Grotesquerie Just Became a Completely Different Show in Episode 7; Ryan Murphy Teases What’s Next for Lois

Did Grotesquerie just give us a late contender for Plot Twist of the Year?

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As engrossing as it was confusing, Wednesday’s seventh episode flipped the script on us, making us question everything about the show we think we’ve been watching all month.

The game-changing hour began with Lois going on an especially ugly drunken rant about Merritt’s weight, calling her a “lost cause” and implying that she’s sleeping with her mother’s sloppy seconds. “Eddie and I had a little thing,” she slurred. “Assignations, with a special stress on the ass.” (Nice.) Sensing that coddling Lois would no longer work, Eddie shifted to tough love, insisting that she go to rehab. “The one thing you cannot do, pretty boy, is gaslight a Black woman,” she told him. “We know too f–king much.”

The next stop on Lois’ hate train was the hospital, where she informed the staff that it was time to take Marshall off life support. Nurse Redd objected, as mistresses are wont to do, but it was Lois’ call to make — and she was loving every second of it. For a taste of Lois’ mental state at this point, here’s what she said when asked if a priest should be present for Marshall’s passing: “He’s Jewish. Part. Not a believer. He liked pork chops, pussy, and lobster with cream sauce. The only time the man ever fasted was for a colonoscopy.”

Then, some good news for Lois: the department threw her a cake-and-balloons party for catching Grotesquerie! (Oh, yeah, it did end up being Father Charlie — a fact they waited until midway through this episode to mention.) But with the good also came the bad; due to budget cuts, Lois is being forced to retire, and she refuses to go quietly. Not that Lois does anything quietly, but you get the idea.

OK, this the part is where the entire show went to hell. Suspicious of Sister Megan’s sudden promotion to Charlie’s now-vacant gig at the paper, Lois began connecting the dots, ultimately accusing Megan of being in cahoots with the late priest. She denied it at first. A few times, actually. But when it became clear that Lois wasn’t going to let up, Megan pivoted to Plan B: scream in tongues and stab her with a kitchen knife! What ensued was a brutal — and occasionally hilarious — battle between Lois and Megan, surprisingly ending with Megan on top. Seriously, she was not the one we would have bet on to win that fight.

Then again, we also wouldn’t have bet on what happened next: The episode suddenly shifted into a different reality, one where Lois was the adulterous spouse in a coma, Marshall was the scorned (but also still adulterous) husband, Megan was a detective working under Lois, and Nurse Redd was an OnlyFans thot. Merritt, who had multiple doctorate degrees, was married to Ed, who had been cheating on her for two years with Lois.

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This time around, it was Marshall who opted to pull the plug on Lois, at which point things got even nuttier. As Lois began to slip away, we jumped back to the other reality, where she was still in the thick of her knock-down-drag-out fight with Megan. They both reached for the gun (oh yes, oh yes…), but Lois got it first, blowing Megan’s damn head clean off. With that, Lois — you know, the other Lois — awoke from her coma.

Series creator Ryan Murphy explains to Variety that the real Lois was the one who awoke from her coma, and that everything in the season’s first six episodes was a dream. Very Wizard of Oz .

“Now she has to explain to all of these people why they were doing these horrible things to her in her dream,” Murphy says, explaining that the whole show is about “a person waking up from a state that was a living nightmare, which all of us are living in. So she wakes up and what she’s trying to do is fight for herself and fight for her family and fight for survival. And she realizes that the only thing that’s going to get her through this experience is love.”

Initially presented to viewers as a murder mystery, the show will “become something else moving forward,” Murphy says, though he won’t provide any additional details. (What, like you thought he would?)

OK, let’s talk: How do you feel about that Grotesquerie twist? Drop a comment with your thoughts, predictions and grievances below.

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