"Thirst" is the third episode of Double Feature. It premiered September 1, 2021.
Synopsis[]
Harry's newfound talent brings an unexpected visitor to town. Alma decides to take matters into her own hands.[1]
Plot[]
Doris frantically scrubs the blood off of a wailing Alma, insisting she needs medical attention and going on about possible Lyme disease. Harry tries to calm Doris down, but she tells him how she found Alma earlier: sucking the blood from a dead rabbit in the cemetery. Before Harry has a chance to process that this means Alma has taken the Muse, Chief Burleson arrives, responding to worried calls from people who had seen a bloody Alma in the cemetery. Burleson wants to bring Alma in for questioning since the torn-up wounds on the rabbit are extremely similar to those found on a man who was killed earlier at the "Dick Dock." at the end of Pale, along with other similar murders that are becoming increasingly frequent. Harry and Doris protest Burleson's orders, wanting to keep Alma at home. Suddenly, Doris falls down the stairs and has to be taken to the hospital. The doctors there say that her condition is stable, but that they want to monitor her for at least four days before sending her home. Doris panics at this; yet another thing delaying her leaving Provincetown. Harry sends Alma to the vending machine with some money. When he goes to find her, she is transfixed by the cart of banked blood bags. Once again, Harry and Doris decide to leave Provincetown. He commits to taking her back to New York.
Later, as Harry and Alma drive, she notices that he's driving the wrong direction for returning to New York. They talk about the pill and Alma's response to it. Alma didn't mind eating the rabbit. She says that she does not want to be great, but rather the greatest. Harry explains the price of the pill. Alma agrees to stop taking the pill if her father will.
Back at the house, Harry's writer's block has returned. He digs the packet of pills out of the trash, and takes one. Turning around, he finds Alma with her hand extended. He gives her one. They go out for "very rare" steak. As the two wait for dinner, they discuss logistics: Alma needs to perform constantly, not just seasonally, like Harry. He's concerned how a continuous dosage will affect her growth and development. He says that it must be a secret from her mother. Alma proposes that they don't need Doris, but Harry will not have that. He also insists that he procure her blood, rather than her hunting for herself. That causes Alma to respond that she's hungry now. He drives up the coast to "buy a bicycle and DVD player", and the woman cautiously invites him in. Once inside, Harry is bludgeoned from behind and awakens in a cage in the basement.
The couple, Tony and Melanie, tell him that he will star in a BDSM porn rape snuff film. She gives Harry a Viagra tablet, saying that the plan is for him to penetrate her while Tony sodomizes him. They insist they will kill him after they are done. Harry takes the tablet. At gunpoint, they position Harry for the camera. Harry removes his tooth covers while they fiddle with the camera. Suddenly, Harry lunges onto them and rips out her throat, grabs the pistol and shoots Tony. He gathers the blood and brings it back to Alma.
Ursula surprises Harry at home. Harry explains where Doris is. Ursula got a call from Quentin Tarantino, wanting Harry to write a limited series for Hulu. Given some subtext, Harry also intuits that Tarantino is on Muse. Harry deflects by discussing the number of artists in the area. When she asks about restaurants, he suggests the only one in town, The Muse. He also warns her about the town's drug problem and to stay safe.
At the bar, Ursula encounters Mickey as Belle Noir and Austin sing a duet. Ursula frustratedly complains about the noise they are making. The pair come over and subtly threaten her. Mickey offers to buy her a drink, but she declines and leaves.
Mickey approaches Ursula the next day on the beach, and asks her to read a spec script. She wonders if he is in a meth haze, but he says he has not smoked in days. She grudgingly agrees to read the scripts he gives her, saying she will burn them if she does not like them. Much to her surprise, she enjoys them. The next day she confronts him, and insists that he can't have written the valuable script she read. She refuses to believe that something odd isn't going on. She admits she recognized Austin and Belle the night before, and Mickey tells her about the local drug, Muse. Ursula fantasizes about being the agent that represents Muse users. She demands that he steal some pills from Belle.
That night, Mickey finds a stash of Muse in Belle's house and takes a few. Meanwhile, the writer trio finds a trio of addicts to feed them. Harry locates a Thermos container to gather some blood for Alma, noticed by the other two. On the way back, Belle and Austin confront him asking who the blood is for. He admits it is for Alma. They demand Harry cut her off, or Belle will eat Alma. After they drop Harry off, the two agree that Harry and Alma both need to die.
Mickey finds a hustler friend under the boardwalk and after some idle chat, attacks him. His would-be victim fights him off and nearly drowns Mickey in the surf. After turning his back and beginning to walk away, Mickey slices his leg, then drinks from his throat there on the beach. When he returns to his home, he finds Belle waiting for him. He says he is sorry that he stole the pills but that he is talented enough to not become a Pale man. She will allow him to continue, so long as he tithes back a thermos of blood for her for every kill. She also demands that Ursula must be his next kill.
Burleson interviews a witness to the beach incident, Holden Vaughn. He says it was a gay-bashing incident. He is an interior designer, mourning his recently deceased greyhound dog while in town.
Mickey breaks into Ursula's hotel room and walks in on her in the bath. She offers him a rewrite of "Speed Racer," his script already accepted by the studio. She will set him up for further success if he takes her to The Chemist. Ursula intends to make The Chemist very rich, she tells a wary Mickey. The next day, they approach a house and knock. A woman answers, and Ursula bargains for five minutes of the woman's time. Ursula offers The Chemist a distribution deal. The Chemist tells Belle and Austin later that she declined the deal, and she demands the pair kill Ursula, Mickey, and the Gardners.
Ursula babysits a hungry Alma and says she is going to take a nap. Burleson watches Harry leave and Alma lets the Chief in for a talk. The Chief knows that Harry and Alma are involved in the murders of derelicts, and leans on Alma for understanding. She asks if it is a cult or a blood disease. Alma asks if Burleson had a dream. Burleson says she will take Alma to the police station to await Harry for arrest, but Alma jabs the chief in the neck with a kitchen knife. When Harry returns, he finds that Ursula has taught Alma how to play gin rummy while Burleson's blood pools into bowls below her prone, fireside body.
Featured Characters[]
Melanie and Tony[]
Melanie and Tony were a couple that kidnapped Harry.
Quotes[]
- Chief Burleson: "I've got bodies washing up on the shore — more under the Dick Dock."
- Alma: "I feel like everybody else could just disappear one day and it wouldn't matter."
- Alma: "I didn't mind eating the bunny."
- Ursula: "If I wanted to listen to a shitty Captain & Tennille cover band, I would have just killed myself, because I'm sure that's what's playing on an infinite loop in hell."
- Ursula: "When's the last time you got high? And the last time you had a job — besides sucking dick?"
- Ursula: "You guys sell your souls to the devil? Aliens? Uh, little writer elves? Because honestly, I would believe any of that besides that you're actually that talented."
- Belle Noir: "I write some of my best stuff when I've fed on young, pure blood."
- Belle Noir: "These pills are getting passed around like Jolly Ranchers at a rave."
- Alma: "I don't want to be great, I want to be the greatest."
- Belle Noir: "Honey, you're a paper airplane and I'm a 747. Don't you ever think you're anything like me just because you can fly a little."
- The Chemist: "I'ma sell my foot in your ass if you don't get the hell out of here."
- The Chemist: "I don't like strangers. That's why I moved out here to the very tip of Massachusetts' dick so I don't have to deal with people I don't know."
Notes[]
- Sarah Paulson ("Karen") and Billie Lourd ("Lark Feldman") are credited but do not appear.
- This is the first episode since "She Wants Revenge" in which Paulson is credited but does not appear.
- Snuff films played a relevant role in Elsa Mars' storyline in Freak Show.
Cultural References[]
- Eugene O'Neil and Herman Melville are mentioned among the various artists who came to Provincetown to find their muse. It is implied Quentin Tarantino is also on a different "muse".
- Ursula calls Belle Noir and Austin a "shitty cover band" of Captain & Tennille, an American recording artists whose primary success occurred in the 1970s. She later refers to them as "Peaches and Cream", a 1906 comedy duet by Ada Jones and Len Spencer.
- Austin explains that according to the locals, unless your family came over on the Mayflower or launched off Falmouth to hunt a whale or two, you will always be an outsider.
- Ursula believes that Charles Bukowski and Hunter S. Thompson are the exception from the "strung-out meth heads who only bathe when it rains" writers stock.
Raised Questions[]
- How will they cover up the Chief Burleson murder?
- What are Ursula's true intentions?
- Is the Muse really worth the price for greatness?
Gallery[]
Videos[]
References[]
| Episodes of American Horror Story | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Murder House | |||||||
| Asylum | |||||||
| Coven | |||||||
| Freak Show | |||||||
| Hotel | |||||||
| Roanoke | |||||||
| Cult | |||||||
| Apocalypse | |||||||
| 1984 | |||||||
| Double Feature |
| ||||||
| NYC | |||||||
| Delicate | |||||||