalypse, features the witches from the New Orleans coven as they battle the Antichrist and attempt to prevent the world from ending. The season is presented as a crossover between Murder House, Coven, and Hotel. The ensemble cast includes Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Adina Porter, Billie Lourd, Leslie Grossman, Cody Fern, Emma Roberts, Cheyenne Jackson and Kathy Bates, with all returning from previous seasons, except newcomer Fern.

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"Traitor" is the seventh episode of the eighth season of the anthology television series American Horror Story. It aired on October 24, 2018, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by Adam Penn, and directed by Jennifer Lynch.

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Mary Oneida Toups was an American occultist known as the "Witch Queen of New Orleans". Toups was the founder and high priestess of the Religious Order of Witchcraft, which was the first coven to be chartered as an official religious organization in the state of Louisiana. In 1975 she published an instructional occultist book titled Magick High and Low.

References

  1. ↑ "Head – American Horror Story: Coven, Episode 9". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  2. ↑ VanDerWerff, Emily (December 11, 2013). "American Horror Story: "Head"". The A.V. Club . Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  3. ↑ Fowler, Matt (December 11, 2013). "Never Forget What They Are". IGN . Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  4. ↑ Bibel, Sara (December 12, 2013). "Wednesday Cable Ratings: 'Duck Dynasty' Wins Night, 'American Horror Story', 'South Park', 'Rodeo Girls', 'Key & Peele' & More". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
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