"American Horror Story: 13" ended with a big fight between the witches and the devil, ending in a quiet way that still had some wild surprises.
This long-awaited season brought back favorite characters from the FX series, including all of Jessica Lange's roles from the first four seasons.
The story centered on Satan (Paul Anthony Kelly) and his team trying to finish a deal with God that would let him take over the world through his son Ben (Joey Pollari).The witches, led by Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) and the rising leader Mallory (Billie Lourd), were trying to stop him.But the final episode, titled "Devil of a Good Time," showed that the real challenge was Satan himself.
Here are the key moments from the finale.
The episode before the last one ended with Mr.
Phibes (John Waters) and the Rubber Man killing Cordelia and Queenie, making it look like the witches had no chance left.The finale started with a group of bad guys at Satan's New York penthouse, where Phibes planned to use them as final sacrifices to decide Earth's future.
Phibes gave the criminals cookies with meth to kill them, but Satan showed up and stopped the plan.
He had saved one of the men from death, which prevented him from completing the bet with only one kill left.Phibes was upset but Satan promised he would get what he wanted in hell before killing him.
The action then moved to hell, where Cordelia was working at a shelter with assistant Nan (Jamie Brewer).
Before she killed another puppy, Satan showed up and helped her.She refused to join him, saying she'd rather be miserable forever than bow to him.Impressed by her courage, Satan took them back to New York for a chat in a park.
Satan told Cordelia that winning the bet meant giving up what he loved about being the devil — the temptation of people to do bad.
Without that, being evil wouldn't be fun.He said, "You can keep your Earth.I don't want it anymore."
Light, dark and a baby
Even though he gave up Earth, Satan claimed he'd won the game, saying Cordelia's latest resurrection was his doing.
Cordelia refused to give up and vowed to find a way to end his life, calling it like killing a metaphor.
Satan revealed Cordelia was his granddaughter, and said he'd enjoy watching her struggle with her own dark side.
He offered her the keys to his penthouse, calling it her inheritance.He warned her to stay alert, because he could come back anytime.
Cordelia then met Queenie, who Ben had saved from hell again.
Cordelia shared the outcome of the battle, trying to calm Queenie's fears, saying the danger was over.But Mallory cast a spell to stop the devil for good, and disappeared before Cordelia could stop her.
In New Orleans, Ben and Madison (Emma Roberts) were together during the chaos, but Ben realized the condom had broken.
Madison started feeling bad and her stomach grew — she was pregnant and about to give birth.
The baby was born unconscious, and Satan appeared and brought her back to life.
He praised his son and the witch for creating a beautiful baby girl.He said, "This baby has star power."
A close-up shot of a blonde woman with straight, smooth hair, dark eyeliner, and orange lipstick.
She is wearing a black top with a high collar and is looking up with a serious face.
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Final showdown(?)
Some time passed, and Cordelia wrote a letter to Mallory revealing that the Coven moved to New York, using a penthouse as their main base.
Fiona (Lange) and Constance (Lange) stayed in New Orleans, working on their magic and helping teach the next generation of witches.The rest of them worked to combine the powers of light and dark into a new magical order, which allowed new witches to appear all over the world.
"Every day I pray you come home," Paulson wrote to the younger Supreme.
Soon after, Cordelia cast a spell to bring Mallory back, and she arrived with good news.
Mallory had been in the Salem witch trials period, stopping a massacre and helping the witches get justice.
She also found out about an old spell that could end the devil forever.This spell was famously used by the aristocrat Dorian Gray to move his soul into a painting to avoid aging.However, the spell needed a huge sacrifice from an unwilling person to work.
The witches called Ben in, and he was still shining because he had just become a father.They told him that to trap his father, he had to give his life.They explained that before him, there had been 12 other Antichrists — some big names like Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler, and Mussolini — whose bodies had been taken and ruined earlier in the season.But Ben, as the 13th Antichrist, was the strongest, and his death would lock his father's fate forever.
Ben was very sad and tried to argue for a different way, but in the end, he accepted what had to happen — after Cordelia told him that Madison would be proud of his choice.
Just in time, Satan showed up again, curious about what his family was up to.Cordelia and Mallory quickly tied Ben down to a couch in the penthouse's big hall — the one with a real copy of Da Vinci's "The Last Supper."
Ben used a serious-looking dagger to cut himself, and right away, he turned into dust.
This gave the two Supremes enough power to team up and trap the devil's soul inside the famous painting.They changed him with Judas in "The Last Supper," making him stay as the 13th person at the table forever.Mallory seemed to understand that the coven would now have to watch the painting for the rest of their lives, but Cordelia said they wouldn't need to.Evil might be gone for good.
But it wasn't that simple.
The final scenes at the penthouse showed dust from Ben’s body rising and going into a nearby fireplace.After all, evil is never really gone.The season ended back in hell, where Mr.Phibes enjoyed his own personal punishment — directing a scene from a smut film that would never work.
He says with a laugh, "I could do this forever," as the credits roll.
See you next season, maybe!
"American Horror Story: 13" is now streaming on Hulu.
