‘American Horror Story’ Season 13 Episode 7 & 8 Recap and Ending Explained: Fiona, Marie Laveau and Cordelia Unite Against Satan

This ‘American Horror Story’ recap covers a double bill that arrived on Thursday and turned the Coven’s grief into a plan for war. The first of the two episodes, “The Baddest Witch of Them All,” begins right after Supreme Cordelia Goode was murdered by Hotel proprietor James Patrick March. The second, “Hell No,” sends the surviving witches searching for a way to stop the devil himself.

The ‘American Horror Story’ ending explained here matters because the season has become a major event for the franchise. The season premiered on Sept. 24 and drew more than 4 million global views in its first four days, making it Ryan Murphy’s biggest streaming launch to date on Hulu and Disney+. New episodes release on Thursdays on FX and Hulu.

Recap of the Home Invasion at Miss Robichaux’s

The first episode opens with the witches realising that Cordelia is dead and may be too far gone to bring back, so Mallory stays with her while the others go upstairs to deal with the other killers. The house is under siege by a group of historical murderers, and the Coven has little time to mourn.

Madison fights Jeffrey Dahmer, who stabs her, and Morwenna helps her recover before Madison kills him by burning him. One reviewer also noted that the episode holds nothing back with Queenie, who rips off her own flesh with her teeth to injure Dahmer.

Mallory then uses her divination skills to find out where the other killers are, and the group splits up to hunt them. Queenie and Coco take on the Zodiac Killer, while Mallory faces the Night Stalker using her new power of manipulating time. All the while, March keeps playing the piano in the living room.

Fiona Goode’s Return and Cordelia’s Resurrection

The turning point arrives when Fiona, summoned back from hell by her daughter’s spell and furious, immediately begins to battle March. She tells him she is the baddest witch of them all and has no need to dirty her hands on someone like him. To prove it, she resurrects his historical henchmen and has them butcher him, then immediately kills the trio.

Morwenna was unable to resurrect Cordelia, but Fiona manages it, and the two share a short reunion. The same reviewer found the method fairly convenient, since Fiona mumbles a French prayer and Cordelia returns to life, though the logic is not really the point of the show.

Fiona then tells the witches they need to put the wicked world back together. Behind the scenes, the episode was written by Ned Martel and Charlie Carver and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. Murphy has said the new writers grew up loving the series and already knew all of its characters.

“Hell No” Recap and the Return of Marie Laveau

Through a sludgy autopsy and a snake hidden inside one of the killers’ bodies, Cordelia and Fiona deduce that the devil was behind the attack. Cordelia calls the snake a sigil of the devil and explains that her second sight is showing her nothing.

That leads Cordelia to descend to hell to find Papa Legba, played by Orlando Jones, who is a friend of the devil and the gatekeeper of hell. He briefly blinds her, echoing her fate in ‘Coven.’ She lures him out with the knowledge that Fiona escaped, offering to let the spell die with her in exchange for a way to defeat Satan. Legba replies that he cannot deal with the devil without Marie Laveau.

Fiona agrees to go back down so Marie can come up, but Queenie ends up making the sacrifice instead. She lands in a personal hell at Chubbie’s Fried Chicken, where Delphine LaLaurie, played by Kathy Bates, is the most annoying customer in an endless line. Back among the living, Marie, played by Angela Bassett, arrives for another face off with Fiona.

Ending Explained as the Witches Prepare to Face Satan

Papa Legba cuts their quarrel short and insists that white and Black magic must work together to defeat the devil, or everything they know and love will die. Fiona and Marie agree to a détente and officially join forces. The episode concludes with Cordelia, Marie, Fiona and the Coven teaming up, ready to take on the Devil.

The larger threat is now clear. Satan is attempting to open a portal to the abyss, and the sacrifices he needs to get it running could bring hell to the mortal realm. Theories suggest Mallory’s time powers could help prevent that portal from opening in the first place, and that Papa Legba’s bargain hints at another price to come.

Some questions remain open. One reviewer felt the season is still mostly about bringing back iconic characters, noting that Legba’s need for Marie goes largely unexplained. That fits Murphy’s own description of a season that feels like a cross between ‘Murder House,’ ‘Coven’ and ‘Hotel.’ Now that Queenie is serving Madame LaLaurie in hell so the Coven can ally with Fiona and Marie Laveau, is that uneasy truce worth the price, and who do you think will pay the next one?