Back to the Dollhouse: American Horror Stories 2.01 Review

Rating: ★★★★☆

It's been a minute since American Horror Story has released a good new episode (I'm not ready to talk about whatever happened in "Double Feature"). Now, I'm not saying it was a great new episode, and technically it's American Horror Stories, but it was enjoyable enough once I looked past Pretty Little Liars already doing the "kidnapping girls and putting them in a dollhouse" plot.

For real, I did enjoy this interesting return to the ever-growing world of AHSs in 2.01 "Dollhouse" last week. It's always a treat to see Denis O'Hare play a twisted new role, so opening the episode with him was exciting. It's scary enough that his character Van Wirt worked in a doll factory, he proceeded to kidnap girls and force them to act as dolls in a dark competition to see who could possibly be his son's new mother.

Kristine Froseth's did well as Coby Dellum, though this story could have been fun as a multi-episode/full-season arc to flesh out her character a bit more. It wasn't that Coby was a very interesting, well-written character, it's more that Froseth did well as the protagonist whose well-being the audience was rooting for.

The other "Dolls" were also fairly one-dimensional; I honestly couldn't remember any of their names until looking up the episode on IMDb again. Aurelia (Abby Corrigan) was the secondary antagonist, trying over and over to beat Coby and ultimately failing alongside Harlene (Simone Recasner), though the latter was a much nicer person and I would have liked to see her live.

What really saved the episode for me was the ending. Realizing that Coby had telekinesis and that meant there was something supernatural going on and - SPOILER ALERT - not only was it a supernatural power, it was revealed that she was a witch. Two witches show up and save Coby and young Otis Van Wirt (Houston Towe), taking them to New Orleans where they move into none other than Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies aka the main setting of AHS: Coven. Not only that, the ending of the episode shows Otis - whose middle name is revealed to be Spalding - being greeted by a young Myrtle Snow, also of the Coven.

Not a perfect episode, but definitely a fun start to this new season and a more respectful, canon connection to the main show than season 1's "Rubber (Wo)Man" / Murder House tie-in. I look forward to the upcoming episodes, one of which drops early tomorrow morning on Hulu!

O'Hare is one of the longer-running cast members of the Horror Story universe, first appearing in the debut season Murder House and continuing to play roles in Coven, Freak Show, Hotel, Roanoke, and Double Feature: Red Tide. Simon Potter gained his first Ryan Murphy acting credit for this episode, but was previously a stunt rigger in Murphy-produced show 9-1-1: Lone Star. All other credited cast made their Murphy / Horror Story debuts in this episode.