Season 04, Episode 03 & Episode 04:
Edward Mordrake: Part 1
At the American Morbidity Museum, Dr. Sylvester Mansfield and his assistant, Miss Rothschild, await the appraisal of a medical specimen (reported to be a baby Sasquatch). Instead, they're accused of fraud. The museum is failing and desperate for new exhibits; the curator says she will take in any specimen as long as it's authentic. Learning that many exhibits were obtained from freak shows, Stanley (the real name of the doctor) decides to go to Florida with Maggie, his assistant/partner.
Trick-or-treaters are out in the neighbourhoods of West Palm Beach, Florida. A little girl named Jessie, whose clown phobia inspired her brother's costume, sees Twisty lurking, nearby but her mother doesn't believe her. Jessie's mother and her friend notice the increase of children in the area and the curfew that's been placed on the neighbouring town of Jupiter. Later, Jessie's brother Mike is taken by Twisty.
Ethel finds out that she has cirrhosis of the liver, and has roughly six months to a year to live, despite years of sobriety. The doctor advises her to keep her meat intake low and to maintain her abstinence from alcohol. Ethel is moved by his compassion.
Jimmy, fresh from digging Meep's grave, enters the tent, where his fellow freaks are celebrating the Halloween holiday. Dot berates them for their moods, stating that they should be dedicating the night to their fallen friend. Ethel then states that there will be no show that night, citing the legend of Edward Mordrake; a noble and talented Englishman with a whispering face on the back of his head. Despite his best efforts to kill it, it drove him mad. His family sent him to the Bedlam Insane Asylum, where he escaped to a freak show. One Halloween night, he murdered his troupe and hanged himself, all whilst his demon face smiled. The legend says that if a freak performs on Halloween night, he will appear and take a soul with him. Jimmy doesn't believe it, but Ethel says it happened to the last troupe she was with. She begins drinking whilst Jimmy tries to unsuccessfully comfort her.
At Mott Manor, Dora the maid has been asked to dress up as Woody Woodpecker, Dandy's favourite character. Dandy rejects his Howdy Doody costume, then crafts the pieces into a clown costume. He threatens Dora with a knife, but she is unafraid - they both hate each other equally.
Maggie arrives at the freak show, claiming to be a fortune teller named Esmeralda in need of a job. Jimmy tries to convince Elsa that Maggie is the real deal. Maggie uses her observations to deduce who Elsa is and what she wants to know; she claims to see a song from Elsa with thunderous applause and that further, a refined man with dark hair will guide Elsa to stardom. Elsa, pleased by that prediction, hires her. Later, from a payphone, Maggie calls Stanley to tell him about how disgusted she is to be working with the freaks. Stanley is excited about the prospective gold mine that she has found, though Maggie seems hesitant about murdering them.
Dell works out in his trailer, while Desiree tries to get his libido going. When she complains, Dell gets violent and demands respect. Desiree rejects him, then leaves the trailer. Frustrated, Dell also leaves and passes Ethel. She asks what the fight was about, then asks him questions about their past. He tells her that the love they had wasn't real, but admits he should have been a better father to Jimmy. She demands that Dell never reveals Jimmy's heritage. Dell gets curious, and Ethel reveals she is dying. She asks Dell to guide and take care of Jimmy.
Bette has a nightmare of surgical separation from Dot, who seems to relish the idea. Dot tells Bette she will find a doctor to separate them, even if one of them dies, just so the other can have a shot at happiness. The girls go to rehearse, unafraid of the Mordrake legend. Paul and Eve try to stop them when Elsa enters, refusing to believe in superstitions. Dot asks Elsa to wait so they can rehearse first, but Elsa demands that the carnies get to their instruments. She sings Lana Del Rey's "Gods and Monsters". As she sings, Edward Mordrake emerges in a green mist on the freak show grounds and, entranced by the music, enters the tent to watch Elsa, but moves on as the song ends.
Mordrake appears next to Ethel, in her trailer. He confirms the superstition is true, adding that his second face is a lie detector, and asks for the story of how she ended up in her current predicament. It's revealed that Ethel once had a popular burlesque show with Dell. When he told her to go solo as a classical actor, the show failed miserably. Mordrake's whispering face tells of a darker, deeper shame: Ethel admits that, in order to make money, Dell charged tickets for admission to the birth of Jimmy and, as soon as Jimmy was born, Dell started charging people to hold the "freak" baby. Mordrake is moved by her story; Ethel bows her head, saying she is ready to be taken, but Mordrake disappears.
Dandy, in his new costume, visits the children (Corey and Bonnie), and tries to lure them with candy so that he can stab them, but is interrupted when Twisty brings an unconscious Mike.
Edward Mordrake: Part 2
Edward Mordrake continues to search for a unique freak to add to his retinue, asking for their stories. Suzi tells of how she was abandoned by her parents at a children's home after she lost her legs, and became a beggar when she left the home. She killed another beggar out of jealousy of his legs, cutting the back of one of his feet and accidentally stabbing his artery. Pepper and Salty are innocent, oblivious to his presence, and they are spared. Paul faced discrimination from Europe to America and decided to tattoo his body to become the monster people believed him to be. However, he did not tattoo his face because he knew he was handsome, and would have been successful if he had the same face and a normal body; Mordrake, who would have been a successful English heir had he not have a second face, sympathizes and spares him as well. Mordrake goes to Elsa's tent, but Elsa treats him with arrogance, believing him to be the falsely prophesied man who would revive her music career. He tells her to show her deformed legs, and the ghosts of his claimed victims pin her on her bed and rip off her prostheses; Mordrake asks for Elsa's story of her darkest hour.
Jimmy's motorcycle stalls and Maggie refuses to hide in the woods with him, fearing his intentions, but they hide in the treeline when an oncoming car passes by. Mike, the latest of Twisty's captives, fears death. Bonnie promises that they will escape, but worries about Corey, who is starving. Mike unties her legs and she escapes to the road, but Twisty tackles her and brings her back. Jimmy and Maggie witness this, and without a second thought, Jimmy tries to help.
Elsa recalls her life in Weimar back in 1932 as a dominatrix in a sex club. She would torture a soldier by making him sit on a toilet seat lined with nails, and became so famous that she was well-paid to let an audience watch. Mordrake is not pleased, insisting on hearing about her legs. Elsa recalls how, in Brandenburg, Elsa was drugged and tricked into doing a snuff film where her legs were amputated with a chainsaw. Her soldier client, who was in love with her, saved her as soon as the producers of the snuff film were gone, and she hated him for saving her life. Her film was distributed all over Germany and Austria, and while she was famous, she knew her career was over. The face says that she is the one. She says she is ready for him to take her, and he nearly stabs her, but he is stopped when he hears a toy piano playing.
Jimmy and Maggie track Twisty, carrying Bonnie, to the bus, and they are discovered by Dandy. Dandy sets up a magic show for the prisoners, and Jimmy wakes up to find Maggie gagged and stuffed in the box, with Dandy planning to saw Maggie in half. Jimmy knocks Dandy over and saves her, and Twisty tells the audience to applaud. However, when Jimmy tells the prisoners to escape, Twisty subdues him and tries to stab him. Mordrake arrives to watch how the show ends.
Maggie leads the captives to the road while Jimmy distracts Dandy, upset that his show and Halloween is ruined. Back at the bus, Twisty removes his mask and is able to tell Mordrake his story. He was a kind, albeit slow, special children's clown in 1943's Rusty Westchester's Travelling Carnival, but was hated by the dwarf carnies. During a campfire, they torment him, calling him stupid, and tell him that the kids have reported him and the police are coming to arrest him for molesting children, and he should run. Word of this spread, and he could not find carnival work, and made a living making toys from reclaimed items. He tried to sell them to Hanley's Toys, but the owner rejected the shoddy, dirty toys. After rejection from a child and his mother, Hanley accuses him of being a child molester also. Full of fury, he wrecks a shelf and runs.
Distraught, Twisty attempted suicide by shotgun, but succeeded in blowing his jaw off instead. He evolved his clown persona, then thinking that he was rescuing the children from the freaks, believing all freaks to be stealing children from him. He sees himself as a good clown, even with going into a fury that scared Bonnie and Corey thinking it was funny, killing Corey's parents so he would give Corey candy and not let him do chores, and abducting Bonnie so she can be a "pretty baby sitter". He has "caused the demon to weep", according to Mordrake, as he cannot admit the error of his actions. Mordrake stabs him, and Twisty's ghost is welcomed as their new brother. The ghost rises, jaw once again whole, and the company departs. Dandy returns to find his slain mentor and claims his rictus mask for his own. He runs when sirens approach, leaving behind a bound and captive Jimmy.
The next morning, Maggie and Jimmy are questioned by the police. Jimmy has no idea it was Dandy, and the captives are still in too rough of shape to be helpful. Maggie calls Jimmy the hero, and the detectives agree, but Jimmy still vows justice for Meep.
Maggie announces that the curfew has been lifted, all thanks to Jimmy's heroism, and kisses him on the cheek. Elsa and Jimmy, originally the non-believers of Edward Mordrake, discuss Mordrake and how he finally took his freak. Citizens of Jupiter arrive to thank Jimmy, with Mike's father personally thanking him, and the families slowly begin to accept the freaks. Elsa takes an opportunity to invite them all to a command performance under the big top (where they sell out the show). Bette and Dot are fuming that they are no longer to headline, but Stanley arrives claiming to be Richard Spencer, a Hollywood talent scout.
Dandy returns home to find an indignant Dora, and he responds to her attitude by fatally slashing her throat. Amused by his ability to kill, he removes the mask and laughs.
