 AHS Delicate has definitely had some highs and lows along the way, but with the recent highs of last week's episode, I was going into this episode with hopes that this may be a rare instance where an AHS season sticks the landing with its final two episodes. And while the jury is still out for the season finale, I must say that Episode 8 left me thoroughly disappointed. But before I dive into this episode, I want to remind you that you can see my book to show comparisons for this episode and every episode of Delicate by becoming a member for just $1.99 and as a member you can get early access to those videos as well as a bunch of other member exclusive uploads, like this one where I completely randomized a fantasy season of American Horror Story which features Jessica Lange, Werewolves, among many other surprises. Alright now let me get into Episode 8 and why it left me wanting so much more. The episode opens with an incredibly meta flashback to 1967 where Mia Farrow is having a disagreement with Frank Sinatra over Mia's role in Rosemary's Baby and later we see Mia filming a scene for the film as well. Now this part of the episode I actually enjoyed a lot, it was completely unexpected. I do worry though that since this flashback had no real impact on the events of this episode that this may have just been a one and done cold open that the show may never revisit. It does end with the reveal that Siobhan was likely the ghost writer for Rosemary's Baby just as she is for The Auteur but there's got to be more to that story and I want to see it. I just doubt that the final episode will devote any of its runtime to answering this particular scene's unanswered questions but again I do appreciate the context of the scene within the show, within the larger context as Rosemary's Baby like I said influenced many seasons like Delicate, Murder House, Parts of Hotel, Colt, Apocalypse just to name a few and the real-life Mia Farrow herself has recently worked with Ryan Murphy on his show The Watcher which too has Rosemary's Baby influences. This is also at least the second time we've seen a Frank Sinatra in the Ryan Murphy echo chamber as he's also made an appearance on Feud. The flashback also has a cameo from Sharon Tate which is the second appearance of this historical figure in the AHS universe after her infamous murder was depicted in AHS Colt. In the Delicate flashback we see Mia Farrow experience hallucinations just like Anna and it seems like Mia may have been put through exactly what Anna is being put through by Siobhan and that honestly just makes me imagine a version of this show that is told from that perspective set in the 60s and with these characters as our main characters who knows if it would be any better than what we're getting but getting a little taste of that in this episode definitely left me craving more. Side note, Matt Quayle's score during the scene as well as the sound design were very effective and it felt very AHS. Aside from that flashback though there isn't a lot about this episode that worked for me. For starters after having so much build up towards Anna potentially having an in-depth conversation with Io Preacher she shows up in this episode just to yell more vague warnings to Anna only for her to be medically sedated for the rest of the episode. I can't help but to think they are wasting this character and the talents of Julie White. As aside from her scenes with Virginia in episode 5 she rarely gets any scenes where she has more than a couple of lines and this character visually is the best in the series to me and Julie White's portrayal is very enjoyable to watch and it is truly disappointing that in what could have been a second strong episode for this character she just ends up asleep in a hospital bed like Princess Leia in The Force Awakens or Laurie Strode in Halloween Kills. The scene where Preacher is warning Anna at Virginia's funeral also felt a bit reminiscent to a particular scene in the last episode of Red Tide where Coach Beast barges into a city hall meeting and is like I'm gonna get to the bottom of this and then she's never heard from or seen again in the series so with that comparison in mind let's please please please give Preacher something to do in the finale and not have this be the end of that character. Moving on though listen I love this look on Siobhan but it did not make sense to me why she's suddenly dressing like a full on witch all of the sudden in this episode when that is not how she's dressed in the previous episodes around Anna. It didn't feel very natural for the scene either for her to be in this full neck-to-toe fitted gown while she's trying to style Anna's Oscar look. I guess I can see it as Siobhan trying to mess with Anna's head a little bit or maybe she's trying to ease Anna into the big reveal that we know is coming in the next episode but as a viewer this was just a sort of silly side note to this otherwise tame scene. Later though there is a much less tame scene between Anna and Siobhan that is surprisingly full of poop jokes that have me questioning if Hallie Pfeiffer took this episode off as the sole writer. I was laughing but I was laughing because I was uncomfortable not because it was funny Another joke related thing that I've been taking slight issue with this season is its tendency to have its characters just say incredibly dark jokes about serious topics like it's nothing and they don't necessarily add any value to the scene and I personally just don't find them funny. Talia had one a couple episodes ago that made light of the fentanyl crisis and in this episode Siobhan makes a Harvey Weinstein joke that again just didn't make me laugh in the slightest. About halfway through this episode the entire Oscars plot gets sidetracked as they shoehorned the Korra twist just when I least expected it. This is definitely my biggest issue with this episode so before I let those negative thoughts loose I just want to say that Tavi Gevinson is incredible in this role and in this episode what I'm about to say is solely problems with the writing and the editing of this episode and this particular twist not at all how she performed it. Her characterization of Korra is great and fun to watch and it has been every time her character's been on screen even when the writing is a little infuriating. It's also interesting to note that this character is very similar to her character from Screen Queens as both Feather and Korra are the other woman who comes between a married couple but even with those similarities it is clear that Korra is not Feather and Tavi Gevinson has made these two very similar characters distinctly different performances and that's definitely an impressive thing to do when you're essentially given the same task twice. Now here's why I think they butchered this Korra twist from the writing perspective. For starters it came out of nowhere in this episode and before she shows up in this scene I'm pretty sure Korra hasn't been in the show since episode four so to have her show up and then have Anna immediately flashback to the very first scene of episode one of the season it's asking the audience to do a lot of remembering all at once. Even as someone who read the book and this twist is somewhat similar in the book it gave me some whiplash because of how suddenly they revealed it. Secondly because the twist is so similar but they changed some specific things I'm gonna compare the two and to me the book's twist was written a lot better and paid off more satisfyingly as the consumer. Admittedly the twist does come out of nowhere in the book as well but Korra eventually comes clean to Anna towards the end of the book and she says that she was trying to prevent Anna from getting pregnant with Dex specifically because she didn't want Anna to have a baby with a man who is cheating on her even though of course Korra is who he's cheating on her with so that's why Korra sabotages Anna's medications and appointments and as for the time that Korra crawled into bed with Anna well that was Korra mistaking Anna for Dex and then getting scared off when she realizes her mistake. To me the way things happened in the book was much more natural and was still very surprising but instead in the show Korra is jealous of Anna and sabotages her pregnancy for her own selfish and nefarious reasons and the third reason why I think this twist was executed poorly in the show are unfortunately the editing choices made during these flashbacks the bouncing back and forth between voiceover and dialogue within the flashbacks felt very disjointed and over-explanatory while still being a bit confusing and just as a side note why did they include Korra saying baby to Anna in the bed scene if they were going to remove the part of the twist where Korra was mistaking Anna for Dex in that moment it just feels like they put the book's twist through a few layers of google translate and just called it a day and there are some bits and pieces that are left from the book version that don't serve the show at all. The cherry on top of all of this though is Tavi Gevenson's delivery of this one line which makes it all worth it. After the Korra twist is revealed we get a tiny 90 second scene where Anna kicks Dex out over his cheating and that leads me to another flaw about this episode it's so damn short. Long ago are the days of the occasional AHS episode that exceeded 60 minutes but between this season and the last one it seems like the runtimes are struggling to exceed 40 minutes. I'm all for a short and concise 42 minute episode I can even get behind 39 minutes as long as they're used wisely. This episode is only 34 dang minutes long and to me it left a lot to be desired. It's the third episode in a row with no Dennis O'Hare and they've also benched Nicolette, Sonia, Ivy, Talia, and the Ashleys which left us with a Anna and Siobhan heavy episode when honestly those two are the last characters that I'm actually tuning in for and that's also partly why last week's episode was so strong. The only other episodes of AHS to reach a runtime this low are a handful of episodes from the tail end of AHS NYC and I think this episode has a similar issue with those episodes in that it feels like pieces are missing from it and certain scenes happen way too fast. I highly doubt that the writers and producers went into either of these seasons saying alright and then at the end of the season we'll just make the episodes really short. No I think these episodes had full scripts and for whatever reason a lot of things ended up on the cutting room floor. Off the top of my head it could be anything from technical issues or maybe editing around non-ideal performances or plot holes but the result is an episode that feels structured and paced differently from the rest and despite the chaos of going into labor while winning your first Oscar the ending of this episode felt weirdly anticlimactic and abrupt. Last week's episode felt like the perfect setup to a strong final two episodes but sadly episode 8 kills that momentum with a disjointed twist shoehorned in between Anna's first Oscar ceremony plus a side order of Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra that ultimately left me missing our quirky cast of side characters. With all of that being said there is a lot to love about this season still I mean visually it's doing its own thing and the cinematography, the color choices and the costuming all add tremendous amounts of quality to the final product and it's worth watching for that alone. Along the way we've gotten some very high highs among some slight lows but I can't help but to feel like this season is going to end with an overwhelming feeling of missed opportunities. Alright so those are my thoughts on episode 8 of American Horror Story Delicate entitled Little Gold Man. Be sure to give this video a like if you made it this far it really helps me out against the algorithm and be sure to let me know all of your thoughts on this week's episode and where we might end up this time next week. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time.