‘American Horror Story’ Season 5 Finale: The Real Lady – The New York Times

Season 5, Episode 12: ‘Be Our Guest’

And so began the era of Iris and Liz Taylor. Our heroines have taken over the Cortez (though, didn’t The Countess leave it to Ramona at the end of the last episode?) and, flush with cash after liquidating their former employer’s art collection, do a little redecorating. There’s 400 thread-count Egyptian cotton! Complimentary champagne! Japanese toilets!

If only the more permanent residents would stop murdering the guests.

Fearing for their Yelp reviews, the hostesses with the mostesses call a meeting of all the ghosts and implore them to lay off the homicide. Even Mr. March, who now feels that the “Ten Commandments were [his] epilogue,” urges his brethren to agree. After all, “[The Cortez] is our home; frankly it’s the only one we’ve got.” If the hotel fails, it could be torn down, leaving its “unhabitants” with the daunting prospect of meeting their maker. Better that everyone play by the rules, says March, until the building is old enough to be protected as a national landmark.

Everyone agrees exceptSally who, still bereft for John, is searching for a soul mate among the living to keep her company for an eternity. Will Drake, too, is inexplicably murderous now that he’s dead.

Here we come to the great mystery of “Hotel”: more than once March has threatened Sally with his “Addiction Demon,” the eyeless, wormlike monster with the drill-bit dildo we were so intimately introduced to in episode one, and saw hints of throughout the season. March has something on Sally, but it’s never been clear why he has this power over her and no one else, how March has a demon to control at all or why it is that an “Addiction Demon” has such horrible taste in accessories.