‘American Horror Story: Apocalypse’: Angela Bassett and Jessica Lange Return in “Apocalypse Then”

The end is here — for American Horror Story: Apocalypse, that is. The finale episode of Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology debuted tonight and brought along with it a lot of surprising twists and a couple of massive returns.

MAJOR Spoilers for tonight’s season finale episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse, “Apocalypse Then”, below.

Tonight’s finale caught fans up to the in-show present, taking viewers back to Outpost 3 and the moments just after Cordelia (Sarah Paulson) brought Coco (Leslie Grossman), Mallory (Billie Lourd), and Dinah (Adina Porter) back from the dead. As one might guess, Michael (Cody Fern) figures out what’s happened pretty quickly and gives the witches a choice: bow down to him and be saved or refuse and die. Cordelia and her girls refuse, but Dinah? She bows but not for long. Marie Leveau shows up and kills her as part of the witches’ retribution for aiding Michael.

You see, Cordelia may not have been willing to give her girls to Papa Legba when she met with him a few episodes before but that doesn’t mean she didn’t make some sort of deal. As Marie wasn’t really into the torture she was carrying out in Voodoo Hell, he was glad to trade Marie for Dinah. Cordelia literally brought her back simply so that Marie could kill her and then help them resist Michael.

And as if Marie’s surprise return wasn’t exciting enough, fans were treated to another major return in the episode. After Cordelia sacrifices herself to give Mallory the power she needs to go into the past to stop Michael, we cut back to Murder House — sort of. Fans are taken back to the moment from “Return to Murder House” where Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) finds a rapidly aged Michael gleefully playing video games while a dead priest lies on the floor. For fans of American Horror Story, the return of Lange’s Constance is always a treat — she is the one character that fans always want to see more of — but tonight’s return is particularly epic. Constance unloads on her grandson, recognizing him as evil, and throwing him out of the house despite his pleas.

Lange’s return is a bit of a surprise. Murphy teased her return as Constance back in September with an Instagram post celebrating the milestone of 300 thousand followers, but most fans assumed her performance in “Return to Murder House” was it. However, her return tonight ends up being a fateful moment. A tearful Michael departs and is promptly run over by a time-travelling Mallory, and when Michael begs his grandmother to take him to the Murder House so his ghost can live on forever, Constance coldly tells him to “go to hell”.

What did you think about these surprising returns in tonight’s season finale? Let us know in the comments.