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In the new finale preview promo above, you can seen that this 10th and final episode of Apocalypse will see the surviving witches of Cordelia Goode’s (Sarah Paulson) coven prepare for a final showdown with Michael Langdon (Cody Fern), the unholy spawn of season 1’s “Murder House” arc, who grew up to become the Anti-Christ who will destroy the world.
The opening three episodes of American Horror Story: Apocalypse already reveal to us that not only does Michael cause the End of Days to occur, but that Cordelia has been playing a high-stakes game of chess with the Anti-Christ, in order to end his threat once and for all. Fans may have had to connect some dots, but the grisly murders of Mallory, Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt and Dinah Stevens being undone (and the ladies resurrected by Cordelia) actually has major implications for how this storyline will play out – and what could conceivably be the series’ first two-season story arc.
On the other hand, while it feels like there would be a lot of dangling threads left if if American Horror Story: Apocalypse ends with this tenth episode, the season has just been heavily indulging in ideas of time travel, cause and effect, and possibly ways to circumvent terrible events that have occurred. The subplot involving Billie Lourd’s Mallory as an unprecedented witch prodigy (and new supreme) has been building to a showdown with Michael, and we know that Mallory can pretty much counter Michael on every front of traversing space, time, or dimensions (like going to hell and back). Cordelia purposefully erased the memories of Mallory, Coco, and Dinah before they were resurrected, and now we’ve seen heavy indication that there could be a clever design behind that move.
That’s all to say: American Horror Story: Apocalypse could actually wrap things up with this finale episode, with Cordelia and her coven (led by Mallory) executing their plan and making Michael realize his victory isn’t nearly as complete as he’d hoped.
On a thematic level, it does seem as that’s where we’re headed. With each new episode American Horror Story: Apocalypse has been steadily building a thematic arc that mirrors the current #MeToo and #TimesUp movements within the socio-political landscape, which would constitute the finale positing that all the horrific damage that men and their false idols could do to the world, could be avoided if the right women were in positions of power. Looking at it like that, it suddenly doesn’t seem like there’s all that much story left to tell, after all.
Catch the American Horror Story: Apocalypse season finale Wednesday at 10pm on FX.