TV Review: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: Season 5, Episode 7: Flicker [FX]

FX‘s American Horror Story Flicker TV Show Review. American Horror Story: Season 5, Episode 7: Flicker revealed the origin of The Countess (Lady Gaga) and possibly the reason why she has a rule against falling in love. Opening up with Will Drake’s (Cheyenne Jackson) renovation well under way, a sealed off section of Hotel Cortez was unearthed and an unknown evil was released onto the world. In fact, we got to see darling Tristan (Finn Wittrock) again in the form of Rudolpho Valentino, the vampire who turned The Countess in 1925. Wittrock was successfully redone to portray a totally different character in his walk, talk, and dress, even dance were so convincingly cultured – a far cry from the dumb, druggie model of yore. It took me a moment to realize I was looking at the same person…but obviously not the same character. What we got from the past was that The Countess picked Tristan in the present because he was the spitting image of her movie star maker. That lends a lot more clarity to her callousness in Room 33. She really did not want to share.

Flicker gave German director F.W. Nurmau (Henrik Rutgersson) due credit for truly popularizing the vampire horror genre in Nosferatu (1922). In an homage to the style of the director, Valentino’s change was filmed in silent black and white, simulating reel film capture. It was later that The Countess was turned because Valentino wanted her to join him and his wife, Natacha Rambova (Alexandra Daddario), in immortality. Unfortunately by then, The Countess had married Mr. James March (Evan Peters) whom she did not love. March knew of Countess’ plans to leave with Valentino and thwarted those plans by entombing Valentino and his wife within the walls of the hotel. March took great delight in revealing the tortuous way he got rid of the The Countess’ first love. Just like Iris (Kathy Bates) said in the beginning, it is the first episode where we saw The Countess lose all her usual cool. She was shocked and visibly shaking with anger at the realization that the monster she married essentially buried alive her first true love right beneath her feet for 90 years. I wonder, will this force her to reexamine some of her own behavior?

The second thread of Flicker focused on John’s solo quest for the Ten Commandments Killer, which continued by checking into a mental hospital. Now, when I first saw that he was doing this, it made no sense because he is not insane or mentally disturbed. He is actually one of the sanest people in the show. So, why the hospital? Of course, he had a plan. He caused a scene at the precinct, fighting his old partner, and tossing the place just to gain a snippet of information about a possible suspect that his partner Det. Hahn (Richard T. Jones) told him about earlier. At this point, John’s reputation is crap so he really could not have cared less about hitting his only friend and looking outrageous. John needed to admit himself into that hospital to find Wren (Jessica Belkin) the “daughter” of the suspect for the murders. She said “I don’t want to feed anymore,” which is an odd thing to say. Only, she recounted a time in 1986 when her father left her alone in the car in the summer. Neglected, she was baking to death when The Countess found her and turned her. Remember, The Countess saves neglected children. Wren also confessed she was there for all the killings, and she wanted to be there when the people were killed. She said the killings were her fault. Another odd thing to say except she did cut one guard’s throat in order to aid her “father” in escaping a murder scene. The whole conversation between her and John was creepy, tragic and fantastic. Wren did whatever she had to in order to get what she wanted. She even died when wanted. Pretty awesome. Yet, the search for The Ten Commandments Killer continues. So, she really was not a great help.

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