'American Horror Story: Coven' Recap: 'The Seven Wonders'

(courtesy of hypable.com)

BY KARL PFEIFFER

And that's all she wrote.

If there's one thing "American Horror Story" absolutely needs to be consistently good at, it's finales, particularly given that each season wraps its own story in a way no other show on television can boast. Lucky for us, their endings are excellent.

"The Seven Wonders" brought back nearly everything I wanted to see in order to best put a bow on the season. We started the episode with a beautifully filmed Stevie Nicks return, recalling Donnie Darko for me, as we snuck glimpses at the finalists as they prepared for the Seven Wonders. The cinematography was excellent for the entire episode (except for the brief return of Papa L -- Why the hell can't they shoot that guy?). The musical score was back in force. And we even saw some bow-tying on my favorite element: the themes.

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

Courtesy FleetwoodMacNews.com

"American Horror Story: Coven" returns on Wednesday, January 8 after their holiday break. The title of the next episode, "The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks," is an obvious hint as to who will finally be making her much anticipated appearance.

Thanks to this very detailed synopsis from SpoilerTV.com (after the jump), we can gauge the impact of the White Witch's arrival. Obviously there are major spoilers, so if you're not up to date on this season, stop here.

'American Horror Story: Coven' Recap: 'Head'

Courtesy: Collider

BY KARL PFEIFFER

Given the driving sexual nature of "AHS", particularly this season with Coven, I was a bit surprised to find the title of this episode altogether literal. In fact though, I have to say that my biggest loves and concerns have to come down to expectation. There were too many "wait, what?" moments this episode, which is a problem. You want your audience's understanding to be smooth with your characters' experiences.

That said, it was freaking great in so many other ways. So let's start breaking it down:

It's an episode that starts with a witch hunt, and ends with the rushed, less-resonant, Coven-attempt at the Red Wedding. The episode more-or-less hinges around emotionally-torn Hank Foxx, estranged husband of Cordelia. We're teased first with a flashback, which revealed in a surprise-to-no-one twist that young Hank was on a witch-hunting trip with his pop. We learn that young Hank has a heart as he struggles with killing a witch, which results in his father nearly burning to death. This later comes to light as Hank meets with his father, who is apparently the head of a giant multi-million-dollar corporation that's really just a front for killing witches (uh. wut?).

'American Horror Story' News: Hints About Season Four and Stevie Nicks' Appearance

Courtesy THR

In an exclusive over at Entertainment Weekly, we were able to get a few hints about what the fourth season of “American Horror Story” may look like. The show’s co-creator, Ryan Murphy, hinted that we’ll learn much more around episode 11 of this season. He went on to disclose that the next season will not be “contemporary” and that “It’s either going to shoot in New Orleans or it’s going to shoot in Santa Fe.”

And what about a spin-off of “Coven?” Not happening. Murphy adds, “We were starting to break episode 8 or 9 and we were like, ‘Well, we can’t kill that person off because we need them for the spin-off.’ As soon as those words were said, I was like, ‘There is no spin-off.’ Because it took away from the joy of the show. The reason the show is successful is no one is safe ever.”

Stevie Nicks to Appear on 'American Horror Story: Coven'

Courtesy lasvegas-NV.com

Kyle may have “broke Stevie” on last night’s episode of “American Horror Story: Coven” but have no fear, she’ll still be a part of the show. According to a tweet on November 13 from co-creator, Ryan Murphy, Stevie Nicks will be another star to grace the show with her presence.

Murphy is a long-time fan of Nicks and in an “Glee”-related interview with Entertainment Weekly last month, Murphy admitted, “When I was growing up, I was always obsessed with those Stevie Nicks songs like ‘Rhiannon’ and ‘Gypsy.’”

One of the witches on the show, Misty Day (Lily Rabe), is just as enamored with the "White Witch" and Murphy made it a point to ask Nicks if he could use her for this story line:

When we got to this witch idea, I thought, if you’re Misty and you have grown up alone and you don’t know any other witches, there’s one witch you probably would know and that’s Stevie Nicks. So I called Stevie Nicks and first I said, ‘I want to use you in the show.’ But she was very resistant because from the beginning of her career people who are in the Wiccan community had given her a hard time thinking she was a witch and she got a lot of scary fan letters. She didn’t like the darkness of that, and I explained to her the part and she’s like, ‘Aw f—, let’s just do it. OK, I love it.’

No word on when Nicks will make her appearance or if she’ll be playing herself, but Rabe admitted that she’ll not be able to contain her fan-girling when it happens, “I don’t get that crazy about a lot of people. I’m usually pretty cool, calm, and collected. But I don’t know if could behave properly. I love her so much. She’s just a beautiful creature.”

"American Horror Story: Coven" airs on FX, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET.

-Larissa Mrykalo