‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’ Forbidden Fruit, Season 8, Episode 3 Recap

Warning: Contains spoilers for episode 3, season 8 of American Horror Story, “Forbidden Fruit.”

What just happened? We’re only three episodes into Apocalypse, and everything has already been turned on its head. Halloween episodes of AHS have always been revealing but this was…something else.

First and foremost, the Coven crossover has begun. The final few moments of the episode gave us the return of Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson), Madison Montgomery (Emma Roberts), and Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy). They showed up to resurrect Coco (Leslie Grossman), Mallory (Billie Lourd), and Dinah (Adina Porter), whom they referred to as their “sisters.”

So many questions. But let’s backtrack for moment.

The episode started with Michael Langdon (Cody Fern) interviewing all of the members of Outpost 3 hoping to be saved and brought to the sanctuary. It was all pretty run-of-the-mill backstabbing aside from Mallory, who confessed that she felt something inside of her trying to get out. Langdon pushed harder to pull it out of her by revealing his dark side, but she snapped back and unleashed some powers of her own.

Elsewhere in the outpost, Miriam Mead (Kathy Bates) and Venable were plotting their way into salvation by conspiring to kill the rest of the survivors. That conversation also provided us with Mead’s backstory, which she knows is actually just implanted memories—because she’s a robot. That plan—a Halloween party—became fully realized when a mysterious shipment of apples arrived in a carriage from The Cooperative. Oh, and Coco’s presumed-dead husband, Brock (Billy Eichner), hitched a ride on that carriage and managed to sneak into the bunker.

Venable and Mead’s party went off without a hitch. All of the other survivors ate the apples that they poisoned with snake venom and died—except for Coco, who didn’t get an apple because she was too busy reuniting with a mutated and diseased Brock, who tracked her down all the way to the outpost just to stab her in the head. The conspirators confronted Langdon and tried to finish him off, but you can’t exactly pull one over on the antichrist. It turns out he was actually the one who had The Cooperative build Mead (in the image of a woman he used to know) and she was programmed to take orders from him. Those orders included carrying out the poison plan and then betraying Venable by shooting her.

It’s still mind-boggling that we got all of that this early in the season. So where are we heading? It’s pretty clear the Coven ladies are more Glinda than Elphaba, and they’re going to try to stop Langdon. The sisters they resurrected are probably other characters from Coven who are possessing the bodies of Coco, Mallory, and Dinah. Mead is probably designed in the likeness of Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange)—will we see that in a flashback at some point. We also still have Brock hanging around. It would be odd to bring him back just kill off Coco, so maybe he will become a faithful follower of Langdon in exchange for being cured of his radiation poisoning. It’s looking like the rest of the season will reveal Michael’s plan (perhaps an appearance by the biblical Four Horsemen?) and the witches’ plan to stop him.

What we know:

• Mead was made to serve Michael, but she revealed some emotion when she offed Venable.
• Mallory (or whichever witch is occupying her body) was the only one who tapped into her power before the rest of the witches arrived.
• Langdon still needs a little assistance from his father to reach his full potential.
• Langdon is only looking to save dark souls. He also revealed that he has been hunting down something in his travels and found that he missed one when he met Mallory.
• Dinah knew Langdon before he arrived in the bunker.
• The cannibalistic survivors are not as feral as Venable made it seem to the Outpost 3 survivors.

What we need to find out:

• Basically…everything.
• Where are the other witches?
• Is Mallory an angel?
• Is resurrected Dinah going to betray the Coven to help Langdon?
• If Mead was a bit emotional over shooting Venable, does that mean there’s a glitch in her programming?
• Is Venable really dead? Did they have to kill her off just so Sarah Paulson can jump into her Coven and Murder House roles?
• Why was Emily (Ash Santos) the only female Outpost 3 survivor not saved by the witches?
• Is Langdon going to resurrect the rest of the Outpost 3 members to be part of his dark army?
• How many other survivors are out there wandering the nuclear wasteland?
• Most importantly, what’s the deal with Michael Langdon’s pink eye makeup? Is he a Kesha superfan? Will there be a backstory there?

What the internet thinks:

• One Reddit theory gaining traction is that Langdon has been the one destroying other outposts, not saving them. The idea is that The Cooperative is trying to save humanity, while Langdon is trying to corrupt it.
• Apocalypse might also involve a Scream Queens crossover.

Perhaps next week’s preview can offer some guidance…