A big guy like Dell, and no one to rein him in (apart from maybe Desiree, seeing as she cheated with a random circus-goer and got out of it unscathed, so far as we know), definitely spells trouble for the freak show. Ethel already knows it, and Jimmy figures it out pretty quickly, when an attempt to assert the freaks’ normality in a local cafe angers Dell enough that he beats Jimmy bloody just outside. Whether Elsa, who can certainly sense Dell’s danger, will take a side remains to be seen. “That man is going to be a problem,” she hisses at one point, when he orders matinee performances and advertises them without her approval. But then again, Elsa did want a strong male presence around the freak show, and boy did she get one.
The power struggle within the freak show should only intensify as police continue to investigate the disappearance of Detective Bunch (hacked into pieces by Jimmy and the others last week), as well as the mysterious murders around Jupiter. Now that the outside has drawn blood, unceremoniously dumping a dead Meep on the freaks’ doorstep, it’s more important than ever for the performers to band together.
However, the fact that Jimmy’s attempted framing of Dell for the murder, and Dell’s ruthless retaliation, led to Meep’s death should cause a severe split in loyalties. Of course, Ethel will ally herself with Jimmy, and Desiree will take Dell’s side, but some characters’ decisions are much less certain (imagine if Dot and Bette found themselves leaning in different directions, for one). Because of what Jimmy did, Meep was killed, and you can bet that won’t go over well with the rest of the freaks.
Outside of the freak show, the clown killer had a very eventful week. After breaking into a toy store and brutally slaying the owner and his employee, Twisty came across the completely oblivious Gloria Mott (Frances Conroy), who enlisted his terrifying services as a new play buddy for spoiled rich kid Dandy (Finn Wittrock, Freak Show‘s biggest revelation so far in my opinion). Why Twisty went along with the act and didn’t, say, kill Gloria on sight is a question for another day. Maybe he wanted a swig of Cognac from Dandy’s sippy cup?
Seeing as Gloria and Dandy live very much in their own universe, perhaps it’s understandable that they wouldn’t immediately see how incredibly horrifying Twisty is. And as Dandy expressed to Jimmy in a last-ditch effort to belong somewhere, he’s a freak deep down, no matter how he looks externally. So, remarkably, I bought his creepy play date with the clown, and I even understood on some level why Dandy, who tortures animals for fun, would be so excited by seeing the toy store owner’s head in Twisty’s bag to pursue the clown into the woods.