Dinah Stevens is a former actress and talk show host designated as a Purple at Outpost 3. She is a character in Apocalypse portrayed by Adina Porter. Notably, she is the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans since Marie Laveau's demise in 2014.
Background
Dinah Stevens, the last Voodoo Queen, took on her role after the death of Marie Laveau. Before the apocalypse, she had a popular television show. Dinah holds a passive attitude towards the witches and even has gone so far as to relocate from New Orleans to Los Angeles using her voodoo practice as a means to gain exorbitant wealth from L.A. elites. She is noted to have refused the same deal of immortality that Papa Legba offered to her predecessor Marie Laveau.[1] Instead, Dinah looks out for herself, something her own son Andre Stevens even acknowledges. Her ultimate desire is to remain neutral during the conflicts of the Apocalypse.[2]
Personality and Appearance
Dinah Stevens is a beautiful woman in her forties. In the Outpost, she is dressed in purple Victorian era dresses with her black hair styled into a Victorian-pompadour.
Before the apocalypse, Stevens wore her hair up in natural curls and favored bright colors and long earrings.
Stevens constantly exudes an air of intelligence, dignity, and decency whilst also having the ability to calm those around her. Stevens is a very confident woman, directly facing Michael Langdon. Despite this, Stevens reveals herself as an intensely single-minded, cunning, rational and selfish woman, something she is criticized for even by her own son. Steven's selfishness is to such an extent that she even betrays her fellow witches and eventually aligns herself with Michael Langdon.
Dinah resembles a chameleon and she becomes whoever she needs to become for whoever her employer happens to be, whether it’s a rich Beverly Hills socialite or the voodoo demon.[3]
Story
Dinah and the other residents of the Outpost 3 meet with Timothy and Emily in the common room. Timothy is surprised to see Dinah, as his mother used to watch her TV program a lot and used to say that Dinah could beat the pants off Oprah any day. Dinah was moved by that and replied that if there have been millions of people like his mother, her TV program wouldn't have been replaced by a telenovela.
Nutritional jelly cubes are served as dinner and Dinah reminds everyone that these cubes contain every vitamin the human body needs, or the rulers just made them believe that. Venable warns that they have enough supplies for eighteen months and conditions must improve or options will be limited.
The next night, soup is served instead of the typical cubes, much to the residents' surprise. Andre, Dinah's son, discovers bones in the stew and assumes the meat is Stu's remains, though Venable insists it is not. Dinah reminds a protesting Andre that Venable also ate the meat, which would be poisoned if it were a contaminated Stu.
Eighteen months pass with no sign of help and supplies begin to dwindle, forcing Venable to announce they are cutting down to one meal a day. Dinah tells the group that they are stronger than they think and that they can learn from their situation, but Gallant, starving and stir crazy, angrily rebukes her motivational remarks.[4]
Dinah was among those killed by Venable and Ms. Mead with poisoned apples on Halloween night.[5] She was later resurrected by Cordelia Goode, who hoped that Dinah would be instrumental in their efforts to get rid of the Anti-Christ. Dinah refuses to aid the witches, claiming that she has made millions of dollars in TV and did that with no help. She mentions that she didn't sign any contract to defeat anyone and the witches are on their own with the task. Madison mockingly says Dinah couldn't be of any help with her "backwards voodoo shit" anyway.[2]
In a flashback, a portion of her past is revealed. She used to accept tasks from wealthy people, in which she used to fulfill their wishes for money. She was paid to kill the mistress of a wealthy man on the orders of his angry wife. Dinah uses pins and voodoo dolls to kill the mistress and rips her heart out. She uses the heart and some other ingredients to concoct a potion. She then proceeds to have the husband drink the potion made from his mistress’ heart. The potion’s desired effect is that the husband’s penis won’t get hard for anyone except his wife.
After the ritual, Dinah heads to her car and Cordelia shows up before she can leave. Dinah angrily reminds Cordelia that she shouldn't be showing her face after what the witches did to their former queen, Marie Laveau. Cordelia calmly rejects the accusation, telling Dinah that the witches didn't have anything to do with Marie's demise, an event that elevated Dinah as the new Voodoo Queen. Cordelia asks Dinah's help to summon Papa Legba in order to make a deal with him. After accepting the task which would cost Delia a hundred thousand dollars, Dinah proceeds into summoning Papa Legba. Papa Legba appears and affirms that Dinah is indeed the new Voodoo Priestess, and asks if she is ready to take his offer (assuming the same offer of Immortality he made to Marie Laveau). Dinah loathingly rejects the offer saying that Papa charges more than it is necessary. Papa then turns to Cordelia saying that he is aware of the The Supreme Witch’s request to banish the Anti Christ.
Dinah is later seen witnessing Cordelia, Nan and Papa talk about the terms of their agreement. Papa wants to have the souls of all witches from the Coven as the payment. Cordelia inarguably refuses, giving more importance to her girls than the possibility of defeating Michael. Upon hearing this, Dinah scarily pleads to Cordelia saying that she must not be a fool and must prioritize the safety of the world. Cordelia still refuses the voodoo deity’s offer, which leads to Papa Legba and Nan leaving, as there would be no agreement. Dinah is later consulted by Cordelia, who asks for other ways to make a deal with Papa Legba. Dinah anxiously reports that there is no other way but to accept the one-time offer, which Cordelia wasted. She tells Cordelia that not only her witches will die, but so will the entire world population, and leaves.[1]
After her meeting with Cordelia, Dinah formed an alliance with Michael, in exchange for him having his father greenlight her talk show. Dinah arrives at Miss Robichaux's Academy and uses her Voodoo magic to perform a ritual that breaks down their magical barrier and allows Michael and Miriam Mead to enter, where the two of them slaughter most of the witches inside. Dinah enters the house and he informs her that their deal is complete and she has gotten her demands. Dinah then notices the destruction she assisted in committing and shows signs of sadness at the sight.[6]
This act of treachery granted her Michael's favour, allowing her to have the talkshow that served as the mean to buy a ticket to Outpost 3, saving herself and her son from worldwide destruction.
Back on Halloween 2021, Michael offers salvation to the Coven and Dinah, so long as they choose to serve him. The Coven denies the offer and stands their ground, but Dinah accepts and mocks Cordelia for reviving her to assist them as the Voodoo practitioner, saying she will always go to the winning side. However, Cordelia informs her that she is only half right about her assumptions, at which point Marie Laveau arrives and reveals that she was the Voodoo practitioner whom Cordelia had recruited. The reason for Dinah's revival was so that she could be handed over to Papa Legba to replace Marie in Hell. Dinah tells Marie that she is a fool and would have done the same thing, had she been in Dinah's shoes. Marie then kills Dinah, sending her down to Papa Legba. This event is later reversed by Mallory as well as the other events of Apocalypse.[7]
Powers
Dinah is a powerful Voodoo practitioner who held the status of Voodoo Queen among the Voodooists in New Orleans after the former Voodoo Queen's demise. It was implied that she was less powerful than Cordelia as she admitted there was nothing she can do that Cordelia couldn't except summoning Papa Legba. However, since Fiona Goode was able to summon Papa Legba, this could infer that Cordelia either didn't know she could or that she didn't know how. It is certainly confirmed that Dinah is less powerful than Marie Laveau both by Marie herself and the fact that her eyes only paled when invoking powerful magic whereas Marie's went full white. However, she was still powerful enough to be able to break Cordelia's spell with a ritual thereby confirming that her magic was still strong.
- Voodoo Spellcraft - Dinah Stevens has an extensive knowledge of Voodoo rituals and spells.
- Injury Ritual - The magical ability to hurt the victims by pinning a doll.
- Infidelity Ritual - A ritual that Dinah performed on her client's husband by whisking various herbs mixed with his lover's heart and an object belonging to his wife (toenails).
- Summoning Ritual - Addition to the testament of her powers, she was also able to contact Papa Legba, a powerful voodoo deity. This means that her knowledge is more extensive than Cordelia's, as the latter is not capable of or knowledgeable enought to summoning Papa Legba.
- Protection Spell Breaking Ritual - Dinah has the knowledge and the power to break powerful spells, as seen when she was able to break through a protection spell that the Supreme herself had put on the Academy.
- Voodoo Potioncraft - Affinity for an extensive knowledge of "Green Magic".
- Fidelity Potion - A potion that makes a man loyal to his wife. The ingredients include the mistress's heart, something of choice belonging to the wife, such as her toenails, and optionally strawberries to make it go down the throat easier. The man is forced to drink the "smoothie" and falls asleep. Upon awakening, he does not remember any of this and is sexually attracted only to his wife. Dinah Stevens used this potion on a client that had an affair and wanted him to only be sexually attracted to his wife.
Quotes
- To Timothy Campbell: "Bless her heart, a million of her and I wouldn't have been replaced by that telenovela."
- To Gallant: "We don't know how strong we are until we have to face adversity."
- Dinah Stevens: "Adversity makes strange bedfellows and worse dinner companions."
- Dinah Stevens: "We should say grace to thank the universe for sending them to us."
- Cordelia Goode (to Dinah, Mallory, and Coco)
We need all of you.
- Dinah Stevens
You're on your own with that shit. I made a billion dollars in TV, and all I ever did was straddle the fence. I'm sure as hell not dumping that strategy here, sisters. I haven't promised anything. I haven't signed anything. And I'm not here to defeat anyone.
- Madison Montgomery
Who cares? As if you could ever defeat anyone with that backwards voodoo shit.
- To a woman she helped: "Tell all your friends. The Voodoo Queen can fix any problem."
- To Cordelia Goode: "Papa made you an offer and he only makes one. And you refused him. So that's it. You blew it. Now, not only will your girls die, but six billion other people will, too."
- To Marie Laveau: "You're a fool, Marie Laveau. You would have done no different if you were queen."
Notes
- Adina Porter confirmed her characters name is "Dinah Stevens" at the TCA panel in summer 2018, despite various websites originally gave it as "Diana."[8]
- Adina Porter on her character: "She is a motherfucker. And she's lovely... You'd have her over for tea. She's able to make white people feel safe."
- Dinah Stevens is the fourth character portrayed by Adina Porter. For a complete list of her characters, see Cast.
Gallery
- See also: Dinah Stevens/Media
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode: Traitor
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Episode: Could It Be... Satan?
- ↑ Turchiano, Danielle (2018-10-25). ‘AHS’ Star Adina Porter on Bringing Personal Experience to ‘Apocalypse’s’ Voodoo. Variety.Com. Retrieved on 2018-10-25.
- ↑ Episode: The End
- ↑ Episode: Forbidden Fruit
- ↑ Episode: Fire and Reign
- ↑ Episode: Apocalypse Then
- ↑ Webb Mitovich, Matt (2018-08-03). American Horror Story: Apocalypse Characters Include Billie Dean, a Bitchier Madison... and the Harmon?. TV Line.Com. Retrieved on 2018-08-03.
Template:Navbox character