One Last Schnapps for the Road: Elsa’s Got Skills

Ethel Darling was not buying Elsa’s grief over Ma Petite in “Blood Bath”, the 8th episode of American Horror Story: Freak Show. She decided to take Elsa Mars out, informing the devious fraulein that she was on to her and it broke her heart. Ethel believed Elsa was responsible for Ma Petite’s demise because she overheard the conversation where Stanley suggested that the conjoined Tatler twins could be permanently dispatched. Elsa actually made a noncommittal comment at the time, but just the fact that she did not object was enough for Ethel to whisk Bette and Dot away to safety.

After their angry confrontation, Elsa began to walk out and Ethel took a shot at her. Apparently, she had bullets to spare (she was saving the last one for herself) because she aimed low and hit Elsa in one of her wooden legs. Ethel was properly horrified since she was unaware that her boss was a double amputee. Elsa sat down to explain how she got to be a freak, too.

But freaky bonding wasn’t enough to deter Ethel from murder. Then Elsa bought a few more moments by requesting “one last schnapps for the road.” That enabled her to get to the table to pour the drink. On the table was a knife and Elsa’s knife-throwing expertise put a stop to Ethel’s plan and saved her the trouble of shooting herself.

It really was self-defense but instead of calling the cops, Elsa and Stanley arranged to make Ethel’s death look like suicide, albeit a more horrifying one.

Gloria Mott was the other casualty of “Blood Bath” when karma came calling. Seems Gloria’s family went bust during the Great Depression and she married her second cousin just because she need to live in luxury. Crazy Dandy was the result of such selfish inbreeding. Dandy toyed with the psychiatrist Gloria sent him to as he wondered if it was possible to “to take someone’s power by eating their flesh, or could you do it just by bathing in their blood?”

We always figured Dandy would kill his mother but thought it would be a bit more gruesome than an old-fashioned shooting, but who would have thought the episode title meant Dandy would take a bath in his dead mother’s blood?

Cast:
Ethel Darling – Kathy Bates
Elsa Mars – Jessica Lange
Gloria Mott – Frances Conroy
Dandy Mott – Finn Whitrock