Head (American Horror Story)

"Head" is the ninth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on December 11, 2013, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by Tim Minear and directed by Howard Deutch.

In this episode, Fiona (Jessica Lange) looks to form an alliance with Marie Laveau (Angela Bassett) while Cordelia (Sarah Paulson)'s attacker is revealed. Angela Bassett, Gabourey Sidibe, and Patti LuPone guest star as Marie Laveau, Queenie, and Joan Ramsey, respectively. This episode is rated TV-MA (LSV).

Plot
Fiona offers truce and alliance to Marie Laveau, suggesting both the Coven and voodoo witches are a target of witch hunters, but Marie refuses, secretly working with the hunters herself. She orders to Queenie to burn Delphine's head, but Queenie instead attempt to redeem Delphine by exposing her to human rights art.

Throwing a lunch for the Witches' Council, Myrtle poisons and murders Cecily and Quentin to avenge herself and extract their eyes, using them to restore Cordelia's eyesight, seemingly at cost of Cordelia's visions.

Nan bonds with Luke's mother Joan by reading the comatose boy's mind, but upon revealing Joan murdered her unfaithful husband, Joan shuns Nan away, and suffocates Luke with a pillow.

Hank, who was trained to be a witch hunter since childhood and married Cordelia to infiltrate the Coven, is urged by Marie and his father Harrison Renard, head of a witch hunter organization, to carry out the eradication of witches as soon as possible. Failing to reconnect with Cordelia, Hank decides to assassinate the voodoo witches, killing many of them. Before he murders Marie, Queenie uses her wound transference ability and shoots herself, killing Hank and seemingly herself. Marie seeks refuge at Miss Robichaux's.

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes reports a 77% approval rating, based on 13 reviews. The critical consensus reads, ""Head" churns out terrific dialogue and a series of surprising plot twists, even as the sheer number of narrative arcs and political themes induce a certain amount of viewer fatigue." Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C− rating, saying, "There's a lot of "Head" that sort of feels like it works, particularly in the closing passages, where the episode almost manages that American Horror Story thing where a bunch of disparate elements the series has been building all season come together in a giant gumbo of wackadoo... But then I look at the episode and the season as a whole, and I'm just exhausted by it, and not in a good way." Matt Fowler from IGN gave the episode a 7.7/10 rating, stating, "The Hank storyline and his unexpected, violent turn on Laveau was very well done. The rest of "Head" felt undercooked though... I appreciate that the show takes risks with its mesh of tones, but there also comes a point where you just can't take away anything meaningful from a scene featuring a sassy head. Even if it's Kathy Bates."

"Head" received a 2.1 18–49 ratings share and was watched by 3.94 million viewers in its original American broadcast, a slight decrease from the previous episode.