Kathy Bates as Iris, Sarah Paulson as Hypodermic Sally, Evan Peters as Mr. James March, Wes Bentley as John Lowe, Matt Bomer as Donovan, Chloe Sevigny as Alex Lowe, Denis O'Hare as Liz Taylor, Cheyenne Jackson as Will Drake, with Angela Bassett as Ramona Royale and Lady Gaga as Elizabeth/The Countess.
Special Guest Stars
Finn Wittrock as Tristan Duffy, Mare Winningham as Miss Evers and Lilly Rabe as Aileen Wuornos.
Blaine: When Jessica Lange left the show, singer Lady Gaga took her place as the lead actress of the show. Lady Gaga said that she wanted to be an actress first and a singer second. It didn't matter to me if Jessica Lange was going to return or not, I mean at first it did, but I got over it. What did matter to me was if Sarah Paulson would return because I love her on "American Horror Story". She takes the job very seriously and it's nice to see her on something that gets a lot of views. Sarah Paulson said that she was excited about the character she was going to play in the next season after "Freak Show", but she had also signed on to play Marcia Clark in “The People vs O.J. Simpsons: American Crime Story”. So the question was "would she have time for American Horror Story?" I was relieved when it was announced that she would return. I also wanted to see other actors like Evan Peters, Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett to return as well. Actors who have guest starred on "American Horror Story" in the past have checked themselves in as main cast members in "Hotel". Chloe Sevigny, Wes Bentley and Matt Bomer. Every time I would start a new season of "American Horror Story", I couldn't wait to see how it was going to turn out and how it was going to feel in the beginning.
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Detective John Lowe investigates murders caused by a serial killer known as the Ten Commandments Killer. He checks himself into the Hotel Cortez in Downtown Los Angeles to try and figure out the investigation. John feels odd as he stays there. There are a lot of strange people living at the Hotel Cortez. The owner of the Hotel Cortez is a vampire named Elizabeth Johnson, but everyone calls her The Countess. The people at the front desk are Liz Taylor, a man who dresses in women’s clothing believing he is a woman trapped in a man’s body. He is also a great advisor. Iris hates working at the hotel, but the reason why she stays there is to be with her son, Donovan. Donovan nearly died of a drug overdose until Countess saved his life by turning him into a vampire. The hotel is also overrun with spirits that are trapped there. James March was the man who built and owned the Hotel Coretz and he was also a serial killer in the 1930s. His assistant, Hazel Evers, could get stains out of anything including blood. Sally McKenna was a junkie who died in the early 90s when she was pushed out of a high window by Iris.
Blaine: There's a lot of weirdos and bad guys in "American Horror Story: Hotel" with ghosts, vampires and mysteries figures. After what I experienced with "Freak Show", I wasn't expecting any romance or any concern for any characters in “ otel” sense most of them were already dead. I didn't know what to expect honestly. "Hotel" I would describe as a mystery solving season with a lot of sexuality. It's also not that different from "Murder House" like for example, if you die in the hotel, your soul remains there forever and you can't leave. That’s what “Murder House” was about. During episode one my dad said it's more graphic for basic cable after seeing a druggy getting raped in the ass by pale faceless figure wearing a sharp needle around the crotch. And then there’s the vampire orgy scene with two humans. Sarah Paulson said in an interview her character is a villain and I knew if she's the villain that character would die. I didn’t want to see Sarah Paulson die at first because all the other characters she has played on “American Horror Story” have been survivors at the end. But then I discovered she’s already dead and she’s a ghost. The mystery at the beginning of “Hotel” was who’s dead and who’s alive. And then there was the question of who The Ten Commandments Killer was.
I really like Lady Gaga’s performance as The Countess. I was really impressed with how good of an actor Gaga was on the show. The episode I was most impressed with Gaga’s performance was episode seven, “Flicker”. In the previous episodes you saw Lady Gaga seducing a lot of people, giving everyone a serious look in her eyes from time to time and slit throats, but in the “Flicker” episode it showed a different side to Countess of who she was before she became a vampire. Countess was a brunette at first, was shy and an average person. I saw a completely different person out of Countess and that’s because Lady Gaga did a good job giving her a different personality compared to how she acts though the rest of “Hotel”. And then at the end of that episode when The Countess' late husband, Mr. March, who is now a ghost, informs her that he had locked away the man she loved the most in life behind steel walls somewhere in the hotel. Countess raises her voice saying “That’s what was back there?!!” I liked the way she said that line.
How Lady Gaga got to be apart of “American Horror Story: Hotel” was she called up Ryan Murphy, one of the creators of the show, on the phone saying she has been wanting to go into acting for a while and asked if Ryan can write a part for her on the show. The reason why Lady Gaga chose “American Horror Story” was because she is a fan of the show and loves that it’s actors get to bring these different characters to life for each season. Ryan was flattered that Lady Gaga chose “American Horror Story” for her first acting job and so he told her to give him a month to think of something. He thought about having her in two episodes at first, then more episodes came to mind and finally he decided that Lady Gaga should be the lead of the show. Lady Gaga was so happy to be taking a turn in her career and go into acting. Lady Gaga would tell herself to do her best sense this was the first time fans were going to see her act. Lady Gaga won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or TV movie for her performance as Countess.
Evan Peters' character, Mr. James March is the real owner of the hotel. This is the second time Evan Peters has played a ghost on “American Horror Story” after "Murder House". Mr. March is one of the three best characters I’ve seen Evan play on the show and what I like the most about his performance as March is that 1930s voice because he sounds so different from every other character that he has played on the show. Episode two introduced March, showed us who he was and how he died. Mr. March was married to The Countess even though they didn't show her face and didn't give her name away at the time, but it was obvious to me that it was her. After March killed himself, his wife got everything. The reason why it was obvious to me that Countess was March’s wife was because the hotel belongs to her through the season.
Another connection to “Murder House” is the character Billie Dean Howard. On December 9th there was an online article saying Sarah Paulson might reprise as Billie Dean Howard, her character from "Murder House”, during the season finale of "Hotel”. Sarah Paulson would play Sally for the first half of the episode and then she was Bille Dean for the rest of the episode. They wouldn’t show the characters together. I think Sarah Paulson puts more of a performance into Sally than Billie Dean.
It was very nice to see Lily Rabe back on the show even though she was just a special guest star...but still nice to see her again. And she played the real life historical figure, Aileen Wuornos. John Carroll Lynch returned as well, this time as John Wayne Gacy. Towards Halloween Day, James March hosts this little get together with other serial killers who are dead.
Sarah Paulson was working on two different TV series at the same time, “The People vs O.J. Simpson” and “Hotel”. She would be going back and forth from one show to the other. Sarah would play a real life person, Marcia Clark, one of the lawyers who fought against O.J. Simpson, during the day and then at night the makeup department would mess up her and transform her into the drug addicted, Sally McKenna. Sarah Paulson was very busy exploring these these two characters that are completely different from each other. The year before she played conjoined twins on “Freak Show" and gave them different personalities from each other and she said that was a good warm up even though she wasn’t expecting to do something similar to that the next year.
“Hotel” also had a few connections with other seasons of “American Horror Story” like “Murder House” and “Coven”. It's the second time a season has had a connection to another one after "Freak Show" had a connection with “Asylum” the year before. At the beginning of the "Room 33" episode, it shows the Countess visiting the murder house from season one. She goes to see the first owner of the house, Dr. Charles Montgomery. Countess goes to Dr. Charles because she is with child and he bring her baby into the world. Countess has taken a few kids from families, turns them into vampires and loves them like they are her own, but the one she gave birth too is the one she loves the most. It's more of a creature than a child. One of the kids Countess has taken is the son of Detective John Lowe and his wife, Dr. Alex Lowe. Alex Lowe loved her son, Holden, more than her own husband. For five years Holden’s disappearance has bothered the both of them, but they still have their daughter, Scarlett, and that’s what helps keep them sane. Then when Alex visits John at the hotel she discovers Holden is there and he has been a vampire this whole time. Alex has Countess turn her into a vampire so that she can be with her son.
Everyone is messing around with John's head and he’s almost like Jack Torrance from "The Shinning". Even Alex is making him look crazy. I asked myself “why does she do this to him, all he did was love her and this is how she repays him." At the beginning of episode seven it shows two construction workers going through one of the walls in the hotel and they get attacked and killed by two creatures. I thought they were victims of James March that turned zombies at first until more than twenty minutes later I found out they are really vampires, but I was right about the victims of March part. These vampires are Countess' makers. That episode is the same one I was most impressed with Gaga’s performance. One of those vampires was the man Countess loved the most in life. At the end March tells Countess the truth and Countess is shocked that for the past eighty something years she thought she was stood up by the man she loved the most when really March took him away and trapped both him and his wife somewhere they couldn't get out. There was a lot going through my head after that episode was over.
That episode also started to get me curious for the first time to know who the Ten Commandments Killer could be. Before then I didn’t really care of who the Ten Commandments Killer was because there was so much going on in “Hotel” and all these different situations the other characters were going through. Things were getting very interesting in episode eight and it all started at the beginning when John found out the Ten Commandments Killer he's been searching for this whole time is himself. Apparently John has already been visiting the Hotel Coretz for the past five years and he's been a killer this whole time. He just forgot who he was. Everyone in “Hotel” is a bad guy, there is no such thing as a good guy. They can be nice and they are likable characters, but they also kill. Mr. March started this Ten Commandments thing as an experiment when he was still alive. He trusted John to finish it. John was discovering the killer inside him and he chose that path himself.
For some reason I thought things would change with Countess after reuniting with her lover, Rudolph Valentino. Like maybe she would become a good person, but apparently not. She has been the person she is for way too long and it would be very difficult to become someone your not.
Countess has made a lot of enemies out of the people who loved her in the beginning. Her stubbornness is what makes everyone want to kill her. John Lowe is the lucky one who killed Countess towards the end of “Hotel". He cut her head off and put it with the other trophies of the other victims who have sinned against the Ten Commandments. I kind of felt sorry seeing Countess’ head up there. There was a twist at the end of episode eleven, “Battle Royale”. Countess reveals that she never turned in James March into the police the day he killed himself. It was Miss Hazel Evers, his assistant. It wasn't surprising for me even though it was unexpected. I think the reason why it wasn’t surprising was because Miss Hazel Evers has always loved March and was upset that he chose to marry Countess.
I liked how things were going during the last episode of “Hotel”. Everyone had worked things out and made something of themselves. Sally gets hooked to technology. Iris and Liz improve a lot of things to the hotel. Liz dies, but is reunited with the man she loves, Trisan Duffy. John, Alex and Holden return to the hotel to stay because it’s where they belong. John and Alex have their daughter Scarlett sent away to a nice place so she can have a normal life.
My rating on “American Horror Story: Hotel” is five out of five stars.
