American Horror Story: Coven Recap: Head

James Canellos ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Writer
We open in 1991 where a young Hank Foxx (Josh Hamilton) is about to go on a witch hunting trip with his father (Michael Cristofer). Hank is nervous about killing his first witch, but his father tells him to calm down and assures him that it is in his blood to be a witch hunter. Hank continues to hesitate at killing the witch. The witch unleashes a straight line of flame at Hank, but Mr. Foxx takes the hit as he kills the witch. Although his arm is badly burned, that doesn’t stop Mr. Foxx from yelling at Hank: “Never forget what they are!”
Fiona (Jessica Lange) confronts Marie (Angela Bassett) with the severed head of Delphine (Kathy Bates). Fiona comes wanting peace, telling Marie about the assassination attempt on Nan (Jamie Brewer) the previous night. Marie knows that it was Hank who tried to kill Nan. Marie brushes Fiona off telling her that she doesn’t want an alliance. She asks Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) to finally burn the head of Delphine, much to the severed head’s delight.

A few states over in Atlanta, Georgia, we finally get a glimpse at the witch hunters organization known as The Corporation. Hank has a meeting with Mr. Foxx who has become the President of The Corporation. Mr. Foxx tells Hank that The Corporation is not pleased with his progress, and that he’s only supposed to gather intelligence about the witches. Mr. Foxx reveals that it was the witch hunters that poured the acid in Cordelia’s (Sarah Paulson) eyes, blinding her. As Hank seems to show shame for his actions, Mr. Foxx’s burned hand reminds him that no matter what, the witches are dangerous.
Myrtle (Frances Conroy) wishes that she could restore Cordelia’s vision and tries to do so during brunch with her fellow Council members. As the two members eat, they begin to lose the ability to move. Myrtle poisoned their vino, rendering them incapable of moving. How else would she obtain their eyeballs with a melon baller without dealing with the screaming? Just like that, Cordelia can see again. This causes her to lose ability to see other’s pasts. Fiona is pleased to see her daughter has her vision back, but still hates the sight of Myrtle, threatening to vanish her to New Jersey. Truly a hell on Earth for Myrtle.

Madison (Emma Roberts) and Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) go to the hospital to find Nan, who’s still waiting to see Luke. After getting shot by Hank, Luke’s in a coma as his mother Joan (Patti LuPone) watches over him even closer, preventing Nan from visiting. Nan gives Joan the only thing she can, a way to communicate with Luke using Nan’s telepathic abilities. Finally, Joan sings a few tunes from a song she sang to Luke as a boy. She embraces Nan after the telepath reminds her about this song.
Back in the Voodoo hair saloon, it is shown that Queenie didn’t burn Delphine’s head, but instead is plans to torture her by educating her about African culture in America. She’s going to show her Roots, Mandingo, The Color Purple, B.A.P.S., and Roots: The Next Generation. Delphine’s head does all she can do to try and ignore the 8 hours of Roots.
As Delphine takes on that form of torture, Hank is being physically tortured through a voodoo doll controlled by Marie. She demands that Hank kill the witches of the Coven that very night. At the Coven, Misty (Lily Rabe) and Cordelia try to harness Misty’s ability to resurrect the dead. Hank walks in to find his wife able to see and is told that she’s filing for divorce. Cordelia already packed his stuff away in a box upstairs. As Hank gets his stuff, a female attack dog viciously barks at him. Fiona purchased this dog to protect the Coven from any unwanted visitors. As Hank leaves, the dog stumbles upon Kyle (Evan Peters). Kyle childishly pets the dog and embraces it after he cracks its neck.
Back at the hospital, Nan is with Luke as Joan thanks the witch for all that she’s done. Joan’s opinion of Nan has been completely altered. Then Nan says that Luke talked to God and that God isn’t happy with Joan. God said that he knows that she was responsible for her husband’s death. In a flashback, Joan’s husband Dennis (Bill Martin Williams) tells Joan he wants a divorce as he enters his car filled with bees. Due to an alergy, he is killed by the bees.  Joan did this because she found out he was cheating on her. The warm moment between Nan and Joan ends as Joan kicks Nan out.
In the mansion, Zoe and Madison find Fiona playing cards with Kyle. Fiona tampered with Kyle’s brain enough to make him functional and stable. Fiona has made the teenage Frankenstein the Coven’s new guard dog.

Back at the voodoo lair, Delphine is shown to have had her eyes closed throughout the entire Roots marathon. Queenie decides to play music instead since Delphine can’t cover her ears. She plays the song “Oh, Freedom” while documentary footage of Civil Rights Movement plays on the television. The song plays through one of the most haunting scenes of the series as Queenie returns downstairs to work in the saloon. Hank bursts through the saloon locked and loaded with heavy artillery. Hank shoots the voodoos of the saloon, including Queenie in the stomach. Hank makes his way to Marie and before he has the chance to kill the voodoo queen, we see Queenie crawling over to a handgun shooting herself in the head, using her voodoo powers to kill Hank before he harms Marie. Delphine is upstairs, not knowing what’s going on, but is crying because she is so moved by the song and the footage she’s seeing. Quick cuts also show Luke being suffocated by Joan. While Mr. Foxx looks at photos of his son dead in the saloon, he’s weeping at the sight of them. This was probably one of the most memorable scenes in the entire series. It felt grotesque and is reminiscent of the scene where Evan Peters season 1 character, Tate, shoots many of his fellow classmates. Unlike that scene, this one just went on and on.
The heavy handed episode ends with a silenced and probably traumatized Marie standing in front of Fiona at the mansion. With a smile on her face, Fiona lets her in. There are only four episodes left of what is appearing to be leading to a battle of witch hunters and witches. Both sides have lost their own members and have vengeance on their minds.