American Horror Story: Cult - Episode 4 11/9 (Review)

Today is your chance to stick it right in their fucking eyes. To step into the voters box and pull the lever for 'go fuck yourselves!' - Kai Anderson

Wow! Well that was quite an episode guys! We get a whole bunch of reveals about the cult and even more questions as to what's really going on! Here is my in depth review of American Horror Story: Cult Episode 4 titled '11/9.'

We kick off the episode on election night as each character is about to cast their vote. Adina Porter returns as reporter Beverly Hope as she is covering the buzz of election night. After finishing her piece she is approached by her rival Serina, played by Emma Roberts (of course she plays a terrible person). She tells Beverly that she needs to move aside and allow real successful women to take the spotlight (damn Serina). She then tells her that she has to go skip the line and pull the lever for HRC so she can sit on the panel covering the election. We continue down the line catching up with each of our characters. Winter is with a group of her friends chanting This pussy grabs back (I love Winter lol), Ivy is gushing to Ally about being able to vote for the first female president, and Meadow is complaining to Harrison about all the people in line. Don't you think there should be some sort of test you have to take to earn your right to vote? she asks. He laughs and asks if she thinks she would pass it and she says no and that's her point (Meadow is absolutely ridiculous lol).

We then go inside the precinct to get a voting montage. Ivy, Winter, Beverly and her cameraman, and Dr. Vincent all vote for Hillary. Harrison marks Gary Johnson while Meadow writes in Oprah (cause of course she does). We see Serina vote for Trump contrary to what she told Beverly outside and Ally struggling with her choice until finally marking for Jill Stein. As everyone is leaving Kai suddenly bursts through the door helping Gary, the super market owner from episode one, up to the registration desk. Blood is dripping from under his sleeve. When the woman running the desk tells him he needs to go to a hospital Gary demands a ballot. He stumbles into the voting booth and they both vote for Trump. Gary walks out of the booth holding his ballot and holds his arm up in the air revealing that he is missing a hand and yells Welcome to Trump's America motherfuckers! This is the best cold open we've seen this season. We're instantly hooked and wondering what events happened to lead up to this moment.

When we come back from the credits we see Kai and Harrison's first meeting. Harrison works at a gym and tells Kai that he's been assigned as his trainer. Kai tells him that he picked him personally because he had been watching him and thought he looked strong. Harrison says that there are bigger guys in the gym, but Kai replies, No, no, no. Don't get me wrong. I mean you could move a dead body if you had to (very subtle Kai). Harrison begins training him and Kai starts asking him about his personal life. First he inquires about his sexuality. Harrison asks him if he is gay too and Kai tells him he does not like labels. Diversity starts with D-I-V, which is also the first three letters of 'divide.' Gay, bisexual, transgender; these are labels created by the leftists. They want to split us apart, create special interest groups that put themselves over the greater good of the community. 

They are interrupted by Harrison's boss, Vinny. He tells Harrison that there is a clean up on aisle four. Harrison protests, but his boss will not have it. Kai asks Harrison what that means and is told that some of the guys get too excited while in the shower and masterbate (disgusting). Kai asks if Vinny makes Harrison clean up the mess because he's gay and he nods. That's humiliating, Kai says before Harrison says that's his life and walks away. While cleaning the showers Harrison turns around to see the smiley face symbol wiped into one of the fogged up mirrors. He finishes cleaning and gets dressed to leave when he hears someone moaning. He walks back in the showers to see Kai naked, masturbating (seriously why is everyone so damn horny on this show!?). Kai turns to him and says that he'll clean up the mess himself and lets Harrison watch.

Back at home, Meadow is sitting on the couch upset when Harrison walks in. She tells him about their foreclosure and they fight since this is the first Harrison has heard of it. She says that she did not want to worry him while he was trying to bring in income, but now they're too late. Back at the gym Kai notices that something is wrong with Harrison. He tells him about the foreclosure and Kai says it is a good thing. You're free. You can be anything, take any path, do whatever you want. Harrison tells him that he is not confident and transformative like Kai is, but Kai replies I'm just a mirror. Anything you see in me is in you. I am you. And if I say you're great, then you're great. You have to live your life the way it was meant to be. To live is to suffer, and to suffer is to find some meaning in that suffering.

They are once again interrupted by Vinny calling another 'clean up on aisle four.' This time as Harrison is cleaning Kai convinces him that he should stand up to Vinny. They walk out as Vinny is lifting weights. Harrison walks over and sprays him in the face causing the weights to fall. Vinny tries to grab them as Harrison pushes down. Kai walks up behind them and urges, Do it. Show him! Show him what it means to suffer! Harrison continues to push down on the weights until a loud crack is heard. Vinny falls back seemingly lifeless. Harrison steps back believing he killed him. You did it, Kai says. You changed your life. I'm proud to call you my friend (yeah you're a horrible friend Kai). Vinny starts gasping for breath and Kai tells Harrison to finish him. He picks up a weight and hits Vinny over the head.

While Harrison is having a mental breakdown over killing his boss (I mean, understandable) Kai texts all the employees from Vinny's phone saying he will be out of town. He then hacks into the security cameras and deletes the footage showing what happened. He tells Harrison that no one will be looking for Vinny. When he asks how he knows all of this Kai tells him that he's been watching him and those around him for awhile. Stop questioning. The only thing that matters is that you took a step to be someone. You're a part of something bigly (great Trump impression Kai lol). We are going to wipe out everything you know and build something bigger and better than anything you could possibly imagine.

We then see Meadow walking the motel her and Harrison are staying at. She passes a group of young men smoking weed and asks if she can have a blunt. She says she has no money, but will pay with sex then wins the line of the week with I don't have much experience, but I make up for it with enthusiasm (same Meadow, same).  She walks into the motel room to see Kai and Harrison sitting in the bathroom. Harrison is in the bathtub sawing off his boss' head. Meadow takes a puff of her joint and says Just when I thought my life couldn't get any worse. She turns to Harrison and asks, Who's that? My boss, he replies. She then turns to Kai. And who's that? Harrison looks up at her. Someone to believe in. This whole sequence with Kai manipulating Harrison is done extremely effectively. The acting is next level, the cinematography works really well, and the writing is excellent. Once, again this season is showing AHS at its best.

 
So now we know how Kai recruited Meadow and Harrison. The rest of the episode continues in this vein with other cult members. We next catch up with Beverly who is heading to a crime scene. She expresses her annoyance at being stuck with the stories that no one wants.  She says that she will never get airtime because her boss keeps making room for Serina's fluff pieces. The cameraman tells her unlike Serina she actually covers real news, but she replies that real news doesn't get you to an anchor seat. While on the air covering the story of a headless body being found (totally Harrison's boss) her boss tells her he is glad to have her back. Kai is watching from his living room and notices the exchange. It's great to be back Bob? Where were you? He does a quick internet search to find that she been checked into a mental institution for 30 days after snapping on a civilian over repeated incidents of people crashing her frame yelling Grab her by the pussy (good job Trump).

Kai next finds her slashing tires in the parking lot of her job after an argument with her boss, Bob. She had found him and Serina in the studio about to exchange sexual favours. Bob then told her to cut time from her piece about the ten most dangerous places in Michigan to make room for another fluff piece Serina is doing. She protests only to be told to cut more time. Kai invites her for coffee and the scene comes after is extremely interesting.

We then see Kai and Beverly sitting in Ally and Ivy's restaurant. Kai talks about how the world is set up to make people like Beverly fail. On the one said you have people saying 'diversity hire, affirmative action, she doesn't deserve that.' And on the other side they say 'well she's just as good as we are. She just got a raw deal.' But then they don't do shit to square it. She tells him that she's fine playing a rigged game, but he retorts that knowing the game is rigged doesn't mean anything if you still play. Slashing tires? You should be pulling out a knife and slashing their fucking throats (Jesus, Kai). He continues to tell her how fear has been utilized throughout history. He says that what great men and women have in common is they have a great messenger. He tells her of his plans to eventually take over the world starting with a seat on the city council, which is not vacant yet (confirmation that he had the Changs killed). He tells her that he needs her to be his messenger. She asks why her and he says that he's watched her for awhile and noticed her rage. She tells him that she wishes there was someone in the world like him, but can't believe in him. She doesn't believe in anyone not even herself. He hands her a card with the address to his 'campaign office' and says that he will see her in a couple of days.

We then pick up with Serina filling a piece about pet adoption when the Holes clown, the Three-faced clown, and the checkered dress clown appear behind her. They all pull out knives and stab her and her cameraman to death. Back at Kai's 'campaign office' Beverly shows up. She tells him that she saw the tape of Serina's death and knew it was him. He confirms and she asks him why he did it. He tells her that he did it for her. She hugs him and says that she now believes in him.

The next character we pick up with is Ivy on the day before the election. After asking Ally to attend a Hillary Clinton rally with her but she refuses. At the rally Ivy gets in an argument with Gary who is there protesting. He tells her that 'real Americans' like him hate the democrats because they look down on them and call them all racists. She tells him that that doesn't warrant voting for a man who brags about sexually assaulting women. He says that maybe she needs her pussy grabbed and grabs her. Winter runs to her defense and chases Gary away calling for the police. After he escapes she asks Ivy to lunch. They sit in Ally and Ivy's restaurant talking about what happened and Winter tells Ivy that she is amazing for owning her own restaurant. Ivy says that her wife would probably disagree and Winter asks why she is with her. Winter decides that they should get pay back on Gary for the sexual assault.

On election night Winter and Ivy break into Gary's super market and kidnap him. They tie him up and handcuff him to a pole in a basement. They tell Gary that they are going to leave him there until after election night so he cannot vote. He begins to yell and curse at them trying to escape. Winter leans down to him and says Get woke (gotta love Winter lol), then they leave. Back at home Kai walks in to see a bit of blood on Winter's face. He asks her if she hurt someone and she tells him she did. He asks how it felt and she replies, It felt fucking fantastic. He instructs her to tell him everything. The writers are doing a good job of keeping how the relationship between Kai and Winter actually works. It seems like she is part of the cult, however it is not certain since her and Kai seem to have different goals. They show that Ivy knew her before she was hired as the nanny, but we don't know to what extent Ivy is a part of what is happening. This episode answers a lot of questions, but leaves us with even more.

The final scene shows Kai walk down into the basement where Gary is. He begins to rile up his emotions explaining that he understands how he feels about the world and those who wish to silence him for being a straight white male. Gary asks if he has any tools to cut the handcuff, but Kai pulls out a small saw saying that that is all he brought. When Gary tells him that it is not strong enough to cut the handcuffs Kai implies that he does not need to cut the handcuffs. Listen, here's your chance Gary. Today is your chance to stick it right in their fucking eyes.  To step into the voter's box and pull the lever for 'go fuck yourselves.' It might be the last chance you ever get so I ask you. What is that worth to you? What would you give for the chance to do that? How humiliated are you? Gary begins to scream and tells Kai to give him the saw. As Kai stands in front of him watching Gary proceeds to cut off his own hand.

One of the main points I took away from this episode is how Kai will literally say anything to get people to follow him. He seems to not have his own political ideology he just wants to spread fear and takes on other's ideologies to convert them to his side. It reminds me of when Winter told Ozzie back in episode two, you should tell people what they want to hear. Kai seems to be doing that at a whole new level. He is a true manipulative sociopath. I'm also interested to see where the writers take the cult aspect of this season. I'm hoping we get more actual cult activity similar to this episode as it was extremely entertaining and genuinely unsettling to watch.

This episode was intense and dark; just what I love about this show. The writers gave 54 minuets of pure phycological mind games that honestly made me think of one of the most loved seasons Asylum. If anyone was questioning whether AHS could still bring the horror and psychological intensity here's your answer! I once again have to give this season a perfect 5 out of 5 cauldrons! We'll see if they can keep up this streak!

  

I hope you guys are all enjoying this season as much as I am! Let me know your thoughts on this episode below! Sorry for the delay this week my schedule was pretty crazy.