American Horror Story: Apocalypse season 8, episode 2 recap: ‘The Morning After’

American Horror Story initiates crossover mode with the return of a familiar, creepy character.

American Horror Story aired the second episode of season 8 last night, and it wasn’t exactly the most riveting hour of television. Something tells us that the buildup for the crossover is so strong that until more familiar faces don’t pop up, the story will sort of drag along. Last night’s episode was a bit slow, uneventful (until the very end), and didn’t push the story forward in an exciting way.

However, American Horror Story often takes this approach so we will have to be patient and see what is still yet to come. At the end of the season 8 premiere, Michael Langdon showed up at the Outpost declaring that he will determine who is worthy of saving and not to propagate humankind.

This week he started to run individual sessions with the characters to run through a questionnaire that will help him narrow down who is worthy or not. If you’re wondering why the name Michael Langdon may sound familiar, it’s because it is. Michael is from the Murder House season but back in season 1, he was just a devil baby murdering his babysitter.

As Langdon decides who will be taken to the Sanctuary or not, things start to get weird around the Outpost. Venable is weirded out and sort of succumbing to the vibe that Langdon is bringing and ends up exposing a part of herself that she is embarrassed by–a spine deformity presumable a result of radiation exposure.

Credit: FX

Gallant’s sessions with Langdon start to get awkward and sexual and also reveal Gallant’s resentment towards his grandmother who doesn’t approve the level of gay he is. Later that night or day (not really sure), the first old character makes an appearance in the form of Rubber Man. We have no idea who is underneath all that leather but whoever it is ends up having sex with Gallant who assumes it’s Langdon in the suit.

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When the Rubber Man pays Langdon a visit again, it appears it was a hallucination because out of frustration and anger towards Langdon’s denial of having sex with him, he decides to stab the Rubber Man. But it isn’t the Rubber Man that he murders–it’s his grandmother.

My personal theory is that the Rubber Man will end up being Tate, who was this oddball character back in Murder House. Since it was confirmed previously that Peters would reprise the role of Tate/Rubber Man, it wouldn’t be all that surprising.

Emily and Tim go snooping around Langdon’s laptop only to learn that Venable was imposing her own made-up rules on the group and that fornication was never banned. The two decide to live their best life but are caught by Venable and Miriam and taken away.

They are taken to the execution chamber since fornication is punishable by death, but things get out of hand when Tim manages to find a gun and shoots Miriam right in the gut. But the weirdest part? The final shot focuses on her wound which is dripping some sort of white pus and exposing her innards. Is she some sort of post-apocalyptic robot? And next week could we please get some Coven characters?

American Horror Story airs every Wednesday on FX at 10 PM EST!