Episode 3 Tapeworm

Tapeworm is a cautionary tale on the consequences of fatphobia. The episode stars Laura Kariuki as an upbeat and chipper young woman named Vivian, who is auditioning for Vogue. The actress is beautiful and I love that we see a dark-skinned black woman in this leading role of a young woman looking to be a supermodel. Miss Kariuki gives a ton of charisma to the role and makes Vivian genuinely positive, likable, and easy to root for.

Vivian gives a sublime performance to an agent of Vogue for a modeling gig but is told that she has immense talent but is too fat, despite being a size 4. This leads to her taking a drug that makes her rapidly lose weight but that has dangerous side-effects. Soon after, Vivian’s back-alley doctor prescribes her a tapeworm as an alternative which makes things even worse. My biggest takeaway from the episode is how janky of a doctor this man is and how he shouldn’t have a job even on the black market.

Vivian not only physically changes as she loses weight, but her personality is altered as well. This episode is reminiscent of the Natalie Portman-led Black Swan as we watch Vivian deteriorate from a radiant woman into a grotesque dark incarnation of her former self. Objectively speaking, Vivian looks remarkably better than she did after her crash diet. This entire episode uses her deterioration as a metaphor for how unrealistic beauty standards ruin women both physically and psychologically; transforming them into women they were never meant to be.

Vivian gives a monologue early in the episode on how she wants to be an example of empowerment and self-love which she of course contradicts herself on. I don’t think that this is meant to portray her as a hypocrite but rather to examine how the American beauty standards coerce women into

decisions that they don’t truly want to make and force them into roles that they don’t want to play. Whether this is anorexia, bulimia or even being a mean girl – this episode is a metaphor on how society’s pressures can rob women of their intrinsic light and replace it with something much darker. I enjoy the vehicles that the episode uses to deliver these messages. It never feels hammy, but rather poignant and unfortunately, still necessary for women and young girls.

The episode leans more into the grotesque instead of traditional frights to provide horror, as we watch in disgust as Vivian gorges herself to satiate the tapeworm inside of her. This is both physically gross but also saddening as we know that Vivian is quite literally feeding her demise. The showdown is somewhat traumatic to watch as it feels as if Vivian is being deeply violated by the tapeworm as it is expelled out of her. Kariuki does a stellar job of depicting this event as an episode that her future self would need therapy from. I felt deeply uncomfortable and in pain with her throughout. This is strong acting and I hope that I can see more work from this actress.

This is a very strong episode and bounces back from a dip in the previous. There are lessons to be gleaned from it but even on a more elementary level, it’s simply entertaining to watch. Leaving us with a message just further adds to a very solid episode.

4/5

Episode 4 Organ

Organ is trying to say and do a lot all at once, but it falls flat. This is an example of an episode of a horror anthology being too ambitious. Organ bites off way more than it can chew and ends up making a mess on the floor. This episode could have been stellar had it devoted its energy to going in one direction instead of trying to touch every base all at once.

Organ follows Toby, a sexist man who dehumanizes women. He is heavily incel-coded and regurgitates manosphere talking points. Toby is an amalgamation of every modern sexist trope. The episode gives the impression that it will be some sort of parable on the pitfalls of misogyny, but it fails to do so. Natessa almost gets us there when she says that “guys like him are the easiest”, however, this is later negated when it’s confirmed that it could have been anyone. Toby being boorish to women wasn’t his demise, but it was rather bad luck that did him in. This is a letdown because a salient point could have been made had the writers not cut their legs out from under themselves.

Organ doesn’t take itself too seriously, living somewhere in between camp and satire. A satirical critique of incel/manosphere/red-pill men, etc., could have been powerful, yet it decided not to fully lean into it despite hinting that it would. This is a disappointment. The episode is still fun, although it fails to reach its potential.

Raul Castillo nails the awkwardness of incels, but I don’t buy at all that his character would be some sort of player. I’m unsure if it was the direction or the acting, but Castillo comes off stiff. This works when he’s awkward and unsettling but not as a guy who is a womanizer. Toby sleeps around but he acts like a guy that doesn’t get play. The character would have worked better if the writers decided what exactly they are trying to say with Toby because his incel persona doesn’t match his womanizing. I understand that womanizers can ironically still hold incel-coded views, yet Toby’s characterization comes off as more paradoxical than complex.

This is an example of how Organ is overextending itself and is unsure of what it wants to be. The episode criticizes men who use women as objects to masturbate, but the character has the attitude of a man who is angry at women for his lack of sexual success. The writers may be highlighting the cognitive dissonance of these men, but this point comes off as more contradictory than anything else. Toby’s characterization is confusing, and it may have been more worthwhile to use two characters; one for each point that they are trying to make. The first, one that dehumanizes women and sees them as nothing above conquests, and the second, as an angry man who blames women for his shortcomings. Organ merges these points, and although there are men who simultaneously hold these views, this character needed more fleshing out to fully explore this dualistic mindset.

The ending leaves a lot to be desired. There are hints throughout that the episode will leave you with some sort of parable about the perils of mistreating women, but it ends with the women of the episode running an organ-stealing operation simply for profit and not to teach a lesson. This entire episode seems for naught. Toby didn’t get his comeuppance for his misogyny but rather for matching with the wrong woman, making the first act and his entire characterization irrelevant.

Organ is indicative of its mother franchise as it reeled us in with an intriguing premise that had a wonky ending that didn’t deliver what it pitched us on. A ton of runners were left on base with Organ, but it is still a decent watch, nonetheless. I’m critical of Organ because there were potentially profound points that could have been made that AHS has never touched on, yet they ultimately went another direction. Young men and boys becoming indoctrinated into this Red Pill rhetoric is currently a highly relevant topic that Stories could have been at the forefront of critiquing , yet they wasted this prime opportunity.

---2.5/5