American Horror Story s04e12 Episode Script

Show Stoppers

(thunder crashes) (thunder crashes, rumbles) (bluegrass music playing, people talking and laughing) (chatter, laughter continue) (man whooping) (thunder rumbling) (conversation quiets) Ladies and gentlemen the time has come for us to bid farewell.
But not before we toast the new owner of the show, Chester.
MAN: To Chester.
(light applause) ELSA: I hope he will cherish these magnificent monsters as much as I have over these many years.
Cheers.
OTHERS: Cheers.
All right! (sighs) Um Miss Elsa, you have given me the dream of a lifetime.
I promise to uphold the standards of this extravaganza and do you proud.
Safe travels to the land of make-believe.
(chuckles) Good riddance.
I can't wait for the sour Kraut to leave, so we can take over.
Marjorie, that's not (laughter, snickering) Thank you, Chester.
And now, if you don't mind, it's time for the original family-- our troupe of monsters and curiosities-- to spend these last few moments alone together.
Oh oh, sure all right.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
Bye.
We have another man to thank-- my manager, Mr.
Richard Spencer.
ELSA: He has transformed the course of all our lives.
Cheers! OTHERS: Cheers! Hear, hear! STANLEY: Hey, thank you, thank you.
Mm! Because of him you will all be on television very soon, on The Elsa Mars Hour.
But first, tonight, we feast, and later, for entertainment, we will watch a movie from my own collection.
Not The Sign of the Cross again! (thunder crashes) (laughs): No.
We will enjoy Freaks.
Do you know that picture, Richard? Uh I can't say that I do.
Oh, it's a wonderful picture.
Explain the plot to him, Eve, Paul.
AMAZON EVE: Well, the film is set in a traveling circus-- a freak show.
Ah.
PAUL: Cleopatra, a "normal" trapeze artist, marries the sideshow midget.
But actually, she's trying to poison him for his inheritance.
PAUL: She plays all the freaks for fools until, one day, she gets drunk and reveals her true intentions.
AMAZON EVE: Then the freaks turn on her.
They take their revenge out at night with knives and guns.
ELSA: Eve, Eve.
Darling don't spoil the ending for him.
Well, it sounds like a hit! (thunder crashes, rumbles) (laughter) Ah actually, I have to go.
So many things to do before we head out west.
Nonsense.
Oh, no.
You can't leave before your present.
No, I couldn't.
MAGGIE: Shut up and sit down.
You deserve this.
(thunder crashes) What's gotten into you? Come on, Richard, open it.
I thought about you long and hard when I made this.
Oh, thank goodness.
Well, we have had our share of patrons who felt lightheaded at the sight of our exhibits, but we have never had anyone faint before.
Are you all right, young lady? DESIREE: What happened to those security guards? Well, it's past closing.
I I sent them home.
DESIREE: That's good to know.
Now it's your turn.
Jesus Christ.
Oh.
I'm innocent.
I-I-I I don't even know who this is.
I already told them everything Stanley.
Elsa (chuckling): Come on Talk to them.
What about what about uh, your the dream? Hollywood! I'm afraid that's all it is.
(whispers): Just a dream.
(Stanley yells) ELSA: Go ahead, spin him.
Aah! Jesus No.
(grunts) STANLEY: Please.
I may not have been completely truthful, but I do know people in Los Angeles.
My cousin works at the Garden of Allah.
Please You tried to kill my dreams, but they cannot be murdered.
(thunder crashing) But what you did (seething breath) you brought death into this place and for that you must pay.
Take him down.
ELSA: Hurry, hurry.
Elsa, come on, now you and me must have a private conversation.
We can come to some kind of understanding.
(yells) So you think you can run? (gasps) She killed Ethel.
I'm telling the truth.
She killed her.
I helped her cover it up.
She's ELSA: Will you, Mr.
Spencer She's not who you think she is! Stop talking, She killed Ethel! and start running.
(thunder crashing) Run! Run! Run! (gasping, muttering) (yells) (thunder crashing) (moaning) (yells) (gasping) (screaming) ELSA: Just because you were raised without a father doesn't mean you get to romanticize him now that he's gone.
How did he die? Who killed him? We all did.
He broke our code.
He had it coming.
That's all you need to know.
Now, here.
Eat some food.
You need your strength.
Come on.
(coughs) He was my father! He killed a freak! (panting softly) The most vulnerable among us.
Well, you're gonna take her word for it? That deceitful little slut? I saw my beloved Ma Petite in a jar with my own eyes.
I heard him confess with my own ears! And as for Maggie, we'd have a lot more corpses on our hand if she hadn't come clean.
I don't forgive.
She can rot in Hell, for all I care.
Seems to me like you need all the friends you can get right now.
Maggie is going to change your bandages.
No! I'll keep the dirty ones.
You will not! Now, your mother is not here to look after you, so it falls to me.
I have seen you grow from a boy to a man, a man to a leader-- and we need you now.
I have no hands! I can't even take a piss by myself! I have found a old friend.
He's coming to help you.
He's a true artist.
Darling, he'll make you new hands, a fresh start.
But those wounds have to heal first.
Maggie's going to help you.
You let her.
(gasps, groans quietly) (sighs) (exhales) (hissing inhale, groan) (trembling breath) (groans) (Jimmy inhales, pants) (screaming) (grunts, screams) (Jimmy grunts, groans) (coughing) (panting) I'm sorry.
I hate hurting you.
(groaning) (panting) Oh, really? (panting) I thought that was your whole gig-- to hurt people.
I love you, Jimmy.
That part is real.
It always was.
I want a clean start.
We can still go to New York, like we planned.
Why not? You're kidding, right? You think, after everything you've done, you think we're just gonna ride off into the sunset? My hands are in a goddamn jar, and that's all because of you.
I am so sorry.
I'm gonna make it right with you and with them I promise.
You're gonna bring Ma Petite back from the dead? Hmm? I've changed, Jimmy.
If I was you I'd get the hell out of Dodge before I get those new hands.
I'm gonna make things right-- with them and with you! (inhales deeply) Ach! I knew you were stupid, but let's add blind to the list, huh? Find me someone who can focus a lamp! I have to stick around here.
I'm gonna have correct lighting for the first time, you understand? Now, try it again! Scheisse! Elsa.
Oh.
You came.
Of course.
(insects chirping) That comes with every memory (moaning, gasping passionately) And try to find the perfect prayer that will convey A dream from me to you She's watching us.
DOT: Can we put her away? Just this once? (Chester mutters) Please? All right.
Yeah.
Mm.
BETTE: Oh.
Thank you, Chester.
(all moaning) I reminisce with heartache (moaning passionately) That comes with every daybreak MARJORIE: You put me on the floor.
Like an old sock.
I'm sorry, Marjorie.
I I knew you'd get upset.
I got a little carried away, but I'm finally happy.
I've got them and my magic and you.
Maybe I should leave.
Why? Why would you do that? We'll we can We can work it out, Marjorie.
The-the twins accept you.
They-they just they just don't want you watching us while we're, you know They're using you, Chester.
You're the boss.
No, they are not.
They love me.
And they are going to cure me of everything that's wrong with me.
They They know the real me.
I'm just a a regular man trying to trying to find love, just like everybody else.
You're a murderer.
No, no.
No.
That's not me.
That's you, Marjorie.
I know you don't like to talk about it, so I don't bring it up much, but you killed them.
You killed Alice and Lucy.
MARJORIE: That's impossible.
I'm a doll.
(gasps) (wheezing) Hmm.
Love destroys you, Chester.
You lose control.
Well, I know I'm a monster.
You don't need them.
You have me.
I know.
(shudders) Just please don't ever leave me, Marjorie.
Those twins? Uh-huh.
They have to go.
I know.
They will.
Well, my Dad or Mother's dead (blues riff playing on guitar) Ethel looks so glamorous in this one with all her chorus girls.
Oh, that was from her Barnum days.
She really was a dame like no other.
(laughter) To Ethel.
To Ethel.
To Ethel.
SUZI: You think Elsa's gonna stick around now that her big Hollywood dreams have been shot to hell? AMAZON EVE: She's already sold the show to Chester.
She's definitely not gonna give him his money back.
Yeah, she'll probably let him think he's running things for a while, but we all know that anyone who gets in the way of Elsa isn't long for this world.
What are you saying? Didn't any one hear what that creep Spencer said last night? It finally makes sense.
Elsa killed Ethel.
The woods.
The car crash.
It was all a cover-up.
I believe it.
She put a knife in my Paul, that crazy, vindictive woman.
All Elsa cares about is Elsa.
The whole business never sat right with me.
I know Ethel.
She wasn't a one to off herself.
She wasn't a coward.
She wouldn't have done that to her kid, and she wouldn't have done it to us.
And she would have bloody well left a note.
We know what we do when people come after one of our own.
There's only one way to secure our future.
Make sure Elsa doesn't have one.
(thunder crashes, rumbles) Did you ever imagine that it would feel like that, Dot? And thank goodness you said something about Marjorie.
To his credit, all he needed was that little nudge.
I do seriously believe we're a good influence on him.
DANDY: Good evening girls.
DOT: What are you doing here? How dare you just walk into our boudoir in the middle of the night! Yeah.
I come hat in hand in friendship.
I have some relevant information about your current situation.
We don't want to hear anything from you.
Kindly leave.
Oh, Dot, I don't blame you.
I behaved like an absolute jackass that last day, when all seemed lost.
But recent events have softened some of my coarser edges.
Why do I love him so? Mother died.
It was sudden and just horrible.
BETTE: I'm very sorry, Dandy.
It's a big sorrow for anyone, losing their mother.
It was.
It is.
And it made me realize that I need to reach out to the few that matter to me.
I think you should know, we met a man.
Truthfully, I'd already heard the news.
I can't tell you how sublime it would have been to have taken your hands in marriage.
If I had it all to do over again, believe me, I I come in friendship.
I'm well aware that I missed my chance.
I'm not half the man you deserve.
Just forget me But I asked myself, "Dandy, what could you do to be of support to those beloved girls?" And it occurred to me, the one thing I can offer is protection, so I hired a proper gumshoe, and gathered all the information I could on your new beau.
And it breaks my heart, but it appears your Chester Creb is an absolutely beastly sicko! We don't need to see that.
What is wrong with you? You are a troublemaker, and we don't trust you, not one single bit! Well, ta-ta, then.
I've done what I can.
Mother always told me, never argue with a woman when she's angry.
(car approaching) (Jimmy groaning) (door creaks open, footsteps approaching) Who's there? My boy.
(thunder crackling) (groaning softly) My boy you look like shit.
Here.
Drink.
(coughing) (groans) (shuddering breaths) (sighs, panting) What's that? Penicillin.
I would hate to make you whole only to see you die of an infection.
Who the hell are you? I am Massimo Dolcefino.
I have come to make you your new hands, hmm? Okay? ELSA: Massimo is an old friend of mine from before the war.
He's a master artisan.
Just a carpenter.
Here.
JIMMY: You want to make me wooden hands? They will be mostly decorative, but you will decide on appearance and functionality.
No, thanks.
I seen those army guys who got their hands blown off by grenades.
They got those nifty hooks.
Can't jerk off for shit with them, but at least I can hold a cigarette all myself.
And it beats worrying about termites the rest of my life.
What Massimo offers is more elegant than a pair of rusty hooks.
And more convincing.
Look.
You see? (knocking) The other one, too.
Massimo saved my life.
If it weren't for him, there would be no Fraulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities.
Your mother would have died in that drunk tank and you would have starved on the street.
I would have married him (wry chuckle) (whispers): if you hadn't been such a fool.
(speaks Italian) "My only sin" Si.
"was loving you" Too much.
ELSA: (breathing heavily) No! (chainsaw starts) MASSIMO: The men who took my beloved's legs-- they weren't your average psychopaths.
They were members of the Party.
And they had a leader-- a doctor by trade.
_ ELSA: For two years, Massimo took care of me.
He taught me to walk.
And then to dance.
Then Hindenburg died.
Nuremberg, the Rhineland It was time for us to get out while we still could.
We had a plan.
How could I look at my amore in the eyes knowing that I'd run away from those monsters? Huh? They had to pay.
They had to pay.
I hunted them down, one by one.
Aah! (grunting) MASSIMO: Finally, I-I found the leader.
Uh, the monster-in-chief.
Dr.
Hans Grouper.
I would make sure that he would not die quickly.
(gunshot) (breathing heavily) And I would not die quickly either, apparently.
He took my attempt to kill him personally.
Very personally.
(Massimo screaming) (electric buzzing) So he tortured me.
Then he put me in a cell and he tortured me again, and again.
JIMMY: How did you survive? An SS General, a man of higher authority than my torturer, Dr.
Grouper he wanted new bookshelves-- he was an avid book collector-- for his new library of stolen books.
So I spent the rest of the war in Austria.
And, uh, I went to America in-in '47.
And I searched for Miss Mars for years.
When I finally located her, I wrote to her.
But I did not hear back.
JIMMY: Well, if you loved her so much, and you knew where she was, why not just sweep her off her feet? My body survived the torture, but I I am like Pinocchio.
I have no humanity left in me anymore.
I no soul, I cannot love.
But, uh (speaking Italian) Sweet irony.
Sweet irony.
CHESTER: Now I know you've been together for a long time and change can be difficult for an established show.
And again-- this is not about ego, all right? This is about flow, so BETTE: He looks so normal.
DOT: I thought we agreed that we wouldn't judge him until we had definitive proof.
BETTE: What about the file? It said he murdered his wife.
DOT: You're letting Dandy's lies cloud your judgment.
CHESTER: the company into and then-then we'll start with Desi, twirling her titties, and then Toulouse and Penny will do their beauty and the beast act, with a twist, uh, followed by Bette and Dot and then Paul, which will give the twins time to change into their assistant costumes and we'll finish the show with Marjorie and the magic act.
BETTE: Dot and I have had a talk.
We don't care to be your assistant any longer.
Why? We just don't wish to.
Maybe you'll change your mind after you hear about my finale.
Instead of a volunteer, I'm gonna saw you two in half.
Two bodies for two heads.
It'll be a sensation.
A first in the history of magic.
Come on, girls let's do a little rehearsal.
BETTE: We are not getting into that box.
No, Chester we are not getting into that box.
Now, if you'll excuse us Where are you going? I haven't dismissed anyone.
MAGGIE: I'll do it.
You I I know how the trick works.
I can be your assistant.
I want to be part of the show.
All I got to do is smile and show a little leg, right? Right.
Get in the box, Lucy.
My name's Maggie.
Oop! Is this your magic act? It's a little pathetic.
Shut up.
(gasps) I didn't say anything.
What are you all looking at? Backstage.
Places! Places! This is a run-through! (drumroll) (applause, whistling) Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves to witness the death-defying feat first performed by the great Torrini for Pope Pius VII.
Originally called The Magic Saw.
Tonight I will be presenting it to you with my own dangerous variation.
Manacles.
(audience gasps) MAGGIE: Uh Ow Hey, I I don't-I don't know this part.
I went to a war for you.
You should have died over there.
We loved each other.
Then you had to come back with your metal plate and your head full of bees.
(murmured groan) (cackling) Chester, stop, I-I can't pull my my feet through! Stop Stop talking.
You're distracting me.
MARJORIE: When are you gonna do real magic? Stop it, Marjorie.
Haven't you done enough to ruin my life? You're nothing without me.
I'll show you.
Every one of you.
Chester! Chester! (screams) Chester, stop! PAUL: What the bloody hell?! (Marjorie cackling) (quiet grunt) Relax, folks it's just a magic show.
It's a magic show.
I can put her back together.
Watch.
I can put her Alakazam! (Marjorie cackling) Abraca Abracadabra.
That'll pack 'em in, Chester.
(Marjorie cackling) Sh She made me do it.
She had it coming.
What do we do now? Steal her jewelry and bury the bitch.
What's this? Why are you packing? You screwed up again.
Time to leave.
You confused me.
You did this on purpose, to sabotage me.
I was finally happy.
Then stay.
I'm leaving! Not without me, you're not.
Watch me.
I'm sick to death of you.
(grunting) (grunts) Oh.
I loved you.
Chester (sobbing): Oh, God Marjorie? Stay with me.
Marjorie.
(sobbing) (Jimmy retching) ETHEL: In his debut act as a juggler, please welcome your favorite lobster boy-- and my precious son-- Jimmy Darling! (jaunty music playing, audience applauding) I can't.
I'm not ready, Ma.
I need more practice.
I'm not a performer like you, Ma.
I-I'm happy just waving my claws, just watching them ooh and ah-- I can Listen to your ma.
You got a winning smile and a winsome way.
You got star quality, Jimmy.
Now you get your ass out there and you show 'em why your ma is so proud of you.
(rain falling) AMAZON EVE: Jimmy.
Maggie's dead.
You want the details? Elsa's next.
Tonight.
Well looks like you get a shot at a normal life now.
Jimmy I'm happy for you.
(thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (gasping) How dare you come in here unannounced.
What do you want? You need to leave.
What are you babbling about? Your monsters.
They have been plotting their revenge all day in Ethel's caravan.
They're gonna kill you.
Why should I believe you, huh? My monsters love me.
I'm like their mother.
Ethel was more a mother to them than you ever were.
You murdered their true mother.
No.
Everybody knows that now.
Rantings of a desperate man.
Who's desperate now? You saw what they did to him.
(click) But where will I go? Anywhere but here.
(sobs) (click) (chuckles) You would save me.
Now we're even.
(thunder rumbling) There you are.
How's Jimmy doin'? He'd be here if he could.
It's time.
Give me that.
Ethel! (rhythmic stomping) Let's get our girl some justice.
(operatic German song playing) (thunder rumbling) (door opens) Oh.
(grunts) Thank you for coming.
I never refuse a lady in distress.
I'm not in distress.
But I am in a rush.
(sniffles) Oh.
(sighs) (door shuts) (thunder rumbling) I'd like to report a murder.
Whose murder? A young lady.
Set it down.
Slowly.
I Take a step back.
Keep-keep your hands where I can see 'em.
(sobbing) I did it.
Send me to the chair! (crying) (car approaching) (sighs) What are you doing here? I'm here to take inventory.
I'm your new owner.
Where's Elsa? She's gone.
Off to follow her dreams.
Elsa sold us again.
For $10,000 in cash.
A pittance.
Everything here, including your contracts, belongs to me now.
And I want to see what's mine.
Has it always been a dream of yours, sir? To be in show business? A dream.
Yes.
And now it's come true.
(chuckles) I'm thirsty.
Fetch me a lemonade with a paper straw.
Right away, sir.
(chuckles) (kissing) (clucking, groaning in distance) (clucking, groaning continue) (moaning) (thunder rumbling) Are you ready? Yes.
(inhales, sighs) They're perfect.
I want to try them on now.
Yes.
One more.
(clacking, rattling) You do it.
Thank you.

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