‘American Horror Story: Coven’ Episode 3.05: ‘Burn, Witch. Burn!’ Recap

Last week’s episode of American Horror Story: Coven, “Fearful Pranks Ensue,” saw the Council confront Fiona about Madison’s death. They tell her the punishment for killing another witch is to be burned at the stake. Fiona says Madison was the next Supreme, but Delia says she wasn’t — she had a heart condition that she kept secret. We also see Delia’s husband, Hank, have an affair — after telling Delia he was going on a business trip — and shoot the young woman after the act. At the end of the episode, someone throws acid in Delia’s face.

This week’s episode, “Burn, Witch. Burn!” starts with a flashback to All Hallow’s Eve 1833. Madame LaLaurie is hosting a party and asks a young man, Jacques, if he is brave enough to face her Chamber of Horrors. She takes him into a room where she has him feel various disemboweled organs in bowls, which he believes are peeled grapes and sausages. But they’re actually eyeballs and intestines LaLaurie has harvested from her slaves. LaLaurie tells him he isn’t man enough for Borquita.

Borquita says she will never have a husband with Madame LaLaurie around. She and her sisters plot about how to kill their mother. LaLaurie orders Louis to have slaves bring her daughters to the torture chamber after she learns of their intentions. She locks them in cages, telling Borquita she will stuff with her mouth with excrement on Christmas Day. The only reason they’re still alive, she says, is because of her love for their plain faces.

In the present, Marie Laveau’s zombie army is right outside the door of Miss Robichaux’s. LaLaurie is spooked, and she and the girls try to prepare for what is to come.

At the bar, Fiona hears Delia screaming in pain and shouts for someone to call an ambulance. Delia’s eyes are badly burned, and Fiona screams. In the hospital, a doctor tells Fiona the sulfuric acid burned through Delia’s optic nerves, and they couldn’t save her eyesight. Fiona is livid and starts beating the doctor, who tells an orderly not to call the police.

At Miss Robichaux’s, Luke goes outside to confront the zombies; he thinks they’re neighborhood kids trying to scare the girls. Two young men wander onto the lawn, thinking they zombies wearing costumes. The zombies kill them, and attack Luke. LaLaurie says her daughters are outside. Zoe tells Spalding to take Queenie upstairs because she is still weak from being attacked by Bastien.

Fiona sneaks into a medical supply room and takes some pills, washing them down with alcohol in a flask. She goes into a patient’s room where a woman has given birth to a stillborn baby. The woman doesn’t want to see the baby, but Fiona tells her to hold her and talk to her. “Tell her, ‘I love you more than the whole world,'” she says. The young lady is obviously confused, she does everything Fiona says. Fiona brings the baby back to life and walks out as the mother cries.

As the zombies break through the windows of Delia’s car, Zoe bangs on a pot to lure them away. LaLaurie orders Spalding to make sure Queenie stays in bed. She goes to get ice from the kitchen and sees the zombified body of Borquita outside the kitchen window. She opens the door to let her in and pleads for her to come back so she can make amends. Borquita grabs her by the throat.

Queenie tells Spalding to check on LaLaurie. She hears him fall and sees Borquita outside the door. She breaks into the room and Queenie starts stabbing and cutting herself to try and kill her. That doesn’t work, but LaLaurie stabs her with a fireplace poker. “She had a monster for a mother,” she says, and starts crying. Queenie tries to console her.

Nan and Luke try to get away from the zombies, and Zoe shows up with a chainsaw just as they close in on them. She slices through them all except for one. The chainsaw dies, so she holds up her hand and says something that kills it. Marie, who is still levitating, falls to the ground, and says there is some real power in the witch house now. Looks like Zoe may be the next Supreme.

Hank shows up at the hospital and Fiona confronts him, telling him she begged Delia not to marry him. Hank tells Fiona that Delia hates her, and a nurse comes in and tells them one of them needs to leave or she’s calling security. Fiona gives him 15 minutes and tells him he’ll disappear, and that he can go on his own or her way, but that she prefers the latter. Hank promises Delia he’ll never leave her, but when he touches her, she sees him cheating on her in her mind’s eye.

Nan and Zoe are building a pyre to burn the bodies of the zombies. Nan says Luke is resting, but Zoe says he can’t stay with them. Fiona says he can and will and that there’s no point sending him back to his mother yet. LaLaurie comes out and says her daughters deserved a better mother than her. Fiona says she knows the feeling and LaLaurie says perhaps their shared tragedies will bring them closer together.

The Council comes back and tells Fiona that they demand that she abdicates her position as Supreme. Since the new Supreme has yet to reveal herself, the Council will oversee the school. Fiona says the school has been under attack but not from outside forces. She says she saw Myrtle in the hospital after she attacked Delia. Fiona accuses Myrtle of latching onto Delia because she couldn’t have a child of her own. She also says that Myrtle was in town when Madison died. She says Myrtle used the alias of Jennifer Wooley at a hotel in New Orleans, where there are pictures of Fiona all over the wall. Fiona pulls off Myrtle’s glove, and her hand is burned from the acid that was used to blind Delia.

“Burn the witch,” Pimbrooke says.

“Seconded,” Quentin adds.

“The decision of this Council is unanimous and final,” Fiona says.

Myrtle says she won’t fight the decision, and that she will go proudly to the flame.

The Council and the girls and Fiona head out to a remote area. They’re all dressed in black, but Myrtle is dressed in white with her hands tied. Myrtle is doused with gasoline and Fiona uses her cigarette to ignite the flame. Rest in peace, Myrtle.

Queenie asks Fiona if she helped her frame a guilty woman or an innocent one. It turns out Queenie burned herself with the acid and directed it at Myrtle. Queenie is disturbed and says she doesn’t think she can live with what happened. Fiona tells her she can rise to heights she never imagined, even as high as the next Supreme. Fiona says maybe what the Coven needs is a Supreme of color. Queenie says she is feeling more powerful, and Fiona tells her that she has to follow her instructions to the letter.

Misty shows up at the site where Myrtle was burned, and uses her power of resurgence to bring her back to life.

What did you think of tonight’s episode of American Horror Story: Coven?