“American Horror Story: 13” reached the end of its high-stakes battle between the witches and the devil, with a subdued finale that still packed a few outlandish twists.
The long-anticipated season, which reunited beloved characters from across the FX anthology’s history including all of Jessica Lange’s roles from Seasons 1-4, followed as Satan (Paul Anthony Kelly) and his allies worked to complete a bet with God that would lead to the devil ruling the world through his son Ben (Joey Pollari). It was up to the “Coven” witches, lead by Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) and emerging supreme Mallory (Billie Lourd), to stop his rise. But the finale, titled “Devil of a Good Time,” made it clear the only real obstacle all along was the devil himself.
Look below for the biggest moments from the “AHS: 13” finale.
Change of Plans
After the penultimate episode ended with Mr. Phibes (John Waters) and the Rubber Man killing Cordelia and Queenie, it seemed that all hope of stopping Satan’s rise were lost. The finale opened with a gathering of thugs at the devil’s New York City penthouse, where Phibes had gathered them to be the final sacrifices to seal Earth’s fate.
After giving the criminals cookies laced with meth to kill them, Mr. Phibes was surprised to be interrupted by Satan. He revealed he saved one of the men from death — preventing the devil’s human form from fulfilling the bet with only one kill left to go. Phibes was frustrated by the turn of events, but the devil assured his servant he’d get what he always wanted in hell before killing him.
The action then moved to hell, where Cordelia suffered through an endless shift at a kill shelter with assistant Nan (Jamie Brewer). Before she claimed another adorable puppy’s life however, Satan intervened and offered her a helping hand. She said she’d rather spend an eternity in misery than bow for the dark lord. Admiring her gumption, Satan transported them both out of hell and back to New York for a seemingly friendly discussion at a park.
Satan told Cordelia that the idea of actually winning the bet meant giving up what he loved about his job — being the little voice in human minds tempting them to do wrong. After all, it’s no fun to be evil if there’s no light to corrupt.
“You can keep your precious Earth. I don’t want it anymore,” he said.
Light, dark and a baby
Though he gave up his claim to Earth, Satan relished in telling Cordelia he’d essentially won the game — crediting her latest resurrection to his own benevolence. The Supreme refused to relent and pledged to find a way to end his life, which he dismissed given it’d be like killing a metaphor.
Cordelia had been revealed to be Satan’s granddaughter, so he said he’d enjoy watching her fight her own devilish nature from afar. He also offered her the keys to his penthouse at the Apollyon, where most of the season’s horror took place. “Call it your slice of the inheritance,” he said, before warning her to stay vigilant as he could emerge at any moment.
Cordelia then reunited with Queenie, who Ben saved from hell (again) too. Cordelia shared the non-victorious resolution to the battle, and tried to calm her pupil’s nerves with the fact that at least the immediate threat was over. Back at the penthouse though, Mallory cast a time travel spell in an attempt to stop the devil once and for all — and disappeared before Cordelia could stop her.
Back in New Orleans, Ben and Madison (Emma Roberts) enjoyed some time together in the midst of the chaos — before they started to panic after Ben realized the condom broke. Almost instantly, Madison started to feel intense pain and her stomach started to expand: She was pregnant and about to give birth.
The baby was delivered unconscious, and Satan appeared and breathed her to life. He commended his son and the witch for bringing forth the beautiful baby girl. “This baby has star power,” he said.
Final showdown(?)
Some time passed, and Cordelia revealed via a letter to Mallory that the Coven expanded into New York with the penthouse as their home base. Twins Fiona (Lange) and Constance (Lange) remained in New Orleans honing in their magic and helping teach the next generations of witches, while the others helped merge the powers of light and dark into a new magical order — allowing new witches to emerge around the world.
“Every day I pray you come home,” Paulson wrote to the younger Supreme. Almost like clockwork, Cordelia cast a spell to summon Mallory and she arrived with good news.
She had spent her time back in the Salem witch trials era, stopping the massacre and helping the witches get justice. She also learned of an old spell that could stop the devil forever — one infamously used by the aristocrat Dorian Gray to move his soul inside a painting to keep himself from aging. But the spell required an immense sacrifice from an unwilling source to work.
The witches then summoned Ben, still glowing from becoming a new father. They let him know that the key to trapping his father required Ben to sacrifice himself. They revealed that before him there had been 12 other Antichrists — among them some of the historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler and Mussolini, whose bodies had been desecrated and stolen earlier in the season. But as the 13th Antichrist, Ben was the most powerful of all and his death would seal his father’s fate.
Heartbroken, Ben tried to plead for things to be different but ultimately accepted his fate — after Cordelia assured him Madison would be proud of his decision. Right on time for Satan to appear again wondering what his descendants were plotting. Almost too easily, Cordelia and Mallory bound him to a couch in the penthouse’s great hall — the one with the apparently real version of Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”
Ben stabbed himself with a grim-looking dagger and immediately turned to dust, summoning enough power for the two Supremes to join forces and trap the devil’s soul inside the storied painting. They swapped him with Judas in “The Last Supper,” forcing him to remain the 13th guest at the table forever. Mallory then seemed to accept the fact the coven would have to keep watch over the painting for the rest of time now, but Cordelia said that wouldn’t be necessary. Evil might just be vanquished forevermore.
It’s not that easy. The final moments at the penthouse show the dust from Ben’s body rising and going into a nearby fireplace. Evil is never truly gone, after all! The season then ended back in hell, where Mr. Phibes delighted in his own personal hell — directing a scene from a smut film that will never go right.
“I could do this for eternity,” he says with a chuckle as the credits started to roll. See you next season, I guess!
“American Horror Story: 13” is now streaming on Hulu.
Leave a Reply