You want creepy and disturbing? Well then, American Horror Story: Coven is the show for you! Even if you have not watched the first two seasons of American Horror Story, each season is a completely new and different story, so you don’t need to have watched the previous seasons. American Horror Story: Coven focuses on a coven of witches in present day New Orleans. Violet provides the recap of the first episode, titled Bitchcraft, and following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
Don’t need the American Horror Story: Coven episode recap for Bitchcraft? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s American Horror Story: Coven episode, Bitchcraft, click here to get directly there!
American Horror Story: Coven, Episode 1: Bitchcraft Recap Overview
Need a quick American Horror Story: Coven episode recap of Episode 1 titled Bitchcraft? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed American Horror Story: Coven episode recap for Bitchcraft if you need more information!
- Zoe inadvertently kills her boyfriend when she has sex with him for the first time. She finds out she’s a witch, and gets shipped off to witch academy, where she meets three other teen witches.
- We learn that the headmistress, Cordelia, is the daughter of the Supreme when her mother, Fiona, returns to help prepare the students in light of recent events.
- Zoe and Madison go to a frat party, where Zoe meets a guy named Kyle. Meanwhile, some frat boys rape Madison. She retaliates by using her powers to flip their bus, which kills all but two of them.
- Fiona takes the girls on a field trip, but Nan‘s clairvoyant powers sidetrack them to the haunted house of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, who tortured her slaves, but met her demise courtesy of Marie Laveau, the lover of one of those slaves.
- Zoe goes to the hospital hoping to find that Kyle survived, but instead finds the ringleader of the rape. She has sex with him, thus killing him.
- Fiona digs up the coffin containing Madame Delphine LaLaurie and finds her still alive.
American Horror Story: Coven Episode 1 Recap: Bitchcraft, the Details
This season of American Horror Story begins in New Orleans in 1834, with Madame Delphine LaLaurie showing off her daughters at a dinner party she is hosting in her home. Later, she is painting her face with blood, but is interrupted with a report that her daughter slept with their house slave. She takes the slave up to her attic, where she has imprisoned and tortured several other slaves. She has the man chained up and has a young boy place a bull’s head over the man’s head.
In present day, a teenage girl named Zoe brings a boy home while her mom is out and loses her virginity to him. However, this causes him to convulse, bleed everywhere, and die of a brain aneurysm. Her mom tells her that she’s a witch, like her great-grandmother was. Although it runs in the family, it can skip generations. Zoe gets shipped off to New Orleans to attend a boarding school for witches.
When she arrives at Miss Robichaux’s Academy, the three teenage girls who are currently students welcome her by wearing capes and masks, chasing her down, and pretending they’re going to stab her. One of the girls is a movie star named Madison Montgomery. The other two are Nan and Queenie. Headmistress Cordelia Foxx introduces herself and shows Zoe to her room, while giving her a short history of the Academy.
In its heyday, the Academy housed as many as 60 girls, but now witches are a dying breed, as many families decided not to continue the bloodline. Cordelia explains that an average witch is born with a few natural gifts, but in each generation there is one woman, called the Supreme, who embodies countless gifts, possibly all of them. Cordelia admits that she is not the Supreme.
Many witch families are unaware of their ancestry, like a girl named Misty Day, who had the power of resurgence, the ability pull a soul back before it crossed over to death. She was burned at the stake just outside of Lafayette a few months ago.
A scientist shows a before and after video of a monkey to an older woman named Fiona. The monkey was the equivalent of a female human in her 80s, but after an injection of his serum, its youth and vitality was restored. He says they’ll be ready for human trials in 2 years, but Fiona insists on having an injection that afternoon. However, he says he can’t do that.
Fiona is in her room snorting coke, and makes the scientist to come over to explain why nothing has changed even though he’s been injecting her with the serum for 5 days. She demands that he double the dosage, but he realizes that this is too risky for his career, and says he will tender his resignation in the morning. She uses her witch powers to trap him there, then sucks the life out of him with a kiss.
Back at witch academy, the girls are sitting down to dinner. Madison asks what Zoe’s in for, but Nan already knows, because she is clairvoyant. She also knows that Madison is there because she killed a man by using her powers to make a stage light drop on his head. Queenie insults Madison, and Madison retaliates by using her powers to make Queenie’s food spill in her lap. Queenie stabs herself with a fork, but it turns out she is a human voodoo doll, and Madison feels the pain instead of her. Queenie threatens to slit her own throat, but Nan drags her off. Madison invites Zoe to go with her to a frat party.
Meanwhile, Cordelia is busy in her lab making potions. Fiona shows up, and “Delia” says she has made a restorative potion that’ll fix Fiona right up. Fiona tells her that one of her greatest disappointments is that Delia never fully realized the extent of her powers, considering she is the only child of the Supreme. Fiona opts to throw the potion on the floor rather than drink it, and Delia admits it would have put her in a coma. Delia is still angry at Fiona, who is her mother and the Supreme, for dumping her off at the academy. Delia wants Fiona to leave, but Fiona declares that she’s staying to help and to prepare the girls, in light of what happened to Misty Day.
Madison and Zoe show up at the frat party, and Madison is quickly scooped up by an adoring fan, leaving Zoe alone. Zoe and a frat boy make eye contact through an ice sculpture. The guy brings her a drink, and they talk. She seems to hit it off with the guy, whose name is Kyle, but tells him it’s not going to work out. Meanwhile, a frat guy slips the date rape pill in Madison’s drink, and he and a few of his frat brothers take turns with her, while they record it. Zoe wonders where Madison is, and Kyle helps Zoe look for her. Kyle walks in on his frat brothers raping Madison, and stops them. He chases them to their party bus and tries to get their phones before they delete the videos, but they knock him out in the middle of the aisle and drive off. Zoe helplessly runs after the bus, but Madison runs outside and uses her powers to fling the bus into the air. When it lands, it explodes into flames.
The next day, the teens are watching a news report about the bus crash, in which 7 frat boys died, and two are in the hospital, although identities have not been released. Zoe tells Madison they should tell someone what happened. Fiona walks in and they wonder who she is. Fiona comments that a bus flip is not easy, but that Madison was sloppy. Madison tells her to go to hell, so Fiona uses her power to fling Madison against the wall. Fiona announces that they’re going on a field trip, but tells them to wear black.
They’re headed to Pops Fountain, which is now closed as a safety hazard due to Katrina, but Nan’s clairvoyant powers draw her to the haunted house of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, in which a tour is in progress. The tour guide tries to say they can’t barge into the tour without buying a ticket, but Fiona uses her power to make the guide to agree to give them a free tour. The tour guide explains that Madame LaLaurie tortured her slaves, which led to her house being haunted.
After we see a flashback of Madame LaLaurie running out of the blood she was smearing on her face, and then see her daughter slicing into a slave and removing an organ, the tour guide explains that the secret ingredient to Madame LaLaurie’s beauty ritual was a poultice made from human pancreas. The tour moves to the Chamber of Horrors in the attic.
Flashback to 1834, where a woman named Marie Laveau shows up at Madame LaLaurie’s house claiming to have a cure for her husband’s “affliction” — his compulsion for young ladies. The witch gives her a love potion to ensure fidelity, and Madame LaLaurie gladly drinks it down, but it turns out to be poison. Unbeknownst to Madame LaLaurie, a slave that she had mutilated was Marie’s lover, so she had come for revenge. However, Madame LaLaurie’s body was never found.
Nan goes outside in the courtyard and stares at the bricks. Fiona asks Nan what she hears, and Nan replies, “The lady of the house.”
Zoe visits the hospital where the two survivors of the bus crash were taken. However, neither one is Kyle. The ringleader of the rape is one of the survivors. She puts her curse to use and has sex with the guy in the hospital bed, thus killing him.
Fiona goes back to Madame LaLaurie’s house and has some guys help her dig up a coffin from the courtyard. She enchants the men so that they don’t remember helping her. Fiona cuts the chains around the coffin and finds Madame LaLaurie inside, still alive. Fiona invites Madame LaLaurie to come with her, and says she’ll buy her a drink.
Violet’s Thoughts: American Horror Story: Coven, Episode 1: Bitchcraft
I have to admit that I’m really excited about this season of American Horror Story. I loved the first season, but I thought last season was kind of “meh.” However, after watching the first episode of American Horror Story: Coven, it looks like this season will be another amazing one. Yes, it was sick, twisted, creepy, and disturbing, but if you watched the first two seasons, you kind of know to expect that already.
I felt that this episode was very well done, and the acting was superb. In addition to several returning actors from previous seasons of American Horror Story, we also get some well known big screen actors, including Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett, and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).
I think that one of the reasons that I liked this episode so much was because of its setting. Being from Southeast Texas, less than an hour away from the Louisiana border, Louisiana/New Orleans lore holds a place near and dear to my heart. I’ve always been fascinated with that subject, so this season’s storyline has really piqued my interest. I’m very much looking forward to the season to come!
Josh’s Thoughts on Episode 1 of American Horror Story: Coven, Bitchcraft
American Horror Story began its third season, and just like season 2, it completely takes a completely new storyline, but uses many of the same actors. It is an interesting idea for a show, not one I have seen before. What I think works well for the show, is the characters seem fresh. I think that the actors do a nice job not making the show feel like a rehash of the characters from the previous season.
I have to say, I am a little disturbed by what is allowed to get onto television sometimes. Even though it is cable, the date rape scene was pretty horrific. I felt a little sick to my stomach watching that scene. Then the aftermath of the girl waving her hand, flipping the bus over really felt like vindication for her. Although, learning later that the one good guy in the group died, while the leader of the hoodlums lived, was sad.
There certainly will be no lack of “weirdness” this season though. We learned the main character of the story’s power is apparently if she “gets it on” with a man, he will die, which she decided to use against the rapist frat guy that survived the bus crash. It looks like we are in for an interesting, if not disturbing, season of American Horror Story.
Scenes from American Horror Story: Coven, Episode 2, Boy Parts
Here are scenes from the next American Horror Story: Coven episode, titled Boy Parts:
This premiere (to me) kinda turned it around for me. I HATED season 2, I mean posession, ok…but aliens? I thought the show jumped the shark in its second season; It was a horrible followup to season 1.