Sarah Paulson as Cordelia Foxx, Taissa Farmiga as Zoe Benson, Frances Conroy as Myrtle Snow, Evan Peters as Kyle Spencer, Lily Rabe as Misty Day, Emma Roberts as Madison Montgomery, Denis O'Hare as Spalding, with Kathy Bates as Marie Delphine LaLaurie and Jessica Lange as Fiona Goode.
Special Guest Stars
Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau, Gabourey Sidibe as Queenie, Danny Huston as The Axeman and Stevie Nicks as herself.
Blaine: "Coven" is more humorous than the last season, “Asylum”, and has a lot of female power to it. I was happy to see familiar faces from the previous seasons like Taissa Farmiga, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe and Evan Peters. And it showed some new faces as well.
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Zoe Benson discovers that she is a witch and is sent to Miss Robichaux’s Academy in New Orleans to learn how to control her powers and learn the witches history. At the Academy she meets a few other witches named Madison, Nan and Queenie. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Fiona Goode, the Supreme, is trying to find out if she can get plastic surgery. A Supreme is a witch that embodies countless gifts and is the leader of the Coven, but Fiona is stubborn and only cares about herself. She killed the last Supreme years and years ago when she was a teenager. No one ever knew who killed the Supreme except for one, Myrtle Snow. Myrtle always suspected Fiona for killing the Supreme before her, but there wasn’t any proof that she did it. Myrtle is one of the members of the Coven's counsel. Good news is that Fiona is diagnosed with cancer.
Back at the Academy, Madison feels Zoe needs to get out more and have some fun. Madison takes Zoe to a college party. There Zoe meets a nice boy named Kyle Spencer. Zoe likes Kyle, but she can’t get too involved with him fearing she might accidentally kill him like she did with her last boyfriend. Some of the college boys drug Madison and take advantage of her. Kyle finds them and chases them to a bus. He threatens them by calling the cops. Madison uses her powers to flip the bus over and kill everyone who is inside it. Zoe hears that one of the boys survived the crash and is in the hospital. She goes there hoping it’s Kyle, but instead it’s one of the other college boys. Zoe uses her powers to kill the college boy and leaves. Madison later finds out that Zoe killed one of the ass hole boys who molested her at the party. She wants to repay Zoe back for what she did by bringing Kyle back to life. They go to the morgue Kyle is at. Kyle and the other dead college boys are in pieces. Madison has an idea to take all the best boy parts of the other victims and attach them with Kyle’s head. Once Kyle is stitched up, Madison and Zoe perform a spell from a book to bring him back to life, but it doesn’t work. Madison leaves while Zoe apologizes to Kyle's corpse for everything that has happened. She kisses him and it helps bring him back to life.
Another witch is out in the swamps and senses Zoe. Her name is Misty Day. Misty goes to Zoe and Kyle, brings them back to her house out in the swamps and takes care of Kyle’s stitches by rubbing swamp mud on them so that way the body parts can be fresh again. Misty Day has the power to bring the dead back to life. She was able to bring herself back from the dead after being burnt alive by a Bible group.
Fiona takes the girls on a field trip to the house of Delphine LaLaurie, a slaver from 1984 who would torture her slaves with the worst pain you can imagine. Nan is outside and using her mind reading powers, she can hear someone from underneath the ground. Fiona later has it dug up and finds a wooden box with Delphine LaLaurie inside alive and tied up. Delphine has been under there for 180 years. She was tricked into taking something that would poison her, but make her immortal. The one who poisoned her was Marie Laveau, an African American witch who protects her own people by punishing anyone who is a slaver or a racist. Marie Laveau is still alive and owns a beauty salon downtown. Marie made a deal with a demon that she would have to kill a baby once every year in order to be immortal. She has been an enemy of the Coven for a while. Marie killed all three of Delphine’s daughters and then had her buried alive so she could suffer loneliness by being immortal.
Zoe brings Kyle back to his house, but his brain is not fully developed. His mother can’t believe it at first that he is alive, but she also notices there something different about his body. She comes on to him and that causes him to go insane and bash his mother’s head. Zoe shows up at Kyle’s house and finds Kyle covered in his mother’s blood. Zoe feels she has done a terrible thing of bringing Kyle back to life. Kyle tries to kill himself by putting a gun into his mouth, but Zoe stops him and realizes that she can’t live without him. Zoe does everything she can to help Kyle be normal again.
Fiona is curious to know who the next supreme is and when she hears Madison has set a fire on the new neighbor’s house she believes she could be the next supreme. Cordelia slits Madison’s throat and the butler, Spalding, hides the body in his room. Everyone is curious to know what happened to Madison. Myrtle Snow knows it had to be Fiona, but she has no proof.
Cordelia Foxx, Fiona’s daughter and the headmistress of Miss Robichaux’s Academy, is trying to start a family with her husband, Hank. Problem is she can’t get pregnant even with magic. Hank goes away on a business trip. Meanwhile a mysterious cloaked figure throws acid on Cordelia’s eyes which causes her to go blind. Hank returns and when he touches Cordelia’s hand she is able to see what he has been up to. Cordelia has been given a new power that allows her to see whatever the person is hiding just by touching them.
Cordelia sees that Hank has been having an affair and she doesn’t like it. She kicks him out of the house. What Cordelia doesn’t know is that her husband is an uncover assassin for Marie Laveau to kill the witches of the Coven. He’s been going around killing witches so that the Coven can’t grown in numbers.
Fiona frames Myrtle for being the one who threw acid on Cordelia and blinding her in order to get her off her back. Myrtle is sentenced by the Council to be burnt at the stake. Shortly after Misty Day is wandering by and finds Myrtle’s body all burnt. She revives Myrtle and takes her back home where she treats her to her swamp mud in order to recover.
Zoe has help from the spirit of a killer known as the Axe Man in order to find Madison. In return she sets him free by giving him a new body so that he can leave the Academy. His soul has been trapped there since 1919. Zoe has Misty Day help her bring Madison back to life. Madison can’t remember who was responsible for killing her. Cordelia wonders the halls one night and Madison stops her from falling down the stairs. Cordelia has a vision of Fiona killing Madison. Cordelia is very frustrated with Fiona now because not only did she disobey the rules of the Coven, but she lied right to her face when she asked her if she killed Madison.
Queenie crosses over to Marie Lava’s side. Back at the Academy, Cordelia talks to Zoe and informs her that it was Fiona who killed Madison and the reason why Fiona did it was because she thought Madison was the next Supreme. Cordelia now realizes that Fiona has cared for no one else but herself and the only way they can stop her is by killing her. Someone tries to kill Misty Day in the middle of the night so she panics and heads over to the Coven hopping that they can protect her. She brought Myrtle with her and Cordelia is shocked, but also filled with joy that Myrtle is alive again. Myrtle is the closest thing to a mother Cordelia has ever had in her life.
The witches come together to form a spell that can kill Fiona, but it doesn’t fully work and she is aware of what they were planning. Fiona should be mad, but she is more impressed with the work the witches have done including her own daughter, Cordelia. There was an attack on the house next door. Cordelia senses something evil. She finds a bullet in the bushes and using her powers she finds out that the person who attacked was really after the Coven. Cordelia believes there are witch hunters after the Coven.
Myrtle supplies Cordelia with brand new eyes even though they don’t match. She took them from the other council members after they betrayed her and had her burnt at the stake. Hank attacks Marie Laveau’s place and tries to kill her, but Queenie uses her voodoo spell to put a bullet right through his head. With no where to go, Marie Laveau goes to Fiona and they both make a truce and join sides.
Marie confesses to Cordelia and Fiona that Hank was a witch hunter who was working for her. Fiona is furious at Cordelia having a witch hunter in the house. Fiona suspects that Hank had some help so Cordelia investigates who Hank really was. She discovers that he is the son of one of the richest men in the country who owns an asset management company. His name is Harrison Renard. It was Harrison who threw acid on Cordelia because he believed that an assault would make her want Hank to protect her, but it only gave her the power to see when someone is keeping secrets. Fiona and Marie pull off a spell that bankrupts the company in less than 10 minutes. Then they have all the board members killed.
Delphine finally finds a way to get back at Marie. She can’t die, but she can be torn apart piece by piece. Queenie later does the same thing to Delphine. Marie never got a chance to sacrifice a baby in order to remain immortal so both her and Delphine pass on and they both end up in Hell for eternity now.
Fiona has Misty Day’s idol, Stevie Nicks, stop by the house to meet her. Misty is speechless and she passes out. Stevie gives Misty her trademark shawl as a good luck charm for the Seven Wonders. Misty and Madison attend a jazz funeral. Madison knocks Misty unconscious in an open casket and takes her good luck shawl. A few days pass. Cordelia uses everything she’s got to track down Misty. Cordelia and Queenie dig up the casket she is in and revive her. Misty is pissed off at Madison and when they return to the Academy she beats the shit out of her. The Axeman shows up and the witches out number him. They stab him to death several times. The Axeman had Fiona’s blood all over him before the girls took care of him. Now that Fiona is gone, the time has come to see who the next Supreme is.
Zoe, Misty, Queenie and Madison must now perform the Seven Wonders (seven tasks to test and see if you have all the powers a Supreme has) in order to see who is the next Supreme. Misty fails one of them. It is the journey to Hell and back and you must return before sunrise or else you turn into ashes. Misty is no more after that. While doing the teleportation test, Zoe accidentally teleports on a pike over the main gateway and dies. Queenie fails to revive Zoe which means Madison is now in the lead to become the next Supreme. Myrtle feels for the first time that Cordelia could be the next Supreme. Cordelia goes through six of the Seven Wonders and Madison manages to fail one of them. Cordelia’s last test is bringing the dead back to life. She tries it on Zoe and passes. Cordelia is now the new Supreme of the Coven. Madison gets pissed off for failing and plans to expose the Coven, but Kyle kills her before she has the chance. Cordelia has huge plans for the Coven now she is the new Supreme. Her plans are to expand it.
Blaine: I don't really go for selfish characters and that's why I wasn't amazed by Jessica Lange's performance as Fiona Goode. I hate Fiona. The performances I was most impressed with in “Coven" were Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy, Lily Rabe, Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett. The actresses of “Coven” said that Ryan Murphy, one of the creators of “American Horror Story”, does a really good job of writing parts for women.
Sarah Paulson's character, Cordelia is very different from her previous character, Lana Winters in “AHS: Asylum". Cordelia is someone who is more caring and follows the rules whether she likes them or not. The only thing I didn't like about Cordelia is that she was married to someone who I felt didn’t deserve her. There’s times she feels she is weak and that’s because she lets Fiona get to her. After Cordelia lost her eye sight the first time, I thought she would be blind for the rest of the season. Then Myrtle gave her new eyes and I thought "O, so she's going to look like that the rest of the season.” And then she gave up those eyes so she could get her vision power back. I knew she would have discovered the truth that Hank had an affair, but I didn’t expect it to be that soon. She even found out that Fiona did kill Madison and she lied about it. I didn’t really care that Cordelia didn’t know everything about who her husband really was and I didn't feel she was in any danger around him. I was happy enough that she kicked Hank out of the house and filed for divorce. Sarah Paulson said that she had a lot of fun making “Coven”, but she prefers darker things more.
Lily Rabe is great in the first two seasons of “AHS". Her character this season, Misty Day, is my favorite she has played on the show. Misty is a free spirit who has the power of resurgence (brings the dead back to life), loves and idolizes Stevie Nicks and she shows a lot of passion for that. I would also describe her as a swamp woman. Misty was burnt to death during the first episode of the season and during the first scene of the second episode it showed her wandering through the swamps taking care of two gator hunters. At first I thought it might have been showing a flashback from Misty's past before she died and I thought it would show more flashbacks through the whole season, but turns out she didn’t stay dead because she brought herself back to life thanks to her gift.
Evan Peters performance in "Coven" isn't as good as the other characters he has played on “Murder House”, “Asylum”, “Freak Show” and “Hotel". His character, Kyle is a college boy who dies and becomes something like frankenstein. His head is a little mixed up inside after having a death experience and having his friends' body parts attached with his head. He doesn't have much dialogue either. I do like the relationship between him and Zoe. Zoe really liked Kyle because he was an honest and understanding guy. Zoe fears she has turned Kyle into a monster after bringing him back to life. She feels the only way to stop the madness is to kill him, but then after Kyle tries to take his own life, she realizes she doesn't really want him to die. She likes Kyle too much and there’s not a lot of men out there who are like him. Zoe feels Kyle is now her responsibility and she'll do what ever she can to make him normal again.
Zoe Bell starts off as someone who doesn’t know what to think about herself being a witch, but the more she gets use to controlling her powers and learning how to use magic she accepts being one and knows where she truly belongs. Zoe is also pretty bad ass in part two of the Halloween episode “Burn, Witch. Burn!” She would slay all the zombies on the lawn with a chainsaw and that’s what makes her so cool. Zoe's a stronger person compared to Taissa Farmiga’s character from “Murder House”, Violet Harmon.
My favorite scene through out the whole season is at the beginning of episode four where it shows one of Marie Laveau's stories from her past during her immortal life. It takes place in New Orleans in the year 1961 and four white men lynch (hang) a young black boy. And later he is discovered by his mother, Cora, Marie and a few other people. I knew Marie was going to do something bad to those men and I couldn't wait to see what it was going to be. She uses her magic to locate the men who are responsible and performs a voodoo ritual to awaken the dead from a cemetery to tear those men apart. The reason I like it so much is because it's showing those racists basterds what they deserve and zombies are the best way.
Myrtle Snow is the wise witch of the Coven. She's the mother figure Cordelia truly deserves and I like how good she is to her. At first I didn’t think much of Myrtle, but as the season kept going on and I got to know her more she grew on me. She started off as someone who takes things seriously and obeys the rues, but then she is blamed for something she didn’t do and is sentenced to be burnt to death. Then Misty brought Myrtle back from the dead and she became a new person. Someone who doesn’t obey the rules so much anymore. Myrtle is very kind to the young witches of the Coven and gives Cordelia brand new eyes so that she can see.
Ryan Murphy had always been a fan of Stevie Nicks and people would always say “Stevie Nicks The White Witch” when he first moved to Hollywood. When they started to develop “Coven”, Ryan thought it would be fascinating and hilarious if Fiona was friends with Stevie Nicks and then they came up with the idea of Misty Day being obsessed with Stevie Nicks. Stevie Nicks didn’t have time to be on the show because she had a busy schedule, but then she decided to make changes to her schedule, which she did, just so she could be on the show because she really wanted to be apart of “Coven”. The Seven Wonders thing the girls go through to prove who is the next Supreme in the end was Stevie Nicks idea. She also had her song “Seven Wonders” in mind for the season finale. Ryan Murphy said that Stevie Nicks was a wonderful person to work with and she put so much into “Coven”.
I really like the team work the witches do to try to take Fiona down in episode eight, “The Sacred Taking”. The witches of the Coven stayed strong and worked together to take care of any threats against them and that gave me less to concern about after that.
It was really sad for me that Misty Day had to go. I liked her a lot and she was a nice and kind character. I ask myself, "why did she have to go?" And then Zoe got a piercing through her body over the Academy's gate way and died. Things were getting worse for "Coven" and I couldn't stand to see characters like Misty Day and Zoe die. But then Cordelia went through the tests to be the next Supreme and she brought Zoe back from the dead. Madison….I didn't care that she died. Sarah Paulson was informed by Ryan Murphy around Christmas time that her character, Cordelia, was going to be the next Supreme and she couldn’t believe it because she wasn't expecting that. After Cordelia became the next supreme she goes on live television saying there are witches out there in the world and I was surprised because I thought the witches were supposed to be a secret. I mean through the entire season the characters have been doing everything they could to make sure the truth didn’t go out to the public that witches exist. Secrets don’t stay hidden forever in “Coven”. "Coven" ended with four of the main characters staying alive (Cordelia, Zoe, Queenie and Kyle) and they rebuild their kind with a huge group of young witches. I would have liked it better if Misty was with them.
My rating on “American Horror Story: Coven” is five out of five stars.
