'American Horror Story: Coven' Recap: 'The Sacred Taking'

The Sacred Taking opened with Madison (Emma Roberts) and Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) finding Queenie (Gabourey Sidibe) stabbing a homeless man and stealing a heart for Marie Laveau. Queenie was convinced she had found a place where she belongs, and the attempt brought forth by Madison and Zoe to bring her back to the Coven failed. Meanwhile, Cordelia discussed her plan to kill her mother Fiona with the two girls. Although Madison made it clear that she wanted to kill Fiona the next time she walked in the door, Cordelia urges her to wait for the right moment to show Fiona that she's been brought back from the dead.

Misty returned to the Coven seeking refuge from someone who came busting down the door guns blazing. Based on Hank's single bedroom scene with his pile of guns from last episode, we have to assume it's him, right? I'm a little perplexed as to why they didn't show his face though. Why hide what should be so clearly obvious? We discovered Misty had also resurrected Myrtle. Misty also seemed to have an obsession with plants, as she was frantically watering plants in the background during Myrtle's and the rest of the Coven's reunion.

Fiona's manic depression seemed to spiral even more downhill when she envisioned herself with no hair and confined to a bed, while the Axeman said he wished she was dead and leaved her behind. She must've realized she's soon going hit rock bottom when even a resurrected ghost serial killer leaves her. Fiona knows she's slowly deteriorating and she's coming to terms with her impending death. She wants her death to go down on her own terms however and it's clear that she's not going to go down without a fight. This doesn't stop Cordelia from attempting to execute her plan, which is where the title of the episode comes from.

Does anyone remember me saying how similar this anthology was to The Craft? The witches decided to perform a ceremony against their own, only to have it backfire? Strangely coincidental. Anyway, both Madison and Myrtle appeared to Fiona's surprise, informing her that Misty will be the new Reigning Supreme. The combination of the two of them appeared to convince Fiona to kill herself, but Spaulding (Dennis O'Hare) arrived and convinced her otherwise. Fiona appeared to interrupt a very somber celebration of her death where she basically states she's not going anywhere.

In the most disappointing and painful scene of the show, Luke's mother gave him some sort of colon cleansing as a way to draw him away from Nan (Jaime Brewer) and the rest of the Coven. No need to discuss this scene any further. Why did they write this scene in the show? Why? Nan does however try to go over there to get him out of the house. Hank, seeing Nan, shot at her and killed the mother instead. Fiona, wanting to see a demonstration of Misty's abilities, convinced her to bring her back to life.

Marie Laveau's (Angela Basset) and Delphine LaLaurie's (Kathy Bates) scene together was the best of the episode. Laveau was thrilled she got LaLaurie in her possession and LaLaurie is no longer in fear of what she has coming to her. Her defiance angered Laveau even more; she started by cutting off her hand and by the end of the episode, delivered her still-alive head to the doorstep of the Coven. Convinced that this war will be too much to handle on her own, Cordelia told Fiona that she was glad she was now alive as they need her more than ever. Quite the 360 from just the night before when they wanted her dead.

We can't forget about Kyle (Evan Peters). He stayed in the bedroom all night with a modern-day version of Speak and Spell. At the end of all of this he told Zoe he loves her, while around the corner, Madison overheared them. She was probably pissed off.

The dialogue in this episode seemed a little more on the cheesy side this time around. Nothing immensely important seemed to happen. The whole master plan of killing Fiona was very anti-climatic and almost too quickly shoved under the rug. Queenie and Nan's character development thus far has been lacking, and I'm not sure how big of a role they're really playing in the overall story here. Hopefully next week's episode will be better.

Popculturology Score: C