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“Who?” “What??” “Why?!?” Those are just a few of the words we can finally retire from our collective vocabulary now that American Horror Story: Delicate has reached the finish line.
The finale picks up moments after Anna promised her unborn child to Siobhan in exchange for an Academy Award, sealing the deal with a kiss. Now fully in labor, she’s en route to the hospital, joined in the ambulance by that piece of crap husband of hers. (Didn’t we get rid of him last week?)
Ivy is behind the wheel of the ambulance, naturally. We suspect it’s her first time on the road, because that vehicle is swerving all over the damn place and there’s absolutely no traffic whatsoever. We also suspect it’s not her first time killing someone, because she has no trouble putting a bullet in poor Kamal. (R.I.P., hot security guy.)
Things aren’t any less chaotic in the back of the ambulance, where Dex attempts to deliver Anna’s baby himself, but when his hand gets a little too close to the action… well, her south mouth bites that hand clean off. The bloody scene is [1] something we never wanted to see, but also [2] exactly the kind of thing we’ve been waiting to see happen to Dex all season. Such is the price one pays by watching this show. Dex’s good fortune continues at the “hospital,” where Ivy finishes the job and takes him out for good.
Anna awakens on a table in one of those enormous industrial venues they use to shoot music videos. Surrounded by the Women in Black, she gives birth to a baby boy, all the while maintaining a vice grip on her Oscar. Honestly, if we weren’t so horrified by the overall situation, we’d almost be impressed. Speaking of Anna’s new statue, she tries to play dumb about the deal she made with Siobhan, and her insolence gets her paralyzed from the waist down.
The next morning, Siobhan gathers her “Delicates” (that’s what they’re called?!) to formally welcome Anna’s son into their little family. She also makes an example out of Ivy, executing her as punishment for killing her “son.” (Side note: You all know that Dex was Siobhan’s son? Seriously, we’d like a show of hands.)
At Anna’s behest, Siobhan lays out the Delicates’ mission statement: They believe they’re saving the world by breeding creatures who grow up to develop superhuman abilities. Strength, swiftness, ruthlessness and viciousness are the specific powers given as examples, delivered with all the witchy glee of a middle school production of Macbeth. The creatures “will restore humanity to the greatness intended for it,” and this particular creature — the claw-handed cutie that Anna just popped out — will serve the greatest purpose, killing all of the men they don’t intend to keep as sex slaves. “We’ll finally have a matriarchy,” they explain. “Utopia!”
Anna attempts to breastfeed her little guy for the first time, which can be difficult enough without claws and (presumably) fangs involved. To ease her through the painful process, Siobhan revisits an old favorite from earlier in the season, singing a bit of “Sooner or Later” from Dick Tracy. Things turn chanty, as they so often do, and it seems as though Anna is going to succumb to the Delicates’ influence. (By the way, Stephen Sondheim would have loved that a song he wrote for that movie is now being used in something this campy.)
Plot twist: Adeline (the good twin, ‘memba her?) visits Anna from the beyond, empowering her to overcome Siobhan’s darkness and melt the crap out of her. Just like that. Anna simply refuses to take any more of her guff, starts chanting, and watches as Siobhan rapidly ages until she dissolves into a pile of dust.
With Siobhan and her giant Betty Boop curl finally vanquished, the darkness fades away and Anna is left with everything she ever wanted — a beautiful baby and a shiny Oscar. As a bonus, she even gets to keep Siobhan’s cute little ceremonial witch hat, since she’s dead and won’t be needing it anymore. Plus, she can walk again! And Dex is still gone, which is also great.
It’s not a very complicated ending, but in many ways, it certainly is a happy one.
Your thoughts on that rather abrupt ending to American Horror Story: Delicate? And how do you feel about the season as a whole now that it’s all behind us? Weigh in via our polls below, then drop a comment with your full review.
Poor Kamal.
I wasn’t sure if Dex would die the exact same way he died in the book, but I’m not surprised he did, since it’s tailor made for this show. lol Ivy finishing him off for good (instead of him dying from his injuries like in the book) was to be expected, since she blamed his marriage to Adeline for why Adeline left the cult.
I knew that Anna had given up her baby to Siobhan with that kiss last week. She deserved to be paralyzed for playing dumb and naive, as if she didn’t know how she got her Oscar. lol I also liked the deviation from the book by making her baby a boy.
Siobhan being Dex’s “mother” was not what I expected, but I guess now we know who Dex Sr. was banging when Dex Jr. walked in on them back in episode 7. lol It’s kind of hilarious how she automatically killed Ivy as retribution for killing her “son.” This is so campy and so AHS. It’s great.
I’m so glad the ending was wildly different from the book, because it fits the campiness, chaos and craziness of this series. Honestly, the fact that this was all about creating a matriarchy and killing the men they don’t want to use as sex slaves makes so much sense, especially in light of Siobhan’s weird sexual relationship with Hamish, Dex Sr.’s extramarital activities while his wife’s blood was being drained, and the fact that Dex Jr. was so enamored with Cora that he hooked her up with an apartment, set up cameras so they could basically spy on each other, gave her access to said cameras, and gave her a key to his apartment. I know Cora’s not part of the actual cult, but my point still stands.
Adeline helping Anna from beyond the grave and melting Siobhan to dust was pure campy fun. lol
Dex deserved his fate, just like in the book. While he’s much worse in the book (since he treats Adeline AND Anna like crap by cheating on them both), he was so cold and distant with Anna on this show that I often wondered if he even liked her. lol
Maybe Anna was right about him marrying her to “bury” his grief over Adeline and use Anna as a “cute little prop.” It certainly seemed that way. He unapologetically cheated on her with Cora. When she confronted him about it, he didn’t even bother to fake apologize or put up a fight before she kicked him out. He had zero reaction. It was like he didn’t care. lol
The show drastically changed Dex’s marriage to Adeline into being a happy one. As far as we know, he didn’t cheat on her. He married her even though she didn’t want kids, and said it was the best decision he ever made when she reminded him of that fact after he pushed her to have kids again. Yet, he cheated on Anna so easily and gave her stalker (Cora) direct access to their apartment. There’s no way he didn’t know Cora was the stalker, when he’d given her a key.
I love that this finale just went completely off the rails like a true AHS finale.
Thanks for all that insight, Ryan Murphy’s alt account, lol.
LOL Not Ryan Murphy, but nice try. I don’t even like Ryan Murphy’s shows, so I’m not the type to defend him for ANY reason. Nip/Tuck was disturbing, Glee was dumb, and I always preferred Chicago Fire over 9-1-1. It’s okay for people to actually like this season, you know. People are allowed to have a different opinion than you. Just because YOU don’t like it, it doesn’t mean other people don’t. Not everyone has to hate something just because it’s “cool” to hate on it. People aren’t allowed to have a valid opinion now if it doesn’t line up with the masses? I thought groupthink was frowned upon.
So you can ramble on and on, and Marie can’t make a simple joke. OK Karen, oops, Kat.
CIP cheesy ignorant person. Insulting is easy when it’s a stranger.
It was a stupid ending.
The finale is incomplete. After Anna looks at the baby we zoom into the baby’s eyes and we flash forward to the future where an middle aged Anna watches her daughter performs on the stage and we finally understand who “her” was: it’s Jojo Sewa doing her dance and lip singing in her off brand Kiss costume (clearly a reference to the Ravens), to the horror of us all.
“Karma’s a witch, I should have none better,
If I had a wish I should have never effed around”
That’s how you end an horror
As Jojo sings we look back at Anna, petrified, and Siobhan tells her “this is what we had worked towards all these years”.
This was the best season of AHS I’ve seen in a long time. It was fun & a return to form for the series.
Are you ok?
And I thought double feature was the worst, looks like delicate has won that spot. Kardashian was actually good but the story sucked.
I was enjoying the show until the break from the strikes. Pity that the second half was a bunch of disjointed crap that made no sense and lacked a cohesive story. What promised to be an intertwined thread about evil and greed became nothing more than a series of sketches with no real story. As to the “ending” what was that? The red and black reminded me of Melania Trump”s horrid hall of Christmas trees. Ugly with no feeling. Pity. All that comes to mind now is “what the hell did I just watch”?
I thought the red and black was supposed to be like the inside of a vagina.
Yes, the strike break ruined the momentum though thankfully I didn’t bother to start watching this on Hulu until just before the second half of the show came back and so I didn’t have the months long wait in the middle of it all.
This show usually crashes its landing (especially in recent years) but I thought the woman in charge did a good job of sticking the landing even if it was a bit low-key.
Kim Kardashian was actually the best thing about this season. She did some good acting especially in the second half. I wouldn’t mind seeing her back next season (but as someone completely different).
By the way, anyone notice that those who lost their children in this were all nepo babies in real life (Bette Midler’s daughter, Meryl Streep’s daughter)? Was there a meaning to that? That these women who had been born into luxury because of who their mother is in real life get punished by having their characters’ child taken away on the show? Or am I looking into it too deeply?
I stopped watching this show years ago after Hotel and just read the recaps. Ryan Murphy’s popularity and the celeb roles are the only reason this horrible show is still on the air.
This had to be the worst season of AHS I’ve seen. I foolishly just hit play one night thinking it would be another crazy trip from Ryan Murphy but did not see his name at all. (Uh oh!) Things went from slow drag to worse with each episode hoping that the following one would open up to a dramatic surprise or conclusion but sadly no. Just another ‘sell your soul’ (in this case baby) for fame and fortune and everyone around you is not who you think. Yawn.
Felt like I was watching an episode of the Kardashian’s each time Kim Kardashian would come out. AHS really messed up by not using one of their talented actors to play the role of Siobhan.
I’m a AHS fan and as for me, AHS Delicate is the worse seasons of all. AHS over promoted Kim Kardashian that they ended up failing in the context of the actual script!
What happend to the rest of the delicate’s….. (Ladies in black) I was hoping for a bit more of a satisfying ending to all of them, not just Siobhan…..will there be an episode 10 it can’t just end on an odd number 😌 I wanted the good witches to come in and save the day.
One episode for every month of pregnancy?
I assume the other delicates died when Siobhan did.
Such a let down AHS stinks anymore. Bring back the good stuff like Roanoke, Coven, Asylum, Murder house, and even freak show. These all had great back stories. It’s like now they just get C or Dlevel actors and just put them on screen.
Even Double Feature, while not great had a fair back story,
Probably the most horrible ans disappointing season as today! And I actually really like this series and Kim K did NOT help this season at all and the abrupt Season finale ending seasons sucked. It’s like they stole ending where which melts straight out of the Wizard of OZ, I was totally waiting for Kim K to say help me I’m melting! 💀
I’m just glad it’s over. Hands down the worst season of AHS (and I’ve seen them all). Not even close. And doesn’t even have to do with casting KK, she was fine. Not scary. Not campy fun. Completely uninteresting characters. Truly felt like they were making the story up as they went along. But I’m not a quitter, I’ll be back for 13.
I watched the first half and thought it was okay but after seeing all the negative reviews of the second half and ending I’m flip flopping over whether or not to bother finishing it. I just can’t decide, lol.
You might as well see it for completion’s sake, and most of the last 4 eps barely cracked 30 mins so ur not wasting too much time.. that said, go in expecting to be disappointed. Worst season of AHS by far IMO.
Good info on the episode length. Suppose to rain this Sunday here, maybe I’ll just do it and be done :-)
I think it’s a cool season. It’s hard to match Jessica Lange, but I still liked this one. It’s not the best season, but it’s not the worst. I loved lynch directing.
Wouldn’t it have been funnier if Kim K melted into a blob of plastic at the end?
It will happen eventually. Of course you might have to be here in Hell to see it.
Not sure how this is being missed. There were 2 cults. Listen to the chanting. Hestia (Light) and Satana (Dark). I believe Anna putting on the black headpiece of Satana is to lead us to believe in the end, dark still wins. Anna could have left the Oscar but couldn’t. She still can’t make the right decision.
That last episode, I can’t… I love the episode before, we started to have some explanations. But the last one, please. It was rushed, it felt like a fan fiction webisode. The show deserved a better ending. On a different not, I was surprised by Kim Kardashian, she’s a good actress !
what have the spiders got to do with anything. the spot on their faces? the whole promo art? and couldnt adaline have done that ages ago?
i love kim k and thought she was amazing in this – the only saving grace. im also a die hard ahs fan but this ridicolous. everyone deserved better.
One of the worst pieces of television to ever grace the screen. Can we please stop letting Ryan Murphy tell stories because apart from a few seasons of AHS, it’s a miss.
I liked this season. There were some cool moments anc I never got bored like past episodes (1984) or thought it was dumb (roanoke). It might have been s little slow and the break didn’t help. The acting was less complex somehow, but I still really like this season.
Loved AHS Delicate. It was slow in parts but I assumed it was building up to the finale. And boy was that good except for feeling that now it was being rushed. Here’s an area where more time should have been spent.
Would have loved to see more of the baby. Spend more time destroying the coven. And what happens to Dex’ nut sacks? I felt another episode would have greatly enhanced the story line. A lot of time was spent getting you to the end, only to rush the finish a little too much.
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I really liked the finale, but that feeling could be being influenced by the sloggish 8 episode wait for something to happen.