Preparations are made to select the next supreme.
**CONTENT WARNING: Violence, death**
Synopsis
An instructional video explains the seven wonders, a dangerous test that proves who is worthy to become the supreme. The seven categories are telekinesis, concilium (control of the mind), transmutation/teleportation, divination, vitalum vitalis (balancing the scales of life forces), descensum (descent into the afterlife), and pyrokinesis.
Queenie is worried about Laveau’s absence and performs descensum in order to speak to Papa Legba. Her version of the afterlife, her personal hell, is spending an eternity in the fried chicken restaurant she worked at before discovering her powers. Papa Legba cautions her to return to the land of the living quickly or she will be stuck here, so she does, but he continues their conversation. Papa Legba informs her that Laveau has been cut up by LaLaurie and buried all across town, but that her soul is still alive. Queenie wants to kill LaLaurie, but Papa Legba says she will be immortal so long as Laveau is. Queenie convinces him to end Laveau’s immortality, since in her current state she will no longer be able to fulfill her yearly requirements to uphold their bargain. Queenie then tracks down LaLaurie, who has returned to her old house. Queenie offers her one last shot at redemption, but LaLaurie scoffs at the idea, so Queenie stabs and kills her. LaLaurie’s afterlife punishment is to spend eternity in her torture attic, but as a victim alongside her daughters at Laveau’s hands.
Cordelia struggles to get her second sight to work again, but it finally kicks in when given own grandmother’s necklace by Fiona. Cordelia sees a vision of all of them dead by Fiona’s hand. Cordelia goes to the Axeman and warns him that Fiona is not a safe person to love, and that she had a vision that Fiona would betray him. When Fiona visits him later, he indeed finds a plane ticket in her bag for just herself, and Fiona admits she viewed him as nothing more than a pleasant distraction. Enraged, he murders her with his axe.
Cordelia uses her second sight to track down Misty buried in the cemetery and saves her, with Queenie’s help. They return to the school just after Zoe and Kyle, who made it to Florida before turning around because Zoe couldn’t shake the thought that she might be the next supreme. Misty beats up Madison for sticking her in the grave, but the group is interrupted by the Axeman, determined to take out the rest of the coven. The witches join forces to stop him and Cordelia sees what happened to Fiona. Together, the witches stab the Axemen to death. Cordelia declares that with Fiona’s passing, it is finally time for them to figure out who the next supreme is. Since Zoe, Madison, Queenie, and Misty all have a shot at the title, they will all participate in the seven wonders on Sunday, even if some of them may risk their lives in the process.
Supreme Candidates
Now that we know what the criteria is for the seven wonders, we know that many of these have shown up among the remaining witches. Pretty much all of them have displayed vitalum vitalis and telekinesis. Queenie also performed descensum in this episode, Madison has used pyrokinesis and teleportation, and Cordelia uses divination, though she doesn’t appear to be counting herself among the participants in the seven wonders. Nan was the only one we’ve seen use concilium, but she’s dead so she won’t be participating. By this criteria, Madison does seem to hit the most, but I still don’t think it’s her.
Deaths
We’ve lost Fiona, Laveau, LaLaurie, and the Axeman all in one episode. For a series where deaths haven’t usually stuck, these four do actually seem to be gone for good. Apparently the Axeman even fed Fiona’s body to a bunch of gators, so even if anyone was crazy enough to want to bring her back, they wouldn’t be able to. At least now the coven is safe from her, but there are only six members left and four of them are about to participate in a life-threatening competition, so they’re still not out of the water.
I appreciate that Queenie still gives LaLaurie another chance at the end. LaLaurie has always been racist, but there was a time when she and Queenie were almost friends, and she was almost a better person.
Conclusion
I genuinely have no idea how the supreme tournament will turn out, but I think Queenie would make the best supreme. She seems the most inclined to compassion (despite some of her earlier waverings), and she would represent both Fiona and Laveau’s witches. All will be revealed in the next episode.
Score: 6/10