'American Horror Story' Recap: Checking Out of Hotel Cortez

From ELLE

Warning: Contains spoilers for episode 4, season 8 of American Horror Story, “Could It Be … Satan?"

We've got another crossover on our hands, folks! We checked back into the Hotel Cortez (from season 5) and it was a doozy. However, Lady Gaga's Countess and Denis O'Hare's Liz Taylor were nowhere to be found this time around. It was just ghost Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) and James Patrick March (Evan Peters) hanging out. But we're getting ahead of ourselves...let's take a few steps back.

This week we learned all about Michael Langdon's (Cody Fern) backstory and met the warlocks. It turns out that the school that occupied Outpost 3 before it became a bomb shelter was actually a school for male witches called the Hawthorne School for Exceptional Young Men. The school was run by warlocks, played by Jon Jon Briones, Cheyenne Jackson, BD Wong, and Billy Porter. Grand Chancellor Ariel (Briones) reveals to the rest that he heard about a prisoner (Michael Langdon) with special abilities who might be the Alpha warlock-the only man more powerful than the female supreme witch. The Grand Chancellor is so confident in the idea that he breaks Michael out of jail to test out his powers.

Back at school, Michael passes the tests with flying colors but it becomes clear that taking orders isn't really his thing, and that he can't really control his power. The Grand Chancellor convinces the other guys that they should still push to have him go through the Trial of the Seven Wonders (the Supreme test from AHS: Coven). In order to do so, he must convince the Coven witches but Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) wasn't having it and she had Zoe Benson (Taissa Farmiga) and Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy) to back her up. Langdon set out on his own to prove his Alpha status, which included a visit to Hotel Cortez.

Cordelia reveals that even with her Supreme status, she was unable to spring ghost Queenie from the hotel because it seems to be an evil gateway. Of course, Langdon has no issues, because the hotel is full of evil and darkness and he has sway there-so he manages to get the faithful disciple of Satan out of there. Langdon and Queenie have one more stop to make before heading back to the school...to release Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts) from her eternal hell working at a retail store. The episode ends with Cordelia fainting after seeing that Langdon accomplished what she couldn't.

The battle lines are being drawn pretty clearly here: It looks like the warlocks are the ones who actually brought about the end of the world in order to serve their new Alpha (Langdon). The witches will attempt to make the warlocks see the light, but will the warlocks destroy themselves in the process? Even though Michael is the Alpha, the Coven witches having combined power could be what ultimately brings him down.

It will be up to the remaining witches to stop Michael, and strength in numbers might be the key. Robo-Mead could be the one to ultimately betray Michael (or perhaps be reprogrammed) over the death of Venable and prove to be vital in taking him down-the show made a point of having Mead look at Venable's dead body again. She is clearly not a heartless, cold-blooded killer like the woman she was modeled on.

Lastly, some food for thought. What if "the New Adam and Eve" isn't actually Timothy (Kyle Allen) and Emily (Ash Santos), but Langdon and Mallory (Billie Lourd) instead? Life on earth would restart with magical humans who are equal parts good and evil.

What we know

• The woman that Miriam Mead (Kathy Bates) was based on raised Langdon to worship Satan.

• The book Langdon was tasked with finding in his first test was called The New Adam and Eve.

• In the present day, the resurrected women of Outpost 3 learned that they are actually witches under an identity spell that protects them.

• Mallory was the most powerful of those protected witches.

• The witches get their power from the light.

• Dinah refuses to take sides in the conflict between the warlocks and witches.

What we need to find out

• How did Michael come into the care of Bates' character? We saw him as a child in Murder House in the care of Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange).

• Are any of the warlocks (aside from Langdon) alive in the present day?

• Is the Coven house still standing in the post-nuclear world?

• Why didn't Langdon rescue Misty Day (Lily Rabe) from her eternal hell loop? Will that be Mallory's job?

• Where was Brock (Billy Eichner) during the whole Langdon/witch confrontation?

What the internet thinks

• Mallory might actually be an alien. This would bring the Asylum season into the mix, since there were abductions and pregnancies at play there.

• Redditor RomanoffWidow suggests that Misty Day will be rescued from hell by Langdon and that she'll pay him back by reviving him after the other witches burn him at the stake. The resurrection could result in a Coven bloodbath, prompting the surviving witches to travel back in time to stop Langdon as a child.

A few more clues...

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