AHS - 1984 : Rest in Pieces/Final Girl *

In “Rest in Pieces”, a fun subplot features a National Inquirer reporter (Stefanie Black) realizing that Donna and Brooke are out and about, posing a threat to their plans to hit Camp Redwood to get even with Margaret. Because the reporter was looking for a big payday with their story, they convince her to follow them to Camp Redwood, where Brooke planned to kill her! Brooke, held by Donna, protects this reporter until she runs right into Richard and Bruce, their repulsion with her greedy desire for an expose on both of them bringing out the knives. Still, the reporter was a bump in the road—as was Bruce!—that Donna and Brooke just weren’t anticipating. The reporter also was perhaps too diligent and determined for her own good…she met the very kinds of psychos she dedicated her work to and became another kill notch on their belt. That Bruce is ultimately distinguished with one machete blow and tossed down a hill out of Camp Redwood was a surprise to me, considering he was being built as a major nuisance to Brooke and Donna’s efforts to get Margaret.

I guess, when Bobby and an older Donna locate and visit Brooke 30 years after the “final night”, before Halloween, it has to be wondered if an unaged Brooke might have taken up RR’s offer to accept Satan. She sent Bobby money throughout his life to help in his upbringing, which is how Donna was able to find her location, due to the bank and checks. She has quite a gunshot wound when trying to circumvent Margaret, hoping to cave Donna’s face in with the handle of her gun, charging her into a mirror. Ray, remembering his sexual connection to Brooke, which both seemed to consider more meaningful that just casual fucking, helps to get her out of camp. Brooke tells Bobby and Donna that someone must have called for help because she later awakened in a hospital thanks to paramedics finding her outside Camp Redwood…a hanging thread never quite explained. It is left for us to either accept or not.

The sendoff for Brooke and Donna gave them both a far more pleasant outcome than those trapped in Redwood. Donna’s work at the asylum after her revisit to Camp Redwood and Brooke getting to have a normal life with a family (she tells Donna her dermatologist husband and freeing herself of the ills that followed her thanks to Camp Redwood were reasons she remained so young) let them off the hook indeed. Bobby getting to see his own ghost family was also a warm hug that hasn’t been given during any of the other episodes of AHS 1984. Even “The Lady in White” showed that Montana and Xavier were just killing randoms because nothing much else made them feel “more alive”. So at least those three were allowed to move on with Montana telling Bobby to make sure they are remembered, not lost to the 80s and forgotten.