American Horror Story: Episode 6

Episode 6: Wheel of Fortune

This episode builds on the more sinister aspects of this season's story. It begins with Elsa Mars going through her old Freak Show belongings and taking out her spinning wheel. She continuously spins it and tosses knives at it. At every third knife she strikes the center of the bulls-eye. If this doesn't scream foreshadowing, then I don't know what does. Not to mention that she maniacally imagines all of her freaks attached to wheel, while she tosses her knives.

We then realize that it is her birthday week. When she receives her gifts, her freaks are
looking rather solemn. When asked why, they tell her that they miss the twins, who in the last episode had been taken away and sold to Dandy. This angers her and makes her question them and their faithfulness and trust in her. In order to compensate for her feelings of lost trust, she demands that one of the freaks get on the wheel. Jimmy, the Lobster Boy, is the first to volunteer, but Paul, the Illustrated Seal, waves Jimmy off and says that he's the one who should do so.

 I definitely would not have trusted a heart broken woman to toss knives at me.

In the scene before this, it is shown that Paul has had some sort of romantic
relationship with Elsa, but his affections are only half-hearted. We know that he has had an actual relationship with the woman who left the Freak Show in the first episode. He visits her after sleeping with Elsa, and tells her that he loves her. He leaves later during the night, only to have the scent of her perfume with him, Venetian Romance. Elsa immediately smells the scent on him, and questions him about it. This is why he volunteers to go on the wheel in place of Jimmy.

Going back to the twins we find that they have been living lavishly with Dandy and his mother, Gloria. Bette loves her new lifestyle with Dandy, as well as the expensive caviar that he has been feeding her. Dot however hates it. In her diary, she describes her new life as being stuck in a beautiful new palace with a man she finds disgusting. She writes that she only laughs at Dandy's horrible jokes because he gives her ten dollars every time she laughs. With that money, she plans to get the surgery that will separate her from Bette. So basically after the surgery, one of them is bound to die.

What sister would want to be separated from her Siamese twin, knowing she would also die?

On a whim, Dandy plays a game with the twins that forces them to share secrets with one
another. After Dandy shares his secret that he killed Twisty (a lie) and saved the kids, he asks Dot to share. Dot refuses, and calls him a liar saying that Jimmy would never lie. This infuriates him, and in a rage he runs out of the room.

Back at the Freak Show, we find out that Paul has been impaled by one of Elsa's knives, and that he is slowly bleeding out. The woman he had a relationship with leaves her home, only to see that he is close to death. In her horror she asks why he hasn't gotten any medical attention, but they later realize that the doctor never arrived.

If you thought that this episode would leave out Maggie and Dr. Mansfield, you've clearly
misjudged the American Horror Story writers. In this episode, Dr. Mansfield has become even more bloodthirsty and demands that Maggie bring him back any sort of specimen. He originally tells her to bring him Jimmy and to remove his hands for an exhibit, but instead Maggie suggests that she kidnaps Ma Petite because the body and death would be less messy. We are shown that Jimmy and Maggie have some sort of relationship now, and that she asks to run away with him. After that, we are then brought to a scene that seems incredibly real, where Maggie takes Ma Petite and puts her in a jar and then pours formaldehyde into it while she resists.

This scene was incredibly disturbing because Ma Petite is so adorable.

To end this episode, Dr. Mansfield is sitting in Maggie's tent and threatens her if she still can't get him a specimen. While that is happening, the whole freak show has become suspicious of Elsa Mars, and even the Bearded Lady, her very best friend, seems to not believe everything she says.

-Jackie-