'American Horror Story: Freak Show' Recap- Season 4 Episode 1 "Monsters Among Us"- Welcome To The Freak Show

We survived the murder house, escaped the Asylum, protected the Coven, and now we are about to go under the big top to attend the Freak Show. That's right, American Horror Story is back, and we couldn't be more excited about it.

The season premiere was everything we were hoping it would be and more, and we even got an extra half hour of scary goodness to hold us over until next week.

The opening scene of the season is set in Jupiter, Florida, in 1952 where a milkman stumbles on a horrific scene at the Tattler house.  He comes across Mrs. Tattler lying on the floor surrounded in a pool of blood. When he then goes to explore the rest of the house, he makes a shocking discovering in the closet, which we later found out are Bette and Dots Tattler two-headed conjoined twins played by Sarah Paulson.

After being found, the girls are put in the hospital to be observed after they are revealed to have wounds on themselves. Everyone in the hospital considers the two-headed sisters to be monsters, except for Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) who actually comes to the hospital to get the girls to star in her freak show, Fraulein Elsa's Cabinet Of Curiosity.

Side note here: we are absolutely in love with Lange's German accent.

Elsa seems to be trying everything in her power to save her freak show from being uprooted, as now even the landlord is threatening to give her land up if she doesn't start bringing in some paying customers.

While all this drama unfolds, viewers are introduced to probably one of the most horrifying clowns in the history of ever. Twisty the clown makes his first appearance in front of a couple just trying to enjoy a nice picnic by the side of a lake. But before they can even dig into their picnic basket, the clown kidnaps the girl while stabbing the boy multiple time with a pair of scissors.

Throughout the episode we get to meet some of Elsa's side show commodities including Evan Peter's character of Jimmy Darling who has lobster hands, Kathy Bates as the Bearded Lady, and we even get to see our lovely darling Pepper making her American Horror Story return.

Ethel Darling, the bearded lady, and Jimmy are actually mother and son, with a side business of their own which is revealed later on in the episode. Jimmy uses his big lobster claw hands for pleasuring bored housewives, a business that doesn't seem too fruitful as he only brings home $18 to his mom/pimp.

Elsa's plan of recruiting Bette and Dot finally takes hold as she makes it seem like the freak show is the only safe place for the girls after learning that they are the ones behind the killing of their mother.  

In we didn't see this one coming news, it was actually Bette who killed the mother not Dot. Now if you haven't mastered the ability to tell them apart yet, just remember that Bette is the more optimistic one, whereas Dot always has a scowl on her face.

All Bette wanted to do was to see the world and watch Singin' In The Rain in Technicolor at the movie theatre. But Mama, thinking the world wasn't ready to see the girls in public, wasn't having it, so Bette lost it and stabbed her to death

We guess Bette really wanted to see Gene Kelly splashing around in the rain.

Bette and Dot agree to take part in the freak show but it's not until meeting Jimmy that Dot warms up to the idea.

Jimmy later shows his loyalty to the girls by slitting the throat of a detective who has come to the carnival to arrest the girls for murdering their mother. After the gruesome murder, the freaks all head out to the woods were they are treated to a Braveheart-esque speech by Jimmy, before chopping the detective up into little pieces.

"They want to call us monsters, then we'll act like monsters, " Jimmy says.

Viewers also get to see their first glimpse into the freak show, as the main star of the show is Elsa. Lange's character is surrounded by her freaks as they become stage hands for her vocal performance of David Bowie's "Life On Mar," Elsa even wears the blue eye shade looking ever bit like the British singer.

However, when an audience member critics Elsa's performance, she goes back to her room and cries about it to Ethel. During her heart-to-heart with the bearded lady she reveals that the only reason she brought Bette and Dot to the show was so that she could become a star, and the girls were going to help her do that.

In the last few seconds of the episode, we see that Elsa has been hiding something from us. Not only is she the leader of the Freak Show, but she happens to be a "freak" herself, as she takes off her prosthetic legs at the end of the episode, revealing she is an amputee.

We can't wait for next week's episode.

[Image courtesy of YouTube]