'American Horror Story: Coven' Recap: 'The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks'

A great return to American Horror Story: Coven this week. "The Magical Delights of Steve Nicks" was a little bit of a weird tribute episode to the singer, which really had nothing to do with the show, but we at least saw some major progression in the story that will be wrapping up in a few weeks.

We find that Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) made a deal with a dark spirit known as Papa Legba who gives you the gift (curse?) of eternal life in exchange for one favor every year. Thinking that it would involve no more than some champagne room stuff, Marie soon found out it was far worse when Papa Legba took her newborn baby. Three hundred years later, we see Marie steal a baby in preparation for his visit — something that she appears to have grown accustomed to doing. Now that Fiona (Jessica Lange) and Marie have joined forces to take down the witch hunters, Fiona learned of Legba's ability and attempted to make the same arrangement with him. He spent a minute or so with Fiona, and as we could've guessed, she had no soul to offer.

The game of who will become the next Supreme continued this episode. The heat was off Zoe (Taissa Farmiga) this episode, as she was mainly a back player to what was going on with both Naan (Jaime Brewer) and Madison (Emma Roberts). Both Zoe and Madison took a break from doing ... stuff ... with an absent Kyle (Evan Peters) to see Stevie Nicks perform and introduce herself as a witch to Misty (Lily Rabe) — the widely believed frontrunner for the next Supreme. The attention surrounding Misty naturally angered Madison, and she found a temporary spot for Misty in a cemetery. Naan, who has stayed out of trouble for the whole season, found out Joan (Patti LuPone) killed her own son and maked her drink bleach.

At this point, there doesn't appear to be any clear direction as to who the Supreme will be. We found out in this episode that Naan can now control people's minds, while Madison seemingly showcased her ability to bring the dead back alive in front of Misty. I'm not too sure about the authenticity of the latter, but it seems too obvious that Misty will be the next leader of the Coven. I thought Naan might have had a shot, but after Fiona found out she has no other option for cheating death, she decides to get to the root of her quickly waning power issue by killing anyone that could be a candidate, Naan being the first victim. As Naan's spirit looks on to see her lifeless body in the bathtub, put there by Fiona and Laveau, she quietly speaks to her desire to be a kinder Supreme before she's taken away by Legba. Before he leaves however, even he, a man who looks like he hasn't showered or visited the dentist since he took his first baby, looked at what these two women have done and warns them of their dangerous chemistry together.

This was the best episode of the season for me. I really enjoyed the mythical backstory that introduced the audience to Legba's character. Jessica Lange continues to showcase her talent as an actress. The show will end when she decides she doesn't want to do it anymore. There have been many negative comments about the lack in a unidirectional storyline from episode to episode, but in the season's return this week, we saw the writers' ability to take that level of story direction and use it to build anticipation in what happens next. We know enough about AHS to know that we don't anything about what happens with anything in this show. I don't really have a good guess as to what's going to happen next in the next few episodes; anyone who dies comes back to life, anyone we think is going to die doesn't

Popculturology Score: A